His Fair Lady by Kimberly Gardner Page B

practice.”
    “Oh.” Mark felt relief like warm water flowing through him. “How’d it go?”
    “Fine, except I have to learn the stupid Willow Song, or I’m total toast.”
    “The one Desdemona sings? Vi knows that song. I saw her do it in Othello the summer before last. She could probably teach it to you in like five minutes.”
    “Yeah, but she wasn’t in a sharing mood, I guess. She told me there’s a movie version of Othello where the actress sings the song, but she claimed she couldn’t remember what version it was. So now all I have to do is find the right movie, and I’m set.”
    Bitch, Mark thought but didn’t say. Why the fuck wouldn’t Vi help Josie with that one little piece of information? He knew damn well she remembered the movie. That chick never forgot anything.
    “I’ll help you find it,” Mark said.
    “Yeah? That would be great.” Josie had her hair bunched in one hand and was sliding it through her fingers. It was a thing she did when she was nervous.
    Mark took Josie’s hands and soothed them apart. “We’ll go look through the catalog in the film department. Or we can ask Dr. Hathaway. I think he knows every movie ever made.”
    “That’s a great idea. I wish I had thought of it.” Josie twined her fingers with Mark’s and squeezed.
    Mark squeezed back. “Joes, I want to talk about the other night, about what happened.”
    Josie went very still, her hand going lax in his. “What about it?”
    But she wouldn’t look at him. Instead she was focused somewhere over his right shoulder.
    He had no idea how to continue, only that they should clear some things up, but not what those things might be. He knew he’d felt like shit after leaving her apartment, and he was pretty sure she too had felt rotten after what could have been a seriously hot make-out and jerk-off session. Because Josie had known what she was doing. Holy shit! It was phenomenal.
    “It was amazing. You were amazing,” Mark said, then paused, gathering his courage. “But why’d you kick me out afterward?”
    Even as he asked the question, he knew it was ridiculous. Hadn’t he been the one who said he had an early class, though he had only said so because he’d known she was on the verge of inviting him to leave?
    Inviting him to leave? Ha. More like kicked him out. So she’d kicked him out, so what? He should just treat it like a hookup and be grateful she wasn’t the clingy type who demanded he call her afterward. The bitch of it was, he was the one who felt dissed.
    He saw the color flood her cheeks. Quickly she tilted her head, and her hair fell forward and curtained her face. She mumbled something he didn’t catch.
    “What? I didn’t hear you. And don’t hide behind your hair.” With one hand, he pushed her hair back. With the other, he tipped her chin up so he could look into her eyes.
    She averted her gaze. “I told you I had an early class.”
    “Yeah, you did. But…”
    Damn it. He didn’t know how to ask the question or even for sure what that question was. He knew only that they had done something in her apartment that should have brought them closer and instead had widened the gulf between them, making her even more inaccessible than before. But all that felt like too much to say, like it would make him seem too needy, as if he were the clingy one.
    “What?” Josie asked after what seemed like a long silence.
    Mark shook his head. “I don’t know. Nothing, I guess. It’s nothing.”
    “Ooookay.” Josie was silent for several moments before she spoke again. “I have a question for you.”
    Mark’s gut tensed. “What is it?”
    “How come you never told me you went out with Vi?”
    Crap.
    And there it was, his comeuppance.
    He should have known this might happen. If Vi caught even a whiff of anything between him and Josie—and how could she not, given she’d seen them together at the Book and Bean—no way she could resist filling Josie’s head with all kinds of stories about