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“He wasn’t, but I’ll bet it will feel that way a lot. For a little while. But not forever.”
“Do you need pajamas?”
“Nah, but I’d love a toothbrush. I have clothes at work I can wear tomorrow.” They were her date clothes, but she didn’t have any meetings, so probably no one would notice.
“I’ll get you that. Let’s go. God, I have to go to work tomorrow, too.”
“Don’t you want to take the day off?”
“No,” her friend said, shaking her head enough to give Marsie a headache. “I need something to keep me busy. And I need the reminder that I’m more than Neil’s wife.”
Marsie stood, grabbed both cups and shuffled her way to the kitchen. Then she followed Beck upstairs for a toothbrush. As she climbed into bed, she thought about the advice from the book and what Beck had said about Jason. The sheets were cool on her naked body. A man next to her would be warm, and she put Trevor in the spot to her right.
Even in her mind’s wanderings, he got out of the bed immediately. Jason replaced him.
Chemistry. Spark.
It all sounded like voodoo to her.
She needed to get another dating book. One written by an economist, or a mathematician, or something. The relationship expert wasn’t serving her very well.
Still, even as she was falling asleep, her hand crept to the right and the body she imagined touching stayed Jason’s. She was too tired to worry about what that implied.
CHAPTER TWELVE
“HEY, DO YOU want to get…coffee.” Jason caught a glimpse of Marsie’s outfit and was barely able to get out the last part of that request. On another woman the sparkly gold sweater, big gold chain necklace and large hoops with an animal print might be considered a work outfit, but not Marsie. She never looked so casual, at least not at work.
“Sure. I’m exhausted and need the caffeine if I’m going to have any hope of staying awake.”
She looked tired, though her clothes didn’t look rumpled. They looked like she’d pulled them out of the closet, not off the floor after spending the night in some man’s bed.
But she’d said she was tired.
When she stood, he saw that she was wearing skinny jeans that made her legs look ten miles long, and the one arm he hadn’t seen had thick bracelets on it, animal print, to match her earrings. And as she came around the desk, he noticed she was wearing high-heeled black boots.
Nothing like what she normally wore to work. And yesterday, he’d swear he’d seen a red, lacy bra.
Conclusion: Marsie had a date last night. And she hadn’t gone home from it.
Once she got close, he saw that the small area under her eyes was black, and he had spent enough time looking at her over coffee that he knew something about her hair didn’t look right. He wouldn’t be able to say what it was, just that it was different. Marsie was still impeccably put together, but casual, which was not a word he usually associated with her.
“So did you have a date last night?” he asked, trying to sound nonchalant.
He must not have succeeded, because she said, “Why? Jealous?” Then she flashed him a pleased smile and headed off to the elevator.
He stopped for a brief second when he realized the answer was yes. He was jealous of the man who had made Marsie’s night awesome enough that she would come to work in her date clothes.
He quickened his pace to catch up with her, then looked sideways at her as they continued to the elevator. Still nothing that he would call spark.
So why was he jealous?
“Not sure why I would be,” he said to her. She was the smartest person he knew; might as well let her figure out what reason he might have to be jealous since he couldn’t.
They stopped together at the elevator. As Marsie reached forward to push the down button, she looked over at him, a bit of surprise on her face. “Because that was date two with Trevor. I’m one date closer to my three months, of course. And to winning the bet.”
Right. The bet. Right now, he was cursing the stupid bet and the fact that it meant she was probably going to take the rest of their coffee break analyzing her date. He didn’t care how it made her closer to winning their bet. He didn’t want to hear how great Trevor was.
