“I don’t want to hear anything,” she nearly whispered, her voice so soft I almost couldn’t hear it. Some internal battle played out across her beautiful features and I was interested to see what side would win. It was a few moments before she seemed resolute, squared her shoulders, and began to talk.
“I was married. I’ve been separated a little over a year.” She paused, hoping for some cue that I had heard enough. But I wasn’t about to give her that; I wanted information. I wanted to know what made this girl tick.
I walked back to my chair and sat back down, waiting for her to continue.
“I married Decker after dating for about a year. He was my first love and when he proposed, I disregarded everything everyone said and married him anyway. We had a quick little wedding and then moved to Boston.” She took a sip of her wine and looked across the desk at me.
We are finally getting somewhere.
“I was always the little girl that dreamed of the happily-ever-after. I wanted to be like my mom, baking the day away in a little house with a white picket fence for my family. My husband would come home from work and kiss me and it would just be so … happy. And I thought I would have that with Decker. I thought I would have it all. I thought I could make it everything I wanted, anyway. So when I walked in on him and our neighbor, it was kind of traumatic.” Her voice broke at the end and it caused something to stir inside me.
I leaned across the desk and gently gripped her chin, pulling it up so she was looking me in the eye.
“I don’t know him, Jada, but I can tell you that it was his loss. I know people say that stupid shit all the time and I know I’ve known you like two whole fucking minutes, but I know he was a lucky son-of-a-bitch.” I held her in place until I was sure she wouldn’t look down again before I let her go.
Her husband cheated on her? How is that possible?
“I should’ve known it was coming,” she said, her voice stronger. “Looking back, I think he was messing around on me the entire time. I should have left him long before I did. Between the cheating and the other stuff …”
“What other stuff?” Anger began to rise from the deepest part of me.
Dear God, please let me have misunderstood that.
“Just his drinking and stuff.”
The spinning ring gave her away.
“I’m not going to press you for details about that right now.” My voice was hard as steel. “But if my gut instinct is right, and it always is, my path better not ever cross his.”
“It’s fine, Cane. I am here and he is there. It took me a long time, but I finally realized that I couldn’t be all he needed.”
“Oh, for fuck’s sake! Don’t even start with that shit, Jada. His problems are his problems—not yours.”
I’m going to need a good couple rounds with the heavy bag after this.
“Anyway, the moral of this story is that there will be no more bad boys for me. No more players. No more games because I always end up losing.”
“And how does that preclude me?” I asked playfully, trying to put a smile on her beautiful face again.
“Are you serious!?” she laughed. “By your own admission—you’re the coach!”
I got up and threw my things in the garbage, considering what she said. “So you think I’m a bad boy and I’ve been blacklisted because of it. Correct?”
“Correct,” she grinned.
“That seems tragically unfair. You don’t even know me.”
“So, tell me about you. Tell me why you are so damn interested in making me crazy.”
“I honestly don’t know. It could be a number of things,” I said, weighing my words. “It could be your charming personality or your fuckable body.”
Jada turned two shades of red and I stifled a laugh.
“Or it could be that we just have this chemistry that I feel like would be a pity not to explore.”
We eyed each other carefully, trying to figure out our next move. It was Jada who broke the silence.
“Cane, you’re the poster boy for a broken heart. I know how you work. As soon as you get your fill of me, you will move on. You said that yesterday—you want one night to fuck me out of your system. There’s nothing wrong with that, but I can’t do it. I’m not like Kari, if that’s what you are thinking. I know she and Max have some sort of friends with benefits thing going on and that’s great. But it’s just not me.”
I wasn’t convinced that was something we couldn’t get around. “What do you need, Jada?”
“I want to feel like the only girl in the world to somebody. I want to be their priority, their everything. I don’t know what that feels like.”
The hurt in her voice made me want to pull her onto my lap and hold her tight. I cringed at my reaction. Get a grip, Alexander.
“I don’t want to have random sex. I don’t want to be a booty call or whatever you call it.” She looked up at me and gave a weak smile.
“So you still want the picket fence thing?”