Page 20 of Just One More Thing

That one word stops me so hard I almost lose my balance again.

I turn around and paste on the biggest fake smile of my life, even as tears start blurring everything.

“Sorry, Jake. I shouldn’t have just come by like this. Obviously you’re in the middle of…” I gesture vaguely, because how exactly do you gesture sex when your hands are full of floor splat doughnuts? “Um. Anyway. I’m going.”

“Mo. Stop. Please.”

A woman comes out of the kitchen, pulling her hair into a ponytail and tugging down the hem of her shirt. She’s pretty. Confident. Obviously comfortable here.

“Hi, Emory,” she says.

She knows who I am.

Perfect. I can only imagine that conversation.

“Thanks, Jake,” she says, grabbing a Boatkin off the bar. “That should hold me over for a while.”

“I’m going!” I say brightly, because apparently I have decided if I’m going to die, I’m going to do it chirping. “Going, going, gone.”

“No, don’t leave,” she says, completely unfazed by my embarrassment. “I’m heading to the produce stand. You stay.”

She smiles at Jake. At me. Then she just leaves.

I stare after her for half a second, then look back at Jake. “I didn’t know you had a girlfriend. I shouldn’t have come by like this.”

Jake just stares at me.

“Girlfriend?” he says slowly. “Who?”

“The woman,” I say, and wow, that sounds weak. “Beth… Beth?—“

“Bethany?”

“Yes.”

He actually snorts.

“Bethany’s not my girlfriend.”

“Oh.” The word comes out in a tiny horrifying squeak. I clear my throat. “Oh.”

I look everywhere except his face. The floor. The bar. The smear of chocolate glaze on top of my shoe. “I heard things,” I mumble.

His mouth twitches. “What things?”

“Jake.”

That twitch deepens just enough to tell me he knows exactly what things.

“Fixing the plumbing,” he says.

I jerk my head up. “The plumbing.”

“Yes.”

“Oh my God.” Relief hits so fast it turns into a laugh before I can stop it. High-pitched and full of a level of relief I would very much like to pretend I am not feeling.

“I thought you were—“ I cut myself off and press my lips together. “Never mind.”