Cake: A Love Story (17 page)

Jake let out a groan then rolled off me. He sat up, looking totally flushed.

“Sorry,” he panted, giving me an apologetic look. “Probably shouldn’t have done that.”

I grabbed for him, wanting to pull him back down on top of me. “It’s okay.”

“No. That was not part of your damn rule book.”

“Fuck the rule book.”

“Who has a potty mouth now?”

“Oh God, this is a bad time for you to be a Boy Scout, Jake,” I frowned and sat up in frustration.

Jake smiled then leaned over and grabbed the remote. He turned on the TV.

“Seriously?” I asked, folding my arms in front of me.

“Yep.” He said, non-chalantly.

I sighed loudly then climbed over next to him and we sat shoulder to shoulder propped up against the backboard.

Jake flipped stations until he found Family Guy. We watched the entire episode, laughing hysterically at every little thing. When it was over Jake turned the TV back off and we just talked. It was such a natural, free-flowing conversation.

My phone rang at about 2:00am. I picked it up to see that it was my mom and I ignored it.

“Who is that?” Jake asked.

“My mom.”

“Your mom?” Jake raised his eyebrows.

“Yeah, why?”

“It’s 2:00am!” He declared. “Does she always call you so late?”

“No. She’s calling to find out how the day went.”

“She can’t wait until the morning?” Jake still seemed amazed.

“No, because she wants to know about you.”

“About me?” Jake asked in surprise, a smile slowly spreading across his face. “Why? What did you tell her about me?”

“Yesterday after the rehearsal dinner I called her and told her I met you.”

“Uh-huh. What else?”

“I told her that you were really hot and that you were a super cool guy and that you laughed at my jokes.”

“Uh-huh, and?”

“Well,” I smiled sheepishly, “I also might have accidentally um…mentioned that I was, you know, possibly going to marry you someday.”

Jake’s eyes got big with surprise. He was definitely not expecting that. But luckily he got the joke and laughed. “Oh really?”

“Yeah.”

“You accidentally mentioned that?” Jake grinned.

“Yep. It was weird. It just kind of popped out. You know how that sort of thing goes?” I said casually.

“Yeah, totally. Just the other day I accidentally proposed marriage to someone.”

“Right? So you know that it’s a pretty common error.”

Jake shook his head, smiling. “So what did your mom have to say about that?”

“Um…oh yeah she was happy. She asked if you were aware of the fact that we were getting married and I told her that I was just going to invite you and hope you showed up.”

Jake grinned.

I reached up and pulled my hair tie out of Jake’s man bun. I folded the hair tie a couple of times until it was ring size.

“So anyway, whew…here it goes,” I giggled. “Jake will you…”

He slapped his hand over my mouth playfully before I could finish my fake proposal and tried to unravel the hair-tie ring with his other. We were struggling for the fake ring and laughing. Finally I pulled away far enough to unfold the hair tie and shoot it into his face. But the band had no elasticity to it and it just kind of plopped onto the bed between us. We both laughed.

“Phew, that was close,” Jake joked.

“Damn, I almost had you,” I replied in a crazy voice.

He laughed then asked, “Do you seriously joke with your mom about that kind of stuff?”

“All the time. She even told me to have fun tonight but to not get pregnant.”

Jake choked out a laugh. “She did not?”

“She did,” I nodded, proudly. “Where do you think I get my sense of humor?”

Jake grinned. “So you’re saying that all I have to do to win over your mom is to not knock you up tonight?”

“Yep. Pretty much.”

“Wow, that’s good to know,” Jake shook his head, smiling. “Man, if I made that joke to my mom, she would lecture me for hours about the proper use of condoms and how being sexually responsible is a virtue.”

I grinned, grabbed his hand then leaned in for a kiss. I loved that he didn’t take things too seriously and that he understood immediately that I was only kidding. Most guys probably would have been running for the door.

“So I gotta ask…what’s a guy like you single for?” I asked.

Jake looked at me for a second before countering, “What’s a girl like you single for?”

“Oh that’s easy, guys are assholes,” I blurted out. “No offense.”

“No worries,” Jake replied. “My kind isn’t easily offended.”

“HA! Funny. And you…why are you single?” I asked.

“I’m twenty-three.”

“That’s your answer?” I laughed.

“What? Would you prefer that I had a girlfriend?”

“No, I’m just curious why you don’t.”

“I don’t know. I haven’t been looking.”

“No?” I said tracing his fingers. They were so long and masculine.

“No,” he replied.

“Why aren’t you looking?”

“’Cuz I have been insanely busy…my days aren’t all spent like this, Casey.”

“All work and no play?”

Jake smiled. “Something like that.”

“Do you ever sleep with fans?” I asked as I turned his hand over to reveal heavy calluses.

Jake looked at me sheepishly.

“What?” I asked innocently, and then tickled his hand.

“This feels like a trap,” Jake replied, pulling his hand away from me.

I laughed. “So, do you?”

“I’m going to take the fifth on that,” Jake responded.

I turned over and propped myself up on my elbows. “Sir…just answer the question,” I replied like I was a cop interrogating a witness.

Jake huffed and changed his own position on the bed. His body was touching mine now. I was acutely aware of his manliness. He gave me a seductive smile. I felt my heart beat faster.

“You’re trying to distract me from my line of questioning,” I claimed.

“Yes. I am actually. Is it working?”

“With you…it’s always working,” I laughed.

“Yeah?”

I smiled at him. “Like you don’t know.”

