Sexy Jerk(57)

And the truth is-I don't really care.

Feeling like I have finally shed every bit of sadness I had over our breakup, I stand up tall and decide it's time to start the next Chapter in my life.

I'm more than ready.





Tess

THE PATIO IS located just south of the main zoo grounds beside Café Brauer, a historic Prairie School-style landmark. Overlooking the pond at the Lincoln Park Zoo, the place is ideal for lazy Saturday lunches.

Except today Fiona is on a time crunch, and I have a ton to do. That means the lazy part of our lunch has turned into somewhat of a rapid game of twenty questions, of which Nick is the topic of each and every one.

I pluck a bread stick from the basket between us and give her a look. "Really? You've thought we'd make the perfect couple since the day you met him?"

She toys with her salad, poking at the croutons and spearing a cherry tomato. "Yes, it's true. I even told you that on the phone the day after, but you told me how blissfully happy you were, and to lay off. So I did."

I dip my breadstick in the last of my soup and then chew on it, thinking back, vaguely recalling the conversation.

"Besides," she adds, "you lived almost eight hundred miles away, so what good would it have done to try to set you two up."

I'd devoured my own half sandwich and cup of soup, and even two breadsticks, and now I am having thoughts of sampling the brownies, solely for research purposes, of course. "And yet every time I was around him, you let me call him all kinds of names, and bad mouth him."

Fiona lifts her chin, and smirks. "Hey, nothing you said was a lie. He is who he is. I knew who he was, and knew you really didn't. You couldn't though. He's not one to open up to people. He's complicated with a lot of layers." 

I stack my dishes to the side and look toward the dessert case. "Complicated is a good way to put it."

"And I did suggest setting you up when you first arrived back in Chicago."

"No, you didn't."

"Yes, I did. You just never let me tell you his name," she laughs.

I ponder that for a moment.

She stabs her salad again. "Just be careful, Tess."

I look over at her. "He's not going to hurt me."

"I'm sure he doesn't want to, but Ethan says he has deep routed mommy issues, and he's afraid to commit because of it."

"And I have deep rooted mommy and daddy issues. Maybe that's why we connect the way we do."

The waiter comes back to ask if Fiona wants a box for her lunch that she barely touched. She shakes her head. "No, thanks. But we'll take a dessert menu."

I give her a look.

She raises a brow. "I've seen you staring at the case for the last five minutes."

And that is why we are best friends. We both know each other too well. Which is why I know it's time to change the subject from me to her. Something is going on with her today.

Over brownies and coffee, I can't help but notice how tired she looks, and the fact that she didn't eat anything doesn't go unnoticed either. "How late did you stay up?" I ask.

She nibbles on the chocolate. "I think five, maybe five-thirty."

"Wha-a-at?" I let the word drag out.

After she swallows a sip of her coffee, she leans closer to me. "Ethan and I were having a very important conversation."

"About what?"

"We were discussing the idea of inviting Jace in to our bed."

I stare at her. Nothing could have prepared me for that statement, not even after seeing the three of them together last night. "You can't do that," I whisper.

Her look tells me she can, and she is. "What makes you say that?"

"It's not right."

"Do I have to remind you of the twins that got you sent away your senior year."

"That was different."

"Why?"

"Because I was young and stupid, and I wasn't married with a kid."

She sighs. "Tess, you know me. You know I've always wanted to do things that aren't considered socially acceptable."

I press my hands on the table and my coffee sloshes onto the saucer. "Inviting a man into your marriage bed is completely different than kissing a girl on a dance floor to invoke a reaction from strangers."

"I know that!"

"Do you? Have you thought it all through? Like what will happen to you and Ethan after. What will happen between Ethan and Jace?"

She shifts her eyes from side to side to make sure no one is listening. "The three of us sat down last night and set the ground rules. Jace and I will not have vaginal intercourse. The men will not touch in anyway. They aren't interested in that."

"So it will be for you?"

She shakes her head. "No! It will be for Ethan and I. For our relationship. And Jace, too. He has no one."