CHAPTER 9
Jesse
Sydney shut the front door with a yelp. She slid the deadbolt home, then did up the other two locks just for good measure. After, she leaned against the door with her back, like she needed it there to support her.
“Holy shit,” she breathed. “Holy mother loving pickles shit.”
“You know that we’re adults now,” Jesse said, amused. He leaned casually up against the wall right by the entrance, a few feet from where Syd stood taking in great gulps of air. “You can use foul language.”
“Fuck you. How’s that for starters?”
He grinned. “Much, much better. You’ve always had this crazy fighting spirit. For a second there, I thought you might have outgrown it. It’s good to see that you’re still the same old Syd.”
“Thanks. Thanks a lot. And you’re the new asshole Jesse that kidnaps people against their will, uses his money to try and wow them into some kind of crazy submission, then gets his parents to call on the attack dogs in the form of every media station on the planet to broadcast the fact that he’s totally fake engaged.”
“First of all,” Jesse corrected easily. He kept his causal position because he knew it drove her nuts. “I didn’t bribe my parents into anything. My mom did that all on her own. She’s happy that we’re together. She’s always wanted this. She always liked you. I’ve dated some real winners over the years but when she heard that we were getting married- she just about died and went to heaven. Or she’s living heaven on earth. I don’t know. She wasn’t supposed to find out, but when I had to tell her, cautiously, because I wasn’t sure what you meant by putting that message out there, she nearly did a backflip.”
“I doubt it.”
“You didn’t see her. Don’t put anything past my mom. Second, I haven’t used my money to impress you. And here I was going to make you an offer, but I guess that’s off the table.”
Sydney’s eyes darkened dangerously. She only ever looked that way when she was super pissed off or really turned on. He’d only ever seen the latter once before, but he’d give his left nut- okay, maybe that was going too far- to see it again.
“What kind offer? Let me guess. I’m really not going to like it.”
“You’re probably not, but you’re here now. I’ve expended a considerable amount of time, money, and effort in getting you here all because of something that was a drunken joke to you. I don’t think that people would like to hear that about you, do you, Syd? That you so casually toy with a man’s heart. A man who used to be your childhood best friend.”
“You wouldn’t…”
“Oh, I would. I would go out there right now and set the story straight, but I don’t think that’s the kind of light you want to be painted in. The girl who broke Philly’s most eligible bachelor’s heart for the last and final time. If I become a reclusive man who lives on the edge of a mountain and can’t face the world after this, that would make some story, wouldn’t it?”
“You- you bastard!” Sydney’s eyes widened so big that they looked like baseballs in her head.
“That’s right, Syd, I know all your weaknesses. If you wanted to stay away, off my radar, you never should have written that message. You should have blocked me a long time ago so you didn’t have the chance to drunken anything.”
“What. The. Hell. You are an asshat of the finest variety. Grade A.”
“I might be. But I’m also serious. I’ll do it. I’ll tell the whole world that you broke my heart ten years ago, then left, then wrote that message just to toy with me and break it all over again.”
“I didn’t break your…” she trailed off like his words had just sucker punched her in the gut when she took a second to digest them. “Jesse? No… no, we were just friends. That was it… you couldn’t- you didn’t…”
The air shifted and crackled between them. Syd’s shoulders slumped and she actually slid down the door, like her legs just couldn’t hold her up anymore. She couldn’t look at him. She buried her face in her hands and for a second, he actually felt bad about the guilt trip he’d laid on her. How could she not have known what he felt about her? He figured that she pretty much did, she just chose to ignore it because like him, she didn’t want to do anything to ruin their friendship. That she never wanted more. And then that night… the night that was going to be forever etched on his brain, carved inside of him, chiseled away on the walls of a heart that never wanted anyone else- that night happened.