Page 100 of Dirty Like Jude
Like Roni wasn’t important tome?
Then, out of nowhere, Brody got up myass.
“So what’s going on with you andRoni?”
When I glanced at him, his blue eyes narrowed at me, and I knew he knew… something. Maybe this was payback for me giving him a hard time for being such a ragey bitch when Jessa first came back to town. Or maybe Jessa had told him how I’d showed up at that teahouse with flowers forRoni.
I had noidea.
So I just evaded thequestion.
“Roni? Yeah, Roni’s hot,” I said, distractedly, like maybe I hadn’t even noticed before, or I hadn’t heard him all that well. Then I made myself busy talking toSeth.
It wasn’t like that was a lie,either.
Roniwashot.
If she happened to be my fuck buddy, whose business wasthat?
Just because my friends were nosy as shit, didn’t mean I had to tell themanything.
Thank fuck Liv called the band out to the stage like two seconds later, and Brody got busy outfront.
I hung out by the side of the stage, and as soon as they started rolling, I texted Roni.Planstonight?
Because I planned to be her plan for tonight, if I had any say init.
For the last week-and-a-half, we’d been fucking like maniacs. Almost every night I was at her place. Usually late, after we’d both done all the other shit we had to do. We fucked, then I wenthome.
Other than the night when we’d fucked on my Harley instead, parked in the dark of an empty parking lot, halfway back to her place from some bar I’d picked her up at. Was cold as shit out, but she’d insisted; something about a fantasy she’d had for years. Who was I to kill herdreams?
And, other than the night she’d replied to my fuck request to tell me she was on her “moon time.” I didn’t even know what the fuck she was talking about for about fiveminutes.
When I’d figured it out, I texted her back to tell her,Doesn’t botherme.
She’d texted me back,I’ll be in my jammies by 6:00.
And I’d texted back,Perfect.
When she didn’t reply, I called her and she told me, “I’m emotional. I don’t see men when I’memotional.”
To which I replied, “You’re kiddin’me.”
And she basically hung up onme.
That night, I’d arrived at her place around nine-thirty—uninvited—to find her in her jammies, looking surly. I walked right in anyway and managed to get her on the couch under a blanket, where we cuddled up and watched a movie. I kept my hands to myself, and I even let her pick what we watched. She chose the latestThormovie, which I was pretty impressed with until she informed me she’d chosen it “because ChrisHemsworth.”
Before the end of the movie, she was asleep. I watched until the end, then slippedout.
Then I left her alone for a couple of days, because that seemed to be what shewanted.
The next time I saw her, we were both at Brody and Jessa’s engagement party, but not together. Apparently Jessa had proposed and they’d already set a wedding date—next summer, during a scheduled break in the tour. Everyone was happy for them, including me. Brody was pretty muchglowing.
The whole night, I’d managed to be a gentleman and not put my hand on Roni’s ass or something that might’ve pissed her off, since we were just fuck buddies andall.
Then I took her back to her place and fucked her on her dining room table. And in theshower.
And I wondered how long we were gonna keep thisup.
