“I don’t know,” Kai admitted. “He did make it pretty clear that he wasn’t really interested in me. I mean, he didn’t say that he was interested, and he made me swear not to tell anyone.”
“So, you’re his dirty, little secret?” Annika asked.
“No, that would mean that he had feelings for me or wanted me again. I don’t think that I’m anything to him, really,” Kai said.
“Well then, become something to him,” Annika said. As if it was that easy.
“Gee, my magic wand is broken and I’m not sure that I can convince him to think of me any differently with my charm and good looks.”
“Remember, your charm and good looks landed him in bed with you,” Annika insisted.
“Sure, let’s go with that,” Kai said. “How am I supposed to get moved out of the friend’s zone?” she asked.
“That’s easy,” Annika insisted, “you just need to make him think that you’re not interested in him either. It would help if you could make him jealous while you’re at it.”
“I think that I’m going to need that magic wand after all,” Kai teased.
“No magic wand necessary, my friend,” Annika said. “All you need is another man.”
“Another man?” Kai asked. “Where do I pick one of those up?”
“At college,” Annika offered. “Just get the guy to come into your work and hang out. Maybe bring you flowers or come in to eat with you during your break. Make sure that this hot guy notices him hanging around, and you’ll be golden.”
“You honestly think that some other guy handing around me will make him jealous enough to want more with me?” Kai thought over the plan in her head and almost wanted to crawl through the phone and kiss Annika. It was a genius plan—all she needed now was the guy to help her make Taz jealous. Kai thought of a few names and knew of at least two that would work. The guy she asked would need to be good-looking if he was going to make Taz jealous.
“It’s a good plan,” Kai agreed.
“It’s a great plan,” Annika insisted. “Listen, I need to get back to studying. Call me tomorrow when you have a few names of guys you want to ask. I’ll help you weed out the bad ones.”
“Thank, Annika,” Kai said, “for everything.” She ended the call and tossed her cell phone onto the couch. With any luck, she’d this plan would work and Taz seeing her with another guy would end up with him right back in her bed. At least, that was what Kai was hoping for.
* * *
Kai spent most of the night tossing and turning, thinking about who she could ask to help her make Taz jealous. She lamented over whether or not she should even tell whichever guy friend she picked what she was doing. Hell, how did you walk up to a guy friend and ask him to pretend to be your boyfriend to make some big biker jealous? Most of the guys she knew would be smart enough not to get tangled up with a man like Taz, and she wasn’t sure that she’d be able to convince any of them to do it—not even for her.
She narrowed it down to two guys and decided to go with the one she found to be cuter—not that Taz would notice a difference between the two. She just hoped that Annika’s plan worked and that she could make Taz jealous and not piss him off. He was already hard enough to work around now.
Before they slept together, he made her promise that she wouldn’t get “weird” after. He told her that he wanted them to be able to continue to work together and be “friends” after they had sex. Kai reminded him that they weren’t really friends, to begin with, and boy, was she right about that. He had all but ignored her every time that she stepped into his kitchen and the one time she found him during a lull in customers, he told her that he didn’t have time for a quick cooking lesson. He even made up some excuse to leave the kitchen, saying that he had to talk to Ryker. He was the one making things weird between them, not her, but talking to him to tell him that wasn’t happening. If he wanted to ignore her, she’d make it impossible by bringing around a new, fake boyfriend.
After she decided who to ask, Kai spent the rest of the night, until dawn, worrying about Taz not caring that she had moved on. What would happen if he took one look at her and her new guy sitting together, cuddled up in the corner, and he just didn’t care? She was out of ideas and sticking around the Smokey Bandits while he treated her like shit wasn’t her idea of a good time. Kai would have to find another job and they were hard to come by right now. Most of the college kids were in town and finding a job while they were around, was painful.
Kai got up early, showered, and had two cups of coffee. She was a little wired but had a feeling that she’d need all the help she could get to make it through the day. By the time she found a parking space on campus and made it to her first class, it was too late to ask Gabe for his help. She sat through class, not listening to a word that the professor said, wondering if she had made the right call to ask Gabe to be her” boyfriend”. One thing was for sure, she wasn’t going to tell him that she was using him to make another man jealous. Gabe was a good guy, but he also liked the attention—especially female attention. If he thought that she was using him to land another guy, he wouldn’t play along. It would hurt his ego. Maybe she was an asshole for not telling him the real reason why she was asking him out, but it wouldn’t be the first time she’d acted like one.
The professor finally ended class and Kai hurried across the room to Gabe. Of course, he had two other women hanging around him, smiling up at him like he was the best thing since sliced bread. She just hoped that she could compete. “Hey Gabe,” she squeaked. He turned and smiled at her and honestly, she could see his appeal. He was a good-looking guy. He was probably a couple of years younger than she was and cocky as hell—traits that made him unappealing to her. Kai liked older men, like Taz. And although he acted all big, and tough, he wasn’t cocky. In fact, during their one time together, she found him to be quite endearing. He even seemed to be a bit unsure of himself and that was something that Kai found adorable, not that she’d ever call Taz that to his face. That adjective would destroy the big guy’s ego.
“Hey Kai,” Gabe said.
“Um, hi,” she said again. “Listen, can I talk to you for a minute?”
“Sure,” he agreed. His groupies didn’t seem to be able to take a hint and Kai smiled politely at Gabe, waiting them out.
“Alone,” she finally added. Kai was pissed that she’d even have to ask that.
“Oh, yeah,” Gabe agreed. “Ladies, can I meet you later?” God, he thought he was smooth, but hearing the way that he called them “ladies” made Kai want to gag. Of course, the two women didn’t seem to care what he called them—as long as he promised to talk to them later, they were happy.
They both nodded, and one even gave him a little pout before they left the classroom. “What’s up?” Gabe asked, turning to give his full attention to her. This was the moment of truth. She had to get him to agree, or she’d be walking campus all afternoon, asking strangers to be her date for dinner tonight.
“Um, I was wondering if you would like to grab some dinner tonight?” she asked. “I have to work, but I’d love for you to stop by the bar where I waitress during my break, and maybe we could have some dinner.” Jesus, she needed to stop rambling.