Chapter 13

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

Kenzie

Jace’s phone rings as we’re waiting for the check.

“I gotta get this,” he says, holding his phone up.

“Go ahead,” I tell him, finishing off my margarita. I had two, along with a huge enchilada and a basket of chips. The food was great and I love the atmosphere. I can’t believe Liam never took me here. He knows how much I love Mexican food. It just shows how selfish he was, always making us do what he wanted and not even considering me.

“Yeah, I’ll be there,” Jace says. “But I may not stay long. I’m really tired and I have to work tomorrow.” He gets his wallet out. “Yeah, bye.”

The waiter drops off the check. Jace glances at it then sets out some cash.

“That’s too much,” I tell him. “Your part was only twenty dollars.”

“It’s on me tonight. It’s your welcome-to-town dinner.”

“I can’t let you pay. It’s not right.”

“Why isn’t it right?”

“Well, for one, you’re my landlord.”

“My uncle’s your landlord. I’m your roommate.”

“But you’re in charge of the house while your uncle’s away, which makes you like a landlord.”

“I’m more like a property manager. I take care of stuff when it needs to be fixed and I make sure the tenants don’t get too out of control.”

I smile. “Have I been out of control?”

“Not yet, but it’s only been a day.”

“I don’t think you have to worry. I’m very quiet and I keep my room clean.”

“That’s more than I can say for my last roommate. Carter was a total pig. He’d leave rotting food in his room. I could smell it in the hall.”

“Then I’m surprised—” I stop before mentioning his ex.

“You’re surprised Nikki would go out with him? I’m surprised too, although he’d been a little cleaner lately. That should’ve been my clue something was going on. I can’t believe it was going on right in front of me and I didn’t know.”

“You can’t blame yourself for that. Just like I can’t blame myself for not knowing about Liam. Looking back, it’s easy to see the signs, but when it’s happening, you don’t even look for signs because you assume they’re being faithful. I never thought Liam would cheat on me so even though the signs were there, I didn’t see them.”

Jace nods and looks like he doesn’t want to talk about it so I change the subject. “Was that Troy calling about our stuff?”

“No, it was Brent. I forgot about Troy. I need to text him.” He sends the text, then says, “I told Brent I’d go to a party with him tonight.”

I’m disappointed Jace won’t be home tonight, but I can’t expect him to spend all his time with me. He has friends and a life that doesn’t involve me. I need to create my own life here, with my own friends.

“What time are you going?” I ask.

“I’ll head there after I drop you off, unless you want to come with. It’s a frat party so it’ll be loud and full of drunk guys, but there’ll be plenty of girls there too. You might make some friends.”

“I think I’ll stay home. It’s been a long day. Plus, I’m tired from our workout. Walking is usually the only exercise I do so my body’s not too happy with me right now.”

“The soreness is good. It means your muscles are recovering and getting stronger. Take a hot shower tonight or soak in the tub. It helps.”

“Are you going to be out late? At the party?”

“I’m not sure. Why?”

“No reason.” I shake my head. “Sorry. I just realized I sound like a mom, asking when you’ll be home. That’s embarrassing.”

“Don’t worry about it. I know you only asked because you’ll miss me while I’m gone.”

He says it jokingly but it’s true. I will miss him when he’s gone, probably because he’s the only person I know here other than my ex. Or it could be because I’m starting to fall for him. But that needs to stop. I can’t date Jace. I need to find someone else.

We go back to the house and Jace goes to his room while I relax on the couch and look for something to watch on TV.

When Jace comes out to the living room, he’s changed into jeans and a white t-shirt that makes his tan look even darker. His shirt is tight, stretching over his muscular shoulders and biceps. I’ve come to realize I have a thing for muscles. I never thought I did until I met Jace. He makes Liam look skinny and weak, and yet when I dated him, I thought Liam had a decent body.

Jace turns to get his keys and my eyes drop to his ass, which looks great in those jeans. It looked great in his workout pants too. When he was boxing today, I kept checking him out, noticing how good his body looked and getting turned on as I watched his muscles flex.

