Getting Dumped (19 page)

“Busy week you’re having.”

“No kidding.”

We ate and sipped in silence, our fingers brushing each other by accident every couple minutes. I tried to ignore the shockwaves of warmth that tingled up my arm each time we touched. Tried to ignore the way my pulse galloped each time his shoulder moved against mine. It was no use. I was clearly still attracted to Pete even if he didn’t have a girlfriend.

Wait, that wasn’t right–

“Penny for your thoughts,” Pete said.

I snorted into my wine glass. “Sorry, I’m much more expensive than that.”

“I know. I’ve seen your taste in handbags.”

I smiled and began stacking meat and cheese on a cracker. He touched my arm, causing me to look up at him again.

“JJ, I really am sorry I lied to you. I didn’t mean for it to get out of control like that. And then Ernie had to go and ask you to help me buy a birthday gift for my girlfriend and—”

“It’s kind of funny if you think about it,” I said, draining my wine glass and reaching for the bottle. “Who gets the handbag?”

“Scarlet, of course. She has expensive taste, and her birthday’s next month. So we’re good?”

I shrugged and tipped more wine into my glass, then Pete’s. I looked at the bottle for a moment, then met Pete’s eyes.

“Can I ask you something?”

“Sure. Anything.”

I took a deep breath, not sure how to ask the question. “Do you think Daniel had a reason for not wanting to publicly claim me as his girlfriend?”

“Yes,” Pete said, not hesitating.

“Oh.”

“He’s a pig. Next question?”

I managed half a smile and looked down at my wine. Probably not worth saying anything else. I didn’t want him to think I was one of those insecure, needy women.

Pete put a finger under my chin and forced me to look at him. “You’re not really going to do this, are you?”

“Do what?”

“Play this mind game with yourself where you try to figure out if your boyfriend would have made your relationship public if you were younger or prettier or some bullshit like that.”

I stared down at a cracker for a minute, thinking. “Look, it’s not like I get to spend every day bending over recycling bins in a short skirt, okay?”

“God bless Green Barbie,” Pete said. Seeing my frown, he put a hand on my knee. “You want to bend over recycling bins in a short skirt?”

“No, I like my job a lot better, but it’s not exactly sexy. I don’t go home every day feeling soft and feminine and beautiful and—”

Pete laughed. “Trust me, you don’t have to bend over in a miniskirt to be sexy. You could turn up at work wearing a pair of grimy coveralls and a hard hat and an orange safety vest and men would still find you irresistible.”

“Okay, funny guy – then why did Daniel lie to me?”

Pete shrugged. “He’s a man. We lie.”

“That’s comforting. Thank you.”

“There’s always the possibility he wasn’t lying. Didn’t you say he told you he didn’t know the policy changed?”

“I guess. But why wouldn’t he check to be sure before insisting on this whole covert relationship for the past three months?”

“I have no idea. Men aren’t always the sharpest meatballs in the pot. Especially when women are involved.”

I went back to piling cheese and meat on a cracker, concentrating on getting the proportions just right.

I thought about my sister, about the string of attractive men she’d dated over the years. Never once had she wallowed in self-doubt after one had moved on. Even after Adam left her heartbroken as a silly teenager, she never second-guessed her choice. Never wondered what flaw in her had driven him away. In fact, the only thing I’d really seen her question was whether she’d rather castrate a man with a spoon or an emery board.

I sighed and took a sip of wine. Maybe I should take a page from my sister’s book.

I looked at Pete.

Something in my expression must have startled him. He dropped the piece of turkey sausage he was holding, sending Blue Cat flying off the sofa in a fervent quest for cured meat. Pete’s eyes didn’t leave mine. I saw his Adam’s apple bob as he swallowed hard.

“Sorry about that,” he said. “I hope the cat won’t get sick if he eats—”

“It’s fine,” I said, leaning toward him.

Suddenly, I was grabbing the front of his shirt, jerking him toward me with enough ferocity to cause whiplash in a lesser man.

Instead, Pete came willingly. His arms enveloped me as my mouth found his and kissed him hard enough to do damage. Pete kissed me back, clearly not a man accustomed to being dominated, but willing to play along.

