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But that's not what has my pulse racing. The dude was an all-state and division one tight end, who might as well sleep on a bench press and probably seasons his four-daily chicken breasts with protein powder. Which is a whole lot of words to say... Jeremy would kick. My. Ass. If he suspected I was pursuing his sister. Hell, if I even looked at her for too long.
To him, I'm a serial playboy. An all-male dog with only one thing on my mind. The womanizer who plucks upon women's heartstrings, until they're offering themselves up like a three-course meal to my insatiable ego, oblivious to the wreckage I leave behind. Their names forgotten the next morning.
What can I say? He knows me better than anyone.
Wetting my lips, I return to my phone. To innocent... nerdy... Juliana. The most forbidden of fruit.
Wearing a basic white tee beneath an apron labeled The Caffeine Cove, Juliana smiles shyly at the camera in the midst of coffee machines and bakery sweets. Aside from a modest coat of mascara, she doesn't wear a lick of makeup. Wispy bangs frame her soft features, while the rest of her dark hair flows from a ponytail.
I stifle a groan, my boxers suddenly suffocating. Then all I can smell is her rosy perfume. A scent I can't seem to forget, one that should be left five years in the past. From the last time we were truly alone and—
"Borrrinnggggg." Kyle yawns in my ear, pulling me from my near out-of-body experience. "She'd have your kids named by the end of the first date."
Coming to my senses, I slip on a fully fledged poker face and read her bio. Juliana. Part-time barista. Twenty-three. Fifteen miles away. With a bio of... No, I blink away, unable to read whatever bullshit, suggestive play on words she has readily available for any fuckboy who stumbles upon her profile.
I mean, look at her.
Why the fuck is she on this type of app?
I'm seconds from snitching to her older brother, only so he'd blow a fuse and make her delete the profile, until I'm struck with a realization. Struck hard. I didn't just find the Charmr profile of my best friend's younger sister... I found the solution to my problem.
Jeremy's words replay in my ear. You'll have to be a bit more convincing...
And here lies my golden ticket: Juliana Brooks.
Sweet, sweet Jules.
For as long as I've known her—which is, well, her entire life—she's been the furthest from my type of girl as she could possibly be. Introverted. An overachiever. The classic teacher's pet, with her head chronically buried in a computer screen. No one in a million years would pair her with someone like me, the last on that list being my father. While he was listening to Jeremy's valedictorian speech and then Juliana's the following year, he was simultaneously praising my older brother for merely existing and naming me the pit stain of our family.
But if he thought I was serious with someone like her? That she was mine? Then I'd wager that stain might lift.
So, in the throes of half-naked strippers, bachelors with pockets brimmed with cash, and lines of suspicious white substances decorating our tables, I swipe right. A sliver of my soul aches as I anticipate her rejection. But much to my surprise, I receive an immediate match, with a message already sitting in my inbox.
A message that has me questioning everything I thought I knew about innocent Juliana...
TWO
JULIANA
"You WHAT NOW?!"
My palm shoots to my lips, far too late to stop my shriek now echoing through the little coffee shop. Fortunately, The Caffeine Cove is well past its morning rush, leaving the judgment of two side-glancing customers as my only consequence. Although they're seated on the farside of the store, it's enough to set my cheeks aflame, since the shop's the size of a shoebox.
That's The Big Apple, for ya.
Sporting a matching apron, Mei smirks from across the table, noting my blush. "Juliana—Juliana. Girl, breathe. It's seriously not that big of a deal."
"Not a big deal?" I hiss under my breath. "Since when is signing your best friend up for online dating in secret—and against her will, might I add—not a big deal? Here I was, thinking that pic you took of me yesterday was for one of your cutesy scrapbooks. You know how I feel about those apps. I'm not trying to meet a guy that way. Besides, I'm too—"
I stop my rant short, as a sticky gooeyness clings to my skin. My head snaps downward, to my poor ham-and-cheese sub I'm squeezing to death. Sighing heavily, I release the mutilated sandwich, snatching some napkins with aggression.
So much for my peaceful lunch break.
"Busy?" Mei finishes my point with pursed lips, her lash extensions somehow amplifying her sass tenfold. "Yeah, you always say that, Miss No Time For A Relationship. Which is why you should entertain something fun. Keep things light. Flirty. Spontaneous. No commitments..." She leans closer with each buzzword, her eyebrows raising higher and higher, like they're reeling me in on a fishing line. When I don't bite, she shrugs, flashing her signature dragon shoulder tattoo. "I mean, everyone needs a quickie now and then."
My face scrunches up.
I don't do quickies. In fact, I don't do anyone. Mei knows that, always has since we met years ago at Columbia University, but that's never hindered her efforts. See, Mei doesn't judge my virginal status. Instead, she takes it as a challenge, a problem in need of fixing, as if ignoring my V-card may just poof it from existence.
