Jaded (Jaded #1)

“Why am I Sheldon? Corrigan is Mr. Raimler? And Bryce is Bryce Scout?”


“Can you three please make up your minds? I’m not a puppet for you to string along. If you want to talk, let’s hear what the white elephant is and if you don’t—you’re going to listen to my stories.”

“Your stories?” Corrigan asked, eyebrows arched.

“Elephant or story. Your choice.” She raised her own eyebrows to match his.

“Story,” Bryce said automatically.

“Elephant,” Corrigan voted.

“I had sex with Denton Steele,” I named the elephant and startled myself.

Without missing a beat, Miss Connors remarked, “Well, that makes sense.” She was serious.

Everyone looked at her, puzzled.

She sighed and said, “You found someone you knew and considered a friend dead. You’re normally cut-off, Sheldon, but quite a bit’s been going on. You realized how truly crappy your parents are. You found someone murdered. You’re getting threatening letters. And…I got a phone call from your father. He said your mother came home yesterday. I’d say for someone who usually flies under the radar, emotionally-speaking anyway…you needed a different avenue to avoid everything that’s been going on. Sex with someone you don’t love—that makes sense.”

Sex with someone you don’t love. Those words echoed in me.

She continued, “And I’ve seen his latest movie.” She whistled, “Hot stuff.”

Bryce asked as he stretched his legs out, “What do you mean? Sex with someone she doesn’t love?”

“Ah!” Miss Connors grinned coolly and replied, nonplussed, “That’s what you heard out of that whole speech.” She nodded my way and said, “I bet she’s thinking the same thing.”

Corrigan laughed.

Miss Connors ignored him and looked at me, “Because you do love him, Sheldon.

And guess what? That’s a decent thing for you to do. To be with someone that you love.”

She looked at Bryce, “She might not know it, but she loves you.”

“My father called you?” I asked, quietly.

Corrigan stopped laughing.

Miss Connors nodded and murmured, “I called him yesterday to let him know that I saw his daughter for a successful session. I couldn’t tell him anything, but he called me back and told me what was going on.” She leaned forward. “For the record, Sheldon—he sounded sorry about everything that’s gone down.”

“What’d you tell him?”

“Just what I said right now. Sheldon came in for a session with her two best friends and I felt it went very well. That was it.”

“Nothing else?” I prompted.

“Did I divulge all your secrets? No.”

Corrigan suddenly asked, “Can we get back to Sheldon’s question? Why am I Mr. Raimler, she’s Sheldon, and Bryce is Bryce Scout?”

Miss Connors grinned and said, “Because you’re so informal that you’re formal.

A formal title only makes sense. Bryce is a legend. He deserves two names. And Sheldon because, half the time, she forgets her own name.”

Huh?

“What?” Corrigan echoed my sentiments.

Miss Connors shrugged, “You’ll get it. Someday, maybe.”

“I get it,” Bryce said softly and leaned forward. “Mr. Raimler because you flirt so much to actually be real. It comes off as kinda impersonal or…formal.” He shrugged.

“And Bryce Scout because she said it herself, she hears about me from all those girls. I’m not really real, but… I don’t know, like a celebrity or something.” He took a deep breath, “And Sheldon because…Sheldon forgets that she’s human sometimes. She tries to be a robot all the time.”

“A robot who has mad passionate sex,” Corrigan joked.

“Not appropriate, Mr. Raimler,” Miss Connors rebuked quickly.

Corrigan muttered, just as quick, “Sorry.”

“I think,” Miss Connors spoke firmly. “That the biggest question in the room today is if Sheldon is a decent person or not. She talked about it yesterday. She told me that she wasn’t a decent person. Leisha was a decent person, but Sheldon wasn’t. Her words, not mine. So…” She looked between Bryce and Corrigan. “What do you think?

Do you think Sheldon is a decent person?”

Corrigan spoke first, “Hell, yeah.”

Bryce didn’t say anything for a moment, but then he sighed, “She’s a decent person when she remembers that she is a person.”

I looked over, surprised.

He shrugged and met my eyes, “You just…I just don’t think you feel half the time. You’re so harsh sometimes to other people and I think it’s just because you’re worse to yourself.”

“I think the bigger question is what Sheldon is going to do when she leaves today.

She felt something yesterday and look where we all got. So what about today?” She finally looked my way and asked me, “I know you’re feeling something today—so what are you going to do when you leave this office and you enter that world where you can’t feel to get by? What ‘indecent’ thing are you going to do?”

I shrugged and looked away.