The Love Wager

Hallie

“You get it, though, right?”

Hallie nodded and smiled a little too brightly at Alex, forcing her eyes not to roam the establishment in search of Jack. “I do. It makes perfect sense.”

She could hear the rain pouring on the roof. It’d been one of those chilly autumn days where the rain fell in sheets and didn’t stop. Since the second she’d opened her eyes that morning, it’d seemed like the perfect weather for her stupid non-date date night.

Alex picked up his water and took a drink before saying, “It was dumb, honestly.”

“We all have our expectations that we,” she said, her heart pounding in her chest as she saw Jack walk in, “um, expect.”

Alex nodded. “Right? It was a dumb thing to get hung up on.”

“It is what it is,” she said, watching as Jack bellied up to the side of the bar. He was wearing jeans and a thick fisherman sweater, and he sat down on a stool that put him directly in her line of sight, which was a blessing and a curse. He was so attractive, and her lovesick eyes were dying to drink him in, but he was also the world’s biggest distraction.

Especially when he looked over at her and gave her a chin nod.

She looked back at Alex.

“Listen, I’ve got to be honest with you,” she said, not wanting to lead him on. “I really like you. You seem like a great guy. This has nothing to do with you, but I’m really not looking to date anyone right now.”

His eyes narrowed, like he was trying to figure her out, but he didn’t look mad. “Okay, so I’m going to ask you what you asked me at the airport. What’s changed since before?”

“Well,” she said, not sure how to explain it, “let’s just say I kind of fell for someone else. It didn’t work out, but it left me with very strong anti-dating feelings.”

“Got it.” He reached out a hand and set it on top of hers. “Is it your bestie at the bar?”

Her eyes shot up to his. “What?”

He shrugged. “I saw him come in. Actually, I saw you see him come in.”

“Alex, I am so sorry—”

“Nope.” He smiled and said, “I got a vibe from him both times we met, so I can’t say I’m surprised.”

She swallowed. “There’s nothing going on with us, I promise. And there wasn’t when you and I were dating, either.”

“I know.” He swirled the liquid in his glass and said, “Are you okay, by the way?”

She smiled. He really was a nice guy. “I will be. You know how it is—love just sucks.”

“Truer words have never been spoken,” he said, smiling back at her. “We can still have dinner as friends, though, right? I feel like we’ve earned it.”

She lifted her glass of wine and nodded. “We have earned it.”

Jack

“Can I get another water, please?”

Jack slid his empty glass toward the bartender as he tried getting his shit together. After downing a whiskey while watching Hallie smile at Alex, he decided he’d better switch to water before he ended up dying of alcohol poisoning.

But what in the actual fuck?

First of all, how the hell did she look so beautiful and so fucking happy? He’d imagined, like him, she was struggling to move on without their friendship. He’d imagined that she missed him at least a fraction of the amount he was missing her.

But she looked like everything was perfect.

He hadn’t planned a date for that night, because what was the point of dragging some nice person along when all he was interested in was Hallie? But he’d expected her to be with some rando, not Alex.

And he definitely hadn’t expected them to be fawning all over each other like they were having the best time. He kept sitting there, pounding water and waiting for her to look like she might want to bail, but the sound of her laughter kept slicing through him like a fucking machete.

He pulled out his phone and was about to text her when she lost it. She started cracking up at something the guy said, with that same contagious belly laugh that she’d laughed in their hotel room bathroom when she tried to gargle, and Jack was done.

He was out.

He laid a couple of bills on the bar, stood, and left.

Hallie

He’s leaving?

Hallie jumped up, her chair squeaking on the floor as she stood. Her eyes landed on Alex, and he gestured for her to go. She started toward the door, having no idea what she was going to say, but how could he just bail on her?

She pushed the door and went outside, the rain immediately pouring down on her. She looked to her left and saw the back of his sweater as he walked away.

“Wait!” Hallie started running as she yelled, “Jack!”

He stopped and turned, his hair already soaked.

“Where do you think you’re going?” she yelled, finally stopping when she was a foot away from him. “You’re just bailing?”

His eyebrows went down as the heavy rain drenched the two of them. “You didn’t look like you needed my help.”

“You were the one who said you wanted to do this—you called me—yet you’re ditching me. Again. What is wrong with you?”

“What’s wrong with me?” He squinted at her like she was out of her mind and said, “You failed to mention that your date tonight was with Alex. Why would you let me meet you at the bar just to watch you have a fucking love connection?”

“Are you mad?” He was the one who was out of his mind, she thought. “At me?”

