“She wants you back, but I don’t have to inform you of that.” I leveled him with a knowing look. “You already knew that.”

“Yeah.” He sighed. His jaw firmed, and his hands clenched tighter on the steering wheel. “Doesn’t matter. No matter how much we loved each other, it’s over.” He glanced through the side of his eye to me. “For good. I have to move on.”

Now, I smiled. Before, I would’ve squirmed, wondered if he’d meant me, but I shook my head this time. “Are you serious? We just told each other that we were trying to forget other people, and you’re flirting with me again?”

He laughed, his hands relaxing on the wheel. “You’re right, but I can’t resist. You’re gorgeous, Jo. Seriously. All those guys back there were checking you out.”

And cue the squirming. “No one noticed me, except for you.” I paused and then relented, “Well, they noticed us when we walked out, holding hands.”

He barked out another laugh. “You’re right. Tara’s going to be fuming about that for months. I’m sure she’s on the phone, bitching to Susan already.”

Susan.

The interview.

Erica.

I cursed.

“What?”

“I’m in trouble.”

“Why?”

“I was supposed to be at that interview, and then I ditched it.” I cringed. “I told Erica I went home because I was sick.”

“Well…shit.” He turned on the blinker and turned right onto my street.

“She’s the kind to hear that I went to your party instead of being there for her, so she will jump to the conclusion that I ditched her to hang out with you instead.” I groaned. “I’m in such trouble. Fuck Ki—” My hand clamped over my mouth. I’d almost said Kian.

Oh my God. My heart started pounding.

I felt the blood draining from my face as I stuttered, “Uh—fuck-ing hell.”

Jake was quiet, swiveling into a parking spot a block down from my building. I waited, my heart pounding, to see how he’d react to that slip.

After he turned the car off, he took the keys out and regarded me for a moment. “Ki, huh? Tell me the truth.”

Oh my God.

He cocked his head up and smirked, a flirty gleam in his eyes. “Did you go and fall in love with Keetan Birches behind my back?”

Keetan Birches?

It clicked. Keetan was in our class, and he’d given me a rose one day. That was when Jake and I’d first begun to see each other. Jake hadn’t thought it was funny, but Keetan was a clown. He’d pretended to propose marriage at the end of class, too, all for a show and all to get to Jake.

I burst out laughing and grabbed on to Jake’s arm. “No, no. Fucking hell. I meant to say, ‘Fucking hell.’ Not Keetan. But you know that was all to piss you off back then, right?”

He started chuckling with me. “I know. He had a thing for Tara during our freshman year.”

He got out of the car and resumed as we approached my front door, “To be honest, I think he’s the one who screwed us up.”

I unlocked the door, and we headed for the elevator. “What do you mean?”

Jake leaned against the wall as I hit the button.

He folded his arms and shrugged. “I think Keetan asked Tara out. When she told him about us, he told her about you and me. That was why she suddenly wanted to get back together. That’s my guess anyway.”

The elevator arrived, and we waited until we got to my floor. As we walked to my apartment, I couldn’t shake the feeling of comfort. We seemed like actual friends. When I unlocked my door and we went in, I started grinning. I couldn’t stop.

“What’s that look for?” Jake helped himself to the refrigerator and grabbed a water. “That’s when I should’ve listened to my instincts, you know.”

I tossed my bag and keys onto the table. “How so?”

“I knew I shouldn’t have let you go. I was dumb back then.”

My eyebrows arched up. “That was seven months ago.”

He slid into a chair across from me. “Yeah, I was a whole other person back then. I thought I was God’s gift to women.” He tipped his water to me. “Thought I could let you go and get you back with the snap of my fingers.”

I frowned. “That’s…mildly insulting.”

He waved that off and winked. “Don’t be. I’m the one with a good kick to my ego. I don’t know who the other guy is, but he’s an idiot. He shouldn’t let you go. You’re going to get snapped up by some guy.” He patted himself on the chest. “I’m not that lucky.”

“Shut up.” But I was grinning. It felt nice, hearing all of this, even though I knew it was smoke going up my ass. “You’re the one who’s going to be back with Tara by the end of the month.”

“No.” He scowled and shook his head. “No way.”

“That’s my prediction. I’m just smart, knowing to get out of the way of your epic love story with her.”

“No, no, no.” He kept shaking his head. “That will never happen. Never again.”

“Never again, Jordan.” Kian’s voice sounded in my head.

He was standing beside Edmund, and he paused, saying those words to me, before he gripped the knife tighter. I knew he was going to do it. I saw it. I felt it. I had a moment to stop him. I could. I knew it. I couldn’t explain how I knew it, but he would stop if I’d utter just one word. I didn’t, and he didn’t. I closed my eyes now, jerking in my chair, as Kian’s arm moved in one smooth motion, slicing Edmund’s throat. It’d happened so quickly, not even in the blink of an eye. It had been faster. Then, it was done. Edmund stood there with a confused look in his eyes. It was like he didn’t realize what had happened. He hadn’t felt it then. One more second, and then he did. I saw the pain fill his eyes. His hands lifted to his throat. He made one gurgling sound, and then he fell to his knees.

He crumbled to the floor after that.

“Yo, earth to Jo. Come in, Jo.”

I shook my head, shoving the memory away. Jake snapped his fingers in front of my face and waved his hand up and down.

“Hello in there.” He gently tapped the side of my head with his knuckles. “Knock, knock.”

I shoved his hand away but grinned slightly. “Who’s there?”

“Uh…” He narrowed his eyes at me in another flirty manner. “Some perv who wants to get in your pants.”

I groaned, getting up to grab a water bottle. “You have a healthy sense of realism, player, and confidence. You know that?”

“Like you said,” A second wink at me, “I’m a realist. I might not be in the front, but I’m right behind whoever the guy is. I’m going to be hot on his heels for as long as you’ll let me.”

“I was just thinking that we were actual friends when we were coming down the hallway.”

“Coming, huh?” A sly smile spread over his face. “I can make you do a different form of coming, if you get my drift?”

“I do, and it’s not going to happen.”

The light banter between us vanished.

Jake leaned forward, his eyebrows bunching together, and an intense expression flitted across his features. “Jokes aside, I think we should make a pact, hold each other accountable about our exes.”

“What do you mean?”

“You said it yourself. We’re both trying to forget someone else. Let’s help each other out.”

I cocked my head to the side. It sounded okay, but I bit down on my lip. Something about it didn’t seem right to me. “I don’t know.”

He winced. “Tara’s like my Achilles’ heel. She’s a smoking habit that won’t go away. I need help to kick my addiction, and it sounds like you need the same thing.”

“Jake…”

“Think about it. Just think about it. No lies. No hiding or avoiding. A hundred percent honesty between us. If we feel like talking to the ex, we call each other instead. We help each other to get the other person out of our heads. There’s a big part of me that doesn’t even want to see her or talk to her. I start remembering the years, the sex…you know how it is.”

I didn’t. Bringing my water bottle up, I pressed it against my head. Maybe the condensation would clear my thoughts because he was starting to make sense to me.