A part of me I didn’t recognize – a part driven by betrayal and lust and anger and frustration and desire – gave a small, startled groan as Pete pulled me onto his lap.

My hands were suddenly everywhere, clawing at the buttons on his shirt, twining in his hair, touching his face—

“Ouch,” he muttered as my fingers met the pepper-sprayed flesh beside his eye.

“Sorry.”

“S’okay.”

I dug my nails into his shoulders, kissing him harder, pressing my breasts against his chest so fiercely it hurt.

In a good way.

Pete responded by cupping my butt with both hands, drawing me against him to leave no question of whether he liked things a little rough.

Until that moment, I’d never known that I did.

I gave a fleeting thought to Daniel and where this fit into our “slow things down” plan. Was he sucking face with other people? Did I care?

“Do you need to get that?” Pete asked, pulling back.

“What?” I panted, reaching for him again.

“Your phone. It’s ringing.”

I felt the haze thin in my lust-addled brain as the phone rang again.

Dammit.

I thought about not getting it, just letting it go to voicemail and tearing Pete’s clothes off.

But it was 10:30 p.m. on a Tuesday night. Calls like that were reserved for things like family emergencies and Publishers Clearinghouse Sweepstakes wins. Not something I should ignore.

I gave a groan of frustration and slid off Pete’s lap, fumbling for my phone.

I glanced down and saw Lori’s number on the caller ID.
She’d better be trapped under a train
, I thought, and then felt bad about it.

“Lori?” I asked, pushing my hair behind my ear as I tried to keep the lust from my voice. “Why on earth are you calling at—”

“Shut up, JJ – I slept with him.”

Pete’s hand was still resting lightly on my thigh, but I barely noticed it as my sister’s words echoed in my ears.

“You slept with who, Lori?”

Pete’s eyes widened.

“Who do you think? Adam, of course.”

“Adam?” I glanced at my watch. “You’ve been home an hour. How did your ex-boyfriend get there, convince you not to hate him, and talk you out of your clothes in sixty minutes?”

“He’s honed his skills since high school.”

“No kidding.”

She sighed. “You know the very first men’s bag I ever made in high school – that black leather messenger with the custom hardware and the padded laptop compartment and all the pouches for pens and things?”

“Sure, you made it for Adam to take to college,” I said, not sure what this had to do with my sister’s wanton behavior. “That was when you first started doing your special signature lining with the stars.”

“He still has it,” she said. “He uses it every day, puts leather conditioner on it and everything. A little hole wore through the pocket I made for his calculator, and he stopped by to ask if I thought it was fixable.”

“And that prompted you to take off your panties?” I asked, trying not to sound judgmental. After all, had she not called me, I probably would have found myself rivaling her land speed record for jumping into bed with an unexpected visitor on a quiet Tuesday night.

“I didn’t mean to,” Lori said. “I was just so touched that he still used the bag, that he obviously cared about it a lot, and he even noticed the stars on the lining and how that’s my trademark thing. It was just really sweet, you know?”

“Sure, sure.”

“And we talked a lot about my business and how things are going.”

“Of course.”

“And then he offered it to me – his bag. He saw how happy I was to see it, and he thought I might want it back for sentimental reasons.”

“And as it turns out, you want
him
back for sentimental reasons?”

Lori was quiet for a moment. “I don’t know. I guess I’m not totally over him, but I’m really confused. I mean he did cheat, and he said all those horrible things—”

“It was seven years ago, Lori. People change.”

“Maybe.”

“So he went home already?”

“No,” she murmured, lowering her voice. “He’s sleeping. He always had this thing where he fell asleep right after—”

“Um, too much information, Lori,” I said. “And really, should you be phoning me with this news the second his head hits the pillow?”

I gave Pete a virtuous smile, pretending I would never do something as gauche as phoning my sister the moment my new lover fell asleep.

“You’ve got a guy there?” she guessed.

“Pete.”

“Really? Am I interrupting something?”

“As a matter of fact—”

“Gotcha. Say no more.”

“If you need to talk though—”

“No, I should probably go. I guess I just freaked out a little, you know?”

“I know. Really, I do.”

“Tell me it’s going to be okay.”

“It’s going to be okay. He’s a good guy, Lori. I really think he’s changed.”

