Brothers & Best Friends

by Rose, Ashley

  Janine was laughing as they finally got ready to leave. "All right, all right, I promise to give it a try."

  "You have to," Will said.

  "I promise," she said.

  He smiled again. "And remember what I said, too."

  She rolled her eyes with a playful smile. "Yes, if Jess ever cheats on me I promise to call you."

  "Just if I cheat on you?" Jess asked.

  She nodded and smiled blandly. "Yes, the offer's for revenge sex."

  Jess blinked, then he slanted Will a glare. "Classy." He looked back at Janine and frowned. "Have you been drinking?"

  For an instant, his Janie popped back out as she frowned at him and stated, "I'm pregnant." She turned to Will. "Oh, and I almost forgot, if your friend gets that book published you have to tell me. I'm dying to read it already."

  "You'll be the first to know," he said with an easy smile.

  Jess, Rachel, and Candace rolled their eyes simultaneously, all three aware that he probably said that to everyone.

  Janine smiled. "Okay, well, we have to get going. I have work tomorrow. Bye everyone," she said with a wave in each person's direction.

  They sat in the cab for five minutes before Jess finally said, "So, what the hell was that all about?"

  Janine looked over at him, her expression preoccupied. "What do you mean?"

  "What do I mean?" he repeated slowly. "You and Will. What was that?"

  She smiled and shook her head. "Nothing. You shouldn't say it like that, either. It makes us sound much closer than we are."

  "You spent the whole night with him."

  "That also sounds bad," she remarked.

  "Well, revenge sex doesn't sound much better," he snapped.

  "He was just joking, Jess," she said. "Besides, you'd never cheat on me, so it shouldn't be a problem. You also know I'd never do something as insane as have revenge sex. I'm not like that."

  "Yeah, I didn't think so, but then I remembered you're Janie, home of the ever-changing personality."

  She frowned. "There's no reason to be mean."

  He scoffed and said mockingly, "Sorry."

  The cab was silent for a minute, then Janine asked idly, "Why didn't you introduce me as your girlfriend?"

  He knew that was going to come back up. He opened his mouth, but closed it, without a logical explanation.

  She turned her face to look at him and raised an eyebrow.

  He shrugged. "There was no real reason."

  That answer was obviously the wrong one. Her lips pursed slightly and she turned her attention to watching the sights out the window.

  Jess sighed and turned to watch out his own window, refusing to say another word until she did.

  It was a long, silent ride back to their apartment.

  Janine had changed out of her clothes and into pajamas before he came to the conclusion that she wasn't going to say a word to him without being spoken to first. He didn't remember Janine being quite that stubborn, but he swallowed his own stubborn pride and spoke first.

  "I guess we're not talking tonight?"

  "I guess not," she replied serenely, taking an earring out of her ear.

  "Just so we're clear on this, who's mad? Are you not talking to me or am I not talking to you?"

  She switched sides to take her earring out of her other ear. "I believe we aren't talking to each other."

  He sighed and pulled his shirt off, getting in the bed. "Fine, whatever."

  Janine walked in the bathroom while Jess sulked on the bed, staring up at the ceiling. He heard her turn the water on and brush her teeth, then make her way to the bed and get under the covers.

  "Good night," she said, rolling away from him.

  "We're doing this already?" he asked.

  She sighed. "Sleeping? Yes. You have work tomorrow morning."

  "We're on opposite sides of the damn bed."

  "Would you like me to move to the couch?"

  "No," he snapped, "I'd be afraid you'd make a move on Todd."

  She scoffed and rolled off the bed. "Whatever, Jess."

  "Oh, what, you can do it but you can't hear about it?" he asked, rolling right off the bed with her.

  "I didn't do anything but talk to Will," she said, walking out.

  "Oh, no, I'm sure his motives were completely innocent," Jess said sarcastically.

  "Does it really matter what his motives are?" she asked, walking into the kitchen and getting a glass out of the cupboard.

  "Yeah, I think it kind of does," he said.

