Tempting /A Jordan Knight fanfic ✔️

23

Chapter 23: A Necessary Change

The leasing office felt cold and much smaller than it looked online.

The plastic chair I'd been sitting in signing paperwork and waiting for my credit score to be run was similar to the ones used in my middle school, every bit as squeaky and uncomfortable.

Patrice—the leasing office manager—didn't make things much more comfortable either. Once she knew she didn't have to do the whole spiel to sell me on renting one of her apartments, she pretty much stopped trying at all.

"You bringing any pets with you?" Patrice asked, tapping the butt of her cigarette against the chipping, golden ashtray on her desk.

"No, ma'am."

"And it's just you movin' in? No boyfriends or girlfriends or anything?"

Sucking in a breath, I answered, "Nope."

Thank you for the painful reminder, Patrice.

She rolled her paled lips together and exchanged her cigarette for a pen. "All right, sign here and here on the next seven pages and we'll be set for you to move in by the end of the month. Assuming that your check doesn't bounce, that is." She gave me a warning glance and I shook my head vigorously, assuring her that my check would clear.

I left my soon-to-be new home around a half hour later with a copy of my new lease and a sizable dent in my savings.

As I hopped back in my car, I thought about how I was doing the right thing. I thought about how I was making a decision that would benefit everyone currently in that house.

I couldn't stay there anymore. Not now that I knew about Jordan, and especially not now that I used what I knew about Jordan against him.

I made him jealous on purpose yesterday, shoving my date with Peter in his face, and that was bad. That was worse than bad. I shouldn't have wanted it to matter to Jordan that I might sleep with another man, but I did and I took it too far. Even if what Jordan told me two nights ago was a lie or if he really didn't remember our conversation that night, I still needed to leave. I was one breath away from kissing a man that wasn't mine two nights ago. Had he not stopped it, I never would have.

I hadn't put the pieces together until yesterday, but everything I despised Daniel and Hannah for, I almost became. And so easily. It couldn't have been more than a few minutes that he had me trapped with his words and the idea of a kiss. That was all it took, though.

A couple hundred seconds to make a terrible decision that would have destroyed every second of my life from here on out.

For months I'd been spouting off self-righteous crap about cheating and there I was, almost giving my big sister the same heartless treatment. I was prepared to do to her what Hannah had done to me, and the second my brain put two and two together, the thought of being with Ethan corrupted instantaneously.

No matter my feelings, no matter his feelings, we could never come close to where we had two nights ago.

We could never be anything more than what Monica needed us to be.

* * *

When I arrived home, I walked into an empty house, thank goodness.

I'd planned my day around Ethan's work schedule so I'd miss seeing him completely.

Or so I thought.

As I set my stuff down on the kitchen table and made myself a sandwich, I realized my theoretically perfect plan of avoidance had gone to hell. The sound of a flushing toilet filled the house, and before I could run and hide in my bedroom, the door to the hallway bathroom swung open and Jordan walked out.