Page 71 of Nothing to You
“Knox Collier,” Lilya said.
“Do we have to say it every time?”Roxie asked.
Jane sighed.“I know.”
“Your stalker’s in jail in England.”
“Not for stalking me!”
“No,” Lilya said.“But that’s how dedicated he is.You don’t think Knox was behind the convenient arrest?”
“Even impressed me, and I don’t like him.”Roxie laughed when Jane whined.“I’m kidding, honey.You know I’m kidding.Besides…” When Roxie’s head turned toward her, all three women’s attention zeroed in on her.“We’re missing the point.”
“What’s the point?”she asked, drinking some wine.
“What’s the script with you and Rourke?”
Maybe she should start on the spirits.“The script?There’s no script.”
“You’re all over each other all the time.”
“They’re doing each other all over all the time,” Lilya said.“Are you together?”
“When we’re having sex, yeah,” she said, slipping onto a stool at the head of the island.“Hard not to be with him when he’s inside me.I’m not always paying attention, but that’s on him.Sometimes you have to let them do their thing, you know?Let them think they’re good at it.Like when kindergarteners bring art home to their parents.They have to pat them on the head and stick it to the fridge, even if it’s hideous.It’s an unwritten law.”
“Do you love him?”Jane asked, revealing so much of herself in those glittering, innocent eyes.
“He’s my friend… unfortunately.”
“That means?”
“Unfortunately, he’s an asshole.I have an asshole as a friend.Yep, difficult to admit, but it’s an unavoidable truth.A superior asshole who—”
“Are you exclusive?”
“When we’re fucking,” she said.“I could handle another guy, but I wouldn’t ask any other woman to put up with his sloppy technique.”
“You’re being evasive.”
Not deliberately.She laughed because that was the norm when Rourke was around.Sometimes she forgot when he wasn’t in the room.Probably because he was always in her head, one way or another.And she often forgot that not everyone was like them.
“I don’t know what you want me to say.It’s not like that, we’re not…” How could she explain it to three women who embraced commitment with stark, obvious boundaries and clear, articulated ownership?“I love him, yes.”Jane perked up.“He’s my best friend…” That deflated the innocent beauty a little.“I would never do anything to hurt him, and I know he wouldn’t hurt me.What we are isn’t like…”
“It’s an open relationship?”Lilya asked.
“We don’t have a relationship to open and close.Talking about forever isn’t us.Neither of us are interested in that.”
“What if he came in here with another woman right now?”
“He won’t.Guy’s been up to his eyeballs at the office since lunch.”When they’d returned from the hotel.“He’s got enough on his plate.”
Had she distracted him?What had he done with his days before she was around, leading him astray?That was a joke.She’d distracted him even back before they’d met in reality.
“But what if he did?”Jane asked.
“Then I hope he has a ball with her.”
“You can’t not care.”
