“Tell me something I don’t know.” I sipped the G&T Jenny had shoved into my hand.
“Should I share your childhood story of you eating cat food with a spoon? That’ll get them to forget the gym fiasco.” Erik’s eyes scanned the room. “Wait… April must have stepped outside.”
I eyed him with curiosity. “I thought you two broke up.”
He raised his cup to his lips, speaking over the brim. “We did.”
“Then why are you looking for her? And after she humiliated me in my own home?”
“I wasn’t. I’m just looking out for you. That’s all.”
I pressed my finger into his strong chest. “Yeah, right. I know that look. You’re hoping to hook up with her.”
“With her? No way.” He avoided my eyes.
“Old habits are hard to break.”
“Like making a fool of yourself?”
“Hey, buster, I may fall off exercise bikes, but I go to bed each night with a stunning redhead.” My eyes sought and found Gemma across the room, chatting with Bernie and Cuddy.
Erik chuckled. “You got me there. How’d you get so lucky?” His sincerity surprised me.
“Not sure, but I don’t plan on losing her.”
Erik watched Gemma. “Don’t blame you.”
A girl I didn’t know made her way through the small group on the balcony. Jenny, with glossy eyes and a drunk swagger, nearly fell over when approaching to supply the bombshell a drink. Bernie made a show of not noticing, but I caught her checking out the scene from the corner of her eye. Normally, this type of behavior would upset me, but I couldn’t help thinking, Go, Jenny.
I squinted, feeling like I’d already met her. Maybe she was in one of my classes.
Jenny shepherded the girl to Gemma, motioning for me to come over. “This is Danny.”
“Hi, Danny.” Gemma stuck out her hand. Nodding to me, Gemma added, “This is my girlfriend, Tegan.”
“These two are the hosts.” Michelle popped off the couch. “You can call them G and T. Making it even more fitting that you’re taking over G and T Thursdays since my ex transferred to a different school.”
“Every Thursday?” Danny asked.
“If school is in session, come here on Thursdays.” Jenny jerked her head to a coconut monkey head on the fireplace mantel. “Donations are greatly appreciated but not your first time. Bring something next week, either money or a snack. You are coming, aren’t you?”
“Of course, we are.” April slipped her hand into Danny’s, saying to the new girl, “Glad to see you’ve met my former roommate.”
“Hey, Apes.” Michelle used Seb’s nickname for her.
“This is your… you two?” Jenny pinched her index finger and thumb together.
“Girlfriends? Yes,” April asked and answered.
Jenny quickly banished the disappointment from her face. “That’s wonderful. I’d like you to meet my girlfriend. Berns,” she called.
“That’s an unusual name,” said Danny, extricating her hand from April to shake the viper’s hand.
“It’s one of my many nicknames. I prefer Bernie.”
Backstabbing Bernie was more like it.
“Bernie’s a senior and won’t be gracing these parties for too much longer,” I said much to my shock, and from the looks on Jenny’s, Michelle’s, and Gemma’s faces, they had no idea why I’d offered the information.
“Geez, Tegan. You’re acting like it’s May. It’s only the first week of the school year. I have plenty of time to soak in all the fun until adulthood takes over.” She jutted out a hip. “Although, the law school program here is top-notch.”
“B-but… is that wise? To get two degrees from the same university?” I asked.
“I don’t want to leave,” she said, adding as an afterthought, “Jenny and all my close friends.” She planted a kiss on my cheek, much too close to my lips for my liking.
“Ah, I thought you’d show up sooner or later, like a bad penny.” Erik attempted to look smug, but I sensed something else under his façade. He put his hand out to Danny. “Erik. And you are?”
“My girlfriend,” April supplied in a syrupy voice.
“How long have you two been together?” Bernie asked with a quick peek at Jenny.
Danny laughed. “Not long, but you know lesbians. Quick to cohabitate.”
“You two live together?” Jenny spat out.
