What the Heart Knows

He nodded and turned back to finish the movie. A moment later his warm hand covered hers and she smirked. The sexual tension between them was heady, but the way he tempered it with sweetness put her at ease. Good sex was on her list of things to experience, but even more than that, she wanted to fall in love. Oliver was a man she thought could make both things come true. Maybe Leo was right. I am naïve.

“Are you ready to grab something to eat?” Oliver asked.

She nodded, and they made their way from the darkened screening room.

Chapter Six

“Are you still seeing that Oscar guy?” Jen asked.

Juni looked up from the counter she’d been cleaning. She should have expected this eventually. It’d been almost two months, and Leo had kept his promise not to meddle. Of course, she’d never said anything about sending his girlfriend in to do recon.

“His name is Oliver, and yes I am.”

“How’s that going?”

“Very well actually, we have a lot of fun together.”

“So it’s a casual thing?”

“No, it’s not casual; we’re just not in a hurry to rush things along.”

“Is that code for you want to put off introducing him to anyone for as long as possible?”

“You know how they are, Jen.”

“With good reason, Juni. You can’t ask them to change a lifetime of habits at the drop of a dime.”

“It’s been two years, Jen.”

“One, don’t forget the recovery process.”

“How could I?” Anger sparked in her gut as she narrowed her eyes at the leggy woman with raven locks.

“I’m sorry, Juni. I didn’t mean to sound so—”

“Self-righteous? As hard as it might have been to watch from the outside, I promise you it was much more difficult to live through. I was the one who spent most of her existence with the knowledge I’d die young and unfulfilled because I was so limited by what I was capable of doing. I appreciate how much you guys care, I really do. But you need to look at things from my point of view too.”

“Does he know?”

“No, I haven’t told him yet.”

“Juniper!”

“It’s nice to just be a normal person for once.”

“You are normal.”

“No, Jen, I’m really not. After you go through what I did, you’re altered.”

She shook her head as she tossed down the towel and headed back behind the bar.

“I’m going to take out the trash.”

She yanked the plastic bag out of the garbage can, and stalked her way to outside to the back alley. Juni slung the black bag into the ugly brown dumpster, and let out a frustrated growl. Would she ever be able to escape her past? It was times like this she found it incredibly hard to keep herself Zen. She’d made a promise during her recovery that she wouldn’t waste her time being angry or dwelling on the past. Too bad that was a lot easier said

than done. She kicked at the debris littered along the concrete. Who the hell was Jen to question what she was doing with Oliver?

She didn’t pry into her off and on again fling with Leo. A scowl lined her lips as she paced in front of the entryway. If she went back in there right now, she’d end up running her mouth and making a mess of a friendship. Is it really a friendship? Or a pity party turned into more when you didn’t kick the bucket? She frowned. No, Jen had always been kind and considerate. Because she wanted to get her hooks into Leo, and you were the baggage he lugged around. Tears stung her eyes at the rightness of the words. It made sense in a twisted sort of way. No! She wasn’t going to think like that. This was her frustration and anger at the situation talking.