Page 36 of Play With Me
He’s going home. They’re both going to be going home, our time left together dwindled to hours. I open my eyes again and it’s only Jude, Cap, and me in the pod. Farrah’s outside with the family.
“Gotta get off, please,” the employee says. The pod is still moving, gliding slowly along.
I meet Jude’s eyes, still crushing Cap to my chest. “I love you too, sweet boy.” My words come out choked. “See you later, okay?”
When we let go, he runs outside to Farrah. I give her a little wave, which she returns, her smile looking grateful. Then Cap’s pulling her along to the stand with the trinkets and photos.
I stand up. “Don’t you ever do that again,” I tell Jude, my voice wobbling. “He needs to see you giving her a chance. Be the person we love, no matter how hard it is. You have to do it for him.”
“Sir, Madam, I must insist,” the employee says. “Passengers are waiting—”
I look up—there’s a whole crowd of people waiting to get on, some of them calling at us. God, we’re making a scene. Why is it always like this with him now? I mumble an apology as I go past.
Jude follows. “I know we don’t live in the same city right now, but why can’t we go back to how things used to be?”
I wait until we’re past the crowd, Cap and Farrah in sight. Then I whirl on Jude. “Because it wasn’t working, Jude.”
“Yes, it was. It worked perfectly—”
“It wasn’t working forme!” I say, my voice high and tight with emotion. Then I turn and walk away, not looking back.
CHAPTER9
Jude
There are a group of women getting buzzed into Nora’s apartment building just as I arrive. They turn to stare at me with that look that still makes me crack up. TheIs that…?look, which is also sometimesHow do I know that guy?look.I flip my still-damp-from-the-shower hair off my forehead just because I feel like playing it up today, and give them a prize-winning grin.
“Hello.”
“Oh!” says the one closest to me. Then she bursts into giggles.
People think I don’t notice the way women—and men who lean that way—act around me. I do. It’s just weird for me to do anything about it. Besides, my years in the spotlight taught me they only want what they see. They don’t know me. It was actually Nora who made me feel like there might be more than just the way I look or how I hit the ball on the court—although I did work hard as fuck at making sure I was the best at that. Her friendship was everything to me.
Is everything to me, which is why I’m here, trying to salvage it.
Still, I flirt when I need to.
“Please, after y’all,” I say when we reach the stairs, swinging the bottle of wine I’m holding by the neck to the side to insist they pass. I’ve been playing up the American accent while I’m here too, just because it seems to get a bigger reaction. She giggles even harder.
Bingo.
The rest of them are now cracking up too. They’re going so hard, for a moment I wonder if I’ve got shaving cream stuck to my chin or something. But they can’t meet my eye. They keep batting their eyelashes and ducking their faces down. The quieter one near the front of their pack even has a dark pink blush creeping up her cheeks.
She reminds me of someone. She’s pale, but not so pale and freckly as a redhead.
That’s the blush I suddenly really want to see.
Nora texted this morning, asking if I was still planning on going to the party. At first my heart had flown up like a fucking balloon. Maybe she was forgetting about being mad at me and my idiotic suggestion that had blown up in my face. We never fought before, and now it seemed like it was all we ever did.
But when I confirmed I was going, adding a little winky face, she’d just replied, “Good. Need to talk.”
So that felt like shit too.
But she’s not wrong. Cap and I are leaving for Switzerland tomorrow, and I can’t go without figuring out what the hell is going on between us.
I’m so lost in thought as I make my way up the first flight of stairs on the way to Nora’s flat, I’m startled when one of the women breaks out of their hushed conversation to blurt out, “So, I have to know. Are you—”
“Oh my God, Marissa!” her friend cuts her off.
