Free Secondhand Boyfriends by Jessa Jeffries

famous.”
    He scrunched his face and shifted a bit in his seat. My question clearly made him uncomfortable and I didn’t understand why.
    “I guess I see her sometimes,” he said. “Why?”
    “I just think it’s cool that you live by her,” I said. Good bluff, I told myself. “I watch her on the news all the time to see what she’s wearing.”
    He laughed. He probably thought I was a typical girl.
    “Do you ever talk to her or anything?” I asked.
    I could tell he wanted to get back to his game. I felt like I was annoying him.
    “Um, just casually I guess,” he said. He raised his remote and started the game back up.
    “I just found out that my boss is her stepmom,” I said.
    “Julianne is your boss?” he asked as he turned towards me.
    I furrowed my brows. “How do you know Julianne?”
    “Oh,” he said as he stalled a bit. “Um.”
    He picked up the remote and paused the game again. He was totally trying to buy time.
    “I helped them move some things when she first moved in,” he said. “I met her family then. Her stepmom was really nice and brought me dinner. I guess I just remember her from that.”
    “Oh, okay,” I said. It made sense, but I wasn’t so sure I was buying what he was trying to sell. If he hadn’t acted so weird about it, it might have been more believable.
    He resumed his game and fast forwarded through the commercials, and I’d decided to officially end all talk about Ayla Giovanni for the time being. I never expected to get that sort of a weird reaction from him, and now it was going to bother me.
    “Hey,” I said. “I have a favor to ask of you. And you can say no. It’s not a huge deal.”
    “Okay, sure,” he said, though his eyes remained glued to the game.
    “I have this stupid little work party coming up,” I said. “It’s like an awards banquet. Attendance is mandatory, but there’s awesome catering and free drinks. Would you maybe want to go with me?”
    He turned towards me and smiled. “Sure, why not.”
    “Really?” I was shocked that it was that simple with him. He didn’t even have to give it a second thought.
    “You had me at free food and drinks,” he said as he reached over and patted my knee with his hand.
    “Oh!” he yelled out as he stood up. He muttered a few profanities at the screen before sitting back down. “Damn it.”
    I looked up at the score to see that it was a very close game. They were going into overtime. His head clearly wasn’t into our “game,” but I was just happy he’d agreed to go with me to that banquet. Things were headed in a promising direction.
     
     

CHAPTER 9
     
     
     
     
     
    My stupid awards banquet was a week after our Saturday afternoon hang out session. I’d forgotten to mention to Bennett that it was a black tie affair until the day before, but luckily he just so happened to have a tuxedo hanging in his closet. That Bennett was a classy guy.
    He picked me up in his squad car, he in his tux and I in my black, floor length, strapless gown, and we headed downtown to the Crystal Ballroom. The Harrisville Tribune was the biggest newspaper in the area, and when things went digital several years ago, they were one of the first to jump on board when all the other newspapers were stuck trying to hold onto traditional paper publications.
    Because of that, Harrisville was able to buy out a few other local papers and made some good investments with some online news and advertising companies. They could afford fancy banquets and competitive wages for their employees. I was lucky to be a part of the group, even if my job could’ve been easily outsourced to a computer.
    “You look amazing,” he said with a grin as he opened the car door for me. He couldn’t peel his eyes off of me the entire time.
    I climbed in, pulling the rest of my dress behind me, and noticed he’d cleaned up his car. It no longer smelled like day-old donuts and all the other things it had smelled like before. The dash was oiled up and