The Sweet Life #2: Lies and Omissions Francine Pascal (manga ereader txt) 📖

messages and showed them to Lila, who skimmed them quickly.

“Sounds like he wants you back,” Lila said.

“Yes, but…” She paused. “It’s complicated. He knows I went out with Liam.”

“So?” Lila shrugged. “Who cares about drinks and dinner? So what?”

Jessica grew quiet. It was about that time that Lila realized she’d been sidetracked—again. Who cared about Todd? And why was she talking about Jessica’s problems? She could feel herself getting sucked into the Jessica Show, and frankly, she just didn’t have the time.

“Back to me: I need a plan,” Lila said. “Calling Ken isn’t working. I need to do something else.”

“I need a plan, too,” Jessica said. “I know I could have a chance with Todd, but I don’t know how to make it happen.”

“Since when do we sit around and wait for the guys to come to us? We have to be proactive.”

“You’re right, proactive. I like that.” Jessica agreed. “We make the first move and they don’t stand a chance.”

Lila snapped her fingers. “Ken has a game tomorrow night,” she said. “I could be waiting for him afterward. I could wear my new Jason Wu micromini with the plunging neckline. He’s never been able to resist my…assets.”

“I could ask Todd on a date…somewhere special,” Jessica mused, in her own world again.

The fact that neither friend was actually talking about the same thing or providing needed advice on either topic didn’t seem to matter. The two friends had been talking past each other for years.

And these two had never been losers and weren’t about to start now.

Chapter Two

Ever since she’d slept with Liam O’Connor, Jessica had wanted to forget it ever happened. Even now, as she sat in her living room watching Lila back out of her driveway, she couldn’t even remember all the details.

So far, it was the only sticking point in her plan to win Todd back, and her mind kept going back to that night. If Todd ever found out…Well, she was pretty sure he’d never want to be with her again.

She could barely remember most of what had happened. She knew that his growing fan base in Los Angeles and elsewhere would be shocked to hear that she’d barely even registered his lean and muscled camera-ready physique. She had closed her eyes, allowing her body to respond to the sexual sensations, and lost herself in the moment.

She’d lost herself so much that she didn’t even really remember what it had felt like. Jessica should’ve been thrilled to be with Liam, who had just landed on People’s Sexiest Men Alive list. His title? Sexiest Import. He’d even sounded ridiculously close-up worthy when he murmured in a hint of an Irish brogue, “I love you, Jessica.” But those words hadn’t made her heart soar like they should have.

She saw clearly now that she never should have slept with him at all.

But she knew why she had.

Because she had thought about Todd and Sarah fucking like rabbits all night, every night. She thought of them in all the positions of the Kama Sutra and then some. Jessica’s imagination was relentless and horrible, and then the anger came, and there was really nothing to do but have sex with Liam.

She thought he would cure her of Todd.

Isn’t that what rebounds were for? Like sorbet between courses in a Michelin-starred restaurant. Cleanse the palate and move on.

But that’s not what had happened. Instead of helping her forget, everything Liam did—from the way he touched her to the faint smell of his strange, so-not-Todd cologne—only served to remind her of all the many, many ways he was not Todd and never would be.

And it was Todd she wanted. Forever and always.

Jessica glanced at the phone in her hand, scrolling through Todd’s texts for the hundredth time. There in those sentences she saw everything she’d ever wanted to hear from Todd since he’d moved out several months ago. It had been what she had been waiting for this whole time. He was sorry for the awful things he’d said. He loved her. He wanted her back. He didn’t think their love was a sham.

THERE’S NOTHING BETWEEN SARAH AND ME.

I DON’T WANT HER OR ANYONE ELSE. I ONLY WANT YOU, JESSICA.

Just reading those words made her heart sing—and then sink like a rock. Why hadn’t she known this before she’d slept with Liam? If only she’d insisted on turning back and getting her phone that night instead of letting Liam talk her out of it.

Her phone dinged. She looked at the face, hoping to see Todd’s name, but instead saw Liam’s. She exhaled a frustrated sigh. It was yet another message from Liam. He seemed to be texting her every hour on the hour. It was getting annoying. She’d gotten two from him while Lila was here. The rest had been related to Bruce’s PR, but Liam was moving into a close second for demands on her time.

HAVEN’T HEARD FROM YOU. HOPE EVERYTHING IS OKAY?

She clicked delete and pulled up the messages from Todd again. She had to play this just right. She didn’t want to blow it. He knew she’d gone out with Liam. He’d begun with his heartfelt apologies, and then it ended with the phone call to Liza, her nanny.

She knew Todd. There had to be anger, jealousy, and suspicion. With good reason. He knew.

Or did he?

That night, she’d almost texted him immediately and begged his forgiveness. Even though, she reminded herself, they were separated and he was screwing that lying, cheating excuse for a journalist. Jessica had been the one to discover Sarah Miller had plagiarized her newspaper stories—basically taking quotes from Jessica word for word and trying to pass them off as her own writing. The fact that she revealed the information to the Tribune, which subsequently fired Sarah, happened to be a short-lived victory—mainly because Todd had gone ballistic and accused her of making it all up.

Really, when she thought about it, she had every right to fuck Liam.

She knew that. But