Worth the Fall (10 page)

“Nope. He’s taken by the very dangerous pixie behind me. Definitely not a woman to cross.”

“Those are the best kind.” She stepped back toward her door, sticking a foot out to keep her Yorkie inside. “Good to have at your back. Well, you take care kiddo.”

Her door closed behind her with a solid thud, the sound of her TV blaring turned back up.

“That’s the nicest that woman has ever been to me.”

“Really? She seemed to like you.”

Or was just really glad to see me gone.

“So, what do you think we should do?”

It had to have been five minutes since we’d rung the bell and been let inside. Jason knew we were just standing out in his hall. He probably thought I was alone and getting frustrated and upset. It was definitely a power move.

It was time to shove every piece of assumption down his throat. I bet the door would open pretty darn quickly then.

There were two things Jason hated, and he’d already had one this week because of me.

“Laugh.”
 

“What?”

“Laugh. Loud. Like we’re joking around and I’m telling you the funniest story you’ve ever heard. And it’s about Jason.”
 

He hated a scene—unless, of course, it was in defense of his car—and he hated not knowing what was going on.
 

Jenna started up, laughing like an insane person which actually got Ben laughing for real. Then Jenna started laughing because Ben was laughing at her which got
me
laughing. Then, I don’t know if I could have stopped if someone held a gun to my head. It was all so absurd.

The door cracked open and we all fell silent like it had been a cue. But, when I saw Jason standing there torn between annoyance, smugness, and blatant curiosity, I started giggling. Followed by Jenna’s little snort. Followed by Ben covering his mouth and turning to look down the hall.

“What?” Jason covered his curiosity with his typical arrogant demeanor.

“Nothing. We were just chatting about…” I let it hang out there as if I hadn’t been able to make up a lie. Which was true, but not for the reason he thought. “The building.”

“So?”

“So what?”

“What about the building?”

“Oh.” I glanced at my dynamic duo and then back. “Well, it’s just, my new place is a lot cuter. But, you were never a cutsey kind of person, so this is probably perfect for you.”

He stared me down as if there was something I wasn’t telling him. There was a lot I wasn’t telling him, but none of it was his business.

“So, I wanted to pick up my stuff.”

You’d think I’d just said, I’d like to steal all your belongings the way he looked at me.
 

“You know,” I continued. “The boxes we’d brought over last weekend.”

“Right. Fine.” Jason pushed the door open.

 
I headed in, expecting again to find them neatly stacked by the door. That would have made too much sense.

“Where is everything?”
 

Jason waved a hand in the general direction of the bedroom. “Wherever you put it.”

I’d had enough. It wasn’t funny anymore and I didn’t see any reason for small talk. I brushed past him, aware of Jenna and Ben following close behind, and picked up the first box. Of course it was books. Ben took it from me before I managed to tip myself backward and get trapped under it.

“Why don’t we just carry everything out to the hall then make a couple trips?”

Jenna’s arms were crossed as she glared at Jason leaning against the bedroom door’s frame. “Are you sure?”

I glanced at Jason again. “Yup. I just want to get out of here.”

He gave me that smirk—the one I’d been mistaking for a smile for the last few years. In that moment I was sure it wasn’t that I needed to get away from him. It wasn’t that my heart was so broken that this was killing me. It was that I’d just realized how
annoying
he was, and really, why put up with that when you can just leave?

We moved all the boxes while Jason watched, probably making sure we didn’t lift anything from his room. With three of us and five boxes it wasn’t such a bad trip. Ben and I went back for the last two while Jenna paced out front giving Max the rundown of what an idiot I’d dated.

And maybe what an idiot I’d had to have been to date him.

When we’d put everything in the van, I slammed the door with a happy expectation of never seeing Jason again.

“So, did you flatten anything while you were up there? Did he have an air mattress or something you could unplug the nozzle on?”

Even Ben just looked at him like he was an idiot.

But, at least this idiot wasn’t mine to deal with.

And, as we pulled from the curb, I had to admit, not even a little part of me felt sad as I watched the address I’d planned to call home disappear down the street behind us.

THIRTEEN

I was lying in bed, listening to the peaceful sounds of a neighborhood that didn’t abut the highway, when my phone rang.
 

I was shockingly unsurprised to see it was Jenna.

“Just wanted to make sure you were okay and had everything you needed.”

Of course she did. I’m not sure what she would have done if I said I didn’t have something, but it was nice to be checked on.

“Yup. All set.” I stretched and glanced out the window at new leaves shifting to yellow-orange on the trees hiding the building behind us. “This is the most relaxed I’ve been in…years.”

I thought back trying to remember the last time I truly felt at ease and couldn’t remember a better time than tonight.

“Great. Just, you know…checking we didn’t scare you off.” Jenna gave a little laugh as if she were joking, but I could hear the nerves behind it.

It hadn’t dawned on me that she was serious about trying to find girlfriends. And, with Ben leaving, she was kind of in the same boat…not really, but the end result was still her guy would be gone. Of course he wasn’t a controlling, manipulative, cruel SOB. She was apparently way smarter about this guy thing than I was.

“Nope. Not scared off. Maybe a bit nervous’ed off at first, but hey. You guys seem relatively harmless.”

“Well, you haven’t met Dane yet.” She gave a little laugh, wished me good night, and hung up.

This Dane guy must be something else…and
still
off limits.
 

Mental Note: No matter how hot Dane is, stay far, far away. Think hoopskirts.
 

~~*~~

Last night I dreamt of Max Darby.

