For StefanieArthkamp
"She's an old friend. We go way back."
"An old friend who you used to date. So, basically, she's an ex."
Bradley paused, his shirt halfway over his head to study his girlfriend.
She was dressed in a white crop top and pink yoga pants, her golden hair spread behind her against white pillowcases like some sort of modern day Aphrodite.
"Sweetheart, c'mon. What difference does it make?"
The death glare she shot him was enough to keep him from responding.
"We were kids. The whole thing was over romanticized."
"Oh," her hazel eyes narrowed, "is that supposed to make me feel better?"
The jealously wasn't like her. They both were mildly friendly with some people they'd dated and though she and Irina would likely never be best friends, they were cordial and got along, for Lea.
Then again, he'd never considered himself a particularly jealous person either and the publicity kisses with Dan had made him see red at the time. Especially given how into it the guy seemed.
"Do I need to tell you there's absolutely nothing to worry about?"
He finished tugging the shirt over, stepping into a pair of well worn jeans.
"I'm not worried about you. You know that I trust you. But you look entirely too good and you smell even better, so yeah, okay, maybe it makes me a little," she overemphasized, rolling onto her side, "territorial. I mean...is that a bad thing?"
"Nope," he buttoned up the jeans, zipping the fly, "in fact, it's kind of hot."
Moving across the bed, he hovered his body over hers, planting a wayward kiss on her shoulder. His palm opened, skirting down across her bicep before she moved away.
"Uh-uh. If you wanna cancel, on the other hand..."
She had that look in her eyes, the one that equaled mischief and biting down a smirk, he chastely kissed her forehead.
"I can't. Too last minute."
"Food poisoning, our sink is backed up and you have to wait for the plumber. The roof needs a shingle and you like fixing it yourself. You need an emergency root canal. Come on, B. There's a trillion things you could say."
"Baby," he sat down on the edge of the bed, "what's this really about?"
Slowly, she pulled herself into a sitting position, her legs dangling next to his. "Okay...how would you feel if I hadn't heard from Taylor in years and out of the blue, he asks me out to dinner? Or Christian? Or anyone, for that matter, who I had a really intense history with... can you tell me that you wouldn't be the least bit taken aback? Like nothing to do with the trust factor, it's just human nature."
He didn't even consider not being honest. She had a built in bullshit detector anyway, so he wouldn't have dared tried.
"I probably would be, yeah."
Stefani had heard the story, how he and Amanda dated all through grad school, on the precipice of getting engaged and they parted ways, mainly because he was determined to move to LA after graduation and she didn't want to leave New York.
The passage of time served to erase any bitterness and though they'd sporadically kept in touch, he hadn't seen her in over ten years.
"Look, I'm not saying not to go, babe. Not in so many words," she said in response to his incredulity. "I'm just..." She puffed out her cheeks, sighing.
