“So, I leave the reception. I head for my car.”
“Which I’d incapacitated.”
Jenny nodded her acknowledgment. “Which you’d incapacitated. Thank you very much, by the way.”
“Did it work?”
“Like a charm.”
“I knew it would.”
“He drove me home.”
“I knew he would.”
“And I slept with him.”
“I knew—” Emily twisted in her seat. “Wait a minute. What?”
“I slept with Mitch.” Jenny was really quite proud of how detached she sounded as she went into the sordid details. “I tore off my clothes. Or maybe I tore off his clothes, I can’t quite remember the details. In any event, we were both naked.”
Emily’s voice rose to a squeal. “You slept with Mitch Hayward?”
Jenny glanced at her friend’s incredulous expression. “Am I not saying this right?”
“On the first date?”
“Well, technically, it wasn’t a date. Or I guess you could say it was our twelfth date, if you count dates that aren’t really dates. But, really, at this point, I’m planning to take credit for them all. It makes me seem less slutty, don’t you think?”
“You’re not slutty.”
“I slept with a guy on the first date.”
“Twelfth date. And I thought you said your life wasn’t going to change?”
Jenny missed a stop sign and sucked in a shocked breath when she realized what she’d done. She was a careful, conscientious driver. Fortunately for her, there was no cross traffic.
“Maybe you better pull over,” Emily suggested in a worried tone.
“Yeah,” Jenny agreed. She eased her car into the gravel parking lot of the Royal Diner. She kept a death grip on the steering wheel until she came to a complete stop.
“What happened?” Emily asked gently. When Jenny didn’t answer, she put a comforting hand on her shoulder. “Jen?”
“This morning …” Jenny swallowed. She wasn’t going to cry. She was an adult, and she would not cry over a cad like Mitch. “When he got to the office. He told me he was sorry, and he hoped we could forget all about it, carry on as usual, as if nothing had happened.”
“I can’t imagine Mitch—seriously?”
“Yes.”
“Did he say anything else?”
“That I deserved better than him.”
It was Emily’s turn to go silent. They both reflexively watched while a car pulled past them and turned into a spot near the diner’s front door. The car doors opened, and two teenagers hopped out.
Jenny was pretty sure she knew what Emily was thinking. It was what Jenny was thinking. It was what any reasonably intelligent adult would conclude.
“Yeah,” she voiced it out loud, her tone mocking. “He gave me the old, ‘it’s not you, it’s me, babe’ brush-off.”
“Ouch,” Emily whispered.
“I can’t believe I was a one-night stand. I’d have bet money against that ever happening. To me of all people. I’m not stupid, Em.”
“Of course you’re not stupid,” Emily staunchly defended. “I never would have guessed that Mitch of all people—”
“He’s a football star,” Jenny reminded her, feeling defeated. She wished she’d remembered that important fact last night. “He’s a celebrity, and the world is his oyster. I bet he does this kind of thing all the time.”
“But not with you.”
“He has now.”
Emily gestured with a spread palm. “But, you’re not … You know.”
“I am now.”
Emily thwacked her head against the seatback. “This is ridiculous.”
“I’m over it.”
“You are not.”
“I am. I have no choice. What you told me last night was spot-on. And I promised myself if this didn’t work out, I’d date other men. That’s exactly what I’m going to do. Pining away over Mitch Hayward has gotten me exactly nowhere in the past, and it will get me exactly nowhere in the future. I refuse to do something so illogical.”
Emily sat up straighter, eyes narrowing, forehead creasing. “Are you serious?”
“Absolutely.” Jenny had never been more serious in her life.
Emily smacked the dashboard. “Then let’s get going.”
“Where?”
“Take Bainbridge to Payton for Harper’s Boutique. You’re going to need a new wardrobe.”
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