“Uh huh,” Audrey said. “You didn’t sound fine.”
My stomach dropped. “You heard that?”
“Uh huh,” she repeated. “Don’t think I was the only one.”
I made a pained sound, burying my face in my hands. Great. Wonderful.
I’d wanted to be the perfect boyfriend for Theo. I’d wanted everyone to see him getting what he deserved, to see him being easy to love.
Because he was. He was so easy to love. We’dneverfought before. Not like that, anyway. Not about anything that mattered. Not in a way that hurt.
“Wanna talk about it?” Audrey asked.
I turned to look at her in surprise. A more cynical person might’ve thought she was angling to get in while I was upset and pry me away from Theo so she could have him for herself, but I didn’t get that impression from her at all.
Theo—or Ellie, or just about anyone else who’d met me—would have said I gave people too much benefit of the doubt in general. This really didn’t feel like that, though.
All the same…
“Would you believe me if I said we never fight?”
“Yep,” Audrey said, kicking her feet. She was wearing bubblegum pink flat canvas sneakers, scuffed at the heel and toe. They matched the abstract print on her slightly oversized, comfy-looking t-shirt.
“Well—wait, really?” I asked, realizing what she’d actually said.
“Yep,” Audrey repeated, smacking her lips on the P. “I have no trouble believing that at all. Because you always just do whatever he wants.”
Okay, well. She wasn’t the first person to have gotten that impression. She might, however, have been the fastest.
“So people tell me.” I smiled wryly. “It’s really not like that. I guess it mustlooklike that.”
“Sure does.” Audrey tilted her head, looking at me with narrowed eyes and pursed lips. “So I know you two aren’t actually dating?—”
“Who told you?” I asked, pulse pounding in my ears.
Madelaine. It could only be her—or maybe Cameron, if she’d told him or he’d figured it out the same way. She’d promised she wouldn’t. I’d trusted her.
Audrey held her hands up, brow raised. “You just did.”
“I did?”
“Literally just now when you asked who told me,” Audrey said. “I wasn’t completely sure, but between the look on your face when he kissed you, the way Delilah’s mom reacted, and some things Delilah said…”
I swallowed. We’d been caught. We’d been caught pretending to date.
What did you do in that kind of situation?
“I haven’t told anyone else about my suspicions,” Audrey continued. “If Theo wants to avoid me badly enough to spring a scheme like this on you, I can take a hint. Besides, I’ve moved on.”
“You have?”
Audrey licked her lips, glancing around theatrically as though she was afraid of being overheard, then leaning closer. “Have youseenCorey’s dad? Hello Mr. Silver Fox.”
My brows shot up.
“You don’t think he looks a little like George Clooney?”
Well. Now that she mentioned it, Ididsee the resemblance. If I had a thing for older men, I could probably see the appeal. He had the same kind of devil-may-care charm about him Corey did, from what little I’d seen.