Halston nods, glancing back to Klein. “I like this one. Anybody who thinks you’re gross is a friend of mine.” She turns to me. “Do you want breakfast? I bet you’re hungry after last night.”
An embarrassed warmth fills my cheeks. “Starving.”
“Perfect, I’ll order two of Klein’s breakfast.”
“You have your own breakfast?” I ask Klein. His elbows rest on the bar, his chin nesting on the heel of his right palm.
“She calls it that because I come in here every Saturday morning and eat before I go to soccer.”
“You play soccer?” I ask, pouncing on this morsel of information. I don’t know why I find it so interesting.
“I play matches for fun once a week, but on Saturdays, I coach my nephew’s recreational team. Or I used to, anyway, before my nephew joined a club.” Klein glances at his watch. “Today is his first game with his new team.”
I stare at him without meaning to, trying to decide if he’s lying about coaching his nephew’s soccer team, or if he really is quite possibly a nice guy. The thought makes me shift in my seat. In my memory, he has been a villain. But coaching his nephew’s recreational soccer team? That’s hero uncle status, and it does not fit inside the box I’ve put him in.
“Hmm,” I say, because there’s no way I’ll say what I’m really thinking.
Halston watches me from her computer with shrewd eyes. I am almost positive she sees right through me. “It’s really too bad you guys are already breaking up,” she says, fingers tapping at the screen as she places our breakfast order. “You have chemistry.”
Klein pretends to elbow me. “No, we don’t,” he argues.
Yes, we do. Hence why I pulled you into my bathroom once upon a time and suctioned my lips to yours.
Halston ignores him. She makes a water for each of us, placing them on the bar. “Explain to me why you are both good liars, and why you have to tell people you’re breaking up when you weren’t together in the first place?”
I drink all my water in one go, then deliver the story. Klein interjects to insist he didn’t mean for everyone to believe us last night. He didn’t fully think of what he was saying until he spoke.
“I hate to break it to you,” Halston says when I finish telling the story, “but you can’t show up to your sister’swedding to your college sweetheart without a date. Even worse, fresh from a ‘break up’. Double loser status.”
I suck in a horrified breath. “Why didn’t I think of that?” I turn on Klein.
He’s ready with a palm extended to block me, eyes wide in defense. “You asked me to say something a boyfriend would say, remember? To whomever you were on the phone with last night?”
He has a point, but I’m unwilling to budge. Besides, I could’ve turned that into a story, told my sister I’d roped some random guy into saying that. “You made this worse. They put eyes on you.” I groan into my hands. “Seriously? I run into you after all this time, and you immediately managed to make something in my life worse.”
He stares at me like he’s trying to decide how to respond, and then he shocks me by admitting, “You’re right, I did.”
“Way to go, Klein,” Halston adds. “Now you have to clean up the mess you made.”
He raises his eyebrows at her. “And how do you suggest I go about doing that?”
She smiles slowly, savoring whatever idea has just popped into her brain. “You’re going to be her fake date to her sister’s wedding. On an island. Across the country.” Halston grins broadly.
Klein shakes his head.No. Halston is already nodding. “Yes.”
I’m on Klein’s side, shaking my head right alongside him. But then… The wisdom of Halston’s suggestion sinks into me. On its face, sure, it’s a terrible idea. But when you disassemble the idea and look at it for its parts, well… It may actually be ingenious.
“Listen to me,” I say, grabbing Klein’s shoulder and shaking it. “Do you need help marketing your book?”
He nods reluctantly.
“I’ll help. I own a digital marketing firm.”
His eyebrows cinch in the center. “You own it? Your mom made it sound like you worked at a marketing firm.”
At least my mom will talk about my career. My dad prefers to act like it doesn’t exist.
“It’s mine,” I confirm. The plan forms in my mind as I speak. Excitement snakes through my limbs, soothing my hangover in a way nothing else could. “I will market your book in exchange for you pretending to be my boyfriend for one week.”
