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“Mr. Bradford, why would he do this to me?” the girl demanded.
He froze mid-step and looked around nervously, hoping another Mr. Bradford was standing close by and willing to handle this. No such luck.
He cleared his throat. “Do what exactly?”
She scoffed at him with a look of utter disbelief that told him she thought he should be very aware of everything in her life. Considering he’d never paid much attention to any woman’s life she was in for a hell of a rude awakening. Thankfully one of her friends took pity on him.
“Marc Griswold. They ate at the same table two times in the last two weeks, he talked to her during study hall, and asked to borrow her notes. Now he’s here with her,” she said with such distaste that he couldn’t help but follow her glare.
He spotted Marc dancing with a very pretty brunette. Her name he remembered, Janie. She was a smart girl and funny as hell. If memory served him correctly Marc had been in love with the girl for the last two years. The poor guy who was normally so sure of himself and easy going turned to a stuttering fool when the girl was around. He’d been wondering when the kid was going to work up the courage to finally ask her out.
“Hmmm, good for him,” he mumbled, earning a collective gasp of outrage.
“How could you, Mr. Bradford?” the girl wailed even louder, making him cringe.
Oh, he really was going to kill Haley for this shit.
************
“I had a really nice time,” Jonathan said, probably for the tenth time.
Haley forced herself to smile and of course lie. “I did, too,” she said, hoping he wouldn’t ask her to elaborate on what she found nice, because she would really be hard pressed to find something nice about this evening, except of course that it was nice that it was ending.
This was absolutely the very last time she went on a date with any man Mary, one of her oldest and dearest friends, suggested. One would think after Mary set her up with the taxidermist who crossed dressed she would have learned her lesson, apparently not because somehow she agreed to go out with this loser.
It didn’t start off badly. In fact, he was on time and she thought he was rather cute in a nerdish way. He was tall, a bit thin, but still, he looked nice. His clothes were clean and he smelled good. The first clue that something just wasn’t right occurred when they made it to the restaurant.
That’s when his mother called for the first time. Yes, first time as in there was more than one call from his mother. In fact, during their four hour date, it lasted that long because he took so long to eat, she called a total of twenty-three times. Yes, she was very sure it was his mother since he sat at the table when he took the calls and the speaker on his phone was rather loud.
The reasons for the calls ranged from, she missed him, wanted to know if he’d rather come home and eat what she cooked, reminded him to clean his room tomorrow, and her personal favorite, she wanted to know if he was still with “her”. Judging by her tone and the amount of calls, his mommy was not a happy camper about her little boy dating. Granted her little boy was thirty-five years old and according to him has never lived on his own. Why would he when he lived with his best friend? Meaning, mommy dearest. Of course he did spend a good time complaining about how unfair his mother could be. Who knew a thirty-five year old man could still be grounded for not picking up his dirty socks? She certainly hadn’t.
She could not wait to get inside her house and change into a pair of jeans and a tee shirt and have a good laugh about this with Jason. That is of course only if Jason had forgiven her for her little jest earlier. Hence the large piece of chocolate cake with peanut butter frosting in the doggy container she was currently holding. Jason was a big baby, but a big baby that could be bought with food.
“Well, here we are,” she said brightly as they pulled into her driveway. “It’s been fun. Thank you again,” she said quickly as she practically ran from the car.
“This is a really nice house,” he said close, too close. Haley looked back and bit back the curse that threatened to leave her lips. The man was following her to the door. She wanted to cry, really, she did. When would this nightmare end?
She walked up to her door and plastered another fake smile on her face. “Well, thanks again. ”
“You’re welcome. ” He gave her a shy smile before he leaned in to kiss her. Thankfully she saw that one coming and turned her head in time to receive a rather wet kiss on her cheek. Ew….
She barely stopped herself from wiping her face. She’d scrub that off in a matter of minutes in a scolding hot shower.
“Oops. Sorry,” he mumbled as he leaned in to give her another kiss.
Faster than even she thought was possible, she had the front door unlocked and opened. She stumbled back saving herself from more slobber.
“Well, it’s been nice but-“
“Can I come in for a cup of coffee?” he asked eagerly and then of course had to add, “I can stay out as late as I want tonight. ” Oh, she knew he was lying. Someone was going to be in so much trouble when he got home. She mentally tsked him.
She opened her mouth to politely refuse when the yelling began.
“Help me!”
Haley jumped. What the hell? It sounded like Jason was right in her house.
“Help me, please! Somebody please help me! Why won’t somebody help me?”
“What’s that?” Jonathan asked nervously.
Haley didn’t stop to answer. She was already running towards the direction of the screaming. Her room? She threw the door open and nearly tripped as she came to a halt five feet into the room which put her right in front of her bed.
“What the hell…. ” Jonathan stopped behind her.
“Oh, thank god you’re here, Haley!” Jason said, sounding happy for someone who was tied to her bed, wearing only a pair of boxers. “I know you said it turns you on knowing I’m tied to your bed waiting for you, but I really need to use the bathroom and stretch my legs before we begin…. ,” his voice trailed off when he caught sight of Jonathan.
Jason sighed dramatically. “I thought we agreed that you would tell me ahead of time before you added someone to our bed. ” With a roll of his eyes he said, “It’s fine this time. Lucky for you I think we have plenty of lube. ” He looked thoughtfully at Jonathan who was still staring at Jason dumbly. “I hope you’re not a screamer. The last guy screamed his head off every time I-“
“You’re sick!” Jonathan cried, cutting Jason off. “Stay away from me and don’t try to call me either. I’m telling my mother about you!”
Haley didn’t spare Jonathan a glance as she glared at the man with the huge shit eating grin tied to her bed. She was vaguely aware of her front door slamming shut and the sound of tires peeling out of her driveway.
“Is that for me?” Jason asked, looking pointedly at the styrofoam container in her hands.
“Mmmhmm,” she said as she walked around the bed and placed the container on his chest and opened it. She didn’t miss his eyes widening in pleasure.
“Is that-“
“Peanut butter frosting, yup,” she finished for him.
He licked his lips as he stared at the huge dessert. “You are the best, ever. Untie me so I can dig in,” he said absently as he continued to stare at the cake, probably trying to decide which end he was going to attack first.
Playing for Keeps Page 8
