Mr. Wonderful Lies by Kaitlin Maitland

reached for my water. Taking a few drinks to wash the cottony feeling from my mouth, I replayed last night’s events through my head. “I wore that dress you got me.”
    “The one from Saks?”
    “Yep, and the boots.”
    “So he didn’t lie about his height.”
    “Six feet plus.”
    Anna crossed her legs and bobbed her foot, a testament to her inability to sit still for very long. “And?”
    “He’s a really good kisser.”
    A smile touched her pretty features. “That’s always good to know, isn’t it?”
    “He hasn’t pushed me for sex even though I know he’d like to.”
    She rolled her eyes. “He’s a man, Megan. They all want to have sex. Thoughts of sex monopolize the male mind at least once every five seconds.”
    “But he didn’t get rude or pushy about it. Remember Professor Jackass?”
    She burst into a fit of giggles. “Or that accountant you dated? I thought he was going to start humping your leg right there in the restaurant.”
    I flopped back down on a mound of pillows and laughed even though it made my head pound. I could vividly remember Trevor the accountant. He’d been a whiney, self-absorbed social drinker who had started trying to get into my pants from the first moment we met.
    Anna shook her head. “Thank God Jared and I doubled with you guys.”
    “I know. I couldn’t believe Jared had to have a private chat with him in the bar.”
    Anna tugged on a lock of my hair. “You really know how to pick them.”
    “At least I don’t secrete some kind of weird pheromone that turns them into stalkers that try to buy me creepy things like boats and racehorses.”
    That shut her up. Jared and I had teased her more than once about her bizarre effect on men.
    “So what are you going to do with the rest of your day?” Anna blatantly switched subjects.
    “You’re looking at it, although I do need to get caught up on work.”
    “Meaning Ollie has other plans for today.”
    “He’s visiting his parents.”
    “Um hmm, I see. And tomorrow?”
    “Tomorrow is brunch. It’s not an Ollie event day. But on that note, I don’t know what he’s doing tomorrow.”
    She looked at her watch. “I’ve got to show property this afternoon and I still have to go home and shower.”
    I hadn’t noticed, but she was wearing her workout clothes.
    “If you need anything this afternoon, Jared’s at the gym.”
    “Thanks.” I warily took my earlier thoughts about Jared from their place in a mental file drawer labeled avoid . “Did you happen to talk to him about what I said to you at lunch?”
    There was a pause. I could tell she was cautiously deciding what she could say that wouldn’t violate the friend agreement. “Yes.”
    “And?”
    Anna’s expression turned pensive and she nibbled her full lower lip. I wondered if she were balancing the need to share something she thought I needed to hear with the possible violation of Jared’s trust.
    “You don’t have to tell me anything, Anna.”
    “No, you need to hear it. You were right about him feeling inadequate, although it’s a lot more complicated than you realize. Just cut him some slack okay. You’re not the only one going through relationship growing pains.”
    Her words unleashed a torrent of raw emotions inside me. I barely heard her tell me she’d catch up with me at Norton’s in the morning before leaving through the front door.
    Jared was going through relationship growing pains? Jared was a player. His relationships lasted two or three weeks, maybe a month at the max. Had he met some amazing chick he wanted to settle down with for a long-term fling? Or even more unbelievable, was he considering settling down for more than a fling?
    I rolled over, clutching a pillow to my chest and trying to figure out why that idea was so horribly foreign to me. He was Jared. If he wanted to shack up with some woman long-term I should be happy for him. Or should I? Would having a significant other make it less likely that he’d be able to hang