Total pages in book: 48
Estimated words: 46875 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 234(@200wpm)___ 188(@250wpm)___ 156(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 46875 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 234(@200wpm)___ 188(@250wpm)___ 156(@300wpm)
“We’ll be in touch…Real soon…,” she says, and before either Joey or I can end the call, the signal drops anyway.
I sit in silence, staring at the black screen until it registers.
She’s the one.
Jade and Zak.
Zak and Jade.
It doesn’t matter how often I say it or think it a thousand different ways; something inside me just knows that this is what my life’s all about.
From today.
Jade.
CHAPTER THREE
Jade
“What happened? What’d you do!?” I gasp in horror, watching the call with Zak end before we even get to say goodbye properly.
I know I just met the man, but just one more look at him, just one more word….
At least saying goodbye like a normal person would’ve been nice.
Joey clicks his tongue. “Damned signal dropped,” he sighs bitterly, sounding like someone with the weight of the world on his shoulders.
“You got his number, though, right?” I’m quick to ask. I feel my fingers gripping his collarbone as I stand behind him, hoping that if I moved closer to the screen, Zak might magically reappear.
But he’s gone.
“Of course, I did,” Joey clips, covering his chicken scratch handwriting with both his little hands.
“But Zak said it was for me to keep a secret,” he adds stubbornly.
“And I’m your mom, right?” I retort. I’m too easily drawn into Joey’s ten-year-old arguments.
They’re usually so much easier than dealing with grown-ups, but I’m not letting him have this one over me this time.
Zak was giving me that number and email; I just know he was.
At least, that’s what I’m telling myself—already fantasizing that he made up the whole game launch story as a ploy to give me his number.
Yeah. Right….
An older, mature hunk like Zak Templeton going for a short, thick-set nerd like me?
Don’t forget unemployed and broke. You’re not exactly bringing a lot to the table, Jade.
“You’ll talk to my mom, won’t you?” Joey asks, breaking my reverie.
“Huh?” I murmur absently, suddenly overcome with the urge for some quiet time.
I need to do something down there, and fast once I realize the heat he gave me with a single look isn’t so quick to disappear once Zak does.
Almost annoyed at the power the man has over me, but equally helpless in the best possible way.
“Sure. I’ll talk to your mom,” I comfort Joey, losing my grip on him as I force myself to take a deep breath.
“I’ll need to talk to my mom too,” I add. “Video chats online with middle-aged men is the first thing they taught us about in computer science at college,” I muse aloud.
Unable to block the image of Zak from my mind.
That chest…Those eyes.
“And there’s no way she’s going to buy the ‘free trip to Phoenix for a game launch’ story even if it is true,” I hear myself say with a little chagrin.
“Really?” Joey squeaks, his voice cracking before he realizes I’m not kidding.
But seriously, there’s no way anyone’s mom will believe a guy like Zak just pops out of nowhere, offering free trips to future game launches.
And I’m going to have to come up with a reason to get in touch with him way sooner.
Months away from the game launch?
I doubt I’ll make it through the rest of today before I have to go paddle the pink canoe.
A Ménage à moi isn’t something that’d normally cross my mind, let alone my fingertips.
But after that video call, I’m in desperate need of some basic relief from this sudden and intense horniness that just seeing Zak for a few minutes has given me.
“You’re a computer scientist,” Joey announces, slapping his palm to his forehead and groaning.
“Yeah?” I almost scoff, forcing my mind to cleaner places trying to grasp what he actually means.
“So, you call Zak up and tell him you’re not just some random gamer…sell yourself a little. He might even have an opening,” Joey says with growing enthusiasm.
The kind of unrealistic thinking that only kids have. I lost mine years ago, but I hope Joey can hang onto his youthful innocence as long as he can.
Where everything’s simple, simply because you’re not a grown-up.
I know I’ve got an opening that Zak could use anytime he likes.
But now I’m sounding like the one who’s being unrealistic.
“At least email him,” Joey whines, turning in his chair and gripping my forearm. “Pleeeaaassse,” he whines, pouting and giving me puppy dog eyes.
“We just got off a call with him,” I say until Joey reminds me we were cut off.
“It’s the perfect reason to contact him again right away,” he reasons, sounding suddenly clinical.
Making perfect sense to my ears too.
“…Call him up or email. And explain that the call dropped before you got a chance to tell him how great a programmer you are,” he remarks, making it all sound as easy as I wish it really was.
But I need some time to process what just happened.