Ryan breathed a sigh of relief, check securely folded in his pocket.
“We’ll be there. You can just email the sanctuary with details.” Ryan beamed at her as she gave them one last look and then disappeared into the crowd.
Mrs. Lim, who’d been silent throughout the entire exchange, snorted. “You’re a brave man,” she said.
Ryan wet his lips. “I like to think so,” he responded, though he was more or less the opposite of brave. Where possible, he liked to do the least risky thing.
It was slowly sinking in that he’d made a mistake.
Mrs. Lim smirked. “You twoarecute,” she said, looking between them. “Shame you lied your asses off.”
Ryan winced. He’d been convincing enough for Mrs. Kowalski, but she’d wanted to believe, he figured. Anyone who was paying attention probably could have seen that he didn’t have the first clue about being gay.
Even if he was still hanging onto Oscar’s arm.
“Don’t worry,” she said before Ryan could come up with a response. “I won’t tell. You’re doing it for the sanctuary.”
Ryan breathed a sigh of relief. “Yeah.”
Mrs. Lim smiled wryly. “Good luck,” she said, also waving at someone across the room. “And look for a donation from me tomorrow. That was worth a few hundred dollars for entertainment value alone.”
Ryan chuckled, almostmoreproud of getting that than Mrs. Kowalski’s donation.
“You’re an asshole,” Oscar said the moment Mrs. Lim was out of earshot, yanking his arm away from Ryan’s. “As if I don’t work enough hours at the sanctuary, now I’m working weekends, too?”
The warm glow that had been welling up in Ryan’s chest all over again sank immediately, leaving him cold.
Oscar was upset. He’d expected that, but it was still disappointing.
“One weekend,” Ryan defended. “For twenty thousand dollars.”
“You didn’t evenaskme,” Oscar said. “I don’t care how much it was for. You should have let me speak for myself.”
“Sorry.” Ryan looked down at his shoes, heart sinking. Oscar was right. He shouldn’t have volunteered him into anything.
He just hadn’t known how to sayno, and it’d seemed so important.
“You don’t sound it,” Oscar responded, folding his arms.
Jesus. They’d only been pretending to be dating for five minutes and they werealreadyfighting.
Ryan couldn’t even keep a guy he wasn’t really in a relationship with happy. What hope did he have for the future, if that was true?
He wasn’t even sure what he’d done.
“Look… I can see you’re upset, and Iamsorry that I did that, but I can’t avoid doing it again if I don’t understand why,” he said, almost impressed with his own maturity.
“I just wish you’daskedfirst,” Oscar repeated, sighing. “She’s been angling to get me to go to that goddamn summer house for years and I just… don’t understand these people at all.”
Ryan swallowed. “I didn’t have time to think,” he defended, not sure that was a particularly good excuse.
He’d had Oscar desperately squeezing his arm, but he didn’t have a way out of the conversation. He’d been trapped.
Maybe a braver man would have been able to get out of it, but Ryan wasn’t brave. Not really, despite what Mrs. Lim said. He’d gone along because he didn’t want to screw up.
And yeah, thatwashis fault.
“I’m sorry,” he added after a moment, meeting Oscar’s eyes. “I mean that. I panicked.”
