“No, you have to repeat it too.”

“I sorta can’t right now,” I said, quickly looking over at everyone. They were all deep in conversation, barely batting me an eye. Except Jaxon; I didn’t know what he was doing because I couldn’t bring myself to look at him, but I hadn’t heard his voice in a while.

“I don’t care what social situation you’re in. You refer to me as ‘booty call’ so they know to stay away from the ass I’ve claimed.”

I laughed again, looking shyly down at my plate. “Hey… booty call.”

“That’s my girl!”

Lucinda turned to me, and her eyes were wide and her mouth formed into a mischievous grin. I ignored her curious gaze and continued staring holes into my plate.

“How’re you going?” he asked. “Did you get a lot done today?”

“No, I didn’t. I’ve been delaying.”

“Why?”

“You know why.”

“Do you need me to come down? Be honest.”

I sighed. “Do I need you to? No. Do I want you to? Yes. Do I think you should? No.”

“But you want me. I can be down there tomorrow to spend the day with you and help keep you on track. Just say yes.”

“But you’ve got work and clients and I’ve seen how booked you are the next few weeks.”

“This is a critical time for my booty call, so I can’t ignore her troubles. I can re-schedule some appointments. Don’t worry about it.”

“I don’t know. Call me later. I’m busy right now.”

“Alright, I’ll call you at ten. You better pick up.”

“I will. See you, Daniel.”

“Bye, babe.”

I put the phone away and then paused. Babe? He called me babe for the first time.

“Now who on earth was that?” Lucinda asked, nudging her shoulder into mine. “Your booty call, you said.”

I smiled. “It’s just a funny thing we call each other. Means nothing.”

Her eyebrows rose sceptically. “Uh-huh. You in a relationship?”

Glancing at the two hands wrapped tightly around each other across from me, I gulped the lump in my throat and nodded. “Yeah, I am.” Technically I was. I mean, Daniel and I agreed we’d be exclusively seeing each other and nobody else as long as our arrangement was commencing.

“How long?”

“Two years,” I proudly stated because that was true too. I ought to be proud to be banging some guy for two years and not have bored him. That actually had me glowing; he wasn’t bored of me or my body.

“Wow, sounds serious. What does he do?”

“He’s a lawyer. He works at his dad’s firm in the city.”

“Your little behind scored a lawyer?” Lucinda’s eyes twinkled in delight. “You hold onto that one. How did you meet?”

“I work for him.”

“Oh, that’s right, you were studying for a law degree. Is my Sara a lawyer now?”

I shook my head. “No, I didn’t finish the degree.”

“You were studying?” Taken aback by her voice, I looked over at Christy. She’d been listening to the entire conversation and, to my horror, so had Jaxon. His glare was back on me.

“Yeah.”

“What’d you study?”

“Law.”

“For how long?” Why did she want to know the details?

“Two years.” I bit my lip again because if she asked the next question, I knew exactly where my thoughts would lead me back to–

“What made you stop?” Fuck.

“Money issues.”

Jaxon scoffed, nostrils flaring. “You had a scholarship.”

“Jaxon,” Lucinda’s voice warned.

“She did. She had a fucking scholarship.”

“Alright, you caught me,” I said with a casual shrug. “I was too dumb to finish the degree. I failed epically in my third year.” That was a good lie.

Christy looked apologetic for asking. God, she had a conscience too, this perfect woman! Jaxon didn’t respond to that, but his eyes never left my face, and that heat I was feeling in them was making me squirm uncomfortably in my seat.

“Are you studying?” I asked Christy, not out of curiosity but as a way to shift the attention over to her.

She nodded. “Yeah, I’m currently in Med School. I’m doing a placement at the hospital here. Got one more year to go.” To top it off, she was becoming a doctor? Just… wow.

“So you said you work for him,” Lucinda intervened, not having bat an eye at Christy.

“Yeah, I’m one of the legal secretaries at the firm.”

“Do you like it?”

“It’s good. The co-workers are great, my boss is… obviously great, and the pay is enough to float me by. As long as the bills are paid and I’ve got enough to eat, I’m good.”

“Looks like you got plenty to eat,” Jaxon said, with a devilish grin on his face as he wickedly looked me up and down. “You’ve gotten a lot bigger.”

Christy looked away uncomfortably while Lucinda stiffened beside me. He was calling me fat, and though it hurt a tad, I’d become the kind of passive person to accept all criticism without a slump in my step. Even from Jaxon.

“I probably have,” I said, staring him directly in the eyes with a fake smile.

He leaned back into his chair with a content face, keeping his eyes directed on mine. “Oh well. Some people hit their peak young, I guess.”

“I guess so.”

“Not easy being on your own, is it?”

“No, certainly not.” I kept my voice light and kind as I answered him even though I knew exactly what he was getting at. A sliver of anger was felt in the depths of me that he would bring something like this up now.

“You look beautiful,” Lucinda said to me just then, turning the scowl she’d directed at Jaxon to a kind smile. “You actually look thinner than I remember. Make sure you keep eating, okay?”

“No need to worry,” I smiled again, deceptively looking calm and cool as I proved my point by taking another big bite out of my pizza.

He didn’t say anything else, and I was glad because I’d frankly had enough of him. He had every right to hate me, but he didn’t have to speak to me either. The fact that he did made me hate him, or at least want to hate him. He was nothing like I remembered, and maybe now that I knew this I would be able to mend my broken heart and try to move on once and for all.