That was truly the last thing I wanted. I didn’t want to be waking up with a smile on my face thinking about the way he handled tough situations with humor, or the deep dimple that sinks into his right cheek each time he smiles, or the fact that he knew how to maneuver around Jenna’s quirks…or him and kittens, darn it.

The entire dream was about tons of calendars of stupid Officer Darby holding kittens.
 

White kittens. Grey kittens. Sleek kittens. Fluffy kittens. Kittens in little police hats.
 

It was absurd.

Okay, Subconscious. I get it. He’s a good guy.

But, not for me. I was not going to fall for a guy like Max Darby. I wanted security and routine and similar tastes and values and hobbies.

I did not want a cocky cop who seemed to thrive on mocking me.
 

So, Subconscious, stick that in your vault and throw away the key. I had a plan to succeed as an independent woman and no guy, no matter how flat his stomach or how deep his dimple, was going to run this train off the tracks.

~~*~~

So, this was going to be fun.

Not.

“Hello?” My mom’s high, stilted voice came over the phone. She was one of those people who even with a cell phone I’d programmed with my name and picture still acted like she didn’t know who was on the other end when she picked up.

“Hi, Mom. It’s me.” I closed my eyes thinking about the last few days and followed up with, “Kasey.”

You know—in case she didn’t know
me
was her only daughter.

“Kasey. This is a nice surprise.”

That’s not a bad start.

Now I just have to break it to her that the guy she thought was perfect, was…not so much.

My mom and the male gender as a whole were on some very rocky ground. Their relationship had turned a bit sour a few years ago. Ok, a few decades ago. Things were rolling along just fine, my mom not being bitter at all—or so she said—about giving up her potential career as a backup singer to be a wife and mother.

When I was six, having a perfectly good day in kindergarten (it was my turn to get pushed on the swings and I’d just gotten an underdog so high my shoe flew off) my mom showed up at the school, damp tissue in one hand, the letter from my dad in the other, and dragged me home to explain that I was now fatherless.

The problem wasn’t so much that he left, since he hadn’t been around a lot as far as my younger self could remember. The problem was more my mother’s perceived reasons for him leaving.
 

My dad was a company man. He’d seen my mother at a club, told her she was pretty and smelled like spring flowers and chased her until she said yes.

I’ve heard the tale of their marriage more than most girls have heard Cinderella. Beautiful, young, up-and-coming singer marries beneath her only to find out that two worlds colliding don’t make sparks, they just implode. Aged beauty is left on her own to raise daughter while teaching her to never make the same mistakes she made when she herself was but a lass.

The end.

Yup. For my mom, that is literally the end. There’s no more grand adventures or a chance to go back to school or a new job. She’s just going to stay the personal aid to Mrs. Ferske and avoid all men for the rest of her life.

Shockingly enough, she loved Jason.
 

Proof that while bitterness isn’t hereditary, maybe bad decision making is.

“I hope I’m catching you at a good time.” I really, really hope so.

“Yup. I’m just about to reorganize the tax files, but…” Mom’s voice drifted off as if she dropped the phone and doesn’t realize it.
 

This could go on for a bit, so I brush my teeth. Might as well fill that part of the morning with good hygiene.

“Sorry about that. I’m back. I was trying to use that ear thing. Mrs. Ferske likes to call me when I’m driving, but this thing never works. Anyway, how are things with you?”

“Well, I have some news about work. And about Jason.”

Loaded silence and then, “Oh?”

“It’s just, there’ve been some changes at work and they’re going to impact my relationship with Jason, and—”

“Is your office moving you? Did you get another promotion? I am
so
proud of you.”
 

“No. No, actually…” I bit my lip, hard. Trying to break this to her. All she ever wanted was for me to have a successful career in a glamorous field. When
Mad Men
came on the air, she all but applied to grad school for me. In retrospect, Jason was probably a power-couple accessory in her mind. “
Actually
, there were some things going on at the office and it opened a new door for me,”—Yeah. The exit—“and because of this new opportunity I’ve been able to head out on my own.”

“You mean, you’re working at your own branch?”
 

“No. I mean I had the chance to start my own company. I actually met with my first client yesterday,”—If Jenna really does hire me—“and I’m excited about the work we’ll be doing together.”

“Your own business?” The way her voice went up at the end told me just how excited she was. I didn’t need to hear her clapping her hands together to know. “Oh, Kasey. This is so exciting. You’re a
business owner.
I can’t believe it. Wait until Pam hears this. Her daughter, Joy, just built a school in the Congo and she thinks that’s just such a big deal.”

Um…

“But, she’ll
never
own her own business while she’s running around the globe building things for other people. It’s not as if a school is saving lives.”

I have learned when to just keep my mouth shut.

“What does Jason think of this?” she asked.

“Well…” If I was bending the truth, I might as well stretch it as well. “Jason and I couldn’t really agree on what we wanted. It’s not that he didn’t want me to start the business. But he definitely liked how things were and wasn’t looking for any type of big change.”

Yeah. Not bad. Basically all true.

“But, didn’t you move in with him this week?” The suspicion was starting to creep back into her voice. “You’re not telling me everything, are you?”

“No.” I tried to keep the lying to a minimum. But at the same time, I knew anything I said about Jason was just going to feed the Men As Disrupters of Happiness fire. “So, Jason…the thing is, when I told him I had big news, I kind of expected him to be happy. I mean, I know it was going to be a huge adjustment, but couples go through this every day. I thought we’d be fine. I thought he was ready for this.”