Chapter Five
Clara
“They’re hosting the fucking Christmas party?” I yell, then quickly apologise to the people in the booth behind me. “They’re hosting the fucking Christmas party?” I ask again, whispering angrily.
Evan nods, finishing her glass of red wine that matches her lipstick colour near perfectly. I should ask her where she got it, the shade makes her lips look like a crisp apple.Focus, Clara.
“Those assholes.” My nostrils flare. “Flaunting isn’t even the right word for it. That’s downright cruel.”
“I feel like I must have done something to really piss her off.”
“What? No way. You’re the nicest person that’s ever lived,” I say.
Evan scoffs, so I fight back. “Seriously! For example, you just let me rant about my problem thatI causedfor over an hour while you were sitting on the holiday party invite from hell.”
“Right. So… back to that.” Evan pushes her glasses up her thin nose and I notice the bump she has there from tobogganing when we were teenagers. I steered us left when I should have gone right. She got whacked in the face with a branch so hard it split her glasses in two and broke her nose. I wonder if I ever apologised for that properly. I should do that.
“Hey, I’m sorry—”
“We should date.” Evan says at the same time.
“What?” I blink rapidly.
“Not like that… you have to bring a girlfriend to this gallery opening, right? To not look like a…gaud? And I have to attend a holiday party at my ex fiance’s house that she shares with her current partner in front of all of our colleagues who know some shit went down. It’s humiliating.”
“Okay…” I wait for Evan to continue, my mind whirling. Thatcouldbe from the two martinis though.
“Let’s just be each other’s dates. I’ll be your fake girlfriend, you be mine. Two nights—that’s it.”
I purse my lips. “But Natalie knows I’m straight,” I counter. “She’ll see right through it.”
“Except,” Evan’s smile is devilish, “she always thought you weren’t. She loves being right more than she’d want to have the upper hand relationship-wise. She’ll be pissed because she always suspected it and the minute she left me—”
“I swooped in,” I gasp. “How scandalous of me! I was just waiting on the sidelines for you to be single.”
“Exactly.” Evan giggles and I count that as a win. Getting full laughs out of Ev has been difficult for as long as I can remember. “It’s the perfect plan.”
A slow creeping smile appears on my face as I consider the plan. “In a few months, I’ll just pretend to be really sad and say we broke up.” I cross my arms, tapping my bicep as thoughts rush in and through me. “It really is a great plan, Ev. But…” I don’t finish my thought, distracted by my internal debate.
“Then, when or if you’re with a guy and want to bring him to gallery events, hey— you’re bi.”
“Yeah, sexuality is fluid! Things change.” I nod faster and faster. “This might be a great idea.”
“Thank you, I have them occasionally.” Evan’s crooked smile grows.
“But… it wouldn’t be weird? I mean, to pretend?”
Evan shrugs. “I don’t think so.”
"No?" I ask.
"We could make rules." She dabs her lip with a napkin, some of the lipstick leaving a stain. I really do need to ask where she got that, it’s gorgeous.
First, ask about rules."Such as?"
"No kissing."
"Ah, yes."