“Yes, I’m mad!” he yelled. “I thought we were going to talk about us, but instead you’re canoodling with that guy right in front of me!”

“What ‘us’?” She poked a finger into his chest and said, “What us is there? I haven’t heard from you in weeks, and now you think you have a right to say the word ‘us’?”

“Hallie—”

“Why didn’t you at least text me?” She hated the tears in her eyes. “After that night, why wouldn’t you at least send me a text to say ‘Hey’ or ‘I hate you’ or ‘Ramen is on sale at the fucking supermarket’? Anything would’ve felt at least like something between us. How could you just leave me all alone?”

“I was trying to figure out my feelings, Hal.” He pushed back his wet hair before adding, “I wanted to be sure of what I felt before talking to you about how you felt.”

“What does that even mean?”

“Do you want Alex?” he yelled down at her through the rain.

“Jack—”

“Do you?”

“No.” She shook her head, her soaked hair slapping more water in her face. “I never did.”

He grabbed her arm and pulled her closer to the building they’d stopped in front of, so they were under an awning. He looked down at her and said, “Christ, Hal, this isn’t how I wanted to tell you. But the thing is—I think I’m in love with you.”

Jack

He watched as her mouth dropped open in shock, and then it snapped shut. She looked up at him with those big green eyes, but no words came out.

She just stared at him.

“Maybe say something, Hal,” he said.

“Okay, I’ll say something.” She was shivering a little, but her face was full of hot anger. “That is a terrible thing to say, you dick.”

Her words hit him like a punch in the stomach, and he tried reading her expression as he said, “I tell you I love you and you call me a dick?”

“You didn’t tell me you love me, you said you ‘think’ you’re in love with me.” She was gritting her teeth, looking mad as hell as she shivered in the damp night air. “Who do you think you are—Darcy in the rain, telling Elizabeth that he loves her in spite of her inferior birth?”

He had no clue what to say to that.

“It took you two weeks of radio silence to come up with the genius epiphany that you may possibly be in love with me but you really aren’t a hundred percent sure?”

Fuck. Wrong word choice.

She said, “I knew I was in love with you the minute you fell out of the stupid closet at the rehearsal dinner. It didn’t take me a fucking fortnight to get to ‘possibly.’ ”

Hope shot through him, even as he opened his mouth to defend himself. If she’d been in love with him at the rehearsal dinner, she had to still have feelings for him, right? And why the hell hadn’t she said anything that night? He said, “If I’m Darcy in the rain, then you’re Mr. Smith, too stubborn to hear what I’m trying to tell you as you ramble on about the way I worded my feelings.”

She squinted at him. “Who in the hell is Mr. Smith?”

“Boiled fucking potatoes are an exemplary vegetable—that is Mr. Smith!”

“Wait.” Her mouth formed a big, gaping O. “Are you calling me Mr. Collins?”

He nodded and said, “I’m trying to tell you something, but you’re too caught up in your own thoughts and opinions about everything to hear my words, Mr. Collins.”

Jack couldn’t believe he was communicating in Hallie’s bizarro language, but they were talking, and she was finally listening, so he was going to roll with it.

Hallie

Hallie’s mind raced as she listened to him insult her in the most wonderful way. She still felt hot and angry, but she also felt like something was happening.

He said, “Forgive me for not wanting to put a label on my feelings, but I don’t know shit about love, okay? All I know is that you’ve ruined every single thing about my life.”

She scoffed. “I have?”

“Yes.” He swallowed and said, “I can’t drive by a Burger King without thinking of french fries in bed; I can’t hear a British person speak without remembering your fucking awful accent; I can’t see a diamond ad without picturing your stupid grinning face at the Borsheim’s counter; and I can’t hear my phone buzz without wishing it would be some asinine text from you.”

“Jack.” She felt a little light-headed. It wasn’t a romantic confession of undying love, but it was everything she’d ever wanted.

He said, “Everything in my life was fine before, but now it’s so different and I hate it.”

“I hate it, too,” she said, stepping just a tiny bit closer.

He ran his thumb over her wet cheek. “I’m so sorry I haven’t called you.”

She shivered. “Me, too.”

“I know I’ve screwed everything up, Hal,” he said as he pushed her wet hair off her forehead. “But I miss you so much I can hardly breathe.”

“Me, too,” she repeated.

“And I know I didn’t say it the right way, but I am so in love with you. And not just in love with you, by the way. I also like you more than anyone else in the world. You’re funny and smart and beautiful, and whenever anything happens to me, funny, awful, or wonderful, you’re the first person I want to tell.”