“You sure you don’t want to come with?” Jace asks, coming over to me.

“Yeah, I’m comfy here on the couch. I just want to stay in and watch TV.”

“Okay, but if you change your mind, just give me a call. I’ll come pick you up.”

“Sounds good. Have fun!”

When he leaves, I feel sad, knowing he’ll probably meet someone tonight. But I shouldn’t be sad. I should be happy for him. He wants to find a girl to get his mind off Nikki, so if he meets someone tonight, that’s a good thing, even if it doesn’t feel that way.

My phone rings from the coffee table. I check to see who it is, then grab it when I see Tori’s name. Tori’s my best friend from back home. We’ve been friends since we were kids. She got a new job last summer and moved to Philadelphia. She’s a sales rep for a medical equipment company and is always traveling for work. This past week she was at a sales conference in Brazil so we haven’t talked, which means she doesn’t know about Liam.

“Is it actually you?” I say, kiddingly.

“Sorry I haven’t called. Work’s been crazy and I was having phone issues in Brazil. How’d the move go?”

“It was fine. No car troubles and nothing broke.”

“What about Liam? Did he like his surprise?” she asks, meaning me, showing up a day early.

“He was definitely surprised, but not in a good way.”

“What do you mean?”

“I found him with someone. Another girl.”

“Wait—are you saying Liam cheated on you?”

“Yeah, and I caught him doing it.”

“You don’t mean you saw them—”

“Yeah, they were going at it when I walked in. I don’t want to get into the details, but let’s just say it’s an image I’ll never get out of my head.”

“Oh my God, that’s awful! Kenzie, I’m so sorry. What an ass! How could he do that to you? Did he say anything when you caught him?”

“He did the whole ‘she doesn’t mean anything’ crap that guys do, but I knew it was a lie. And I knew it’d been going on for a while.”

“How could you tell?”

“Because he wasn’t wearing a condom. He wouldn’t do that with a girl he just met. We dated six months before he’d do it without a condom.”

“Do you know how long he’d been dating her?”

“Six months. The bitch came up to me and told me. She didn’t even try to spare my feelings. It’s like she wanted me to feel even worse. And then Liam tried to blame it on me for living at home the past two years. He said being apart was too hard on him and he had to find someone else. Someone in town.”

“That bastard!”

“I know. And then today I ran into him and his girlfriend and they both tried to explain everything again.”

“What’s there to explain? Liam cheated. End of story.”

“I think they just wanted to make themselves feel better about the whole thing. Like they did nothing wrong. The girl—her name’s Kat—told me how she didn’t mean to fall in love. It just happened. And then Liam said how hard it was for him to be surrounded by girls and not be able to date them.”

“Oh, please. Like you didn’t have opportunities?”

“I told him that and he acted like he didn’t believe me. Like there’s no way other guys would ask me out.”

“Are you kidding me? Does he not see how gorgeous you are? You should’ve told him about all the guys who tried to go out with you. All the flowers you got. The guy who brought you dinner that night. The one who gave you balloons on your birthday.”

“I didn’t want to get into it. It doesn’t matter. Even if I told him all that, he wouldn’t care. It’s over between us. He has someone else now.”

“I’m surprised you’re taking this so well. You’re not even crying. Or are you all cried out by now?”

“I haven’t really cried that much. I did right after it happened, but then I went out and played laser tag and didn’t think about it.”

“You played laser tag? Okay, I’m confused. You find Liam cheating, then go to a laser tag place? You’ve never even played laser tag, have you?”

“No, but it’s really fun. We should go sometime, not that I’ll ever see you now that you’re constantly working.”

“Back up. Explain how you ended up playing laser tag.”

“I went with Jace, my new roommate. He’s really nice. And get this—he had the same thing happen to him. On the same day!”

“What do you mean?”

“He found his girlfriend cheating on him with his roommate, or ex-roommate now.”

“That’s a strange coincidence.”

“I know, but it turned out to be a good thing. Not that his girlfriend cheated, but that he knows what I’m going through.”

