“Got hungry ahead of schedule, did you?” I asked, smoothing down a flyaway hair. “I’ll go get you some formula.”
I filled a bottle with water and scooped some formula powder inside.
I hadn’t asked for Gretchen to be in my life… but I was getting used to her being here. Whether I’d sought this child out or not, she was here for the time being. And so was Jaz.
Maybe this wasn’t a great time to start a relationship. But who’d even said anything about a relationship? Jaz had tried to touch me, not asked me to marry her.
So maybe we wouldn’t be girlfriends.
What if we just had casual sex instead?
9
Jaz
“I got her a new bottle,” Faye said. “The other one was leaking.”
She handed over Gretchen and her bag. At this point, she had a gym-sized duffel bag that went along with her everywhere. Babies sure needed a ton of stuff! Other than a bunch of diapers, she had bottles and towels and layers of clothing. Faye and I’d each stuck an extra shirt of ours in, too. You could never be too careful. There was always the chance of a messy emergency.
Taking everything, I smiled at her. “Cool. So, I’ll see you around five.”
“Whenever’s good for you.”
It sounded like the end of the conversation, and I should’ve moved for the door… but she was still looking at me in a way that suggested I wasn’t quite dismissed.
I licked my lips and took a step back. “Around five. Cool.”
Her eyes lingered on mine. Fuck, if she kept doing that I was going to soak through my panties right here in her office. Why was she staring so hard?
It seemed like she’d been looking at me more—or deeper, or longer, or something—over the past few days. Well, actually… I could trace it back to the night we’d drank the juice boxes in her car.
She cleared her throat. “Got any special plans tonight?”
“Uh… I might go to a DJ night with some friends.”
Her eyes crinkled. “Good for you. You work too much, between the TAing and your thesis and Gretchen. Get out and do some fun things once in a while.”
“I try.”
She was still looking at me, so I adjusted the bag’s strap on my shoulder instead of heading for the door. “Why? What are you up to?”
“Oh, nothing.”
“Did you want to… I don’t have to go to the DJ night.”
“No, no, that’s fine. Have a good time with your friends.”
Now I was dismissed. I walked out, unsure if I’d just missed my chance to spend more time with the woman of my dreams.
I definitely had some ideas about why she might’ve been looking at me more. With the timing, it was hard to not get my hopes up about what might be going on in her head.
And even though I knew I shouldn’t be thinking about Faye that way, a frisson of excitement still ran through me when Andrew texted to let me know our group had decided to go to jazz night at another bar instead.
>JAZ: Know it’s ironic, but I’m not really into jazz. Rain check?
>ANDREW: All right, see you next time.
It wasn’t a lie or anything. Jazz wasn’t my favorite, and I might’ve skipped this if Faye hadn’t hinted at doing something tonight.