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“Come in,” I say.
“Hey, what are your plans for—” Ollie’s eyes widen in surprise as he takes in my appearance. “Uh, you okay? You’re looking a little red there. Were you working out?”
“Sit-ups,” I lie, pulling my hair up into a messy bun. “Out on the patio. Got kinda hot, so I came inside.”
My chest aches at the lie, but what else can I say?Actually, bestie, I’m still coming down from the pounding your dad gave me not ten minutes ago.
Yeah, no.
“Okay,” Ollie says, not even bothering to question my flimsy excuse, and why would he? I’m like a sister to him. He has no reason to suspect me of harboring a friendship-destroying secret.
A rush of emotion hits me as Ollie launches into a story about his workday. I smile and nod like I’m listening, when in actuality, it’s taking all of my strength not to burst into tears.
Something wonderful has just happened to me, the monumental life-changing emotional event I’ve been fantasizing about for years. And the person who would be the most excited for me is the one person I can’t tell.
“Hello, Earth to Nat? Are you listening?”
“Yeah,” I tell Ollie, forcing a smile. “Yeah, sounds great. Whatever you want.”
He raises an eyebrow. “Hon, it’s whatwewant, remember? I’m gonna need your help convincing my dad. He likes you more than me. You’ll definitely have a better chance getting him to agree to it than I would by myself.”
“What?” I laugh awkwardly. “That’s ridiculous. He loves you.”
“Yeah, but he’ll shoot me down if I ask him if we can throw a ‘slightly larger’ gathering next weekend. I need you there with me if we’re gonna have any chance of selling this.”
“Right, okay, I’m there. Of course.”
“This could be a big night,” Ollie says, bouncing over to me to squeeze my upper arms. “It could bethenight!”
I stare at him, not fully comprehending what he’s trying to say.
He rolls his eyes, still smiling. “Yeah, okay, play coy. But I know you still want to get laid. Don’t worry, I’ll be sure to tell Toby how much you’re looking forward to seeing him again.”
Ollie winks at me, his smile broadening into a sly grin. Unease settles in the pit of my stomach, but I return the smile and try to look excited as he begins devising how we’re going to convince Evan to let us throw a real party.
I don’t have the heart to try and discourage Ollie from trying to deceive his dad. I wouldn’t even know what to say. This was our plan from the beginning; he’ll know something’s off if I try to back out now.
I just hope I can keep all the lies straight.
CHAPTERSEVEN
NATASHA
The next fewdays pass in a bittersweet blur of heated hallway kisses and intimate caresses whenever we find a moment alone. Tongue, teeth, hands. Evan uses every tool at his disposal to make sure I’m never left wanting for long.
Some nights, he drives to the lake house after work to join us for dinner before returning to his apartment in the city, and in the one sweet hour we have alone before Ollie gets home from work, he reminds me just how much he adores my body.
He can’t get enough, and I’m quickly becoming just as addicted to the taste of him on my lips, the feel of his hands on my hips, and the way he rocks into me like we were made for each other.
It’s almost perfect. The one thing that would make it so is if we didn’t have to hide from Ollie. Lying to my best friend, especially about something as important as this, eats away at me. Wanting Evan and being wanted in return feels like the biggest betrayal of my life.
He’s Ollie’s dad, but he makes me feel safe and desired and feminine and happier than I’ve ever been.
I know I have no right to be this happy, but things are going so well with Evan. We’ve talked about how we want to tell Ollie the truth, how long we should wait, if it would be better to tell him before or after school starts back up in the fall. In truth, we’re both terrified of losing Ollie, so we’ve agreed to continue seeing each other in secret.
But the lying gets harder every day. Lying to Ollie about his dad, lying to Evan about Ollie’s plans to throw a big party.
The knots in my stomach grow tighter and more tangled the closer we get to the weekend. Ollie’s plan worked; we’ve successfully convinced Evan to allow us to invitea fewmore people over this Thursday evening while he’s not around, so long as things don’t get “out of hand.” No underage drinking, no drunk swimming, the usual dad concerns.
