“Everything okay?” Juniper gives me an odd look. “You look like you’ve been running. Your face is flushed.”
“Iwasrunning. Last night was crazy. Crazy, I tell you,” I say dramatically, about to fall to pieces.
Silvie stares at me for a couple of seconds, looking concerned. “Does this have anything to do with you and Luke?”
“How did you guess?”
“I was just speaking to Cal earlier this morning, and he mentioned that you guys were there last night and had some interesting interactions.”
I wonder how early they were speaking and if it was in bed, but I don’t ask.
“What do you mean, interesting interactions?” I stare at her. “What was Cal saying?”
“He was just saying that he thought he saw you guys arguing at one point and that it seemed like a couple’s argument. So, he was asking me if I was sure that your relationship was fake like ours is because, shit …” Her voice trails off. “Well, he thought it looked kind of real.”
“It’s not real, okay? Is your marriage to Cal real?”
“No, of course not. We are getting married so I can get the inheritance from my family because my sister is a slut and she slept with my fiancé.” Her lower lip trembles. “And I know I look like I’m sad right now, but I’m really not. Did I think he loved me? Yes. But did I really want to marry him? No.”
“It still sucks that your sister did that to you.”
“It’s just reprehensible.” She sniffs.
“It was abominable,” Juniper adds. “So, what’s going on, Mia? Why were you running? Because you never run.”
“Okay, girls …” I look around the beach. “I need to tell you something, but this has to stay between us.”
“Of course,” Wendy says. “Everything we tell each other stays between us.”
“Good. Last night got kind of intense.”
“When you were dancing on top of the bar?” Juniper giggles. “We always dance on top of the bar.”
“No, not then. I mean, when we got back to the hotel room.”
“What happened?” Wendy asks with wide eyes.
“Luke and I … well …” I lick my lips slowly. “We might have kind of?—”
“Did you guys have sex?” Juniper’s jaw drops. “You guys were definitely looking overly friendly, and when you kissed, I could have sworn I saw tongue. But sex, Mia? Really?”
“No,” I say loudly. “No, of course we didn’t.”
“Phew, because, girl, I was about to say, remember, this is just meant to be an act, not forreal, real.”
“We didn’t have sex, but we kind of touched—or he kind of touched me.”
“Ooh, tell us more.” Summer grins. “I want all the juicy details.”
“Me too,” Silvie says, nodding.
“Look, he might or might not have pulled off my top, and I might or might not have had a bra on, and he might or might not have kissed my breasts and touched me somewhere else.”
“No way,” Juniper says. “Did he go down on you?”
“No, but he—we kind of just fooled around. Very hot and very heavy, and, yes, I orgasmed, and, I am out of my mind, girls, I don’t know what to do. He’s Luke. He’s my best friend, and we are totally doing things we should not do. It’s totally going against rule number two, which is no physical intimacy, no touch that crosses any lines, and, oh, we’ve crossed so many lines.”
“I can tell you from my experience that entering into a fake relationship or marriage is not for the faint of heart,” Silvie says softly. “I know Cal and I—well …” She blushes slightly. “It’s kind of complicated for us as well.”
