Page 87 of Just for the Cameras
“I’d really like that.” He then lifts her arm and asks, “What happened?”
“Oh, you know—”
“Things got away from us one night,” I answer for her. “Not going to use those handcuffs again, right, babe?”
I swear I can actually feel the heat building under her skin, ready to explode on me. It’s practically burning my palm and melting my fingerprints off my fingertips.
Glasses Boy looks between us, his cheeks flushing as he clears his throat. “Well, lesson learned,” he says awkwardly. “Anyway, I have an interview on Monday with your zoo.”
Maple grows stiff. “Wait, are you serious? To work with the flamingos?”
A large smile crosses his cheeks as he nods.
Hold on a fucking second.
This dude just happens to run into us at a zoo fundraiser, acts surprised to see Maple, pretends like I don’t fucking exist for at least a minute, and then just drops the bomb that he’s going to possibly work with Maple?
What kind of con artist is this guy?
“Ahhh!” Maple squeals before pulling him into another hug. “Oh my God! I’m so excited.”
Christ.
A con artist that Maple seems to believe.
And she didn’t even introduce me to the dweeb. What’s with that?
I hate tonight.
I hate everything about it.
I hate that I had to dress up. I hate that I had to mingle with a bunch of people I don’t care about. I hate that Maple looks so damn good that for seventy percent of the evening, I thought about ways to slip her dress off her. And mostly, I hate the way I’m feeling right now…like someone lit some sort of jealous bomb in my chest and walked away, leaving me to deal with this unsettling and foreign feeling.
And you know what? I’m not going to admit that it bothers me that another man, who has more in common with Maple, talked toherthe entire night as if I didn’t exist.
I’m not going to admit that when he was sucking an olive from his martini, I wished he would choke on it.
And I’m not going to admit that when we parted ways, my fucking skin crawled as she touched him three more fucking times, ending the night with a quick kiss on the cheek.
Nope, it’s fine.
Everything’s fucking fine.
I’m not irritated, I’m not jealous…I’m not about to find out where Glasses lives and threaten his life if he ever goes near Maple again.
Nope, I’m good.
I pull up in front of her apartment and put the car in park. I’m about to open my door to walk her up to her place when she stops me. “Don’t bother,” she says, opening her door herself.
Don’t bother?
Yeah, that’s not how this works.
I get out of my truck and follow her to the steps of her apartment, where she turns around, almost coming face-to-face with me as she stands on the first step.
“I said don’t bother.”
“And I chose not to listen to that,” I reply.