“Not yet, but give us another week or two.” Danny’s laughter indicated she was joking. “Seriously, we only just met and are getting to know each other.” Danny took a teensy-weensy sidestep away from April, closer to Jenny.
Bernie wrapped an arm through Jenny’s. “That’s the best stage. Soon enough, you’ll be an old married couple like Jen and me.”
“You make it sound like a punishment,” Jenny said, unsure if she should take Bernie seriously or not.
“Depends on the day, sweetheart.” Bernie blunted her statement with a delicate kiss on Jenny’s cheek followed by a nip of the earlobe.
“Keep an eye on this one,” I said in a tone I hoped implied I was kidding.
April’s smirk worried me. Would she try to drive the final nail in the Jenny and Bernie coffin? I wasn’t opposed to Jenny leaving Bernie in the dust, but I didn’t want April’s nosiness getting into the midst.
“Oh, it’s not me that’s dangerous.” Bernie placed a hand on her chest and laser-locked onto me. “Tegan—”
Danny snapped her fingers. “I thought you looked familiar. You’re the one who wiped out in the gym yesterday. Dude, that looked like it hurt. Are you okay?” Her tone was soft, supportive even.
“Got a few bruises, my ego most of all.”
Danny waved a hand. “Nah, it could happen to anyone. Once, in high school, a friend dared me to climb a tree, which I did, but I couldn’t get back down. The fire department had to rescue me like a neighborhood cat. Everyone in town was there to watch, including my grandparents. Talk about embarrassing.” She laughed, not showing a drop of humiliation. “I wrote about it for my college entrance essay.”
“You did not,” I said.
“Did so. And it must’ve worked, because here I am.” She laughed.
“Are you a freshman?” Bernie asked.
Danny nodded with a look of duh in her eyes.
Bernie hip checked April. “Fresh meat. Score.”
Erik met my eyes, shaking his head in disgust. Funny, considering just thirty minutes earlier he wanted to take April home; I was sure of it. Of course, he may pursue a threesome, knowing him.
Bernie peered into her plastic cup. “Oh, Tegan, I’m running low.” She handed me the cup as if I was her servant. “Be a good host and fill me up.”
Jenny tailed me to the kitchen. “Can you believe her?”
“Bossy as ever,” I said through gritted teeth.
Jenny blinked but waved me off Bernie’s trail. “April’s always been a bitch, but getting her hands into Danny, who’s an innocent babe in the lesbian pool… It’s perverse. We have to do something.”
I got lost in the description. Shaking it off, I asked, “Like what?”
Jenny swiped at her nose. “I don’t know yet, but I’ll come up with something.” She turned but stopped. “Do you have time for lunch tomorrow? I need to talk about something.” Her expression worried me.
“Sure. Everything okay?”
She whispered, “No, it’s not.” Jenny scouted over her shoulder. “I need to ask you something without Gemma around.”
My skin went stone-cold.
Chapter Four
Jenny arranged for us to meet at a small café, a two-minute walk from campus. It wasn’t a place we ever went to since the running joke was it was for old ladies.
Rudy’s Diner buzzed in spite of the fact it was only half past eleven.
Jenny waved from a table in the back.
I skirted around tables filled with housewives and blue-hairs, m
y term for little old biddies who were too short to be seen behind a steering wheel.
“I feel like we’re in an episode of The Golden Girls.”
Jenny guffawed, doing her get out of here hand wave. “I ordered you a raspberry iced tea. Hope that’s okay.”
“Have you’ve eaten here before?”
“Oh, sure. When I need to get away.”
I nodded. “What’s good here, then?”
“The tuna melt.”
I propped the laminated menu between the condiment bottles on the side of the table for four. “Spill.”
Jenny fiddled with a pink packet of Sweet N’ Low. “What would you do if you thought Gemma was cheating on you?” She shifted in her seat and hunched her head down. “What lengths would you go to for the truth?”
“Do you suspect Bernie?”
Jenny swiped her face with a hand. “Let’s just assume we’re talking hypothetically.”
“Okay,” I said. “Hypothetically, I’d ask Gemma.”
