“But you’re sharing a hotel room.”
“Right. We booked the room forever ago. Separate beds. And it’s not like we haven’t slept in the same room before—he ends up staying late, and we crash in the studio all the time.”
Yes, the studio is in the attic of my dad’s house, where I live. But sometimes, at four AM, my bed feels very, very far away, especially when Brendan is crashing on the studio couch and there’s a perfectly good, huge bean bag chair for me to sleep on there.
Emily looks skeptical. “Okay. But just so you know, if you two are planning on hitting on other people at this con, you probably shouldn’t be kissing in public like you just did. No one is going to want to get in the middle ofthat.” Her lips twist into a wry smile. “Unless they very literally want to be in the middle of that.”
I laugh, but she’s got a point. We can’t be acting like a couple in public, not for this plan to work.
And I really, really want this plan to work. For Brendan to be able to have a relationship with me that doesn’t cause him panic and stress. For us to be able to be together in all the ways I’ve dreamed about since we first met.
“Do you think this is a bad idea?” I ask.
She takes a moment to consider, which I appreciate, even if it makes me a little worried. “I think it’s a crazy-ass idea, but I could see it working to ease him past the anxiety.” She grins. “And it’ll definitely make for an interesting convention.”
Which reminds me . . .
I raise my eyebrow at her. “I’m not the only one who might have an interesting convention.”
Emily drops the last stack of shirts like a ton of bricks. “Okay. You’ve been making these hints at something involving me all morning. Please tell me you’re not going to get me to date Brendan. I may support your plan, but no. I have no desire to be in the figurative or literal middle of you two.”
“I’m not trying to get you to dateBrendan, no.”
The coy tone in my voice makes her glare at me. “What have you done?”
I collapse one of the now-empty boxes. “So remember how much you likedTate? And how sad you were when things ended? And how he moved away not long after, so you guys never really got a chance to see—”
She groans loudly and emphatically.
“Well, he moved back!” I say, pretending I didn’t hear her. “And was asking all about you at the wedding.”This is a bit of a stretch, but he definitely seemed interested when I brought her up. Even Brendan agreed with that.
“Su-Lin, it didn’t work out the first time.”
I know that much. He broke up with her, blaming it on the fact that they both had business trips coming up and wouldn’t see each other for a month. Which is clearly not the real reason, when things were going so well.
I have my own theory as to why my cousin ended it.
“Because he knew he had to move for work, and he was already totally falling for you. It scared him.”
Emily narrows her eyes. “Did he tell you that?”
“Not exactly, but I could tell he—”
She shakes her head. “I don’t think it’s a good idea.” She turns away to mess with the flat-screenTV, probably not wanting me to see how much she hopes I’ll talk her into this.
She really likedTate. And I could tell he really liked her.They’re perfect for each other; they just didn’t get a real chance.
“You should have seen the look on his face when he talked about seeing you here at the convention.”
“Why isn’t this thing—” She pauses with the remote, then spins to look at me again. “What?”
I cringe. “I may have invited him. He could use the networking, and I thought you could use the help at the booth. But if you really can’t work with him, you don’t have to. You guys can work opposite shifts. But I just thought that if you guys could talk again, things might—”
“Oh my god, Su-Lin, it’s a good thing I love you and you pay me well.” She’s shaking her head again, but her lips have a trace of a smile on them. She turns back to the electronics. “Neither theTV or DVD player is working. It must be a problem with the outlet. If I have to set up this entire fucking booth again, I’ll—”
“I’ll go get someone to check on it,” I offer. Best to give her time to think theTate thing over.To remember how cute she thought he was and how funny. And how great the sex was (something she told me about in wayyyyy more detail than I wanted to know about my cousin).
I manage to track down a convention center employee, who looks like she’s ready to shiv someone with the pen she’s furiously clicking. I take my chances anyway—how much damage could a pen do?—and she testily explains to me that yes, there is an electrical problem with the outlets on our row, and it’s being addressed.Then she sees my t-shirt, and her whole demeanor changes.
