One More Time(51)

Like the detail of my fucking broken heart.

“I’m Walter,” the guy says, sitting up, his eyes blinking with sleep.

I’d almost forgotten that I’d asked, but that name immediately hits my ears. I know it. I’ve heard it before.

I’ve heard it from Jenna’s own mouth, I realize.

Walter? Who is Walter?

Then it hits me—Walter is the name of the guy that Jenna claimed was not her boyfriend. The name of the guy she was talking to on the phone when I was outside her trailer that day. The name of the guy she said I love you to.

So then what the fuck is Walter doing in her bed right now?

I might regret what I’ll do if I find out that answer. So I don’t stay to find out. Instead I turn around, walk back down the hallway, through the living room and directly out the front door.





19





Jenna





I’m still half asleep and so confused. Was I just dreaming that Tanner was here? I sit in bed staring at the door where I swear he was just standing. I rub my eyes.

No. I’m awake. He was here. I check the clock on the dresser. It reads nine-forty AM.

Wait. Tanner is supposed to come home around nine-thirty Monday. Is the clock wrong? Did I somehow sleep through an entire day? I know Walter and I polished off a bottle of champagne last night, but could I have possibly lost a full 24 hours?

I’m fully awake now. And now I distinctly remember Tanner yelling at Walter.

“What the hell just happened?” I ask, throwing the covers off.

“I believe your boyfriend tried to surprise you by coming home early. And it worked.” Walter smiles guiltily. “I guess I surprised him, too. By being in bed with his girlfriend. Whoopsie daisy!”

I laugh out loud. Literally. It’s a bursting cackle. Walter is so obviously not straight. Plus I told Tanner I was hanging with my bestie to watch him on live TV.

“Why would he freak out?” I ask Walter. “It doesn’t make sense.” I jump out of bed and peek into the hallway. There’s no one there. The house is silent. Did he leave?

“Well in his defense, we are dressed like the sex scene in a daytime soap opera,” Walter says, stretching.

I look down at my negligee and back over at Walter’s bare chest.

Shit. He’s right. This doesn’t look good, if you don’t know my boy bestie would rather die than touch a woman’s parts for any reason other than draping a new gown.

“But I swear I told Tanner that you weren’t my boyfriend when he asked me during the shoot.” Didn’t I? I try to recall how the conversation went.

“Uh-huh, but did you tell him that I was your gay best friend?”

I’ll be honest, I can’t remember those precise words coming out of my mouth. I don’t normally use Walter’s sexual preference as an identifying quality when talking about him. I should have probably told Tanner, though. And I might have… The whole shoot is now a blur of mixed messages and steamy trailer sessions.

“Okay. This is just a little misunderstanding,” I say, but my stomach is starting to knot. We’re too newly back together to have misunderstandings right so soon. I have to fix this. “Lemme call Tanner and explain. Put some clothes on. Just because his first sighting of you was in your undies, doesn’t mean the official introduction should go the same way.”

“Valid,” Walter says. “But I really hadn’t planned my outfit for this.”

Walter grabs his trusty silk and starts to rummage through his store of clothes in my closet while I grab my cell to call Tanner. My chest is tight with guilt. He rushed home to surprise me--and what a romantic surprise--and he must have been so horrified to find me in bed with another man. And don’t I know how that feels?

I dial.

No answer.

Which is fine. I try not to panic. Maybe his phone is dead. Maybe he’s driving and can’t pick up. Though he didn’t have a car at the airport. Did he go home first and get one? If he just cabbed over, how did he even leave? Did he Uber?

I text and wait.

The message says delivered, so his phone isn’t dead.

But Tanner still doesn’t respond.

I call again. Nothing. I call a third time. Same deal.

And then it hits me. He’s not picking up on purpose.

He’s not going to pick up. He is giving me the total blow-off.

And now I’m pissed.

Five minutes later Walter emerges with beauty products but still in the kimono, apparently unable to find an appropriate meet-the-boyfriend outfit.

“He won’t take my calls! Can you believe this? I mean, it’s the simplest mistake. It’s not even a mistake. It’s a misunderstanding. No one did anything wrong. I will say one sentence to Tanner, and he’ll totally understand what’s going on here.”

“Uh-huh,” Walter says, nodding as he massages oil into his bald head.

“But now I’m not just pissed about that.” I’m still pacing, my arms flying expressively as I talk. “This means Tanner doesn’t trust me! He thinks I would actually cheat on him while he’s in New York working. Literally everything we’ve been building together all these weeks means nothing to him if he thinks that I would be so disloyal, which means we’re right back where we started, and Tanner James is going to break my heart. Again.”