Chapter 25

JAX

"Look,I get how a balance sheet works," I say to Willow.

"Then quit being so stubborn and do the work," she says.

"I don't care about depreciation."

"I do."

"Then you get a business degree."

"I'm undecided," Willow smirks.

"Of course you are."

"What is that supposed to mean?"

"Nothing," I say.

"Okay, let's break it down. Think of it this way. You just signed your big, fat hockey contract. You get a bonus check. You go out and buy a car. Fancy car. You should really understand how deprecation works then. Also, for your taxes, if you itemize everything, then you-"

"Willow. No offense. But I'm going to hire an accountant and a lawyer to do all that for me."

"And what if they steal from you?"

"Then I'll snap their necks."

"Then you'll go to jail."

"Then I don't have to worry about depreciation."

Willow throws a pen at me. "You suck, Jax! You suck so bad!"

She jumps up and I grab her hand and pull.

Willow tumbles back and ends up sitting on my lap for a second.

She jumps away and back to her chair.

We stare at each other.

Ew. That did not feel right at all.

"I'll do the goddamn work," I grumble.

I take the pen and write out these nonsense formulas and financial things I'll never use. No matter what Willow says.

She looks over my work, then reaches and pats me on the back.

"Good job, Jax," she says.

"You know, it's really unfair that this isn't more sexual between us. If I'm going to have a tutor, there should be sex on the line."

"For getting one thing done right?"

"Well, sex would be for exams," I say. "Quizzes… blow jobs. Long papers… hand jobs. Any problem that I get right… minimum of a kiss and to see some boobs."

"So you want to see my boobs right now, Jax?"

I laugh.

"That's what I thought," Willow says. "Plus, you're too busy to even think about me right now."

"Oh yeah?"

"You either don't know or don't care. Or maybe both…"

"Is this about your idiot brother?"

"Hey," Willow snaps. "Not cool."

"What?"

"You're walking a fine line, Jax. Seriously."

"Oh, okay. What did I do that's so wrong?"

"You know what you did."

I inch closer to Willow. "Let me get this straight. He would have rather gone out to a party and get shitfaced rather than take his girlfriend to a movie she wanted to see?"

"That's her issue with him. Not for you to get involved. He's really pissed off about the whole thing."

"He's pissed off? And what is he doing about it? Blabbing to his sister? Did he tell you to talk to me?"

"No. He didn't say a word. I just know this entire thing is weird now."

"No reason for it to be weird, Willow. If your brother has something to say to me then he needs to come find me and talk to me. And if you really must know, I didn't sit next to Mila right away. Some other guy did. Some guy started harassing her. So I threatened his life, then sat next to her."

"That's true?"

"Yup. And then it was dark out. I walked her back to her dorm. Just to be safe. Call me whatever you want, but imagine if she walked back to her dorm by herself and something happened to her. Then what? So tell me again, Willow, what the hell did I do wrong?"

My voice deepens. I'm almost bellowing at poor Willow.

Her eyes open wider.

My deep voice bothers her.

"Sorry," I say. "I'm just…"

"Okay," she says. "I was just bringing it up to kind of joke around. Sorry if I hit a nerve."

"I've been cornered by everyone lately over this. As though some torrid affair is happening. I'm over it. And you know what? Mila and I…? We're adults. We can figure out whatever we want when we want it."

"Right," Willow says.

I'm grateful when I hear her phone start to ring.

She looks at the screen and gasps.

"That's Dr. Averson," she says.

"Ut-oh, results from your pregnancy test are in?"

Willow gives me the nastiest look ever. "First of all, you have to have sex to get pregnant… second of all, Dr. Averson is calling to check up on me from when I was sick…"

She grabs her phone and runs off.

Was that sex comment a shot at me? Because I didn't fuck her the night she was sick?

I let it slide.

Now I'm thinking about Ward.

That pussy.

What's he going to do…? Run to his sister and whine like a baby? What does he want? Willow to talk me off the ledge and stay away from Mila?

Fuck that.

Fuck Ward.

Now I'm irritated as hell. I want to find Ward myself and beat the hell out of him.

Yeah, you know what? Fine. Fuck it. I purposely bought that movie ticket because I wanted to be near Mila. I wanted to sit next to her. I wanted to see her eat popcorn. I wanted to know what kind of soda she likes. I wanted to see her jump and get scared at a scary movie. And you know what? I knew for a fucking fact that Ward wouldn't be there. Because he's a loser. That's why.

I stand up.

I feel ready to flip the table over.

My phone screen lights up.

And I see Mila's name.

I'm not sure how that's supposed to make me feel…

Then I read the text she sent.

Jax… I need to see you RIGHT NOW.