There it is. Of course she knows all about Barcelona. And she’s not letting me off the hook for it.
Chloe’s shoulders tense. She still won’t look at me.
“Yeah, well.” I meet Jessa’s stare. Try for casual. Land somewhere around defensive. “That’s why it has to be someone who won’t sell me out.” I glance at Chloe, willing her to look up.
The silence stretches.
Jessa is watching me like she’s waiting for me to confess to murder, while Chloe studies her coffee, which apparently has become very interesting.
“And your contract renewal?” Jessa presses. “What happens if you don’t fix this?”
“I don’t get renewed. Maybe get traded. Maybe get dropped altogether.” All because I can’t seem to convince people I’m capable of being a real person.
Chloe and Jessa exchange a look.
“And you thought,” Jessa says slowly, “that asking Chloe—who you ghosted six months ago—to fake date you was a good solution to this problem?”
“I didn’t say it was a good solution. I said it was the solution I have.”
“Why?” Chloe asks again. Quieter this time. “Why not someone else? Why me?”
“Because you’re real. You don’t care about the hockey thing. You didn’t even know who I was. And I?—”
I what? Miss you? Think about you constantly? Spent six months trying to forget you and failed spectacularly?
“I just…trust you,” I finish lamely. “And I don’t trust people. So. Yeah. That’s why you.”
The apartment fills with a different kind of quiet. Not the warm, intimate quiet Chloe and I shared minutes earlier. This one is heavy. Almost insurmountable. Suffocating.
“Chloe,” Jessa says carefully. “Can I talk to you for a second? Privately?”
“No.” Chloe doesn’t break eye contact with me. “Whatever you want to say, say it here.”
Jessa huffs but moves into the room properly, sitting down on the couch next to Chloe. United front. Great. Honestly, I’m glad Chloe has someone to stand up for her. I wish she didn’t feel like she had to stand up for Chloeagainst me,but still.
“If she does this,” Jessa says, looking at me now, “there are conditions.”
“Okay.”
“You don’t even know what they are yet.”
“Doesn’t matter. If they’re reasonable, I’ll agree.”
Jessa’s eyebrows rise. “You’re that desperate?”
“I’m that desperate.”
She studies me for a long moment. Then nods, like I’ve passed some test. “Five events. Like I said, you show up to all of them. You play the part of devoted boyfriend convincingly enough that Chloe’s family believes it.”
“Done.”
“You don’t embarrass her. You don’t make her look stupid. You treat her like she’s the best thing that ever happened to you.”
Something in my chest tightens. “Done.”
“After the end of the last event, the wedding on Valentine’s Day, you two have a big, public fight. Chloe’s the heartbroken one. You’re the jerk who couldn’t commit. Her family rallies around her, stops trying to set her up, and leaves her alone.”
I hesitate. That one stings. Being the villain again. Hurting her publicly after hurting her privately in Barcelona. And doing it on Valentine’s Day, because apparently, I’m destined to be that guy.
