𝗧𝗔𝗦𝗧𝗘 𝗢𝗙 𝗟𝗢𝗩𝗘 ⤷ JAMIE TARTT

10 - Contractual Obligations

"And where I am dropping you off tonight?" He asked, jaw tightening unconsciously. They walked outside, and he opened the passenger side door of his car for her.

Once they'd both settled in his car, she answered with a teasing lilt despite her rushing heartbeat. "Jealous, are we?" She laughed when he didn't say anything. "The pub, you grump. Evan and Darcy are waiting."

Jamie turned up the radio to drown her out when she began laughing at his blushing cheeks, but he couldn't deny the warmth that bloomed in his chest at the sound.

Darcy set down her Guiness on the pub table with a thud, beer sloshing over the sides and onto the wooden table, much to Evan's chagrin. "So you and Jamie are okay? And you're okay with being just friends with him?"

Kate, mid-sip, tipped the rest of her drink back. Already raising her hand to order another, she nodded. "Never better. Plus, we still have a contract to fulfill."

"Screw the contract," Evan said.

It'd been a week of back and forth with them. Kate would say she was fine. Evan or Darcy of the both of them would say she's not. And then at the end of the day, they'd end up at the pub.

The barkeep set down another Moscow Mule on the table.

"Yeah, you look totally fine," Evan said, sarcastically to which Kate took another long sip of her drink. "Jesus, slow down. You're gonna have a nasty hangover tomorrow. Customers are going to complain you're green."

"I'm not the one drinking whiskey like it's water," Kate shot back. She hated whiskey.

"Yeah, well . . ." Evan looked past her, shrugging.

"Blah, blah, blah. Let's get back to task," Darcy said, thudding her glass against the table again. "In what world is staying friends with your ex-boyfriend ever a good idea? Mind you, an ex-boyfriend you have feelings for."

"I'll be fine," Kate said weakly.

Her head was starting to spin, and all the warmth in her chest was beginning to feel like it might turn to tears soon because Darcy and Evan were making sense. She was just in denial. Ugh! Everything was a mess, and all she could see when she closed her eyes was Jamie. Her head hit the table with a bang! Maybe, if she drank more alcohol, eventually she'd forget the color of his eyes.

"You okay there, little miss unrequited love?" Darcy asked.

"I feel like I'm living the plot of a novel," she answered, face still smushed into the wood.

"What?"

She lifted her head, shaking her hair out of her face. "I said, I feel like I'm living the plot of a novel! I mean, what's next? It's been something crazy after something crazy for the past few months."

Evan's eyes hardened, finally nodding his head toward the sight he'd been eyeing for the past few minutes. "Yeah, well, speaking of books and something crazy . . ."

"Jiyoon?"

Kate turned at the sound of her name. Though she didn't use her Korean name so often or so casually, there were a select few who preferred her birth name to her English name.