Page 94 of Special Delivery

I’m buzzing with energy as I tap the door to what I hope is Emma and Jordan’s house.

“Hi.” Emma opens the door with a bright, warm smile and a flowy brown dress.

“Hi.”

She gestures for me to enter. Their house is full of colors and patterns, which is exactly what I imagined Emma’s house being. Jordan, on the other hand, is a blob of black in the green and coral living room. She sports black sweatpants and a black t-shirt as she crosses her ankle over her knee. Still, when she notices me, the corner of her mouth twists into a smirk.

“Hello.”

“Hi,” I repeat.

“Come, sit down,” she tells me, showing me to a chair. “Would you like a drink?”

“No, thank you.” She lifts an eyebrow, already on the way to where I presume is the kitchen, so I add, “A beer, if you have one.”

She dips her chin and disappears into another room. Emma takes a spot on the couch, intertwining her fingers in her lap and staring at me expectantly. I scratch the back of my neck.

Jordan returns with three bottles of beer and three glasses. She places them onto the wooden coffee table, and I quickly chug a long sip, not bothering with a glass.

“So, Ryan… can you tell us why you’re here?” Jordan asks, pouring her drink into a glass.

“Well, uhm, Paige doesn’t want to talk to me anymore. And I have no idea what happened. I thought you might know why.”

The two of them share a glance before Jordan crosses her arms in front of her chest. “What did you do?”

A chill runs down my spine. If I wasn’t dead set on getting to the bottom of this, I’d be offended by everyone’s first guess being I did something wrong.

“Nothing, I swear. Everything was great, we were spending a ton of time together, I was falling head over heels for her, and now she won’t even talk to me.”

Their eyes widen to saucers. Emma lets out an, “Awww. Did you hear that, Jordan? He loves our girl.”

“That’s…not what I said.”

“That’s exactly what you said.” Jordan drops her tough act, showing me a toothy grin.

I don’t know why they are happy about this. Don’t they understand this is serious? “Regardless, it’s not really important since she won’t even talk to me anymore.”

“Au contraire, Ryan. It’s very important. Because now we know for sure it’s all in her head,” Jordan says.

“What’s in her head?”

Emma leans toward me. “Look… Paige had a horrible dating experience in the past. She was hurt.” My fists clench unintentionally, so she adds, “She was emotionally devastated. Trust is hard for her. She believes it’s impossible, but Jordan and I disagree.”

“But I haven’t broken her trust. I’d never.” Their grins grow even wider.

“We thought so, too. There might have been a misunderstanding,” Jordan says.

“We ran into a woman who told her you were in a relationship around the time you met,” Emma adds.

My head drops into my hands. “It was a silly lie to stop her from hitting on me, I told Paige as much. That can’t be the whole thing.”

Once again, they share a knowing glance before Jordan speaks, “She saw you dropping off a kid.”

My brow lowers as I try to make sense of things. She saw me dropping off Chrissy, but what difference does that make? “I don’t understand. My best friend’s kid spent a weekend at my place. We do that every month. Why would she be upset by that?”

Jordan places her glass on the table. “Paige was dating a professor at her college for four years.”

“Yeah, she told me that… What a dick.”