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Her indignation was back. “It’s pink fluff, and you dip fruit in it.”
“Oh, okay. Well, we can certainly use it for that, too.”
“What else would we—”
A low chuckle that was quickly muffled, came from the vicinity of the living room, making both David and Paige stop in their tracks and glance at one another. A few seconds later, quick footsteps could be heard in the hall, followed by the unmistakable sound of Paige’s front door opening and closing.
“I’m going to fucking kill her,” David said.
Chapter 36
“Is David still annoyed with me?” Jules asked.
Paige took a bite of her Samurai sushi roll before shaking her head. The two of them were having dinner in a trendy little Japanese place, since Paige wanted to steer clear of Macaroni’s for a while, in order to give Anthony the waiter some time to forget about them. “Actually, I’m the one who’s still annoyed with you. He’s pissed. And probably not going to get over it anytime soon.”
“I did apologize. What more does he want?”
“I think he wants a real apology. You know, because saying you’re sorry when you don’t sound sorry isn’t a real apology.” Paige gave her a hard look. “We both thought we were having a private conversation, you know? There were so many things you heard that you didn’t need to hear.”
Jules took a sip of her Sapporo. “I know. You’re right.”
Pretending to be shocked, Paige cupped her ear. “I’m sorry. Could you repeat that? I’m not sure I heard you correctly.”
Jules ignored the dig. “I mean, I really didn’t need to hear all about seeds and fertilizer—”
“That’s not what I meant, and you know it.” Paige exhaled heavily. “Damn it, Jules, now I’m not even sure if you’re sorry or not.”
“I’m not. Not really. I needed to hear what he had to say, so I stayed and listened.”
“I would’ve told you later. Well, the important parts, anyway.”
Jules shook her head. “I know, but you telling me what he said isn’t the same as me hearing what he said. And I needed to hear the sincerity—or lack thereof—in his voice when he explained his reasons for not wanting your arrangement to end.”
“I can appreciate that, but you still shouldn’t have done it.”
Jules looked down at the table for a moment, as if choosing her words carefully. “The night of your birthday, I told that hot bartender I would go to the mattresses for you, and I meant it.”
“The mattresses?” Paige frowned for a moment. “Oh, I get it. The Godfather.”
Jules nodded. “I was there when you had to get over David the first time and I wanted to make sure he wasn’t fucking around with you, now,” she said, and picked up a piece of her shrimp tempura, pointing it at Paige before taking a bite. “So you can stay annoyed with me and David can stay pissed at me, but I don’t regret what I did.” She chewed for a moment. “I do regret getting caught, though.”
Paige’s annoyance softened a little. It was always hard to stay mad at Jules when her motivation was Paige’s welfare. “Did you actually think you wouldn’t?”
“I didn’t know, to be honest. But when the two of you were going back to bed, I thought I was home free. I was going to just slip out the door and be gone, with no one the wiser. But, unfortunately, I was caught off guard at the end there, and blew a clean getaway.”
“Not sure how clean it could’ve been, since my door sounds like a bank vault when it closes.”
“I know, but I was assuming the two of you would be focused on pink fluff sex. Speaking of which, how was that? Sticky?”
“It was …” Paige adopted an exaggerated, dreamy expression, then abruptly shut it down. “None of your business. That’s how it was.”
“Jeez.”
“So?” Paige picked up another bite of sushi with her fork, not being one of those people with enough coordination to use chopsticks properly. “I’m assuming you didn’t think he was fucking around with me?”
“No, I didn’t. The exact opposite, actually.”
While Paige hadn’t thought he’d been fucking around, either, having Jules voice the same opinion was nice. “What if you’d thought he had been?”
