Beauty and the Billionaire

“Where is she?” I ask nervously. If Starbright—I’m getting tired of even thinking the name—could push Jana to picking up the pack again, I’m not sure I even want to know what she’s done.

“Oh, she’s out at a cooking class with some people she met earlier today,” Jana answers, flicking her cigarette before taking another drag.

“That sounds uncharacteristically normal of her,” I say.

“Today,” Jana says, blowing out a cloud of smoke, “they’re making an herbal lube that’s supposed to enhance pleasure and stimulate—”

“Why do I ever ask for more information when it comes to your mom?” I interrupt, smiling.

“Yeah,” she says. “Anyway,” she flicks her cigarette and when she looks back, her demeanor has changed, “how’s it going with Mason?”

“Oh, could we not do this?” I ask.

“Do what?” she returns. “I’m just checking up on my roomie. Things not going so well?”

“Things are going fine,” I tell her. “We haven’t hung out in a couple of days, but we’ve both been pretty busy. We’ll get our schedules figured out.”

“That’s good,” Jana says. “You off to class now?”

“Bio chemistry,” I tell her.

“Ooh,” she says, “that sounds like my idea of hell. Have fun!”

With that, she flicks her cigarette into the street and walks back into the building.

When I get to bio chemistry, I can’t focus.

The professor is going on about valence electrons, and I can’t stop thinking about Mason. It’s true that we’ve both been busy, but it’s really starting to feel like he’s actively avoiding me.

He’s got that tournament coming up, and I know he’s got to focus a lot on his training; I just wish he’d pick up a phone and call every once in a while.

None of this would be an issue if it weren’t for Jana. At first, I had to deal with the mental image of my longtime friend with my new boyfriend, but she doesn’t talk about that so much anymore.

Actually, for a little while there, Jana was really great about everything. I asked her to maybe ease up on the fond remembrances of their past sexual dalliances and she did.

The problem is that she’s developed this strange habit where she feels it necessary to inform me every time she remembers yet another woman in town she’s heard Mason’s been with.

The list, at this point, is still manageable, but every time she adds a new name, I start feeling a bit less secure in my relationship.

Stupid Jana.

The last time I did talk to Mason, he told me that he’d dated a lot of women, but hadn’t slept with all of them. He said that a lot of what people spread about him isn’t true.

I don’t know whether to believe him.

One could argue that a person who’s sewn such wild oats would say he hadn’t in this situation, every time the question comes up. One could also argue, though, that a person who’s innocent would say the exact same thing.

It’s not the end of the world; it’s just harder now to feel like

this is something that has the potential to last.

The professor takes a detour from the regularly scheduled lecture to answer a question about Breaking Bad. You wouldn’t believe how often this still happens.

I wish I could just skip class today, but this isn’t an elective. Bio chem is required for my major and I’m not going to jeopardize my perfect attendance because I’m having relationship worries.

The closest I’ve come to convincing myself Mason’s sexual history, whether Jana’s version of it is true or not, doesn’t matter is by speculating that so much experience may be to thank for his uncanny ability to make a woman achieve climax.

That is pretty cool.