by J. S. Cooper
“What? Are you crazy?”
“No,” she said. “I think there was a reason why I matched with him in the first place. I think this could be someone special.”
“Abby, really?”
“I know. I know. I might just be saying that and maybe I’m wrong, but I have a good feeling about him, girl.”
“Well, I guess we’ll see.”
“We will see. I can’t wait to meet him.”
“Yeah,” I said, not wanting her to know just how much this meant to me. I wanted Abby to love him. I wanted her to see the side of him that I was falling for. I was scared that she would just think he was a jerk and wouldn’t like him. Because if your best friend didn’t like the guy you were crushing on, then it was all over. “I’m actually really excited for you to meet him as well.”
Jack arrived three hours later carrying two bottles of wine and two big boxes of pizza. He had a dazzling smile on his face, and I knew as soon as Abby said hello to him, that she was smitten. I mean, it was hard to dislike the guy at first glance. He was gorgeous and charming.
“You must be Abby. The woman I was actually speaking to on the dating app.”
“Guilty as charged.” She blushed, and then looked at me with a wicked smile. “I’m sorry about that. I didn’t mean to ruin your first date.”
“You didn’t ruin our first date,” he chuckled, and then he looked at me. “Okay. Maybe a little bit. I have no idea why Isabella said half the things she said. Don’t hold it against her. Please?”
“I don’t,” he said. “So are you girls hungry? Because these pizzas smell amazing and I would love to chow down.”
“We’ve been waiting for these pizzas.” Abby nodded enthusiastically. “I’ll go and get some plates. You guys want to head out to the living room?”
“Sounds good,” I said. “Follow me, Jack.” I led him to our living room and sat down on the couch. “Feel free to sit on the couch. Or you can sit on one of the chairs or wherever you want.”
“Thank you,” he said.
He sat on the couch right next to me. I could feel the warmth of his thigh on my skin as it rested against mine. “You don’t have to sit so closely.”
“I know I don’t,” he grinned and moved even closer to me.
I said, licking my lips nervously. “I am surprised to see you again so soon.”
“Why? Wish it was Max?”
“No, I don’t wish it was Max. Do you wish you were with Davina?”
“If I wanted to be with Davina, I’d be with Davina,” he said. “And you remember her name, huh?”
“Of course, I remember her name.” I made a face. “Anyway …”
“She’s not competition for you. You know that, right?”
“What?” I said too loudly.
“I said, she’s not competition for you,” he grinned. “Just in case you were worried.”
“Worried about what?”
“That she was someone I was seeing.”
“No, I’m not worried. I mean, it doesn’t matter to me. I mean, I—”
“Okay,” he grinned.
“So here are the plates,” Abby said as she walked into the living room. “What did I miss?”
“Nothing,” I said quickly. “I was just thinking about what movie we should watch. Is there anything that you guys really want to see?”
“No,” Jack shrugged. “I really don’t mind.”
Abby shook her head as well. “There was this reality show called The Circle that I really wanted to watch, but,” she looked at Jack, “I don’t know if he’d be interested.”
I laugh. “Yeah. Jack doesn’t strike me as a reality TV sort of guy.”
“Hey, don’t judge a book by its cover.” Jack laughed. “Maybe I’ll love it.”
“Okay, then let’s watch it,” Abby said quickly and grabbed the remote control. “The Circle, season one is upon us.”
I looked at Jack and laughed. “You have no idea what you just let yourself into, do you?”
“No,” he said, “but I don’t mind.” He bit down on a slice of his pizza and looked at me and settled back into the couch. “Sometimes it’s the people that you’re with and not what you’re doing that counts.”
So, did that mean he liked being with me? Did that mean that he was softening towards me? I didn’t know, but I was happy that he was here and I was happy that he and Abby seemed to be getting on so well. It felt comfortable. It felt nice. I wondered if he was going to spend the night. If he was, I wondered if I had time to quickly shower and shave because my legs were a little bit prickly. And if we were going to get down and dirty, I wanted to be as smooth as a baby’s bottom.
An hour later, Jack got up to leave. “Well, I hope you both have a good night,” he said, as he walked to the front door. I was disappointed. He hadn’t even tried to spend the night. I didn’t know why, and I didn’t want to ask him. I didn’t want him to think that I expected him to stay. I mean, it was totally up to him. If he didn’t want to stay, he didn’t have to. “’Night, Abby,” he called out.
“Night, Jack!” she called from the living room. It was just him and me standing at the front door.
“I had a good night. Thank you for inviting me.”
“Well, I wouldn’t say that I invited you. More that you sort of weaseled your way in,” I joked.
“Well, perhaps that was so,” he said, “but I’m glad you let me weasel my way in. I had a good time. I can see why Lucas enjoys your friendship and loves you so much.”
“Wow. I’m surprised that you’re saying this to me.”
“Why?”
“I don’t know, I guess I just didn’t expect you to give me any sort of compliments.”
“You don’t think I’m the sort of man that can give compliments?”
“I mean, I don’t know,” I shrugged. “I guess I don’t know you well enough.”
