“I don’t know about that.” He grins. “Maybe one day.”
“Well, hey, I don’t know that I could have done it much better.”
“I don’t know about that,” he says with a grin. “It wasn’t bad, but I could tutor you to make your kisses just a little bit better.”
“How generous of you, Luke. You’d lower yourself from hedge fund manager to kissing coach? I’m sure I can find someone else?—”
“There will be no one else touching those lips right now. Just me.”
His gaze darkens, and I swallow hard as I think about our kiss. It felt so sweet, so real … almost like we were really together.
You don’t want to be with Luke like that, Mia. This is just an act.
“Do you think that we are making a?—”
“Don’t ask me again if you think we are making a mistake. I don’t want you to ask me that again for the rest of the summer, okay?” He frowns. “We’re already in this, Mia. We’ve already committed to this relationship for the summer. We can handle Rex.”
“But, Luke?—”
“We’ve already made our decision, Mia. We said we are going to do this, so we do it right, and we stop second-guessing everything, okay?We do what we’ve got to do. Let’s make sure that Rex knows his place.”
“I suppose you’re right. I just … I just don’t want the lines to become so blurred that we get confused ourselves.”
“Not going to happen. We’re Luke and Mia. We know each other better than most married couples.”
“In some ways, but not in all ways …”
“We could learn each other in all ways as well.” He winks, and I flush.
“Very funny, Luke.”
“I’m just joking.” He checks his watch, and I know he’s thinking about work again. “Just remember, we need to make sure that everyone believes that this relationship is real. Rex can’t get away with treating us like shit.”
“I wonder if people are buying it or not though.”
“They’re buying it in droves. Trust me! That’s why Rex is getting so mad.”
“Are you doing this because you can’t stand him?” I already know the answer.
“Uh, yeah.” His expression darkens as he thinks about their history. “Mia?”
“Yeah?”
“We want to one-up him, right? We both want to walk away from this, feeling like we showed him, right?”
“Yeah.”
“Good.” He looks pleased. “Do you know what I was thinking about the other day?”
“No clue. Wait, let me see if I can guess. You were thinking about watching a boring horror or sci-fi movie?”
“Hey now, I love a good sci-fi movie.”
“Trust me, I know. I’ve watched far too many with you and fallen asleep.”
“I wasn’t thinking about my awesome taste in movies. I was thinking about those emails that you sent me when you were, like, eighteen.”
“Which emails?” I know exactly which emails, but I’m not going to admit I remember. The embarrassment is still high.