Jake reached over and ran his finger along my forearm. I shivered. “You think I’m some man whore, don’t you?”

“Pretty much, yeah. I mean can you blame me? You have a very detailed exit strategy when it comes to women,” I responded.

Jake grinned but didn’t respond.

“I think it’s funny.”

“What’s funny?”

“You…juggling a continent worth of horny women. It must be exhausting.”

“You have no idea,” Jake joked back.

“When was your last one night stand?”

“Why do you care?”

“I’m just trying to get to know you better,” I said innocently.

“By asking me who I’ve slept with?” Jake laughed. “That is a terrible way to get to know someone.”

“I’m not a jealous person, Jake. I’m just curious is all.”

“You’re curious?” Jake laughed. “Oh well in that case, my last one night stand was in Australia.”

“Australia?” I laughed. “Am I supposed to know when you were in Australia, Jake?”

“You would if you were a stalker, Casey.”

“Well then lucky for both of us that I’m not. Now, back to Australia?”

“Oh God,” he moaned.

“Jake, you can make this easy or you can make this difficult,” I joked.

“It was three weeks ago…are you happy now?”

“Three weeks?” I blurted out. “You poor thing. How have you managed to survive?”

Jake shrugged then held up his right hand. I bust up laughing and pushed him away from me. Jake smiled, looking pleased.

“I’ll have you know that I haven’t had sex in seven months,” I shared.

“Seven months?”

“Yeah, since my last boyfriend.”

“He was that bad, huh?” Jake responded, jokingly shaking his head in disappointment.

“Yep. That bad,” I said.

“So does that mean you haven’t had a second date in the last seven months or that you haven’t found a guy interesting enough to jump in bed with.”

“Honestly? Both,” I laughed.

“Well, if you want I can end that dry spell for you,” Jake offered. “Strictly for health purposes, of course.”

“Oooh…so smooth, Jake,” I laughed.

“You like that?” Jake replied. “I’ve got more where that came from.”

“No. I get the idea. It really is shocking you don’t have a girlfriend.”

“I know, right?”

“You dated Krista Allen for a while didn’t you?” I asked. Krista was a pop star with a wild reputation. Their relationship was volatile and well documented.

Jake rolled onto his back and rubbed his eyes with his hands. “Um…I guess…yeah.”

“You guess?” I laughed. “Either you did or you didn’t?”

“Okay then we did.”

I stared at him incredulously. “Wow so sentimental.”

Jake rolled his eyes.

“So I take it the relationship didn’t end well?”

“Do relationships ever end well?”

“True. Are you still friends?”

“Um,” he shrugged, frowning. “I’m thinking not.”

“Uh oh, what happened?” I asked laughing.

“I don’t think she likes me very much.”

“Why?”

“I broke up with her over text.”

I gasped. “No you didn’t!”

Jake laughed. “I broke up with her then turned my phone off.”

“That is terrible!” I burst out laughing. “Way to man up!”

“I know. Not one of my finest moments but, in my defense, I tried to break up with her in person but she shut me down both times.”

“What do you mean she shut you down?”

“She wouldn’t let me break up with her.”

“Seriously?”

“Yeah. The first time she was like, ‘wait a second are you trying to break up with me?’ and I nodded and she put her hand up and said, ‘Oh no you don’t’ and she stormed out. That night she was back acting like nothing happened.”

I laughed. “What did you do?”

“So, like, a couple days later I tried again and she said that I couldn’t just make that decision by myself and that there were two of us in the relationship and I was being selfish and she just kept talking and talking…”

“And we know how you feel about talking,” I added.

“Exactly, so I finally just gave up.”

“You gave up on breaking up with her?” I giggled.

Jake nodded. “I stayed with her another month and then broke up with her the day after she left on tour.”

I stared at him in amusement. “That is hysterical. I guess I can see why you broke up with her over text now.”

Jake grinned.

“So why did you want to break up with her in the first place?”

“I don’t know…I guess because we didn’t really have anything in common.”

“You’re both famous singers…how much more in common can you get?”

“Okay well that part, maybe, but Krista likes to party and I don’t. She likes being the center of attention and I don’t. We really had no business being together.”

“Then how did you end up as a couple?”

“You know…the same old boy meets girl story. We met, had sex and then she wouldn’t leave,” Jake replied with a smirk on his face.

“Shut up!” I laughed.

“The sad thing is…I’m not kidding,” Jake confessed.

“How long were you together?”

“Like five months.”

“Were you in love with her?”

“God, you ask a lot of personal questions.”

“I know, right?” I replied, realizing how personal I was being.

“You’re worse than my mother,” Jake grinned. “And that’s saying something.”

I laughed out loud. “Oh geez…sorry. I don’t know why I’m interrogating you. You can tell me to shut up if you want.”

“Why didn’t you tell me that hours ago?” Jake teased.

“What? I thought you liked hearing me jabber on and on?” I giggled.

Jake grinned. “I do, actually.” Then he looked me in the eyes and said, “No, I didn’t love her. I mean I’ve felt affection for people but I don’t think I’ve ever really been in love.”

“Really?” I asked. I was stunned that he would open up to me like that.

“I feel like real love would smack me in the face…you know what I mean?”

“Yeah…I know what you mean,” I replied, tracing his fingers with mine. Jake raised his beautiful eyes to meet mine. He stared at me for longer than usual.

I broke the moment by bringing my hand up and lightly slapping his face. Jake looked surprised. I smiled. Then he understood.