"Um...no, Keira. I've seen Rory naked plenty of times." He smiled at me.
"Okay," Rory said. "That's enough. New group rule. I think that now that Keira and I are official, you guys can't flirt with her anymore."
"I wasn't flirting with her," Jackson said.
"You just implied that you wanted to see her naked."
Jackson laughed. "I've never really seen you jealous before. Is that why you gave her a hickey? To mark your territory?"
Shit. I put my hand on the side of my neck. Connor looked up at me. I could tell he was trying to not look hurt. He gave me a small smile.
"Do you mind if I see that?" I asked, gesturing toward the paper. "One of my friends had an article that was supposed to come out and I wanted to read it."
"Yeah, sure. What section?"
"I don't remember where she said it would be. Could I just see the whole thing real quick?"
Connor gave me a strange look and slid the paper toward me. "What section are your articles posted in, Keira?" he asked while I looked for the editorial section. "I actually bought the paper so we could check out some of your work."
"None of my articles have been picked up ever since you guys moved in. I've been too distracted to write anything good. Plus hanging out with you guys takes up a surprisingly large amount of time. Besides, I don't know how much I like writing for The Post anymore. They've been really annoying recently. I think I might look for a new job. And then you can read all the new good stuff I write." I found the editorial section and pulled it out. I pushed the rest of the paper back toward Connor. When I looked up, Rory was staring at me.
"You're totally lying," Rory said.
"What? No I'm not." I put the editorial section down by my side.
Rory laughed. "Yes you are. You always ramble when you're lying."
"I wasn't rambling. I'm just talking like a normal person. Everyone has work problems. Let's discuss that. Who wants to go first?"
"And you get this cute little worry line on your forehead whenever you lie."
"No I don't." I put my hand on my forehead. Am I seriously getting wrinkles already?
"And you're blushing."
"Okay, right, well I'm blushing because now I think I have wrinkles." I slowly moved the paper behind my back.
"Give it to me." Rory held out his hand.
"Give you what?" I clutched the paper as tightly as I could and backed away from him.
"I just want to see what kind of stuff you write."
"I don't write anything worth reading. Really, Rory, you don't need to read it."
"So you do have an article in the paper today?" He smiled at me.
I sighed. "Yes, okay? Can we please do something else now?"
He smiled at me. "I don't think so." He reached for the paper, but I dodged him. I started to run away but he grabbed me and started tickling me.
"Oh my God, Rory, stop!" I laughed as I tried to fight him off. "I can't breathe!"
Rory easily grabbed the paper and held it up in the air and backed away from me.
"Rory!" I jumped and tried to grab the paper but he was so much taller than me. "Seriously, give it back."
Rory tossed the paper to Jackson.
Oh God. "Come on guys. It's boring and lame and let's do something else, please."
"What, are you writing about us or something?" Jackson asked as he started scanning through the editorial section.
I ran into the kitchen and tried to snatch the paper from him. "No, you guys are weird. No one wants to read about you."
"Harsh."
I leaned forward. My hand slipped onto his thigh as I reached for the paper.
"I'm pretty sure you have to worry about Keira getting fresh with me, not the other way around," Jackson said.
I quickly pulled away. "I'm not."
"I know." He laughed and tossed the paper to Connor.
Damn it! "Connor, give me the paper."
"Sorry, Keira. I'm curious too." He dropped the part of the paper that didn't contain my article onto the floor.
"What is wrong with you guys?" I grabbed Connors arm to try to get the paper, but he put his hand on my shoulder to hold me back.
"You're being ridiculous, Keira," he said. "Oh, here it is. There's a picture of her and everything!" He tossed the paper to Rory.
"No!" I ran over to Rory and jumped on his back. I covered his eyes with my hands so he couldn't read the article. But it prevented me from knocking the paper out of his hand.
He started laughing as he easily peeled my hands off his eyes.
"Rory, I need to talk to you. Please don't read that." My heart was beating so fast that it felt like it was going to explode. I slid off his back and reached for the paper again.
Rory hopped up on the counter to avoid me and then cleared his throat. "How to Play With a Player. Step 5: Make Him Jealous." The smile on Rory's face quickly faded. His eyes darted back and forth as he began to read the article.
"Rory stop."
"What the hell is this?"
"I can explain."
"Is this about me?" He looked so mad.
"Rory please get down. I can explain," I said again.
He just stared at me. I was wrong, he didn't look mad. He looked hurt. And that was so much worse. Rory's look alone was enough to make me suddenly feel cold. But Connor and Jackson's eyes on me seemed to make my whole body shiver.
"Please can we talk in private?"
"Now you think privacy is important?" He held up the paper.
"Rory, I'm so, so sorry. I came up with the idea after our first night together. I never wanted a one night stand. When you said that was it I didn't know what to do. It killed me. I couldn't let it be one night."
"So you wrote an article about how to mess with my head?"
"No." Shit. Kind of. "That wasn't the premise, Rory. And I never wanted to just be friends with benefits either. My editor made me change it. I just wrote what she wanted. Not everything in the article is even true. Some of it's just made up."
"Why didn't you just talk to me?"
"I tried to tell you how I felt. You made it very clear that you didn't want anything past that one night."
"What are you talking about? I asked you to be my girlfriend."
"That was after I wrote the articles."
"Then what was the original premise, Keira?"
"I wanted more. I wanted you to love me back."
"Stop saying that you love me! You don't love me." He jumped off the counter and tossed the paper at me. "Obviously you don't love me."
He did hear me before. "I do love you, Rory. I love you so much."
"Stop. This whole thing was stupid anyway. I never should have asked you out. Nothing good lasts forever."
"What are you talking about?"
"If Connor and Cindy didn't last, no one's going to last with me. They were perfect together. I'm a mess. How could you possibly love someone like me?"
I wanted to cry. It wasn't just my article that he was upset about. Does he really not think that someone could love him? How can the man that I love so much feel that way? "You're not a mess. I think that you're perfect, Rory. And I think we're perfect together."