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“Yeah, but they can’t know that!” I sank into my desk chair and let it roll back into the wall behind me. Thumping my head against the whiteboard, I groaned. “I was so stupid. Stupid and a little drunk.”
“What’s worse is that now you know exactly how each of them kiss and how hot it is.” Sara grinned, knowing she was egging me on. “You’ll know exactly what it feels like to have Sam’s hands on your ass and Jude’s on your tit. And Cyrus. Good god, Cyrus. You’ll know exactly how he can toss you around and blow your mind.”
Glaring at her, I considered how I’d look in orange if I murdered her. “I hate you.”
“No, you don’t. You love me. Almost as much as you love grinding on Jude’s lap.” She paused in her teasing. “Was he really big? I just feel like a man like that can’t have a small dick.”
“I’m not talking about it.” I bit my lip to keep my mouth closed, but the longer Sara stayed silent the weaker I grew until I broke. “It was big. Big enough to leave you walking funny the next day. Not that I’d know anything about that. Andrew wasn’t exactly hung like a horse.”
“Maybe a seahorse.”
We both burst into laughter at the same time and I forgave her for teasing me since she could still make me laugh. Our lunch was over before I could ask her more about her vacation and why she hadn’t taken her hair wraps out already. She left with a knowing wink when students started filing into my room. She had a math class to teach on the other side of the building, but she was small and fast so she’d make it on time.
I was fifteen minutes into explaining the delicate art of soufflés, something I had no business talking about, when my phone started ringing from my backpack. The class erupted with taunts about phones not being allowed, but I just rolled my eyes at them. They loved to get one over on the teachers.
When I saw it was Jude calling, my stomach twisted and my mouth went dry. He’d never called during the day since he knew I was at school, so I felt a sense of panic. “Mallory, can you come up and continue reading for a few minutes?”
I stepped into the hallway, just on the other side of my classroom door, and answered. “Jude? What’s wrong?”
He laughed. “Nothing’s wrong, Poppy. I wanted to catch you before you went back to woodshop. Can you spare a minute?”
I leaned against the door and grunted. “Sure. If the class catches on fire, someone will put it out probably.”
“There’s the Poppy we all know and love.” He said something to someone in the background and then focused on me again. “So. About that favor.”
My cheeks heated and my sense of calm shattered. My voice even squeaked when I spoke. “What about it?”
“I need to call mine in. If it’s still on the table.” He seemed so normal that I almost wondered if I’d imagined the whole orgasming on his leg thing. “I have an event to attend on Thursday night. I need a fake date.”
“Um, okay. Sure.” I tried to think of what else I would normally say. “Couldn’t find a real date, either?”
He cleared his throat. “There’s a woman. I just need a fake date for this one thing, Poppy. I’ll take care of everything.”
I blinked a few too many times before answering. I just wasn’t sure what to say. We’d never talked about our sexual prospects, and hearing that there was a woman did a strange thing in the pit of my stomach. “Yeah, sure. Fine. I can do that.”
“I’ll have everything sent over on Thursday afternoon. Then I’ll pick you up at six-thirty.” He hung up before I could say another word.
What was he having sent over? I scratched my head and shrugged. If he could act like nothing had happened, I could too. Surely.
“Miss Summers got a call from her boyfriend! Look how red she is!” Landon Fogg pointed and laughed, drawing a similar reaction from several of the other kids in class.
I raised my eyebrows at him. “Don’t forget I own several saws and know how to use them, Landon.”
6
***Poppy***
Thursdayafternooncametoofast. When I arrived back home from a long day of teaching, there was a van sitting in my parking spot. Before I could even process what I was seeing, multiple people piled out of the van and stared at me with Stepford smiles and various sizes of bags. I considered driving away, but I knew I couldn’t let Jude down. Even if I wanted to.
To my utter dismay, he’d sent over a full team of beauty experts. At least, that’s what they told me. It only occurred to me after I let them into my house that they could have been serial killers. I was too tired to care, though. Bogie would slobber them to death if they tried anything.
I was directed into a chair they’d pulled out of somewhere and then I was put through what felt like torture. I wasn’t a girly girl, much to the chagrin of many people in my life. I’d been raised around five brothers and three male best friends. I didn’t have a chance to like makeup and barbie dolls. I got my hair done when I needed to and I wore mascara if I was feeling good. That was the extent of my beauty experience. So when a tall man with a pair of curling irons in his hands came at me, I froze. I stayed perfectly still out of fear that he’d burn me the way my mother had when I was a kid.
Each person who came near me was great at not hurting me, though. Even if this wasn’t anything I wanted or would ever like, they were nice enough not to hurt me in the process of dolling me up.
It wasn’t until the dress came out that I considered calling Jude up and telling him that he could shove his fake date up his ass. I wore jeans and T-shirts. That was my uniform. If I had to dress up, I’d find a nice pantsuit to wear. I hadn’t worn a dress since Easter Sunday when I was seven. I knew that Jude knew I didn’t do dresses. Yet, I was staring down the barrel of a small red dress that completed thePretty Womanexperience. I was Julia to his Richard, and I was going to slap the crap out of him when I saw him. He had a lot of nerve.
The dress hung off my shoulders and dipped low to reveal more cleavage than I’d ever shown. It hugged my body like a second skin down to my hips where it fanned out with a lot of extra material. It was long and there was a high slit that went nearly up to my vagina. I was pretty sure I’d been less exposed at my yearly gyno exam.
