“God,” Jess said, “what a dumbass. What was he expecting to happen?”
“Right?” Her best friend laughed through a sob. “And now, what if I find out that we’re, like, perfect for each other, and it doesn’t matter because he’s married? I don’t want to know if we’re supposed to be together!”
The feelings from the other room peeked around Jess’s neat little compartmentalized corner, asking if it was time to come out yet. Jess shook her head. It was not.
“Well, logistically, you can request that his account never be linked to yours so you never have to know, but I’m fairly sure that he doesn’t belong anywhere near your perfect, kind, sassy ass, anyway. Anyone who would do something like that is rotten from the inside. I bet his DNA looks like black bathroom mold.”
“Like long strings of mucus,” Fizzy agreed.
“I could keep this metaphor going, but it’s only going to get grosser.” Jess squeezed her again. “I’m sorry, cutie. I want to know where he lives so I can go shove his head up his ass so far he can lick his own ear.”
“His wife would be there,” Fizzy said quietly. “I guess that’s why we never went to his place.”
“Garbage human,” Jess whispered angrily.
Fizzy wiped her nose on Jess’s shirt before pulling back and inspecting it. Suspicion straightened her frown as her attention moved up Jess’s neck to her face and hair. She sniffled. “Why are you all dressed up?”
“We did People today at the offices.”
The watery, puffy version of her best friend groaned, falling dramatically back on the throw pillows. “I sent the bat signal when you were with People magazine, oh my God.” After a thoughtful beat, she sat up and threw her arms around Jess again. “And you came!”
“It would be in my best interest to take these golden friend points and not tell you that we’d already finished when I got your text,” Jess said. “But the lying would negate the golden friend points. And I swear I would have come anyway.”
“But you could be off having celebratory sex with your soulmate, and I could have just used wine and cheese for emotional support.”
Soulmate.
Jess shot a warning look at the feelings now plotting their escape. “I would always rather you lean on me than on wine and cheese.” She paused before adding, “And River isn’t done with the interview.”
“I’m honored to be your second choice.”
“Third,” Jess reminded her.
Fizzy leaned back and laughed. “You suck.”
“Maybe, but I love you.”
“I love you, too.” She glanced at the clock on the wall. “Speaking of, do you need to pick up your first choice from school?”
“It’s Monday,” Jess said. “Pops’ll get her, and they’ll do the library thing. I have three hours to do whatever I can to make you feel better.”
FIZZY AND JESS lounged on the couch with Sense and Sensibility playing quietly alongside their cheese-and-cracker feast. Eventually, Jess gave her one last squeeze, headed home, and got Juno fed, bathed, snuggled, and tucked in—and then got a full glass of wine in herself—before she opened the proverbial floodgates.
But then they were open, and thoughts of River drowned out everything else. The upside to pushing it all behind a wall was that she’d been able to function pretty normally all day; the downside was that she wasn’t at all mentally prepared for the conversation awaiting her.
There was no use putting it off. Jess pulled out her phone, texting him.
Can you come over?
He answered immediately, almost like he’d been waiting with his phone in his hand:
Yes. Now?
Now is good.
She hit Send and then immediately replied again.
Wait.
She typed as fast as she could because she knew the Wait had probably sent him panic-spiraling.
This may sound strange, but did you ever see our raw data?
Of course.
Jess chewed her thumbnail as she considered how to phrase what she wanted to say next without giving him time to prepare an excuse if he had been in on the data fabrication all along. She wanted to be able to read the truth on his face. On the other hand, if he had a copy of the data at home, she wanted him to bring it.
Luckily, River saved her the trouble of phrasing the question.
I have the plot here.
Want me to bring it over?
Jess exhaled a slow, hot stream of tension.
That would be great.
I should have offered that ages ago. I’m sorry. Is that what this is about?
She chose not to answer this.
Are you leaving now?
Yes.
HE LIVED ONLY ten minutes away, but River was at her door in eight. Before, if he’d shown up at her apartment after Juno was asleep, Jess would have been in his arms immediately. But tonight, they both seemed to know that affection was on hold.
Wordlessly, he stepped inside, breathless from what Jess could only guess was a jog from his car. “Hey.”