She knows that this relationship is not real, but Arden doesn’t know that she knows. Maybe she’s putting on the show for him? I’m going to tell him that I told her but not right now. It seems more like a conversation we should have alone.
Arden glances at her and then at me. Reaching across the table, he grabs my fork-free hand and holds it.
“Nothing disgusting about it.” He winks at me, grinning before giving my hand a squeeze and pulling back across the table. The pancakes on my plate have never looked so interesting.
Gemma takes a sip of the coffee in the mug in front of her, giving us both sideways glances before she seemingly decides to just leave it alone. We eat in silence for a few more minutes until Gemma pulls her phone out of her pocket, surprisingly still alive even though it wasn’t charged all night.
“Shit, I’ve got a million notifications. I gotta run.” She takes one last forkful of pancake before chugging the mug of coffee and running toward the door.
“Thanks again, guys! Lifesavers, the both of you!” She calls to us as the door shuts behind her.
“She’s really an interesting one, isn’t she?”
“She is,” I agree.
We sit in silence for another few seconds before one of us gets the courage to speak.
Either of us.
Any time now.
Okay, I guess it’ll be me.
“And then there were two.”
Arden looks up at me and again his eyes just look…sad. Why does he look so damn sad all the time? He nods his head, finishes his last bite and takes his plate into the kitchen.
I follow him with my empty plate and a few of the others from the table. “We should talk about last night, right? We’re both mature adults.”
“We are,” Arden says, putting his plate in the sink. He turns and takes mine, putting it on top of his. “We should.”
We stare at each other for another few seconds without a word passed between us. Looking at his phone, Arden sighs.
“I’ve got a shift. We can talk later, right?”
I’m nodding before I even realize it. “Yes, of course. Later.”
Perfect.Just enough time for me to spiral out of control. I want to call Margot, but can I talk to my best friend about wanting to have sex with her brother? Is that crossing a line? Maybe I can call it something else. Think of a codeword or something.
Arden and I clean up the table in silence and with a promise to talk later, he leaves for work. I immediately pull my phone out, hitting Margot’s number like it’s a hot potato.
“Hey, what’s–”
“I think I want to bone your brother.”So much for a codeword.
“Danika, it is nine-fifteen in the morning.”
“Oh, sorry, were you asleep?”
I hear Margot’s exasperated sigh from the other side of the phone. I know that sleep isn’t why she’s sighing.
“Okay, Dani. You are my best friend so I will entertain this conversation but please,pleasetread lightly. What’s going on?”
“So, I haven’t told you the whole truth about my relationship with Arden.”
“What do you mean?”
“We’ve been kind of…fake dating for a few weeks.”