“I know you had a thing with Jess that one night. I just didn’t think it had become more of a thing,” Esa said presently.
Carla waved her hand dismissively. “Don’t make too big of a deal of it. I don’t.”
“Yes, you do,” Esa replied, hearing the forced quality of her friend’s casual attitude. “Or you want to, anyway. Be careful about him, Carla. Jess Madigan probably has a little black book for every letter of the alphabet.”
Carla shot her a fulminating look. “You think I don’t know that? I wasn’t born yesterday. I haven’t heard a peep from him all week. He just called me this afternoon. The date he had lined up probably cancelled at the last moment. Hey, I’m all too willing to stand in for her. Jess is amazing…no, phenomenal in bed. I can’t believe you didn’t sleep with Finn. I’ll bet that stuff runs in the family.”
“You’re sick.”
“That’s not sick. You know very well what I mean.”
Esa stared straight ahead, conscious of Carla studying her and knowing full well what was coming next. She’d heard it six times a day for the past week.
“Why won’t you tell me what happened when you and Finn left One Life last week? What could be so terrible? Was his apartment disgusting? Did he have bad breath? Did you?”
“Carla, just drop it, okay?” Esa grated out. Without thinking she whipped the little car into the left lane and zoomed forward twenty feet before she slammed on the brakes again. She glanced over at Carla, who studied her with frank suspicion.
“I’ve never seen you act this way. Do you want to hear what I think, Esa?”
“No,” she replied pointedly.
“I think that you have a major crush on the hunky Finn. What sane woman could be eaten alive by him like he was doing to you in that hallway at One Life and not be ready to beg him to take up full-time residence in her bed? How could anybody screw up something that looked so fantastic?” Carla demanded. She groaned suddenly when she heard her own question.
“God, Esa. Only you could hose down something that hot.”
She didn’t know what she thought was worse—her friend’s suspiciousness and impertinent questions about Finn or the pitying look Carla was giving her.
“For your information, Finn Madigan was far, far from being uninterested,” Esa retorted.
“So?” Carla prompted.
“It’s…just…he…thinks I’m…”
“What?”
“He thinks I’m a casual weekend fling…a-a wild sex kitten.”
Carla’s blue eyes went wide. “Where would he get that idea about you?”
Esa shot her a dirty look.
“Sorry. Of course you’re beautiful, Esa—although it would be nice if you at least tried to do something with your hair once in a while. But that’s not the point,” Carla added quickly when she saw Esa’s snarl.
“I don’t suppose the fact that you dragged me into that sleazy picking-up-men-on-the-side-of-the-road scheme or that I was driving a car with license plates that read SXKITN69 could possibly relate to Finn thinking I’m a slut, could it?”
Carla just stared for a moment before she started giggling, undeterred by Esa’s glare. “Kitten thought something like this might happen.”
“I knew it!” Esa fumed. “I knew Rachel was behind all of this.”
“She didn’t know precisely. I mean, how could she? She just wanted you to have a little fun, that’s all,” Carla explained.
Esa shook her head in disgust. Since they were kids, Rachel had relished poking her fingers into Esa’s life and stirring things into a frothy boil.
“Do you really want to know what happened with Finn Madigan?” Esa asked in a burst of fury.
“What?” Carla asked, straightening in the bucket seats.
“Okay, how does this grab you—we were making out in his bedroom and his ex walked in on us.”