  "Well, I don't," she said, filling the glass with water.

  "I'm not so sure of your motives either, if you really want me to be honest."

  "My motives?" she asked, taking a drink of the water, sitting it down and looking right at him. "Will knew right off the bat that you were my boyfriend. I didn't stand there and have a private conversation with him. I wanted to get over to you, so I excused myself from his company and walked over to you. You, naturally, had a beautiful girl hanging on your every word," she said, rolling her eyes. "The powerful magnetism of Jess Rossini," she said sarcastically.

  He shook his head, rolling his eyes in annoyance. "Funny, someone could have said the same thing about Will when he was talking to you and you were hanging on his every word."

  "Oh, I wasn't hanging," she stated firmly. "He knew it as well as anyone. Maybe some girls compete for his attention, but tonight he was competing for mine. He knew it, of course, because he's not the kind of person that you can easily get things by. But I believe he humored me, let me do it, continued to keep biting just to annoy you. Rachel, too, of course. I guarantee you he got laid, despite the fact that he ignored her most of the night, or maybe because of it. I almost respect the guy, honestly. He's very good at getting exactly what he wants. I didn't think he was so smooth or charming at first, but once he took it into his mind to adopt me as his pet project, he was exactly that."

  "Yep, and you were right there, following at his heels."

  "I didn't follow and you know it," she said with a small smile. "That's what annoys you, isn't it? You've gotten it into your head that I have to do the following just because I follow you. I don't, Jess. Just because I haven't dated doesn't mean I don't know men. I dislike men, so it makes it much easier for me to study them and understand them. And I don't do it often, because I'm not available and I wasn't interested in dating before, but I do know how to be a female."

  "Yeah, I saw that tonight. You bordered on being a tease."

  She shook her head. "That's silly. I never touched him."

  "No, you didn't have to. It's that damn look."

  She gave him that secret, curved smile and gave him the look. "What look?"

  He frowned at her. "Stop."

  The look faded and she shrugged, taking another sip of her water. "You didn't want to claim me as your girlfriend, so I didn't feel like acting like one."

  He sighed. "I didn't not want to claim you as my girlfriend."

  "That's funny, because you certainly didn't introduce me to your ex as your girlfriend. Rachel comes from Maine, doesn't she? Good family, just like Will. I believe they mentioned that you dated for a couple months, only broke up because she was going to be in Spain over the summer. Of course I wasn't aware you were dating, I just figured you were sleeping with her. Either way I would have felt much more comfortable, much more secure if you had just introduced me as your girlfriend." She paused briefly. "But, of course, you didn't."

  "I didn't do it on purpose. I meant to introduce you," he said.

  "Did you?" she replied idly, swirling the water in her glass.

  "Stop it," he said. "Stop looking preoccupied, dammit. I'm talking to you."

  She glanced up. "And I'm listening."

  "You didn't sound like you believed me."

  She shrugged. "Maybe I don't. If you wanted to introduce me as your girlfriend I see no reason why you wouldn't have."

  "It just slipped my mind."

  She stared at him
for a moment before nodding and taking another sip of her water. She dumped the rest in the sink, put the cup down, and walked back into the bedroom.

  "Now what did I say wrong?" Jess asked.

  "Nothing," she replied.

  "Stop it," he snapped.

  "I'm not doing anything."

  "You're acting like you're fine with this and you're not."

  "No, Jess, I'm not fine that I slipped your mind, but, you know, whatever. It happens. Now could you just let me go to bed so my mood will pass?"

  "Oh, it'll pass? Forgive me, hurry to bed. Would you like a sleeping pill?"

  She glared at him and rolled over against the wall, her back to him.

  He shook his head and got under the covers, sighing. "This has turned out to be a great night."

  Janine didn't respond, just pulled the blanket up tighter around her and closed her eyes.

  ***

  The next day, Janine wasn't feeling quite so shrewish.

