Page 41 of Infatuation (The Josh & Kat Trilogy #1)

Twenty-Nine

Josh

My phone beeps with an incoming text, waking me from a dead sleep. Jesus. Is it night or day? My body clock is totally fucked up.

I grab my phone and check the screen with one eye. Shit. Jennifer LeMonde .

“Hey, Josh,” Jen’s text says. “I’m still waiting on that phone call you promised me. I’m available now.”

Fuck. When I sprinted back into Reed’s suite the other night to grab my clothes and Kat’s stuff, I practically bowled Jen over.

“Did you really say all that stuff about me?” Jen asked, marching behind me in a huff as I grabbed my clothes off a nearby lounge chair. “You think I’m an ‘airhead’?”

“No, I don’t think you’re an airhead,” I said, even though I think she’s an airhead. “I’m sorry, Jen,” I continued. “I’d love to explain everything to you, but I’ve gotta run right now. I’ll call you later. I never called you an airhead, I swear. Kat put words into my mouth.”

“Wait,” Jen said as I gathered my clothes up, frantic about where Kat might have stumbled off to with no shoes, purse or phone, wandering around all by herself in a fucking casino at the break of dawn. “I need to talk to you.”

“I’ll call you later, Jen. I promise,” I said. “But right now I gotta go.”

“Do you promise to call me?” Jen asked.

“Yeah.”

And then I promptly didn’t call her. Because I’ve been busy. And obsessed with Kat. And because... I’m... a dick.

Fuck.

I press the button to place a call to Jen, despite the fact that every fiber in my body revolts against the idea .

She picks up immediately. “Hi,” Jen says stiffly. “So nice to finally hear from you.”

“Hi, Jen,” I say. “I’m sorry I didn’t call sooner. I’ve been really busy.”

“Mmm hmm. You still in Vegas?”

“Yeah. You?”

“I’m at the airport now. Heading to New York. My mom’s got a show opening tomorrow night.”

“You mean on Broadway?”

“Yeah.”

“I didn’t know your mom did live theatre.”

“She doesn’t. This is her first time. She’s shitting a brick.”

“Well, I hope she breaks a leg. How was the RCR concert the other night?”

“Great.” She exhales. “So did you say all that stuff about me or not?”

“No.”

“None of it?”

“Well, I said we had meaningless sex, which we did, as I’m sure you’ll agree.” I pause, waiting for her to agree, but she doesn’t. “Jen,” I continue, flustered, “Kat knew I was with you in New York when she said all that shit. She was just mind-fucking you for the purpose of fucking with me.”

There’s a beat.

“Well, then, she’s an even bigger bitch than I thought,” Jen says coldly.

“Yeah, she tore you a new one, for sure. I’m sorry about that. Kat can be pretty intense. She was just jealous.”

“Why’d you tell her about our night in New York in the first place? I take it you didn’t just meet her in Las Vegas?”

“Yeah, I met her before.”

“Is she your girlfriend?”

“No, she’s not my girlfriend. It’s kinda hard to explain what she is.”

Jen snickers. “Well, it’s interesting you told her about me. That wasn’t very nice of you.” I can hear her smiling across the phone line. “No wonder she was jealous.”

Shit. This is totally backfiring on me .

Jen’s voice shifts into full flirt mode. “So, hey, enough about The Jealous Bitch. Why don’t you come to New York with me? I’ll take you to the premier of my mom’s show and to the after-party and—”

I take a deep breath. “Jen, no. That’s what I’m calling to tell you.

I thought we were on the same page last week in New York—both of us just having some meaningless, drunken fun.

I’m sorry if you were up for something different than that.

” I clear my throat, suddenly extremely uncomfortable.

“I should have been clearer with you, Jen. I’m not looking for a relationship. I’m sorry if I... misled you.”

Oh my God. I’m suddenly realizing something: Kat might have had a point the other night when she called me a douche.

It’s distinctly possible I didn’t make my intentions clear enough to Jen last week—even though I could plainly see the girl was way more into me than any casual hook-up ought to be.

And, if I’m really digging deep into the honesty bin, I probably left things way too open-ended with Jen, just like Kat said I did, simply because I didn’t want to hurt her feelings.

.. or... actually, because I didn’t want to deal with her feelings at all.

“Josh,” Jen says. “I’m not looking for anything deep from you. Let’s just hang out and see if—”

My phone buzzes with an incoming text and I pull back to see who it’s from.

“ I hit the motherlode, ” Henn writes. “ All hands on deck! ”

“Oh, shit. I gotta go, Jen,” I blurt, pressing the phone back into my ear. “Something really important just came up. Sorry. Gotta go.”

“What?”

“Look, Jen, I’m sorry about the other night at the party.

Kat’s got a bit of a temper, it turns out.

” The image of Kat stomping like a toddler down the hallway, dripping wet, barefoot, her incredible ass-cheeks hanging out of her black G-string, pops into my mind.

“She put words into my mouth. I absolutely didn’t call you an airhead.

That’s what I wanted to tell you—and also that I’m not at all interested in a relationship.

I’m sorry to cut this short, but I really gotta go. ”