Don’t Deny Me: Part Two by Megan Hart Page B

her phone did ring as she was packing up to leave, it was Jay. She tried not to sound disappointed.
    “I need a hump day happy hour,” he said without preamble. “Come meet me.”
    “Jay … I have to work tomorrow.”
    He spoke almost before she’d finished her excuse. “You can crash at my place.”
    “And get up an hour and a half early to make it to work on time? Ugh.” Phone cradled to her shoulder, Alice zipped her purse.
    “I think Paul is cheating on me.”
    Alice paused. “Shit. I’m sorry, Jay.”
    “Yeah. Well. Is it really cheating when the other person won’t exactly fully commit?”
    “I guess it’s cheating if it feels like it,” she told him. “To you, anyway.”
    “Happy hour. C’mon, Alice. We haven’t been out together in forever. You’ve been spending all your time with Mick on the weekends.”
    “He told you that? Does he talk about me? Were you working with him today?” The thought intrigued and made her nervous. “What did he say?”
    Jay huffed. “He didn’t say anything. I haven’t worked with him in weeks. I just know that’s who you’ve been with, because you’ve barely called me.”
    “Sorry.” She was chagrined, but not too much.
    They arranged a meeting place and time. One more time, Alice checked her instant messages, but Mick hadn’t come online again. She shut down her computer and headed out. Traffic was a bitch, as it always was the closer she got to Baltimore. When she passed the exit for Timonium, where Mick lived, her foot unconsciously lifted from the gas, earning her a little road rage from the asshole who’d been tailgating her. She kept going with only a look in the rearview and a sigh, her silent phone mocking her from her purse. By the time she got to the restaurant where she was meeting Jay, she was starving and cranky.
    Bless him, though, he’d ordered appetizers and two margaritas, so she didn’t have to wait. Alice gave him a squeeze and a kiss on the cheek. Jay pushed her margarita toward her.
    “So,” she said. “What’s going on?”
    He told her. The secretive phone calls that ended when Jay walked into the room. The way Paul had stopped returning his calls right away, sometimes going hours or even a day or so. How he seemed distracted, even in bed.
    “All the classic signs,” Jay said with a vicious stab into the loaded potato skins.
    Alice had been cheated on a couple of times, and she wasn’t proud to admit it, but she’d cheated once, herself. She’d never condone it, but she couldn’t exactly be judgmental. Well, except that Paul was an asshole. “Just ask him about it, Jay. Don’t torture yourself.”
    “What if he won’t admit it?”
    “You can pretend you don’t know and keep going on, or you can break it off anyway,” she told him.
    “What if he does admit it?”
    Alice smiled gently. “Same thing, honey. But if you don’t say something, you’re going to kill yourself over it. I know it sucks and it hurts, but is he worth it?”
    Jay said nothing, which was his answer. Alice sighed and drank some of her margarita while she thought of what to say. No advice came to mind, unfortunately. Love was love, and you couldn’t choose it. It just happened to you, no matter how wonderful and terrible it was.
    “I don’t want to talk about him any more right now,” Jay said suddenly. “Let’s just eat fried food and get a little drunkish. Okay?”
    “Okay, sure. Whatever you want.”
    A little drunkish turned into Jay downing four margaritas and confessing that he’d snuck through Paul’s computer files and e-mails in an attempt to figure out the truth. Alice, who’d limited herself to two drinks over the course of the night, drove him home and forced him to take a shower and a couple of aspirin, drink a glass of water. Then she put him to bed.
    “Are you staying?” Jay asked. “You can sleep here.”
    Alice shook her head. “I’m going to head home.”
    “It’s late,” he said without much force.
    “I’d