  She was still annoyed that Jess had neglected to tell Rachel she was his girlfriend, of course, but she didn't feel like ignoring him. Of course he was at work by the time she came to that decision, but she decided she would probably let him know she wasn't mad anymore after he got home. Except that she would be at work, so actually she would have to wait until she got home.

  In the meantime, she decided to clean up the place. While she was cleaning, her phone rang.

  "Hello?" she answered, grimacing as she kicked one of Todd's socks into a bag.

  "Hey, Janine. It's Karen."

  "Oh, hi, Karen."

  "Hi. Whatcha doing?"

  "Uh, moving toxic socks."

  "Good band name," Karen remarked.

  Janine laughed. "Yeah, I guess. Very gross to clean up, though."

  "Jess's?"

  "No, I could handle if they were Jess's, but they're his roommate's, and I haven't actually decided what species he is."

  "Ugh, Todd. We have the same problem. He annoys Chad to no end."

  Janine laughed. "So, what's up?"

  "Nothing. I was just calling to chat."

  She raised an eyebrow. "Oh, okay."

  "How long do you have before you go to work?"

  "I have a couple hours. Why?"

  "I would have called sooner, but I had to work this morning and I just got off. I wondered if you wanted to take a walk with me. I have a girlfriend who works in SoHo. I'm supposed to meet her and pick up her daughter, Ella. We trade babysitting sometimes. Anyway, I thought if you weren't doing anything you could walk with me. I'll drop you back off in plenty of time."

  "Sure, I could do that."

  "Great. I'll meet you in about twenty minutes?"

  "Okay, great."

  "See you then."

  "Bye," Janine replied.

  Janine blinked at her phone for a moment, then decided she should probably finish up and go change clothes.

  Karen met Janine at the apartment, and they started walking toward SoHo. Karen made small talk with Janine, discussing common household things, then branched to boyfriends, where they spent a few minutes trading complaints about their respective significant others.

  Just as Janine had suspected she might, Karen brought up the previous evening.

  "So, you and Will seemed to get along."

  Janine stole a glance at Karen to see if there was any censure in her face, but she found none. "We got along okay," Janine said hesitantly.

  Karen nodded and smiled. "Made Candace and Rachel jealous."

  Janine just shook her head, watching the street. "They have no reason to be," she said, dismissing the idea instantly.

  "That's what I told Candace," Karen said. "Not Rachel, because I don't care for her, so I don't really care if she feels threatened."

  Janine rolled her eyes and smiled. "I'm eighteen, and I'm pregnant. I would hardly consider myself a threat against someone like Rachel."

  "That's funny, considering Jess picked spending an evening with you over spending an evening with her."

  Janine looked back at Karen with mild surprise.

  Karen merely smiled. "I have Chad. I know all."

  Janine smiled. "I see. I haven't learned how to push the snooping button yet."

  "All in due time, my dear. All in due time."

  "He said she's obnoxious."

  "She is," Karen agreed. "And vain, petty, idiotic, she has no sense of humor. The only thing she's good for is to silently stand at a guy's elbow and maybe accompany him home for reasons beyond meaningful conversation."

  "I don't think most guys have a problem with that," Janine said ruefully.

  "Maybe most guys don't, but Jess does."

  Janine's lips tightened slightly. "Maybe sometimes."

  "Chad told me he was stupid last night. The whole lack of introduction thing," Karen said with a nod.

  "Ah," Janine said with a sigh.

  "Yeah. That was a big, huge, stupid move on his part, and I would never try to say otherwise."

  "I feel a but coming on," Janine said, glancing over at her expectantly.

  "But I would ask you to bear in mind that serious girlfriends are very new to Jess. Jess has never actually introduced anyone as his girlfriend before. He brings one, says 'this is whoever,' and we all know they're together for the moment. I'm sure he didn't mean anything by it, and he certainly wasn't trying to get her attention or make her think he was available. Jess isn't like that. He's direct. If Jess was interested in Rachel, he'd be with Rachel. He's just never seen the point in playing games. He's never had to, really. Girls have always come easily to him as long as I've known him. He was probably just being a stupid, oblivious guy."