“Just outright ask, Hey Gemma, you getting your jollies elsewhere?”
I tapped my fingers against the bottom row of my teeth. “I might put it a bit more delicately.”
Jenny’s eyes narrowed. “How would you put it?”
I sniffed, taking a moment to wipe my nose with a napkin. “Maybe start by asking if she was okay. With us.”
“And if she said she was fine, what would you do next?”
“Nothing, I guess.”
Jenny widened her mouth, scratching her cheek with the sugar packet. “Say you stumbled upon Gemma’s diary. Would you read it?”
“You have Bernie’s diary?” I asked with too much interest. Shit, shit, shit. Did she mention the bathroom incident?
“I know where she keeps it.” Jenny gave up the theoretical pretense.
Leaning over the table, I asked, “Have you read it?”
Jenny shook her head, leaning away when the waitress approached.
“What can I get you two?” asked the server, who looked old enough to remember the end of World War II.
“Tuna melt,” I said.
“Ditto for me.”
The wrinkled woman jotted down our orders and left.
I picked up the conversation right where we left off. “Have you?”
Jenny sighed. “No.”
“But you want me to tell you it’s okay to do so. That’s why you didn’t want Gemma here,” I said, annoyed she thought that way of me.
Not picking up on my feelings, she asked, “What do you think?”
I crossed my arms. “No. It’s wrong. Unequivocally a no-no. And I’m insulted you think I would approve.”
Jenny covered her face with both hands. “But, I need to find out. It’s killing me.”
I tugged her hands apart. “Reading her diary isn’t the answer.” Again, the thought of the kiss crowded my thoughts.
“What is, then?”
“Why do you think she’s having an affair?”
Jenny scrunched her brow. “I just feel it. We haven’t been hot and heavy like we used to be. Now, I’m lucky if she puts out once a week. More likely, it’s only twice a month. Bernie’s a sexual being. How often do you and Gem do it?”
Not wanting to answer that question, I went back to Bernie. “Maybe she’s stressed about graduating. She made that comment yesterday about adulthood taking over. Is she scared?”
Jenny released a bark of laughter. “Bernie, scared? Not a chance in hell.”
“Even the most confident people have weak moments.”
“Would you ever cheat on Gemma?”
I flinched. “No. Why would you ask such a question?”
Jenny didn’t speak, leading me to believe she didn’t suspect my role in the situation.
“Is that why you were hitting on Danny? To get even?”
“I wasn’t hitting on her. Why would you say such a thing?” Her expression was sufficiently blank, causing the sick feeling inside to swirl to tempest level.
“Come on. I have eyeballs and a woman’s intuition.” I gave her my best talk to me smile.
“Well, you’re wrong.” Jenny didn’t look at me. “Flat-out wrong.”
The way she said it made me think I wasn’t.
She ground a fist into the palm of her other hand. “If I find out who she’s sleeping with, I’m going to kill the motherfucker.”
The waitress stood next to our table with her jaw dangling.
“Wow! That looks incredible.” I eased my plate from her gnarled fingers. “My friend has been raving about your tuna melts.”
The waitress practically dropped Jenny’s plate on the table and then headed for the kitchen.
“Smooth, Jen-Meister. Real smooth.” I hoisted the melt to my mouth and took a healthy bite. Covering my mouth, I said, “That’s good.”
Jenny chewed hers with relish.
“Listen, don’t worry about Bernie. I think you’re getting your panties in a bunch about nothing. I saw the way she acted when you were hitting on Danny—” Jenny started to object, but I shushed her. “You were. And that got under Bernie’s skin. If she was cheating, would she feel jealousy?”
Jenny perked up in her seat. “You think so?”
Not wanting to tangle myself even further into the situation, I simply nodded.
While Jenny pondered my jealousy theory, I wondered if it would be wrong to break into their apartment to steal Bernie’s journal before doubt crept back into Jenny’s one-track mind.
***
“Tegan!” Cuddy had his hands cupped around his mouth.
