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He ignored the co intruder behind hihbor After Jess entered her place, he waited to see if she’d look at hilance in his direction When she pulled the blinds across and snapped them closed, Ryan flinched as if he’d been slapped in the face

Chapter Nine

Jess

“Stupid! Absolutely, positively stupid!” Jess sto the black plastic lid fly up with a bang She chucked her leftovers into the silver receptacle; the top bounced upon its rapid close

She pressed her palms to her eyes and took a breath “It’s only been a week and a half,” she whispered

Only a week and a half It was just sex Only a week and a half It was just sex She repeated the h, she’d actually start to not feel like such a fool After another cleansing breath, Jess e She stuck her head in the cool box before e with a soda She popped the top and drank down the sweet ree would calm her erratic heart

He had a girlfriend She’d been nothing irl Hell, not even that An inter the interihten How in the hell had she s for a dude in such a short time?

With a sharp intake of breath, Jess reached up and yanked the scarf fros, Jesslyn Just sex”

The words could be said, but the idea she’d been party to a possible cheating situation turned her stoht; she wasn’t cut out to be off on her own Being predictable—boring—that at least kept her out of trouble Ato bedisaster

Saturday Jess spent her ti boxes that had sat untouched in the garage Music poured from her Bluetooth portable speakers and the blinds on the sliding glass door had remained decidedly closed Which, unfortunately for her, ht came from the small, transomabove the front door A small sacrifice if it meant she didn’t have to look across to his place and see him, or worse, see him with that chick

Ashley

Tall, slender, Ashley with her perfectly made up face, and manicured nails The kind of woman men like Ryan dated For the umpteenth time, Jess looked toward the vertical blinds With a quick shake of her head, she attehts before they couldOr if Ashley had spent the night It didn’t matter if he’d had sex with the blonde in the same bed Jess had been in days prior

It’d been a fling

She’d been a fling

Time to move on