Xavier runs a frustrated hand through his hair and then his shoulders deflate. “I’m angry too, okay? I’mfuriousthat they did this to you. You don’t deserve that shit, you deserve . . . shit, you deserve for your friends and family to be there for you the way you are for them. They hurt you and I can’t let that stand.”
“Oh.”
She wants to roll her eyes at herself. What a ridiculous answer to one of the sweetest things anyone has ever said to her in her entire life.
“So is that enough of a reason for you?”
Nodding, she tries desperately to figure out what to say, but the only thing that comes out of her mouth is, “Can I at least, like . . . I don’t know, pay you or something?”
She cringes at herself. “You have a bunch of extra cash I don’t know about?”
“No,” she says, biting her lip and sighing heavily, “obviously, but I still feel like . . .”
“Listen, how about this: how about you let me stay with you for the summer? I need a place to crash before I leave for Greece and it has the added bonus of giving our story more credence. We’re engaged, why wouldn’t we live together?”
It’s probably a colossal mistake, but one she’s suddenly happy to make.
“Okay, yeah, that’s good. You’ll stay here, everyone will think we want to spend as much time as we can together until you leave, and then after you leave, we can just tell everyone that we’re calling it off, that it didn’t work out.”
“Exactly, that it was too fast and we rushed into it and our lives aren’t following the same path, no matter how much we wish that was different. Your life is here and mine is in Greece and wherever that takes me next.”
It’s like a rush of cold water being dumped over her head.
Because in the middle of all the lies, there’s the hard truth.
Their livesaren’tfollowing the same path and at the end of the summer, they’ll go their separate ways. Which is definitely something she’s not going to think about right now, because if she scrapes even just a little bit more beneath the surface of not wanting him to go, she’s pretty sure she won’t like what she finds.
He nods, like it’s sealing their agreement. “Okay, we’re gonna need a better story. Erik saw through my bullshit in like half a second tonight.”
“What did you say?”
“That we hooked up and it was so good we decided we didn’t want to hook up with anyone else ever.”
“I’m not surprised he didn’t buy it.”
“No?”
“There’s more to a relationship than good sex.”
“But it’s a good start.”
“It’s a very good start.”
“You know that I don’t mean . . . I don’t think we should be fucking just to keep up appearances.”
“I’m so glad you think that because that was definitely never on the table.”
“Wait, so not on the table, but we could . . .”
“Xavier.”
“Yeah, boss?”
“You’re ridiculous.”
“Yeah, I know, but you’re in love with me, remember? So you have to think it’s charming.”
It’s enough to break the tension, the sense that they’re deliberately getting in over their heads gone, for now.
