“Maybe.I did come out as gay last year, so even though I have a dick, which he insists on for his daughter’s fiancé, he spent the whole night eyeing me as if I was going to whip out a rainbow top hat and yell, ‘April Fools!’”
Rachel snorted, and a little satisfaction warmed me.This whole thing was a clusterfuck, but at least I’d cheered Rachel up.Although… she was engaged to the love of her life, while mine had vanished into the woodwork, so who needed cheering was an open question.I wondered if Logan had seen the announcement pictures, and what he thought.I shouldn’t care anymore what Logan did or thought, but it was hard to shut that part of my brain off.
Rachel said, “Tell me the whole story so I know what to yell at Avery about when she emerges from her artistic frenzy.Or retreat.”
“Don’t yell at her.But okay.”I settled more comfortably on my pillows.“So there we were, her dad going on and on about how he was going to make sure she settled down, this one guy in his forties looking her over like she was a piece of meat and saying his divorce was final now.Avery had maybe had too much champagne.”
“Girl cannot hold her liquor,” Rachel noted.
“Yeah.I was standing next to her, trying to be silently supportive.”
“And glaring at the douchebags from your six-foot-five vantage point,” Rachel suggested.“I always liked that part of having you around.”
“You only love me for my body,” I teased.Rachel was a lesbian who, as far as I knew, had never even kissed a man, and had zero interest in me that way.“Anyway, Avery was getting more and more uncomfortable, so she said she was going to the bathroom.Her dad took hold of her elbow and said, ‘You can wait.Clint asked to meet you.’He nudged her toward the middle-aged asshole.Avery looked like she was panicking.She grabbed my hand and said, ‘Well, Clint’s too late, because I’m engaged to Miles.We’re getting married in the spring.’Then she went up on tiptoes and kissed me.”
“Ouch.”
“Right?”
I didn’t mind the kiss.I’d kissed a lot of women on my way to figuring out my bisexuality was so tipped to men I might as well say gay when I came out.But Avery had put me on the spot with the engagement thing, for sure.“I couldn’t contradict her without either making her look bad or looking like a douche myself.So I said, ‘I thought we were keeping that a secret, babydoll.’”
“Babydoll?”
“Well, I wasn’t pleased.It was the most irritating pet name I could come up with on the spot.I thought it might make her take a breath.”
Rachel laughed.“Avery?Take a breath?”
“My mistake.She just began running with her story, babbling about dresses and venues and cakes and such.”
“We’ve been planning…” Rachel admitted.
“I thought she was surprisingly well informed.Anyhow, her dad’s friends took off pretty fast, so her ruse worked.But then her dad called over the event photographers and announced our engagement, had them take pictures.When he got up for his speech, he told everyone that it was an extra-special day because his lovely daughter had just become engaged to the local football hero.The photos were already going up on social media, and we were stuck.”
“You meanyouwere stuck.I’m so sorry, Miles.”
“Not her best idea,” I admitted.“Although by the end of the party, her dad said he’d put ten grand in her bank account to shop for a wedding dress.”
Rachel sounded pissed.“Ten grand.Just like that, when she’s been begging for money for her art supplies for months.Fuck, why are all the wrong people rich?”
I cleared my throat.
“Oops,” she said quickly.“Except you.You’re the exception.”
“And yet, neither of you will take my money.You know, if she had, I might not be fake-engaged to her.Frankly, I’d far rather have given her the money.I mean, I don’t object to her conning art funds out of her dad, but this is not the con I’d have chosen.”
“I’ll point that out to her.It’s not the conI’dhave chosen either.Although I bet she can liberate a pretty sum with this stunt.Maybe she can get our whole wedding paid for in advance.”Rachel sighed.“What do you want to do?She’ll have to take the announcement back.”
I’d done a lot of thinking during the last twenty-eight hours, since Avery had rocked my world in a very non-romantic way.“I say, let the engagement ride, for now.If she can tap her dad’s wallet in a way that won’t be a disaster, go for it.You’re in on the game, and I’m not with anyone right now, so no one gets hurt with the fakery.”
“No one who doesn’t deserve it.You think Logan knows?”Rachel chuckled.
“We’re long over.You know that.Fuck, I hope he sees the announcement and freaks out.I hope his head is exploding.”
“Um.That doesn’t sound likeover, babe.”
“Over.Dead.Not even a random thought in the back of my mind.”Maybe if I said that enough I could make it true.Except in the shocked moment after Avery’s kiss, my first thought had been,I hope Logan doesn’t think I’m cheating on him.Which, yeah, was not the definition of over.Which was also stupid, because I’d fucked other guys since Logan.Multiple guys.Eagerly.There was no reason my engagement picture in the local media had anything to do with Logan, except for that tiny splinter of him embedded in my heart that I somehow couldn’t dig out.
“Okaaaay.”Rachel was definitely humoring me, but she dropped the subject.“So you’ll keep up the pretense how long?”