“Well, you’re getting to know me.”
“I am.”
“Can I kiss you?” he asked.
“You’ve never asked before.”
“I’ve never tried to be a gentleman with you before.”
“And you’re trying now?”
“I am. Isn’t that obvious?”
“But why?” I said, butterflies fluttering in my stomach as I gaze up at him.
“Because you deserve a gentleman.”
I wanted to ask what he meant by that. Was he saying that he wanted to date me? Was he saying that I deserved someone like him? I didn’t know. And I was too nervous to ask. “Jack?”
“Yes, Isabella?”
“When’s the last time you had a girlfriend?”
“A girlfriend?”
“Yeah. You know, someone you see one-on-one monogamously.”
“I know what a girlfriend is. Why do you ask?”
“I was just curious, you know? You’re on the dating app, after all.”
“You want to know why I was on the dating app?”
“Yeah. I mean, I’m curious.”
“To meet women to date.”
“I see, and do you date a lot of women?”
“A few.” He laughed.
“Okay. You’re a really hard person to get to know, you know that, right?”
“So are you.”
“I don’t think I’m that hard of a person to get to know.”
“You’d be surprised.”
“We’re sort of going around in circles here, aren’t we?”
“I don’t think so,” he said. “I think we’re getting to know each other quite well. Don’t you?”
“Not really, but …”
“But what? What do you want to know about me that you don’t yet know about me, Isabella?”
“There are so many things.”
“Maybe you don’t know things because it doesn’t help for you to know.”
“What does that mean?”
“Maybe you wouldn’t like who I was if you knew everything about me.”
“Is that wh
y you have all these walls up and don’t let me in?”
“I’ve let you in more than I’ve ever let anyone else in,” he said.
I laughed. “Why do I not believe that?”
“Because you don’t know me well enough yet.” He pulled me into his arms and pressed his lips against mine for a sweet, short kiss. “I really like you, Isabella. Like, I really like you. And …”
“And what?” I said, gazing at him in adoration. I could hardly believe that this was the same Jack that I had met on my worst date ever.
He shook his head quickly. “And nothing. I’m glad that we’ve had these moments to get to know each other.”
“You are?”
“Yeah, I am. I’m going to go now.”
“Okay,” I said, disappointed.
“You want me to stay?”
I stared into his eyes and I nodded slightly. “I do.”
“You want me to stay, huh?”
“I just told you that I do.”
“That makes me happy.”
“Really?”
“Yeah. But I’m not going to stay.”
“Why not?” I was disappointed yet again.
“Because I don’t want you to think that this is the sex thing, because this is so much more than that.”
And with that, he was gone.
Chapter Twenty-Five
The next couple of weeks passed without any real contact from Jack. He sent emails about different properties to Lucas and me, but he never called or asked me out again. To say I was disappointed was an understatement.
“Hey, Lucas,” I answered my phone as it rang.
“Hey, how’s it going, Isabella?” He sounded happy.
“Pretty good. Haven’t heard from you in a while.”
“I know. I’m sorry. I’ve been so busy.”
“With coffee shop stuff?” I wondered if he had really changed? I mean, I knew he was really into getting the coffee shop going, but I’d never known him to be this diligent and hardworking.
“Um, a little bit. I actually have some really awesome news.”
“Oh? What’s that?”
“I met someone.”
“You met someone? Like a boyfriend?”
“Well, it’s still early days. We’ve only been dating for like a week, but we’ve spent every single day together.”
“What? No way.”
“Yeah. His name’s Noah. I’d love for you to meet him. He’s just the most perfect man I’ve ever met.”
“Oh, wow. Congratulations. I didn’t even know you were looking.”
“I wasn’t looking,” he said, “That’s the funniest part of all.”
“Oh? So how did you meet him?”
“At a coffee shop.”
“You met him at a coffee shop?”
“Several coffee shops, actually.”
“What? How is that?”
“Well, basically, I found this list in Timeout about the 100 best coffee shops in the city, and I wanted to visit each of them to see what they had going for them so that I would know what to put in my coffee shop. And I guess he read the same list, but he was going because he loves coffee. And I saw him like three or four times, and then finally, we started a conversation. He recognized me as well.”
“Oh, wow. That sounds so romantic.”
“I know.” He chuckled, “Could be in a movie or something. I mean, not a mainstream movie because mainstream movies don’t feature homosexual men, but you know, one of those indie movies.”
I chuckled. “It could totally be a movie, Lucas.”
“Yeah,” he laughed, “So how have you been?”
“I’ve been okay. Just been doing these classes and you know.”
“Are you still dating Max?”
“We’ve texted a couple of times, but we haven’t met up again.”
“Oh, I’m surprised. He seemed like he was really into you.”
“He did invite me to dinner a couple of times, but I’ve been busy.”
“Really? Since when?”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“I’m just saying. Every time I’ve ever called you for dinner, you were free.”
“Yeah, well, maybe I don’t want to go to dinner with Max.”
“Oh. Still thinking about Jack, huh?”
