“Ah, I see.” She nods sagely, then her eyes narrow. “But do they all know how selective you are?”
“They can all see how I’m looking at you right now,” I counter.
Callie’s mouth snaps shut.
No, this is a bad idea. She’s right, and she deserves better. “I don’t want to take advantage of you. Let’s go tell?—”
“Gavin.” She stops me. “You’re making this a much bigger deal than it is. We’ve already established how unselective I am, right? I’m good with it. Besides, Patty and Douglas thought we were together anyway. And I’ll probably never see any of you again.”
Something weird and cold shoots through my chest. I don’t like the sound of that at all. Why doesn’t it make me feel any better? I’m a man. I can tell Blair to give me space and she’ll have to give me space. Right?
Very well. I can admit how unlike Blair that sounds. The woman is more toxic than a vat of green biohazard waste. The way she arrived in my life again a few years ago once my books made it big is proof. Callie made for a good repellent, and I’m grateful for her help. But this won’t work if it’s just benefitting me. “What do you get out of it, Callie?”
She grins widely. “Maybe a few pictures to put on Instagram, just to show my ex how I won the breakup.”
“How you won?” I repeat.
“You’re way hotter than him, and he’ll know it.”
All that cold discomfort immediately dissipates, replaced with pulsating warmth. I like knowing she’s attracted to me. Imade assumptions, given our first evening at the pub, but hearing it from her is different. It puts a bit of steel in my back.
But it’s chased by the stark truth that she’s using me as much as I’m using her. “You want to make him jealous.”
“No…” Callie looks thoughtful, her nose wrinkling in an adorable way. “Well, maybe? I want to brag, I guess. Maybe if he thinks I’ve moved on, his girlfriend will believe it too.”
Alarm rings through me. “Have you had trouble making her believe you’re over him?”
Callie’s eyes dart to me. “My ex, Alex, is dating my clinical supervisor.”
The penny drops, and everything clicks into place. “The teacher who doesn’t like you. You want to prove you’re over Alex so she might leave you alone.”
“Small chance of that happening, but it’s a possibility. Maybe she’ll stop sabotaging my counseling schedule and pushing me behind. It’s worth trying, at least.”
“So we do this tonight, take some photographs, and when our family arrives we keep our distance.”
“No one has to know,” she agrees. “We don’t have to confirm anything, either. I think your friends will keep making assumptions on their own.”
“True.”
She pushes her finger lightly into my chest. “But once Luna gets here, it’s off. It’s her greatest wish for me to move here, so we can’t get her hopes up.”
“Deal.”
Callie pulls her phone from her pocket and turns on the camera, then holds out her arm. “Photo número uno. That’s Spanish for?—”
“I know.”
“Okay. You want to take it? Your arms are longer.”
“Sure.” I take the phone and hold it out. Callie puts her back against my chest, and I wrap my free arm around her onimpulse. Her hands cling to my forearm, and her head rests back against me. It’s such a comfortable pose, I want to stay like this, to wrap my other arm around her and breathe for a minute.
Instead, I hold out the camera and smile. Callie has a cheesy grin, sticking her tongue out the side. When I hold the phone closer so we can look at it, she relaxes against me, but doesn’t let go of my arm.
“It’s cute,” she says.
I fair love it. I’m smiling, and I look relaxed. Callie is adorable. I could bottle her up and keep her in my pocket if that wasn’t creepy.
“Will it work?” I try to sound nonchalant.
