I let him in, closing the door behind us.
“Hey,” he says to Mila. “I heard you had a rough night.”
“Yeah,” she says, unsure.
“I’m sorry you couldn’t get hold of me,” he says, turning back to me. “But Eric was here, right?” he asks, suggestively.
“Cut it out!” I grab the bottle from his hand and walk into the kitchen to put it down.
“What have I said?”
“It’s all your fault.”
“My fault? What have I done now?”
“You suggested this whole farce.”
“Me? I just suggested you do my friend a favour. Not pretend to be with him for… How long?”
“Twenty-one days,” I say.
A knot in my stomach reminds me just how quickly the days are passing; that soon, I won’t even have the luxury of pretending.
“It was only supposed to be for one evening,” Jake reminds me.
“Well, things got complicated.”
“You two are the ones complicating it. I have nothing to do with it.”
“You should’ve guessed this would happen,” Mila interjects. “Have you ever seen my brother lie?”
“He was only supposed to go to one dinner with him! Not sleep with him!”
“Hey, hey, hey!” I stop him. “No one’s sleeping with anyone.”
“Yet!” adds Mila.
“Nothing has happened between us,” I clear up.
Except maybe a few kisses. And caresses. And eyes. A lot of eyes.
God!Those eyes!
“And when the holidays are over… We’ll be over, too.”
“Do you really believe that?” Jake asks my sister.
“Please! Have you seen the state of him? And they haven’t even slept together yet! Imagine after they do!”
“There won’t be an ‘after’,” I say. “Not for me, and not for him. When this whole thing is over, we’ll just be friends.”
“Friends?” Jake asks.
“That’s what I said.”
“You’ve never wanted to be his friend.
I shrug. “Things change.”