In the crowded hallway outside of the classroom I’d just vacated, several people stared.
I sighed, tugging on the strap to my backpack. “You coming or going?”
“That’s a loaded question.” He smiled. “You just finish class?”
“The last of the day. And just in time for me to prep for this week’s G&T. You coming tonight?”
“I’m free now. Need help setting up?” He motioned for me to walk ahead to the stairwell at the end of the hallway.
“How are your lime slicing skills?”
“Top-notch.”
I couldn’t see his face, but I felt the warmth from his grin. “You’re hired. Gem has a study group and won’t be free for a couple more hours.”
“What’s her major?” Cuddy reached around me and pressed the metal bar of the door to open it.
“Thanks,” I patted his smooth cheek. “Economics.”
He whistled. “Beauty and brains. Score, Tegan.”
I laughed. “Why does everyone act that way?”
He descended the stairs, tailing me. “What way?”
“Confused that I’m actually dating someone like Gem,” I said over my shoulder.
He chuckled, massaging his chin. “Because girls like Gem really don’t exist. At least not in my world.”
“And what world is that? Hobbit land?”
“So funny.”
We exited the gray door into the sunshine. Off in the distance were the foothills and a few puffy white clouds dotting the deep blue sky.
“Are we walking or driving?” Cuddy asked, slipping on sunglasses.
“I was running late this morning and drove.”
“Can I toss my bike in your trunk?”
“Of course.”
Cuddy unlocked his bike, which still had scratches on the frame from when he’d hit me, from the rack and guided it with one arm as we made our way to the paid parking lot near the administration buildings. “You must have been late if you had to feed the machines instead of parking at the free lot near the athletic center.”
“Quite,” I said, feeling the blush rise to my cheeks. Gemma had been the reason I drove us both to campus.
He made a tsking sound. “What would your mom think? Having sex first thing in the morning?”
“I didn’t say that.” My protest lacked my usual oomph.
“You didn’t have to. You have that I’m getting laid frequently glow.”
“There’s no such thing.” I laughed.
“Not for most of us.”
“You still avoiding relationships, then?” I unlocked my trunk, shoving an army green sleeping bag and other odds and ends out of the way. “I have a couple of bungee cords, if that’ll help.”
“My, my, my. You’re quite the Girl Scout.” He lifted the bike with some trouble and placed it inside my Honda.
I secured the front tire with one of the cords, while he latched the other half. “My father was in the air force. I get it from him.”
“You and Gemma are quite the pair.” He nudged my shoulder. “Lucky dog.”
Inside the safety of my car, I turned to Cuddy. “Can I ask you a question?”
“Besides the one you just asked? Shoot.”
“Have you ever broken into someone’s apartment?”
Cuddy didn’t smile or laugh. “Apartment, no. House, yes.”
“Really?” I sounded much too shocked.
He shrugged. “It was my friend’s, and I was getting even for a prank he pulled. Unfortunately, his father was a cop and he didn’t see the humor.”
“Do you have a record, then?”
“He didn’t press charges, but my grandparents got an earful and I had to sleep in the dog kennel in the basement my sophomore year.” Finally, he cracked a smile.
“I don’t believe you!”
He put a palm up. “Okay, no dog kennel was involved, but I did get reamed by the cop and then Grandfather. Plenty of punishment for a fifteen-year-old.” He slanted his head to meet my eyes. “I take it you’re asking for a particular reason, not idle curiosity.”
I drummed my thumbs on the steering wheel. “I don’t know who to turn to.”
“Desperation is the downfall of many criminal masterminds,” he said.
“Never mind.” I turned the key in the ignition.
Cuddy reached over and cranked the key, killing the engine. “Lucky for you, I’m brilliant when it comes to eluding the police.” He colored. “Ever since that incident I mentioned earlier.” He thumped his undernourished chest. “I’m your man. Tell me your woes.”
“I… need to claim something.”
“Is it bigger than a breadbox?”
Girl Love Happens Boxed Set: Books 0-2 Page 40