She laughed as her eyes filled with tears again. “Oh, my God, did our ‘its’ get switched?”

His face came closer, his eyes seeming to get brighter as he, too, remembered their conversation about what they’d been looking for in a partner. He said, “Well, that would mean that you feel like I complete you.”

She wasn’t going to say it, but she raised her chin. She looked into his dark blue eyes and said, “Yeah, it would.”

He made a noise that was somewhere between an exhale, a laugh, and a groan before he softly placed his fingers under her chin, raising her head as he lowered his. It felt like coming home when his lips were on hers and she was breathing his breath.

It turned hot fast—teeth, tongues, and wild, seeking mouths—and Hallie was down for all of it as the rain continued to pour around them. She raised her arms to his shoulders and she pressed her rain-soaked self against him, needing to be closer. She was lost in every little bit of Jack Marshall. He pulled back slightly, looked down at her, and said, “There’s a great little taco place down the street. Do you want to grab a bite and talk?”

She nodded. “I’d like that.”

He pointed to the Urban Outfitters across the street. “Can I buy you a dry outfit first?”

“That would be lovely.” Hallie grinned as he grabbed her hand, and they stepped back out into the rain and started walking in that direction. She yelled over the rain, “Thank you.”

“Anytime,” he replied, also yelling over the downpour.

“I’m buying a dry outfit for you, too,” Hallie said, “and you have to wear whatever I choose, okay?”

He didn’t answer as they sprinted across the street, and she assumed he hadn’t heard her over the deluge. But as soon as he threw open the door to Urban Outfitters and they both got inside, he pulled her to a stop. His mouth slid into his wide, full-throttle smile as they both pushed back their hair and wiped their dripping faces, and Hallie felt herself warming from the inside out when he said, “Hallie Piper, I am yours. Dress me however you see fit.”

Jack

“I don’t think you can be mad at me ever again.” Jack took a sip of his beer and gave the Taco Hut waitress a polite smile. She was looking at him and openly laughing as she set down their food. “I think I’ve earned your eternal forgiveness.”

Hallie shook her head seriously, but her eyes were dancing when she said, “You think just because you’re wearing that, we’re square?”

He stood, just so she could look again at what she’d done. Animal-print workout pants, crop top, fuchsia pashmina, yellow Chuck Taylors, and a red fedora with a patch that said EAT ME. He did a spin and held up his hands, waiting for an answer, and Hallie started laughing again.

“I can’t believe you wore it.”

“Of course I wore it,” he said, sitting back down and giving her a look. He seriously would dress like that every day if it meant he could have her. “I love you.”

She rolled her eyes and teased, “Are you sure, though? Maybe you just think you love me.”

As hard as it had been for him to get his head around his feelings, everything—just like that—had become crystal clear. Maybe it was her absence in his life for the past couple of weeks, but he suspected it was common sense kicking in after being late as fuck to the party.

“Listen, Tiny Bartender.” He grabbed the plate of nachos and slid it in front of her, because they both knew she loved selecting the first chip. “You have bewitched me body and soul, and I love you three times. Please tell me my hands are cold so we can get on with our lives already.”

She picked a chip that was dead center, covered in beef and cheese. As she carefully lifted it, trying not to lose any of the red onions (but she always did), she said, “But what if I only think your hands are cold, Jack? I mean, how can I be sure?”

“You’re never going to let this go, are you?” he asked, loving her stupid grin as she lorded his screwup over him.

She shook her head, and her grin turned softer. Less teasing, more sweet. “I’m going to be bringing this up for a long, long time.”

There was a promise in her words, and Jack felt like the luckiest guy in the world.

So he pulled out his phone.

Jack: I’m on a date, and I think she’s The One. Is it bad form to rush her through dinner because I’m dying to get her in the sack?

He watched her pull her phone out of her pocket, read the message, and smile.

She texted quickly.

Hallie: Seriously, dipshit, “in the sack” is awful.

Was it weird that he kind of wanted to cry with happiness?

He responded with: How about “I’m dying to do the deed with her”?

Hallie: I feel like that implies you want her to help you murder someone.

Jack: I’ve got it. I’m dying to engage with her in the physical act of love.

“Put the phone down before I puke,” Hallie said, setting her phone on the table and laughing as she took a bite of her chip. “I know your date, and she’s all-in for getting railed after dinner. So hurry up and eat.”

He set down the phone, grabbed his fork, and scooped half of the entire nacho platter onto his plate. “From your lips to Ditka’s ears.”