My very beautiful fake girlfriend let out a nervous laugh. “I’ll look like a whale.”
Okay, maybe I wasn’tasprepared to argue as I had initially thought. I went over amillionthings she could’ve said, none of them called her anything close to a fucking whale.
How dare she say this about herself?
How dare she think that in the first place?
Alana was so much more than a stupid number on a stupid scale. And even then, it wouldn’t have come close to what a goddamnwhaleweighed.
I knew she had body image issues, but fuck… A part of me was breaking for her. No one should ever feel this way about themselves. Nobody should ever have to look into the mirror and hate what they see.
And yet, here was Alana, standing in front of me with what looked liketearsin her eyes, so beautiful and perfect in every way, tearing herself down with cruel words that should’ve never been placed in her vocabulary.
But if Alana wasn’t going to love herself, fuck knew I would. Even if it was only until she finally believed me. Even if that meant I was probably going to get hurt again.
I took a step closer to her, then a couple more until I stood right in front of her. Placing my index finger underneath her chin, I lifted her face to mine, forcing her eyes to focus on me. “Alana, listen to me,” I started softly, my voice unwavering. “You are the most beautiful person I haveevermet. And I need you to believe me when I say that.”
“Eden, I?—”
“Your weight doesnotdefine who you are. And it sure as fuck doesn’t make you a goddamnwhale.” Her lower lip began to quiver as she processed my words. “I really wish I could lend you my eyes so you could see how amazing you look in them. Since that’s impossible, I’m going to spend every moment I can making sure you can see it through your own.”
31
ALANA
The bikini was killing me on the inside, but in the past fifteen minutes, Eden hadn’toncelooked at me like he was disgusted or anything. In fact, it almost seemed as if he couldn’t tear his eyes away from me.
I wasn’t exactly sure if that was worse or better.
But there was one thing even stranger than the way Eden was looking at me. The heated water from the jacuzzi wasn’t the only thing making my skin feel like it was on fire anymore.
Eden sat on the opposite side of me, his gaze locked on me with an intensity that made my heart race. His eyes moved over every inch of me, and suddenly, I was really glad most of my body was underwater and almost impossible to see due to the jets.
The bikini did a terrible job covering up my breasts, and though half of my upper body wasn’t in the water, I hadn’t once caught him staring at that part of me.
Honestly, I wasn’t sure if I wanted him to look or not. It would’ve made me so much more self-conscious, I knew that, but deep inside me, something wanted Eden to see me. Touch me.
Though, luckily for me, before I could’ve done anything stupid, Eden ruined it.
“Kaan said Austin’s roommate is throwing a party next weekend.”
Really? I didn’t know.
I knew of a party in the past, but I hadn’t heard a single person talk about next weekend. But that wasn’t technically Austin’s party, was it?
“Okay?” I spoke quietly, though I was sure Eden couldn’t even hear it.
“I’m getting back from my game on Saturday morning, so we could go if you want,” he said. Something in his voice told me he didn’t want us to go. I didn’t want to go either, but there was no way I could’ve told him.
Parties weren’t my thing, that he knew, but Eden was still convinced I wanted to get with Austin.
I should’ve told him what happened while he was gone for a game, and it probably changed my mind about Austin. Seriously, I couldn’t deny that it was rude to say what he did. And just the thought that my potential boyfriendeverwillingly got with someone who he knew was in a relationship was… wrong.
If he did it once, he’d do it again.
Eden and I weren’t even really together and he refused tolookat someone else.
I deserved more than what Austin wanted to give me. But it would’ve been weird had I told Eden I no longer wanted him, so I had to play along.
