“It’s not his place to tell you that.”
“Oh, I know. But he was pestering me anyway. Such a jerk. Two weeks ago, I was at Reilly’s after work, and he’d texted a few times, but I was ignoring him. Gabe was at the bar too, and we were just chatting, normal stuff, you know.”
“You do not just chat up randos at a bar. That’s not really your thing,” he pointed out.
“Well, that night it was. I don’t know, he seemed nice and hadn’t been in before.”
“I’m missing the connection here.”
“I’m getting there.”
“Slowly.”
“Shut up,” I grumbled. “Anyway, we were sharing fries and chatting.”
“You shared food with a stranger?” His brow launched up again.
I huffed. I loved him, but damn he was annoying sometimes. “It was fries and he offered. Also, you can’t give me shit about taking too long to fill you in and then keep interrupting me.”
He waved his hand at me. “Please, sister dear, continue.”
I stuck my tongue out at him. “So anyway, I was finishing up my lovely chat when Roger walked into the bar, calling out my name.”
“Seriously?” Mal exclaimed. I sent him a glare. “Okay, keep going. But seriously, what is that fucker’s problem? No means goddamn no.”
“I know. Well, I was just tired of dealing with Roger with logic, so I asked Gabe to kiss me.”
Mal scooted closer, his eyes wide. “You did not.”
“Umm, yeah, mental lapse or something, I don’t even fucking know. But he’d already noticed that someone was blowing up my phone, so I’d given him a few snippets about Roger, and Gabeis just a really nice guy and agreed, so we could hopefully send Roger a fucking hint since it was clear words weren’t enough.”
“Okay, while I very much want to kill Roger, this is a total rom-com setup.”
“No, it’s not. We are not a movie.”
“Did that first kiss make your toes tingle?” His stupid eyes twinkled. “Did you lift one leg?”
“Of course not.”
“You’re a terrible liar.”
“If that’s the case, how am I pulling off this fake dating thing so well?” I shot back.
“Fine, fine. So he kissed you. Fireworks.” He narrowed his eyes on me when I started to open my mouth. “Don’t even try denying it. So, fireworks, kiss, Roger gets the hint?”
“I wish. Turns out Gabe’s a hockey player. Yeah, we know that now, but I didn’t when I asked him to kiss me. And then it turns out he’s a goalie on top of it all. I have the worst luck with men.”
He barked out a laugh. “Yeah, even the supposedly fake-boyfriend ones.”
“Would you stop that? It’s not real.”
“So then what?”
“Roger was a dick and made comments about Gabe picking up his leftovers.”
“I swear to everything that I’m going to junk punch him if I see him again. I don’t even care that he’s stronger than me. I’m quicker.”
I couldn’t help but smile at my brother’s defense.
