by Erica Hobbs
It wasn’t the same looking at the photos, though. Images of him flashed in front of me. His irritated look when I’d spoken to him for the first time in the tunnel at Mile High. The way his eyes had laughed at me. And then at Lemon, where his eyes had trailed down and back up my body. That same arrogant stare.
There was something about cocky boys that just got me. It was the same with James, although Jake had so much more game than James had ever had. Was it a sign?
Sure. A sign I had to stay far away from him.
“He’s worth a hell of a lot of money, Ali,” Tanya suddenly said interrupting my thoughts. She was on his Wiki page. She glanced at me, her mouth hanging open in an oh-my-God way. She turned the phone to me, and I read the bit she’d enlarged. The amount made me gasp.
“You have to go on a date with this guy. Even if it’s just for us. Please.”
Grace nodded along with Tanya. I laughed.
“Come on! You can get guys so much easier than I can,” I said. “Both of you. And besides, who said I wanted to go out with him, anyway? You go.”
Tanya snorted. “Are you joking? Everyone could see he only had eyes for you.”
I rolled my eyes. “Yeah, well, that’s a ‘forbidden fruit’ issue. I was pushing him away, and guys only want what they can’t have. There’s no way he’s having me, so he keeps chasing. Besides, he was with that woman outside, anyway. I’m sure she’ll make him a lot happier than I would.”
I finished my orange juice and tried to look like I didn’t care. I did care, but it wasn’t about him. I didn’t care about Jake, and it would stay that way. I knew exactly what it meant to get involved with a guy who already had someone on the sideline. Or was that the headline? I grinned at my own pun. What a morbid joke.
When I looked up at Tanya, she was frowning at me. Grace looked worried, too.
“What?” I asked.
“You can’t keep doing this to yourself,” Tanya said. “Not everyone is like James.”
I shook my head. I wasn’t going to go through this. Not now. “This is not what it’s about.”
“That’s exactly what it is about,” Grace said. “What if he was just a friend?”
“I’m sure girls would want to just be friends with a guy like Jake.” I sounded a lot more sarcastic than I meant to. I didn’t want to go there. I didn’t want to talk about it.
“You’re never going to know if you don’t try again.” Tanya still hadn’t finished her juice, and with the lecture she was launching into, she would still be a while. “James fucked up. He made you get scared of dating again, and made you believe it should be that way. And for that, I want to kill him. However, if you carry on with your life, and dare to love again, you’ll show him he was completely wrong about you. That you are wrong about you. If you choose not to date again, that’s when he wins.”
I shook my head, pressing my fingers against my temples. I didn’t want to think about James. I didn’t want to hear my friends’ logic no matter how sound it was. I didn’t want to talk about men anymore.
James had been my everything. Things had gotten so serious so quickly. We’d seen each other all the time; I stayed with him most weekends. I had been one of those lucky girls who had found ‘The One’ the first time they tried. I hadn’t been stupid enough to doodle my name and his surname on my notebooks while I was studying, but the thought had been there. If he’d asked me to marry him, I would have said yes without thinking twice.
God, I’d loved him.
And then I found he had a girlfriend. He’d had her before he’d had me. I’d gone over to his house to surprise him one afternoon after class, and she’d answered his door, asking me if I was one of his clients.
There’s nothing more humiliating and heartbreaking than finding out you’re the other woman and that from the guy’s real girlfriend.
“Not everyone’s like James,” Tanya said, and I realized I’d mentioned things out loud. Grace’s face had pity written all over her face. I hated pity. This was why I didn’t want to talk about it.
“What else does it say about him?” I asked, nodding at the phone where Jake’s photos were still all over the screen. I didn’t want to talk about James anymore. I didn’t want to think about the fact I’d been second, that when it came to choosing between the two women, James hadn’t chosen me. That I’d never been the first choice.
I pulled out my own phone. Two heads were better than one, right? Instead of looking at images, I just Googled his name. ‘Jake Nash. Powerhouse Jake.’ A hell of a lot of tabloid articles came up. I flicked through them. The more I got to see, the more it put me off him.
“I don’t know, guys. There are a lot of girls here.”
“What are you looking at?” Tanya asked and leaned over to see my screen. She shook her head. “The tabloids always lie.”
“Do pictures lie?” I asked. “Because he appears to be with a different girl in almost every one of them.” I made my point.
“That doesn’t mean anything,” Grace replied.
I waved, hoping a waiter would see me. I needed something to eat if I was going to stomach this guy. “And I suppose you think they are all friends, too?”
Grace didn’t answer me. What was she going to say? I wasn’t stupid, and even if the tabloids spread rumors, it wasn’t like they made it all up. Rumors always started somewhere.
“I think you should find out for yourself,” Tanya finally said. A waiter appeared, and she asked for the check before I could order something. “You’re actually in a position where you’ll be able to do exactly that. Then, you’ll know for sure whether those stories are true or not.”