“How’d you meet this guy?”

I tell her the story, from the point I showed up on his doorstep up until now.

“Um, Kenzie?” she says when I’m done.

“What?”

“You’re falling for this guy.”

“No, he’s my roommate. And we’re friends. That’s it.”

“Did you hear yourself talking about him? The last time you were that excited about a guy was when you met Liam. And honestly, you sounded more excited about this new guy. What’s his name? Jace?”

“Yeah, but you’re wrong about my feelings for him. In fact, we’re both looking for people to date. Other people. Not each other.”

“Don’t you think it’s too soon for that?”

“I’m not going to rush into another relationship, but I do want to go on some dates. Liam’s the only boyfriend I’ve ever had. He’s all I know. I need to get out there and date other guys.”

“It’s probably a good idea. It’s the only way to find out what you really want.”

“Exactly.”

“So are you starting tonight? Are you going out later?”

“No, I decided to stay home. But Jace went out. He invited me to go to a party, but I told him to go without me.”

“What if he brings someone home?”

I tense up at the thought of that. I don’t want to see him with some other girl. But I need to get over that, and I will once I find someone myself.

“If he brings someone home, I’ll just stay in my room.”

“Kenzie, that’s not what I meant. You like this guy. If he brings a girl home, you’re going to feel hurt, which is the last thing you need right now.”

“I’m not going to be hurt if he finds a girl. I admit I kinda like him, but it’s only because he’s super hot and really nice and we have stuff in common. And he’s the only person I know here. Once I make some friends and start dating, I doubt I’ll even see Jace other than passing him on my way out the door.”

“Just be careful, okay? I don’t want you getting hurt again. And I definitely don’t want you being homeless. It sounds like you found a good place to live. You don’t want to mess that up.”

“You don’t have to worry. I won’t let anything happen.”

“Whoever this guy is, I’m glad you found him. He’s managed to make you feel better after a really horrible break-up. I’m not sure even I could make you feel better this fast.”

“He’s been great, and the fact that we’re going through this together has really helped. But I do wish you were here. I miss having you around.”

“I miss you too. Hey, how’s your mom? Have you talked to her?”

“I can’t. She’s on a safari and the phones don’t work. Even when she’s in a city, her phone doesn’t always work.”

“So she doesn’t know about the break-up.”

“No, and I’m not going to tell her. I will eventually, but not now. I don’t want her to worry. I want to make some friends and go on some dates before I tell her so she’ll see I’m moving on and okay without Liam.”

“You are, you know. You don’t need him. You’re going to be fine on your own. Better than fine. You’re going to be so much better without him.”

“I know. I keep telling myself that. I think it’s starting to sink in.”

“I hate to cut this short, but I have some meeting notes to write up before I go to bed. My boss wants to go over them in the morning.”

“Tomorrow’s Sunday.”

“Which is a work day to him. He never takes a day off.”

“Okay, we’ll talk later.”

“Tell Jace thanks for cheering my friend up.”

“I will. Bye!”

As I set my phone down, a text pops up from Jace.

Bored yet? Want me to come pick you up?

I’m good. Just talked to a friend from home. Miss her.

If you’re sad I’ll come home and cheer you up.

What a nice thing to say. You see why I’m falling for this guy?

I’m fine. Just going to watch some TV and go to bed.

If you’re still up when I get home let’s watch some more infomercials. I’m thinking I need one of those handy chopper things.

I laugh. It’s a deal.

When I set my phone down, I look up at the TV and see an ad for the vegetable chopper Jace was talking about. I decide to order it for him. He’s been so nice to me, and he paid for dinner. The least I can do is order him the handy chopper.

After I place the order, I’m so excited to surprise him with it that I don’t want to wait. But unfortunately, it takes a week to ship so I’ll have to keep it a secret until then.

If Tori knew I bought Jace a gift, she’d for sure say I’m falling for him. I used to love surprising Liam with gifts, even just little ones. And now I’m doing the same with Jace.

But that doesn’t mean anything. Does it?