Page 16 of Enchanted to Meet You

For a second, I just stared at him.

“Excuse me?” I finally managed, because apparently my brain needed a moment to catch up with the words. I was still trying to reconcile the Rhys who had casually announced to his step-brother and his ex that I was his girlfriend with the Rhys who was now standing in front of me asking me to actually commit to the lie.

“I need you to keep pretending to be my girlfriend,” he repeated. His voice was quieter this time, stripped of the easy confidence he’d been using all night, and that made the request sound even more serious. He wasn’t teasing me, and he wasn’t looking for an excuse to kiss me again; he was waiting for an actual answer.

“You just said that the favor was a little bigger than a kiss.” I stared at him in disbelief, then gave a short, incredulous laugh because surely he couldn’t mean what I thought he meant. “You want me to pretend to date you?”

“For a while.” He said it so simply that I almost wondered if I’d misunderstood him again, but then he gave me that small, cautious look that told me he knew exactly how insane this sounded. “I know it sounds like a lot.”

“A little bigger?” I repeated, throwing my hands up. The cramped closet suddenly felt even smaller, as if the coats hanging around us were closing in to listen to the conversation too. “Rhys, that’s not a little bigger. That’s a completely different favor.”

“I know.” He dragged a hand through his hair. “But the thing is, we’re both kind of stuck now.”

There was something about the way he’d said it that made me suspicious. I folded my arms across my chest and watched him carefully, waiting for the part of this ridiculous plan that he clearly hadn’t told me yet.

“Kelcey, Landon, and Justin are all under the impression that we’re dating,” Rhys said.

“Yeah, because you told them!” I snapped.

He lifted a shoulder in a half-shrug. “It seemed like the right move at the time. Got you out of Kelcey murdering you, didn’t it?”

“I think I’d actually rather she murder me right now,” I muttered, remembering the look of fury on Kelcey’s face a minute ago. I eyed him, realization finally dawning on me. “Is that why you did it? You told them I was with you to make Kelcey jealous?”

“You’re completely brushing over the part where I saved you,” he said, sounding almost hurt. But by now, I knew him well enough to see it for the sarcasm it was. I flipped him off and he grinned. “But yes, I did consider that. And based on her reaction, it worked.”

“So now you want to keep making her mad by parading me around as your new girlfriend,” I said flatly.

“Not that I would put it in those terms, exactly…” He trailed off, but when I continued staring at him, he sighed and said, “Yes. Okay? I want to prove to her that I’ve done just as well without her.”

He was clearly very uncomfortable admitting all of that out loud, but strangely, it made me feel better. I hadn’t realized how much it felt like he was just messing with me by stepping up like that until I knew his real reasoning.

“So now she and Landon both think we’re actually together and they’re going to tell everyone else that we’re actually together.”

“Yep.”

“And if we stop now…” I let the sentence trail off, because I already knew where it was going.

“We look like idiots.” Rhys’s answer was immediate this time.

I groaned and tipped my head back against the wall.

“This is ridiculous.” I stared at the ceiling, wondering if there was some alternate version of tonight where I’d simply stayed home and avoided all of this. “This is the dumbest thing I’ve ever agreed to.”

“You haven’t agreed yet.” His voice was softer now, and when I looked at him, he wasn’t smiling.

“No.” I straightened and met his gaze. “I haven’t. And I’m not agreeing to some indefinite fake relationship.” I pointed at him, making sure he understood that this was not going to become some open-ended arrangement where he could keep dragging me along because he’d gotten himself into a stupid bet. “If I’m doing this, there are rules.”

His mouth twitched. “I figured you would have conditions.”

“First rule: no more surprise kissing.” I held up one finger, and despite myself, my mind flashed back to the feeling of his lips against mine. I immediately shoved the memory away and focused on the practical part of this, because thinking about the actual kiss was not going to help me make a rational decision.

“Fine.” He nodded without argument, which surprised me enough that I almost forgot my next rule.

“Second: you don’t get to decide we’re dating in front of other people without warning me.” I raised another finger, watching his face carefully to make sure he understood that this one mattered. “If we’re going to lie to everyone, I at least deserve to know what we’re lying about.”

“Fair.” He nodded again, this time with a little more seriousness.

“Third: if either of us wants out, we get out.” I held up my third finger and paused, making sure he was looking at me. “No guilt-tripping, no ‘but we already told everyone,’ no dragging it out because you’re worried about your bet.”