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Erin’s smile grew wider. “It’s like fate or something.”
I saw the corners of Tess’s mouth turn down slightly before she turned away.
“You sure I can’t help?” I asked, watching her closely. “For real. I’m not just busting your balls.”
She fiddled with the neck of her floral blouse as she whisked flour into the sauce. Her gaze darted around before sliding past me, not quite meeting mine. “I suppose you could drain the pasta for me, if you think you can handle it.”
“I can probably manage that,” I said, moving around her to get down the colander I’d seen the other night when I’d helped Tess unload her dishwasher.
“I could set the table,” Erin volunteered. “If you point me toward your silverware.”
“It’s here.” I leaned over to open the silverware drawer for her before grabbing the pot holders off the counter.
Erin gave me an odd look as she picked up a handful of utensils. “Plates?”
“Above the dishwasher,” I told her as I poured boiling water and hot pasta into the colander.
When I’d finished, Tess had me toss the angel hair with butter while she got down serving dishes and threw together the salad. “Grate some of this over it,” she said, setting a hunk of parmesan on the counter next to me.
I caught Erin giving me another peculiar look as I fished the cheese grater out of a drawer.
“Okay, I have to ask,” she said, her gaze moving from me to Tess. “I know you told me you were just friends, but are yousurethere’s nothing going on between the two of you? Because I’m definitely picking up a vibe.”
I looked at Tess, wondering when she’d told Erin we were just friends. It must have been last week, before we’d started sleeping together.
A muscle clenched in Tess’s jaw as she looked away.
I opened my mouth, all set to tell Erin the truth, but Tess got there first.
“Of course, there isn’t anything going on,” she said, and the happy feeling I’d had a moment ago fell away like sand slipping through my fingers. “What a ridiculous idea.” And then she laughed.
I fucking hated the sound of that laugh. It twisted through me like a shard of ice, cold and razor-sharp. Dismissing me. Dismissingusand everything I thought we’d started to mean to each other.
“It’s just that you guys seem awfully comfortable around each other.” Erin narrowed her eyes at me. “And you sure seem to know your way around Tess’s kitchen. Almost like you’ve been spending a lot of time here recently.”
I swallowed down the taste of bile in the back of my throat. Was I expected to play along with Tess’s fiction and pretend the last few days hadn’t happened?
Tess spoke again when I didn’t, her tone light and careless. “It’s like I told you, we’ve gotten together a few times to talk things out and put the past behind us. That’s all.” She turned to look at me, her gaze silently imploring. “Isn’t that right?”
She really expected me to agree. To lie right to Erin’s face like it was no big deal.
Except maybe Tess wasn’t lying to Erin. Maybe she really didn’t think what was going on between us was important enough to acknowledge.
Of course.Of fucking course that was it. Just because we’d agreed to be exclusive didn’t mean we’d agreed to be serious. It didn’t mean she considered us anything real or lasting. So why tell anyone about it?
It was like high school all over again. Here I was, falling head over heels, and meanwhile, she didn’t even like me enough to want people to know we were together.
Why had I thought things would be any different now? That Tess would actually welcome me into her life? I shouldn’t be surprised. Hadn’t I always been dispensable to her? Good for a fuck and not much else? I’d been stupid to believe otherwise.
It was just that I’d wanted her so much. She’d felt so right and familiar, I’d tricked myself into thinking we could have this. Worse, I’d goaded her into playing along with it when she’d never really wanted it in the first place. I’d brought this on myself. On both of us.
I realized Erin and Tess were looking at me. Still waiting for me to say something.
I had to make a choice. Either contradict Tess and have it out with her in front of Erin, or swallow my wounded pride and pretend to go along with Tess’s story.
It wasn’t much of a choice.
My heart was pounding and my stomach roiling, but I produced the smile I’d perfected to ingratiate myself with clients and judges and senior partners over the years. It stretched painfully over my face as I looked Erin right in the eye and lied.
