Impulse by Z.L. Arkadie

Author:Z.L. Arkadie
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781942857709
Publisher: Flaming Hearts Press LLC

Nine

JADA FORTE

Instead of waiting all night in the airport for a six a.m. flight to JFK, I rode the direct line from DC to Manhattan and arrived before four a.m. Hope still insisted on picking me up, even though I could have taken the subway to her apartment. She swooped in and picked me up on Thirty-First Street. We hugged before she tossed my suitcase in the trunk of her brand-new sleek silver car.

“You never told me you bought a new car,” I said.

Her face was alight. “Hurry up and get in,” she said impatiently.

From the passenger seat, I took in a deep whiff of the new-car smell. “What is it?” I asked once she was behind the wheel.

Her eyes were still shining. “Guess what?”

“What?” I said, happy to play along because it felt so good to be in her presence again.

Hope raised her hand, flashing me the ring on her finger.

My eyes grew wide. “What the hell? Is that an engagement ring?”

“I’m getting married!” she shouted, honking the horn in celebration like a madwoman.

My jaw dropped. “To whom?”

“Perry.”

“Who’s Perry? Because that’s not the name of the district attorney who was driving you crazy between the sheets and in the courtroom three months ago.”

She clutched the steering wheel, checking to see if the road was clear. “No. He was a pathological commitment-phobic douchebag. But Perry…” Her smile grew as big as the moon. “He’s my one, and I’m his.” As she guided the car along the street, she told me how the district attorney was one of those guys who screwed a girl until he was ready to move on to the next. “But you know what, Jada? Instead of crying over it or calling all guys horny scumbags with one-track minds, I decided to look in the mirror.” Even though the car kept racing forward, she turned her entire face in my direction. “Like, I literally looked in the mirror.”

I pointed at the windshield. “Please look at the road.”

She snapped her eyes forward. “And you know what I saw?”

Again, she looked at me, and once again, I pointed at the road. “What?” I finally said when she was facing in the right direction.

“I saw someone who picked assholes. So the next day, I was in court, getting my ass beat by Aaron, the DA I used to have sex with, and when court adjourned for the day, I felt like crap, so I decided to go to Ben & Jerry’s and buy a trough of Milk and Cookies to binge on while watching back-to-back episodes of Fixer Upper, and that’s when this guy walks up to me and says, ‘I know how it is when all you need is Milk and Cookies,’ and then he paid for my ice cream.”

“Wow,” I said, trying to picture what she was describing.

“So, as I was standing there with my bag of ice cream, he was walking out of the shop, and I decided to run after him and ask if he wanted to grab dinner sometime.

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