I nodded, again playing with my straw but now in an empty glass. It was true, but I didn’t want to become one of the stories we saw on Google. I didn’t want to become another notch on a bedpost, and somehow, I didn’t exactly believe those girls were all just friends. If you were as hot and as famous and rich as Jake Nash, I doubted you were friend zone material to any woman. Jake wouldn’t just do friends, more like friends with benefits. Yeah, that seemed more likely.
My phone rang. I didn’t recognize the number, but I pressed “yes” to receive the call anyway and held the phone to my ear.
“I hope it’s not too early for you.” His voice was deep and smooth and one in a million. I had only spoken to him twice, but I would recognize it anywhere. Speak of the devil.
“Jake,” I said so my friends knew who it was. Tanya opened her mouth in a silent ‘O.' “No, I’m awake.”
“I thought you might still be getting some beauty sleep. It’s obvious you get a lot of that.” I blushed and immediately kicked myself. Tanya nudged Grace. Damn, they’d seen it. And why the hell was I blushing? It was the dumbest compliment I’d ever heard. Well, dumb and sweet.
“I’d like to see you again,” he said. “Go out with me.” It wasn’t a question, it was more like a command.
“I’ll have to see if I have the time.”
“I know you’ll make the time for me,” he said. The warm glow of his compliment faded away, replaced by something frosty.
“Really, now? That’s funny, cause last I checked I had a life of my own.”
He groaned softly. “I’m sorry. I get it, okay? You’re not gonna let me off easy. But I would really like to see you again. Will Friday work for you?” I took a deep breath. I looked at Tanya who was glaring at me after my snide remark.
“Can I get back to you?” I asked.
“Sure,” he said sound hesitant. I thanked him and ended the conversation.
“He wants to do something Friday,” I said to the girls.
“And you were a total bitch!” Tanya remarked immediately. I shook my head. I was, but I had a reason. No one told me what to do. I looked at Grace who nodded but didn’t say anything.
“You have to do something, you have to see him,” Tanya said. She pulled some money out of her purse when the waiter arrived. I did the same and gave it to Grace who covered the whole chec
k with her card.
“Maybe I will,” I said and smiled. “Maybe I’ll date him and give him a taste of his own medicine. Maybe I’ll do exactly what guys always do to women.”
“You’re terrible,” Tanya said, though she was laughing. Grace was smiling, too, and shook her head. Of course, they didn’t believe I could play games. I was the one who always got screwed over. I was too nice to mess with other people’s hearts. But Jake wasn’t the type who would get serious. Not if his track record off the field was something to go by. And I would never be serious about someone like him. I could never be serious about someone I had to share with the world.
Maybe it was time to crawl out of my shell, to start playing the dating game the way everyone else did. I could be sexy and funny and hard to get, and in the end, I could walk away and break hearts. Wasn’t that what always happened to girls like me?
“I think I’m going to do it,” I said, looking at my friends. “I’m going to do to him what they do to me.” That was a little harsh. It had come out wrong, but I would man up and mean it. Why couldn’t I mess around with someone else’s heart the way I’d been messed around? It was only fair.
“He didn’t do anything to you!” Tanya was still smiling, but she looked at Grace, unsure.
“I know, but if someone like Jake doesn’t get involved, I can do whatever I want, right?” I simply answered. Tanya shrugged. Grace didn’t say anything. She hardly ever did. I knew I was being a bitch. It was just that I was irritated with his assumption I would jump when he snapped his fingers. And I was angry - no, resentful – about James. Was it a bad combination? Yes. But life didn’t go smoothly and what good would it do to roll over and die?
“It will be fun to do something else for a change. I didn’t have a chance to do these things while I was studying. First, it was just my grades, and then it was James and everything that happened afterward. I never got to have my fun while you guys were sleeping around being stunning.”
I typed a text on my screen. ‘We’re on for Friday. Let me know plans closer to the time.’
I could be demanding, too. Two could play at this game. I put my phone away.
We got up and left Zig Zag. I could be that woman. I could be one of the girls everyone wanted, but no one could get. Of course, I wouldn’t go all the way. I wouldn’t hook up with him. Playing hard-to-get would be just what the doctor ordered.
It was time to take matters into my own hands again.
Chapter 11
Alyssa
I didn’t want to let him pick me up at my place. I wanted to keep as much of my life to myself as I could. When James had broken my heart, he had effectively broken that of my family too; he’d always been over at our place. My parents had come to love him and view him as a permanent fixture the same way I had.
This time, I was keeping Jake far away from my family; at arm’s length.
