But that didn’t mean it just made everyone’s dreams come true, either.
“You need this,” Oscar said. “Even if it onlyisplaying pretend. You haven’t dated seriously since Josh last year.”
Ezra swallowed at the mention of Josh. He’d been trying not to think about him.
“I’m sorry,” Oscar continued. “I don’t mean to dredge up the past, but… we can all see you’re still hurting. And you have every reason to be hurt, I know I’d be mad if someone I’d fallen for turned out to be married with absolutely no intention of leaving his wife and three kids. I still think we should cut his balls off for that.”
“I don’t think any of us could handle it,” Ezra said. “Well. Maybe Finn. He’s had a ton of practice.”
“How different can humans be?” Oscar offered helpfully.
Despite the reminder of Josh, Ezra laughed. “All the same, I’d rather not. It’s fine. He’s the asshole and he has to live with himself. It just… hurt, a lot. I guess I should have seen it as a warning sign when he wouldn’t be seen with me in public. I thought he was just nervous.”
“Hey, that wasn’t your fault,” Oscar said, cutting off that line of thinking. “You trusting him wasn’t a mistake. Him abusing that trust was a dick move. And I just want you to be happy.”
“In a fake relationship that’s gonna be over by the time we’re all in bed tomorrow?” Ezra raised an eyebrow.
Oscar smiled a tiny, cryptic smile. “We’ll see. You said Mike kissedyou, right?”
“It was a… mutual kiss,” Ezra said. “Besides, Mike’s always been cool.”
“He has. I’m just saying… don’t betooshocked if he wants to get into your pants.”
Ezra snorted. “I’ll be too busy encouraging him to be shocked.”
Oscar beamed at him. “See? You’re getting it. Keep up that attitude and you’ll be fine.”
“Yeah, yeah,” Ezra said. He didn’t necessarilybelievethat, but it was a nice fantasy all the same.
It didn’t help that Oscar was right. That he’d been licking his wounds over Josh for too long, and that he needed to move on. Mike probably wasn’t who he’d end up moving onto, but it couldn’t hurt to treat the whole situation as a fun distraction. Playing pretend didn’t have to be miserable.
There was no reason he couldn’t have alittlefun, right?
“Hey, uh, dumb question, but can I have one of those pine cones you had as table centerpieces last night?” Ezra asked.
Oscar raised an eyebrow, but shrugged. “You can have them all, if you want,” he said. “We were going to donate them to charity.”
“I only want the one,” Ezra said, blushing just a tiny bit. “It’s for Mike.”
