Page 113 of Unsuitable
“Oh, hi,” I say shyly, a little surprised at his friendly greeting.
Jude is really open and friendly—the total opposite of Kas. Makes me wonder how they became friends.
“So, Kas brought you to see our place,” Jude says to me.
“Your place?” I glance at Kas, confused.
“You didn’t tell her.” Jude makes a tsking sound. “Kas and I own this place.”
“You do?” My eyes are still on Kas, but he’s glaring at Jude. I see the skin around his eyes tighten.
Finally, he brings his stare to mine.
“You own this place?” I ask again.
“Joint ownership with this idiot. And we have government funding.” Kas jerks his head in Jude’s direction. “Jude runs the place.”
“And what do you do?”
“He’s the money man,” Jude interjects.
“I handle the financial side of things,” Kas says, giving Jude a hard look.
Jude laughs, seemingly unaffected by Kas’s glare.
“How long have you had this place?” I ask them.
“Going on nearly three years now,” Jude answers.
“Well, I’m impressed. It’s amazing.” I let my eyes wander around the place again.
When I look back to them, Jude is smiling, and Kas is staring at him with a pissed off expression on his face.
He’s pissed off?
Happy Kas didn’t last long.
Honestly, if he didn’t want me to know he owned this place, then why bring me here?
I start to feel a little irked myself.
“Well, I should get back to it. I’ve got a class starting soon.” Jude starts to back away. “Nice to see you, Daisy.”
“You, too.” I smile.
“I’ll catch you later,” he says to Kas before turning and leaving.
And, now, we’re standing here in this awkward silence that wasn’t there before Jude showed up.
“I’m getting the impression that you’re pissed off because I know you own this place,” I say quietly.
“I’m not pissed off—”
“You’re not exactly happy.”
He turns to face me and reaches for my hand, which I let him take. “I just didn’t want you to think that I brought you here to show off.”
“The last thing I would ever think is that you’re a show-off. A pain in the arse? Yes. But a show-off? No.”