“Yeah, Jack. I know he’s your cousin and all, but I just don’t understand him. I feel like he’s so hot and cold, and he’s so hard to get to know.”
“Yep. That’s Jack for you.”
“Why is he like that? I mean, a part of me feels like he liked me, but anytime I try to get closer to him or ask him anything about himself, he just freezes me out.”
“Jack doesn’t trust women,” Lucas sighed.
“Why doesn’t he trust women? I don’t understand.”
“So, my cousin, he went to Duke.”
“Okay.”
“And he was like the hotshot on campus. You know, football star and all that.”
“Of course.”
“And he had this girlfriend.”
“Okay.”
“Can’t remember her name now. I should because she’s such a bitch. I think it was something like Italia.”
“Italia?”
“No, Natalia. That was it.”
“Okay.”
“So, Jack was dating this girl, Natalia, and, of course, she was gorgeous.”
“Of course she was,” I wasn’t happy to hear that, but let’s be real. Jack was hot, so I understood.
“He was dating this girl, Natalia. I guess he started dating her like his junior year of college? Anyway, they were dating when he graduated, and they continued dating when he went pro.”
“So, it was really serious?”
“Yep. He loved her. I guess they were going to get married and all that. He’d actually proposed to her.”
“Oh, okay.” Jealousy reared its ugly head.
“But …”
“But what?”
“She was a ho.”
“How was she was a ho?”
“So, Jack ended up getting drafted by the Philadelphia Eagles.”
“Okay.”
“And …”
“And what?” I was getting impatient.
“She fucked like three or four different guys on his team.”
“No way!”
“Yeah, and the worst part …”
“It gets worse?”
“He found her fucking one of the running backs in the locker room like in the showers or something. Of course, he ended it right then and there.”
“Of course,” I said. “That must’ve been absolutely horrible.”
“Oh my gosh, girl, it gets better. Or worse.”
“No, what happened?”
“So then, she ends up pregnant.”
“What?”
“And she tries to say it’s his baby.”
“Wow.”
“So, then he says, ‘Okay, I’ll take care of you. It’s my child. Of course, I’m going to do the right thing.’ She tries to worm her way back into his life and say she wants them to be together so that they can raise the baby as a family.”
“Oh, and what did he say?”
“He said, ‘Hell no,’ of course. Once you do Jack wrong, there’s no coming back.”
“Oh wow. Okay.”
“So anyway, she has the baby.”
“Okay, and?”
“She won’t let him see it.”
“Oh?”
“Yeah. Next thing you know, he gets letters in the mail demanding $5 million from her.”
“What for?”
“She said that she’s so heartbroken over how he’s treated her, that she just wants the $5 million, and she’ll raise the kid by herself. But Jack’s not going to do that. So of course, his lawyers tell her no, and he sues for full custody.”
“What? No way.”
“Well, in response, she sends him some text and she says to him, ‘Drop the lawsuit now, or I’m goi
ng to release private photos and videos of you from college.’”
“Seriously?” I gasped. “What were the videos?”
“So, I guess they were into some kinky stuff.”
“Oh?”
“I’m not sure exactly what it was, but basically, they got some sort of sex toys, maybe a sex swing or something. I think they were into like that choking thing.”
“Really?”
“Yeah. I mean, Jack didn’t really tell me everything, but Becky was telling me some of the story.”
“Yikes. I didn’t realize he was into that sort of thing.”
“Well, yeah. Anyway, Natalia had some videos where I guess something went wrong, and she was screaming, and she basically was trying to twist it and say that he was beating her.”
“No way. That’s horrible.”
“Yeah. So of course, Jack goes ballistic because he would never hurt a woman.”
“Okay.”
“I mean, I know you don’t like him, but trust me, he’s a good guy.”
“Oh no, I understand that. I don’t believe he would ever hurt a woman. So then what happened?”
“Well, basically she was such a dumbass. She released like a five-second clip of the video, but whatever she did was basically, she had dubbed over the rest of it. But Jack had some video forensic scientists or whatever they’re called and they were able to retrieve the whole video. And you could see that actually, she was the one that started choking him first, and then he was showing her what to do. And anyway, it basically cleared his name.”
“Oh, well, that’s good.”
“Yeah, but could you imagine the publicity that would have caused? He would have been a pariah at the NFL.”
“Yeah,” I said. “That’s awful. So, I didn’t realize he was a father.”
“Oh, girl. He’s not a father.”
“He’s not? But, the baby.”
“Let’s just say the baby had short, dark, curly hair, and big brown eyes.”
“Okay, and?”
“Well, you know what Jack looks like, right?”
“Yeah. He’s blonde-haired with green eyes.”
“Okay, yeah. And the mom, Natalia, yeah, she had long dark hair, but big blue eyes.”
“Okay.”
“And let’s just say the baby looked more like Drake than Leonardo DiCaprio.”
“Ohhh,” I said. “Oh, wow.”
“Yeah. That’s why she hadn’t wanted him to see the baby right away because it wasn’t even his.” Lucas started laughing, “It was absolutely crazy, actually. It was one of the guys she cheated on him with, one of the other football players.”