The Grand Avenue wasn’t the kind of place I usually went to for dates. I’d never been there – it was the most expensive place in town. The five-star restaurant was underneath one of the most expensive hotels in the city. He’d told me to meet him there so I’d at least dressed the part. I’d put on a white strapless dress; it was fitted perfectly around my body, and it complimented my figure. It hung down in an A-line symmetrically. With it, I wore a pair of nude high heel pumps, and I’d done up my hair in a bun. Wisps of hair had already escaped my hairdo and tickled my neck. Simple white pearl earrings completed the outfit. I’d felt too dressy when I left the house, but it seemed I fit right in now that I saw what the people looked into the restaurant.
My parents had already been out when I left the house. They usually spent time in on a Friday, catching up, but tonight my dad had a function, and they’d left just before I’d started getting ready. Fate had never been kinder. I didn’t want them to know where I was and with who. I didn’t want to hear about my risking the dating pool again or about tips and tricks and reassurances. Everything they could say would ruin the night for me.
“Alyssa?” I suddenly heard a voice, and I knew it was him.
I turned around to face him, he was looking fantastic. Jake was wearing a suit; it was charcoal with a deep golden tie. His dark hair was slicked back, and his green eyes looked like jewels in his face. He looked me up and down, his face a mask of admiration.
“You look stunning,” he said. I blushed, and I looked down. I felt like an idiot.
“You look pretty good yourself,” I said. He really did look good. He had been striking before, charming at the club and hot even when he’d been an asshole the first time we’d met. But this… was a different class altogether.
I knew this guy had money – Google had informed me he was worth millions, but it hadn’t shown until tonight.
“Does it work for the place?” I asked, looking down at my dress.
“Perfectly,” he said. When I looked up at him, his eyes were on mine, and I blushed again for no good reason at all. He smiled at me, a lopsided grin that made me feel just as unbalanced.
“Shall we?” He asked, holding out his hand like a pure gentleman. It was hard to bring this guy and the guy in the tunnel at the stadium together. If he was a nice guy, I was in trouble.
The restaurant was spectacular. The whole place was decorated with creams and beiges and dark wood accents. Chandeliers hung from the ceilings at intervals, and the tables were round with ample space between so that diners weren’t forced to rub shoulders.
“Good evening, Mr. Nash,” the hostess said and smiled at Jake. Her eyes twinkled, and her smile wasn’t the welcome-to-our-restaurant type. It was flirtatious. I instantly disliked her. Ok, I had decided not to get into anything serious but flirting with a guest who arrived with a woman was at least downright rude. I took a deep breath. It was only a smile. Get a grip. I said to myself.
We were taken to a table in the VIP section. Look at Mr. Fancy. The hostess put the menus on the table for us and curtsied before she left. Well now. Jake walked around the table and pulled my chair out for me.
“You're very gallant,” I said when I bent my knees and let him push the chair in under me. He walked around the table.
“You’re a lady. Ladies deserve that.”
I blushed again. This was the third time since we’d met up. This was getting ridiculous. I had to stop doing that. When I glanced up at Jake, he was grinning at me.
“Have I told you how beautiful you are?” He asked. I smiled and relished the warm glow that came with a genuine compliment. I wondered how many women had heard that from his mouth. The thought made my stomach turn, and the warmth drained away. I cleared my throat and reached for the menu.
The menu had no prices. It was a proper ladies’ menu with only the choices and the prices at discretion. That meant it was expensive. A part of me panicked wildly, wondering how I would choose something reasonable. Another part of me decided to have fun with it. Jake had chosen the restaurant, and judging by how they treated him – as a regular – he knew exactly what the prices were here. I took a deep breath and let it all go. I was going to have fun tonight. Somewhere, reality had blurred into a fantasy.
When a waiter arrived, Jake turned to him and spoke to him softly, glancing at me while he did. He paused halfway and frowned.
“Do you like wine?” He asked. Sweet of him. I shrugged.
“I drink wine with my mom, but it’s not the most expensive wine.”
He smiled and nodded to the waiter. The guy disappeared again, and Jake turned his attention back to me. “I wasn’t sure if you wanted wine. I don’t know much about you. In fact, I don’t know anything about you.”
I shrugged. “Well, I don’t have tabloids writing my name all over the place.”
His eyes darkened at the sound of that. “It’s a curse, trust me.”
I ignored his comment and got back to our previous subject. “I like wine, but I don’t have a very… what do they call it? Mature pallet.” I honestly didn’t have any opinion on the matter; for
me, it was either white or red. Any more information just didn’t seem to stick well with me. Oh, and I knew of Champagne as well, not that I had actually tasted it, though. Besides, I couldn’t afford trying wines one after the other. It was a rather expensive sport.
“Well, let me educate you,” he said just as the waiter arrived with a bottle of wine. He held it over his arm to pour. The liquid was pale and sparkling, lighter than champagne. I waited until the waiter left before reaching for my glass.
It was light dry, and unlike anything, I’d tasted before.
“What do you think?” Jake asked, watching me.
