Todos los capítulos de EIGHT DATES TO MAKE MY EX JEALOUS: Capítulo 11 - Capítulo 20

(Ivy)I changed outfits four times for a fake date.I'm not proud of it. Juno sat on my air mattress eating popcorn like she was watching a show."The green dress was good," she said."I wore the green dress to Date One.""So? It was a hit.""I can't repeat outfits. He'll think I'm lazy.""Who's he?""The hockey captain.""The fake boyfriend who you are definitely not interested in?""Correct.""Wear the red top.""The red top is too much.""The red top is exactly enough." She threw a kernel at my head. "Ivy. You like him.""I like his pancakes.""Wow. Subtle."I wore the red top.---East picked me up at seven, in a clean shirt and a black jacket. He had the same dazed look he'd worn on Date One, like a man who'd walked into a glass door."Hi," he said."Hi.""You look...""Don't say fine.""I wasn't going to say fine.""Good.""I was going to say dangerous."My face went hot. I walked past him to the truck. "Drive, Whitaker.""Yes, ma'am."---The restaurant was a tiny Italian place

(Ivy)Here's what the photograph didn't show. It was taken last Tuesday, three days before it went public, and the story behind it is not the one the whole campus has decided to tell.It didn't show Juno's text that said, I'm at a conference until tomorrow night, lock up! It didn't show the scratches around the doorknob, shiny and fresh, like someone had been poking at it with a screwdriver. It didn't show my hands shaking so badly I dropped my phone twice.It didn't show me looking at the shared calendar on my laptop and remembering the one rule East asked for himself, the first day, in tiny letters at the bottom: If anything gets weird, tell me.I texted him at 11:31.Ivy: Weird thing. Someone messed with the lock.He answered in four seconds.East: Where are you?Ivy: Juno's. Alone.East: Don't open the door. I'm coming.He was there in sixteen minutes. I know because I counted every one.When I let him in, he didn't say a word. He just checked the lock, then the windows, then the

(Ivy)The Hawks won on Saturday, three to one, and East scored the last goal like a man with something to prove.By then the photo of East on Juno's steps had been online for six hours and had its own hashtag, #CaptainAfterDark. East's official response was to score the last goal and point his stick at the stands. I watched from the third row with Juno, who screamed so loudly that a stranger offered her a lozenge."He looked at you again," she said."He looks at the net.""He skated past the glass and tapped it. Twice.""That's hockey.""That's flirting.""Can we go?""Not until you admit you're in love.""I'm in a charity event. Which starts in forty minutes.""Change of subject noted."---The Hawks Care Gala was a mini version of the big end of season party. A banquet hall decorated with blue lights, silent auction tables, a string quartet that looked terrified to be there. Kids in tiny hockey jerseys ran around with cookies. Parents drank wine and talked about donations.East wait

(East)Nobody talks in a truck when the silence is a bomb.I drove. She stared out the window. The radio was off. The only sound was my blinker, ticking like a countdown.I took the long way, hoping she'd soften. She didn't. She sat with her bag in her lap and her hands folded, and she looked so far away that I could have been driving a stranger.When I parked outside Juno's building, she didn't open the door."Talk," she said.I'd rehearsed a hundred versions of this speech. Every one of them evaporated."Four months ago," I said, "Sloane messaged me.""Why?""She wanted to talk about Dom.""About him cheating?"I closed my eyes. There it was."Yes.""She told you about it.""She told me enough.""And you texted back 'keep it that way.'""Yes.""Which means you wanted me to stay in the dark.""No!" The word came out louder than I meant. "No. That's not what it meant.""Then what did it mean?""It meant..." I dragged a hand through my hair. "Ivy, it's complicated.""Stop saying that."

(East)Date Five was supposed to be Tuesday, at seven.It was highlighted in hot pink on a calendar Ivy had deleted from her phone three days ago. I know because I checked. Like a masochist.At 6:45, I stood on Juno's front steps holding a manila envelope so thick it looked like a legal case.Theo had gotten the messages back. All of them. Screenshots, timestamps, voice notes, the whole ugly timeline. It took two days and a terrifying conversation with a guy named Marcus from IT, but we pulled everything from my old phone's backup.I'd printed it. Every page. Because I wanted her to hold it. I wanted her to see it in her own hands and not have to trust a single word out of my mouth.I knocked.The door opened a crack.Ivy stood there in leggings and a faded hoodie. Her hair was in a messy knot. Her eyes were swollen. She looked at me and her face went hard."What are you doing here?""It's Tuesday.""We don't have a Tuesday.""We did.""We don't anymore.""I know." I held up the envel