She sighed. “You might be right.”

“Get back to bed. Go wake him up for round two or something.”

Lori giggled. “Careful. You might give poor Pete performance anxiety.”

“Goodnight, Lori.”

“’Night.”

I clicked off the phone and looked at Pete. He smiled.

“Interesting night you ladies are having,” he said.

“Right. Any chance you didn’t hear any of that?”

“You’re sitting on my leg. I could hear every word she said, too.”

I reached over and set the phone on the coffee table before meeting Pete’s eyes again. “Lori’s a little freaked out.”

Pete nodded. “Adam’s a good guy.”

“I know. She’s never really gotten over him, even though she’s dated plenty of other guys the last seven years. But she’s been so angry all this time—”

“You sure it’s not just a cover?”

“Oh, I’m sure it is. He really hurt her. I know she plays tough, but they really were close – even for high school. You should have seen how crushed she was when he left.”

“People change,” Pete said, looking thoughtful. “And guys say stupid things sometimes.
Do
stupid things. Especially when they’re young and dumb and full of testosterone.”

I looked down at my hands. “I’m not sure age changes them much.”

“True,” Pete agreed cheerfully. “We’re pretty much pigs until we die.”

I looked up to see him smiling at me, and I wondered if we were going to kiss again.

He studied my face for a moment before reaching down and tucking a strand of hair behind my ear. I felt my pulse begin to gallop, and wondered if I should sit on my hands or sit on his lap.

“I should probably be going,” Pete said finally. “As much as I was enjoying—”

“Snogging?”

He quirked an eyebrow at me. “Right. I know you’ve had a long evening and you probably need a little time to digest things. So, I’d probably better leave before we start to get carried away again.”

“Oh,” I said, my face heating up. “That would be bad.”

“No, it would actually be pretty good.” Pete’s grin widened. “But we probably ought to take it slow.”

Take it slow.
I felt a quick stab of guilt and wondered if making out with someone else had crossed some sort of line in my agreement with Daniel.

Pete stood and brushed the cracker crumbs off his jeans. Then he reached back down and hoisted me to my feet.

“So thanks for the snack,” he said. “It almost makes up for the pepper spray.”

“Right. Well, thanks for the tongue wrestling. It almost makes up for the fake girlfriend.”

Pete bent down and gave me a chaste kiss on the forehead. “Let’s just call it even.”

“Sure,” I said, steering him toward the door. “And, uh, let me know if you hear anything else about who trashed your car the other night.”

“Absolutely,” he agreed. “And let me know if you hear from Lori’s intern.”

I winced as I felt my heart sink low and heavy in my chest. “I can’t help but think that’s at the center of this whole thing, you know? The stuff with the handbags.”

“The cops took your statements last night,” Pete said. “If there’s something going on, they’ll get to the bottom of it.”

“I hope you’re right.”

Pete reached down and grabbed the doorknob, then turned back toward me. He held my eyes for a moment, hesitating. I waited, wondering if there was another confession coming.

But instead, Pete bent down and kissed me again, slowly this time. His lips were so soft, so gentle, that I almost couldn’t believe this was the same guy I’d passionately clacked teeth with just a few minutes earlier.

When Pete broke the kiss, he brushed the back of his hand over my cheek and smiled.

“Just making sure you know there’s more than rage fueling this. For me, anyway.”

Then he turned and walked out the door.

THE FOLLOWING DAY, I was feeling pretty good as I shut down Shirley’s engine and climbed down from the cab for my lunch break. Despite my worries about Macy and the counterfeit handbags, work had a therapeutic effect on me. It was only noon, but I had already crushed an old outhouse and been ogled by the hottest guy ever to man a secretary station. So far, it was a good day.

“Can I get you a cup of coffee, JJ?” Pete called as I made my way toward the break room, his eyes seemingly focused on boring through my orange safety vest and pink flannel shirt to the black lace bra I was wearing underneath.

His sister’s picture was missing from his desk, but I hadn’t heard any workplace gossip yet about a fake breakup with his fake girlfriend. I’d let him be in charge of that.

“Can I take a rain check on the coffee?” I asked, trying not to blush. “Maybe after dinner some night this week?”