Finally, he lets out a long, slow breath. “That went well.”
“Well?” I untangle myself from his arm. “She denied everything, insulted me, and still expects you at this formal. She acted like nothing happened.”
“She thinks she’s calling our bluff. She thinks I’ll cave by Friday.” He looks at me, and the wolfish grin is back. “She doesn’t know who she’s dealing with.”
“Chase—”
“It clearly bothers her, Finn. This thing with us. That’s why she’s pushing so hard. The formal is her power play. She thinks she has the upper hand.” He slides off the bed, completely unconcerned about his state of undress, and starts pacing the small space between the bed and the door. “We can’t back down. Not now.”
I sit on the edge of his bed, my lips still tingling from kissing him, my body still humming from the adrenaline. My mind is a knot of confusion. “Don’t tell me you want to… double down?”
“Fuck yeah, I want to double down. She wants me at the formal on Friday? Fine. We’ll be there.” He stops pacing and stands in front of me.
I look up at him, at the solid wall of his chest, the hard lines of his abs. “We?”
“Yeah, we. You and me. As a date.”
A choked laugh escapes my lips. “You’re not serious. You can’t be serious.”
“I’ve never been more serious in my life.” He’s got that intense look again, the one that got me into this bed in the first place. “What, you don’t think we can pull it off? That kiss seemed pretty convincing to me.”
My face heats up. “That was for Brittany. This is… this is real. In public. In front of your friends.”
“Brittany will lose her fucking mind.” He kneels in front of me, so we’re at eye level. He smells so good. That’s the thought that keeps popping into my head, unwanted. He smells sofuckinggood. “Look, I know this is a lot. It’s insane. But she fucked with us. She literally denied you two were even a thing. Made you out to be some kind of delusional stalker. You’re gonna let her get away with that?”
“No, but?—”
“Look, you’re a great actor, man. You sold that kiss. Sold it hard enough that I almost bought it myself.” He chuckles. “So why don’t you stay a little longer, and we can rehearse for Friday?”
“Rehearse?”
“Yeah, you know. Work on our story. Do a little research.” He gives me a lazy, confident smile. “Besides, crazy as she is, Brittany’s probably circling the building right now. If she seesyou leave, she’ll know it was all a show. We’ve got to keep up appearances for a bit.”
I should say no. I should grab my three-hundred-dollar bracelet and go back to my dorm, where I can lick my wounds and figure out how to deal with this whole mess on my own. We made our point. This has gone far enough.
And yet… I’m intrigued. By him. By this unhinged plan. By the look in his eyes that says we’re in this together. And he has a good point about her possibly circling the building like a vulture. I don’t want to see her again tonight.
“Alright,” I say. “Let’s figure this out.”
“Excellent.”
He stands up and grabs two more beers from the mini-fridge, handing one to me. Then he grabs his laptop from the desk and starts clicking around. After a minute, he plops down on the bed right next to me with the screen open. I glance over and nearly spit out my beer.
The screen is full of thumbnails of naked dudes in all kinds of positions.
“The fuck, Chase?” I choke out.
“Research.” He clicks on a video. Two guys on a spotless white couch are making out. “We’re playing gay guys. Gotta study the subject matter.”
5
The moaning from the laptop fills the room as we sit in silence, sipping our beers. Watching gay porn with the guy my girlfriend cheated with, wearing nothing but my stupid reindeer boxers, was definitely not on tonight’s bingo card. But then again, this whole day has been a series of increasingly bizarre events.
“Have you ever watched this stuff before?” Chase asks outright.
“No. Can’t say that I have.”
“Me neither.” He takes a long pull from his beer.
