Chapter Forty-Four
Julian
and I had a lunch meeting scheduled for the day Jo left for Texas. I wanted to call and cancel on him, but then I realized it would be a welcome distraction. He and I could talk about business, and I could pretend that I wasn’t having Jo withdrawals less than twelve hours after she’d left.
The presentation he showed me took all of five minutes. He was opening up a new restaurant serving high-end blah, blah, blah. Good food was good food and everything Dean touched seem to turn to gold. He showed me the numbers from his previous restaurants (which were ridiculous for the food industry) and I cut him a check. I’d been to enough of Dean’s restaurants to trust his judgment. The man was a restaurant wizard, and I was happy to invest in his next venture.
I held up my half-empty glass of bourbon.
“Here’s to becoming rich old bastards.”
He laughed and clinked his glass to mine. “Cheers. I look forward to doing business with you.”
I reclined in my chair and glanced at the TV above the restaurant’s bar. The NBA playoffs were in full swing, but I’d missed most of the games thus far thanks to Jo’s uncanny ability to distract me. Honestly, when she took her shirt off, it was game over, literally.
“Where’s your girlfriend?” Dean asked with a smile.
I glanced away from the TV. “My what?”
He shook his head. “Josephine.”
I didn’t want him to bring her up. I’d barely lasted twelve hours without her. How many more did I have left? Over a hundred. Fuck.
“She’s in Texas.”
He straightened his tie, unbuttoned his suit jacket, and then relaxed back to mirror my pose. He’d been such a surfer kid in college, so it still felt strange to see him wearing suits every day. His blond hair was cropped short now, but back in the day it’d hung long over his forehead. The girls in college had flocked to him like he was their lifeblood. Annoying bastard.
“I take it from your shitty ass attitude that things aren’t going well with Ms. Keller?” he asked with a knowing smirk.
There they were again: memories of Jo and I having sex in my hotel. I thought of the sex Jo and I’d had after she’d finished packing. I know. I’m a bastard. I’d promised her I was going to keep my hands to myself, but then she sucked a noodle through her come-fuck-me lips and I was a goner. She’d straddled me on the floor and I’d nearly choked on my egg roll. And that’s not a euphemism.
I could feel the shit-eating grin spread across my face. “Things are going very well.”
“So then you’re dating?”
Dating?
My smile faltered.
It was like he’d just asked me if I believed in an afterlife. Dating? Jo and I hadn’t talked about that. Why hadn’t we talked about that? We were definitely dating. Right? Do adults even make it official like that anymore?
Like a slow, slithering snake, doubt started to sink in. She had been really quiet the night before and seemed to have a lot on her mind. She’d hardly given me any notice about Texas, and she’d never given me a definite day for when she was getting back…
“I think?” I answered.
He tilted his head and arched a brow. “You think? That’s not really an option. It’s yes or no. Especially for women.”
“Oh really? When’s the last time you actually dated a woman? What makes you the authority on the subject?” Yup. He was right about my shitty attitude. I was all but yelling at him.
He smiled and took a sip of his drink. “I leave the dating to poor schmucks such as yourself.” He pointed across the table at me. “Even still, I know that until you both discuss it, whatever you’re doing isn’t a real thing. She probably thinks you’re going around town playing the field.”
I shook my head and laughed. “No way.”
I glanced back to the TV and took another sip of my drink, pretending to watch the sportscasters replay clips from the night before. The screen went hazy as I realized I had absolutely no clue what Jo was thinking.
Did she think this was just a fling? Did she honestly think I was sleeping around?
When the hell would I have time for that? I was with her all day, every day.
“Bet you didn’t know you were coming to lunch for a business meeting and a therapy session,” Dean said, trying to lighten the mood.
I grunted. He’d just dropped a bomb on me and I had no clue how to clean up the mess.
I needed to talk to Jo.