“What? What are you laughing at?”
“You were out all night, weren’t you? You just now got home!”
“Huh? What makes you say that?!” He protested, but I knew my childhood friend well enough to know when he was feigning ignorance. “What are you talking about?”
“Your clothes, Leo.” Gently, I turned over the pile of clothes on the floor with my feet. “This is the same outfit you were wearing last night.”
He groaned, guilty.
“Soooo?” I asked in a gossipy tone. “What’d you do? Where’d you stay last night?”
“Tavi.” Slowly, he poked his head out from behind the shower curtain, his face long and stern. “If this is going to work, you know it’s better if we don’t ask each other those kinds of questions.”
What if I don’t want it to work?
“Since when is, ‘where did you sleep last night’ such a dangerous question?” I teased.
“If you really want to play that game, I could ask you a million questions about what you’re up to at Stanford.”
“That’s easy. I’m studying theater.”
“Oh,ha ha.You know what I mean, Tavi.”
“Idoknow what you mean, and that’s still my answer.”
“Really?” He puffed with disbelief. “So you’re telling me, in your three years at Stanford, you haven’t been swept off your feet by that tortured soul painting major who is far too pretty for his own good? You haven’t had an incredibly cute but dumb-as-a-rock jock make you weak in the knees? You haven’t found yourself getting into trouble with a bad boy who has so many red flags, he could start a flag football team?” By this point, we were both struggling to hold back laughter. “You never whisked that tall, quiet, skinny guy into the library stack to see if the rumors about hismassivecock are true?”
“I’ve had a couple flings, sure,” I said, still giggling at his list of irresistible college boy archetypes. “But nothing serious.”
“Well, there you go. Same story with me,” he said. “We can, and will, each have our dalliances. Everyone does it. Just be smart about it. And remember the two rules.”
The two rules:keep it secret,andkeep it away from home.
We stopped talking, and the only sound was the rushing water while Leo showered. My stomach churned. Ihadto say something, even if he didn’t like it.
I took a deep breath and blurted it out before I could think better of it.
“But don’t you get sick of it, Leo?”
Again, he hesitated.
“Sick of what?” His tone held a hint of caution.
Tread carefully.
“Pretending to be something we’re not? I mean … ” I trailed off. “Wouldn’t you rather peopleknow?”
“Ottavia.” The way he spoke my name told methiswas the most dangerous question I’d asked yet. “Don’t talk like that. You know what’s been planned for us.Bothof us. And we’d be fools to throw it all away.”
Sigh.
“Yeah. You’re right,” I said.
He shut the water off, and I knew our conversation had come to an end.
“Here.” I passed him a towel around the curtain and made for the door. But before I left, I turned back. “Hey, super random question. But you didn’t post anything an ad about a fake girlfriend on Craigslist today, did you?”
“Craigslist?Me?” He laughed. “Why would Ievergo on Craigslist? Better yet, what wereyoudoing on Craiglist, Tavi?”