  Janine sighed softly. "I know."

  "Not that I'm trying to say anything. I'm not above flirting with someone else when Chad pisses me off, either. It's just, don't take this the wrong way, but you are just not in Will's league. He is a hardcore player. Charming as can be when he sets his mind to it, intelligent, good looking, confident, all the qualities that a woman is attracted to, but he's as elusive as hell. He'll sleep with you, but he isn't looking for anything more than that."

  Janine shook her head. "Karen, I'm not interested in Will."

  "I didn't think you were," Karen said. "But if you're going to play, especially with Will, you have to be careful that you don't get caught up in the game. I like you, Hope likes you, and I don't want something small and stupid to spawn something big and stupid. If you're going to flirt with someone, just my advice, I'd kick it down a notch. We have plenty of friends that you can flirt with safely, but Will is not one of them. You're young, and Will is...only good for experienced flirts. Not that I'm saying you're inexperienced," Karen quickly amended.

  Janine smiled. "It's okay. I am fairly inexperienced."

  Karen half nodded and smiled. "I thought so, but I wasn't really sure. You seemed to know you were handling him last night."

  Janine rolled her eyes, still smiling. "Please. What was going on between us was more like that story of the lion and the mouse. He was just pawing me, doing me a favor, making Dumbo feel like he might steal his meal."

  Karen laughed. "Wow, that's a visual."

  Janine shrugged. "It's true. Will isn't interested in me, Karen. I'm nowhere near his type. No smooth-talking playboy is going to tempt me to look away from Jess. He may be a dumbo sometimes, but I love him with all my heart. I was just irked that Rachel was so pretty and she was talking to him, then he doesn't even bother to introduce me as his girlfriend." she said, rolling her eyes.

  Karen grinned and nodded. "I assume you properly dealt with him last night?"

  Janine formed a slight pout. "We went to sleep on separate ends of the bed with our backs turned to each other for the first time ever."

  "Aw," Karen said sympathetically, patting Janine on the back. "The first time sucks. Our husbands should never make us do that to them."

  One of Janine's eyebrows lifted. "Do we have husbands?"

  "Pretty much," Karen sai
d with a shrug, looking up at the signal and then walking across the street. "We tend to refer to each other as spouses. Even most of Chad's friends call me Chad's wife."

  "Are you ever going to get married, or have you not talked about it?" Janine asked.

  "We've talked about it. We'll get married eventually, the time's just never really been right. We are unofficially engaged, have been since shortly after I found out about Hope. We just haven't legalized it."

  Janine had to smile. "That's sweet."

  When Janine returned home after work that evening, it was only to find that Jess was gone. She asked Todd if he knew where Jess went, but Todd informed her he wasn't Jess's babysitter.

  Janine restrained herself from calling him, but she waited up until one thirty in the morning. When he still wasn't home, she decided she was too annoyed with him to be nice anyway, so she went to bed, figuring he'd come home, apparently, whenever he felt like it.

  She never felt Jess get in the bed, and when she woke up the following morning, he was already gone. Determined not to dwell on it, she decided to do some more housework. The men had let the place go in her absence.

  She considered not even making him dinner, and if he did come home after work she would simply explain that she didn't know if he would deign to come home or not, so she hadn't bothered. She decided that was probably a bit childish, however, so she started cooking a little over a half hour before he usually got home. To pass the time, she called Karen and talked to her for a while. Karen eased her mood, and by the time they hung up, she was feeling pretty good.

  Dinner was done just before he should get home, which was what she had hoped for, so she had time to run back to the bathroom and put on a little makeup. She added a little black sequined beret that Karen had talked her into buying the previous day in SoHo for the final touch.

  She heard the door open and she smiled, smoothing her hair and arranging the beret on her head, walking out with a smile on her face.

  "Hi!" She greeted Jess before he could say anything to spoil her mood.

  He looked up at her and his eyes immediately landed on her hat. "What the hell is on your head?"

  She grinned. "It's a sequined beret. Do you like it? Karen made me get it yesterday."