What Lovers Do(8)

“Wouldn’t hurt.” Her amusement begins to break through her cool façade.

“Great personality?”

“As long as it’s not overcompensating for said guy lacking in other departments.”

On another sideways glance, she gets a full dose of my confident (maybe a little cocky) smile. “I should get going. It was nice running into you again, Shep.”

Cersei jumps to attention, and Sophie leads her toward the sidewalk.

“Listen, I feel bad for taking your number and not calling. So … I’ll definitely call you this week.” A sense of pride warms my chest for cleverly twisting her presumption at the store to my advantage.

“I’m sure you’re a great guy, but I can’t go out with you.” She doesn’t even look back at me.

“Whoa … there you go again … assuming. I’m not wanting to go out with you. I just said I’d call you. To … you know. Converse.”

Her confident strides come to a halt. “To converse?” She glances over her shoulder.

“It means—”

“I know what converse means, Shep.” She rolls her curious eyes.

“Great. We’ll converse soon then.”

See, Millie? There are ways to meet people that don’t involve filtered pictures, exaggerated descriptions, and swiping right.

“That’s…” her lips twist for a few seconds before she slowly shakes her head and grins “…not a good idea. Bye, Shep.”





CHAPTER SIX





SOPHIE





“Hey, Jules.” I hug my best friend before taking a seat across from her on the patio of our favorite Mexican restaurant.

She slides a margarita toward me.

I smile, but I don’t take it even though it makes me salivate. Instead, I grab my water and take several long gulps before diving into the basket of warm tortilla chips and fresh salsa verde.

“So … what did I miss?” she asks. “You said you had so much to share with me, and you didn’t want to explain via text. I was gone for only a week. Did I miss something big? Did you and Jimmy get back together?”

I cover my mouth to keep from spewing corn chips all over her. “Um … no.” I cough a few times.

“New guy?”

“Not exactly.”

I’ve never felt so backed into a corner. I’m seriously hating life right now.

Jules curls her thick blond hair behind her ear on one side, exposing her gold loop earring. “Soph, what is it? You look like you’re in pain.”

“You love me no matter what, right?” I swipe some of the salt from the rim of my margarita glass with my finger.

“Yes …” She draws out her answer while squinting at me.

“I’m in a bit of a pickle.” My nose crinkles. I do not want to tell her this, but I have to tell someone, and I’d rather eat my own hand than tell my family.

“A pickle?”

“So … you know how I said that Jimmy was going back to school after he sold his mom’s house and that we were going to take a break as soon as he found his own place so he could focus on school and spend as much time as possible with his mom?”

Jules offers a slow nod.

Pinching my lower lip, I draw in a brave breath of air. “I sort of lied about that.”

“About which part?”

Covering my face with my hands, I mumble, “All of it.”

“What are you talking about? What does that mean? You’re still with him? Or he’s not going to school?”

“Jules …” I clear the whininess from my throat and choke on my pride. “After I let Jimmy move in, after everyone warned me that it was a bad idea, and I swore that I knew what I was doing, that I was right and everyone else was wrong …”

“Sophie, don’t say it.” She winces.

“After Jimmy moved in, I realized I didn’t love ‘at home’ Jimmy. He didn’t help around the house. Dirty clothes everywhere. He never put dishes in the dishwasher. Toilet seat left up with piss everywhere. Shoes on my coffee table. Just … everything! It all eviscerated my attraction to him. And every time I mentioned anything, he just rolled his eyes and said, ‘It’s a house, Sophie. You’re supposed to live in it, not treat it like a goddamn museum.’ The romance died. He became this charity case that I started resenting. He stopped trying to be romantic. Sex became this foregone conclusion that since we shared a bed, sex was a given.”

“So …”

I frown. “So I made up the story about him going to college because I didn’t want everyone thinking that I, yet again, fell for the wrong guy and let him take advantage of me. I was so adamant that I knew what I was doing, that Jimmy was different.”

“Okay. I see that. And you’re right, instinctually I want to say, ‘I told you so.’ Just like your family would say the same thing. But it is what it is. You have terrible taste in men. You make terrible decisions when it comes to men. I think that’s been well established. That’s on you. Your life. Your choices. It only affects you. And Jimmy’s gone. Who cares what the details were surrounding it? You have to let it go. What your family doesn’t know about the past won’t hurt them.”