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“Because you could have given me some warning,” I talk over him, my emotions boiling over. I can’t believe I just walked into this blind. I thought I was braced for him to break up with me, but I had no idea it was going to be a big, public humiliation. “Have you seen how many people are out there?” I exclaim, my voice rising. “And look at me, I’m in a fucking Ann Taylor Loft blouse I got on special markdown!”
“You look beautiful,” Dash says immediately, but that just makes it worse. He has no idea how much my heart hurts right now. And why would he?
This was never real to him.
“I just can’t believe you’d spring this on me,” I cry. “Setting me up to be the bad guy in front of literally every person you’ve ever met.”
Dash shakes his head. “You won’t be.”
“Umm, hello?” I gesture to the bar. “You set up a gorgeous proposal, and now you’re going to go down on one knee and say lovely things about how you want to be with me forever, and I’m going to say ‘no.’ In what universe am I not a cold-hearted bitch?”
Dash doesn’t argue with that—because we both know, he can’t.
“But that was always the point, wasn’t it?” I ask, realizations dawning thick and fast. “You just want to look good to everyone and have an easy life. No muss, no fuss. No getting involved. It’s why you hired me to be your fake girlfriend, isn’t it? So Zelda wouldn’t think you’re a commitment-phobic playboy who can’t keep it in his pants!”
“Hey!” Dash blurts, looking hurt. “What the hell, Callie? You didn’t have to take the deal. You wanted me to invest in your company. This was as much your lie as mine.”
“And you think I feel good about that now?” I explode. “Everything is all tangled up, I can’t tell if you’re my friend, or my boss, or my fake boyfriend who just needs me to fool his grandmother into releasing his trust fund!”
There’s a shocked gasp—but it’s not coming from me.
Dash and I both turn to find Zelda standing there in the hallway. Piper’s right behind her.
And they’ve just heard every word.
“Is this true?” Piper asks, white-faced. “You two aren’t really in love?”
There’s a long pause. And Dash’s silence tells me everything I need to know.
“Nope.” I answer for the both of us, feeling my heart ache in my chest. “I met him two weeks ago. It was all just pretend.”
Zelda looks crushed. “All this time…?”
“Grandma—” Dash starts to apologize, but I can’t stick around to see their disappointment. Not with my heart breaking, and tears stinging the corners of my eyes.
I can’t face the rest of them, so I push past him, out of the back door—and into an alleyway filled with dumpsters.
Talk about a sign.
I squeeze past the trash sacks, and head blindly for the street, unable to keep the tears back anymore. Because if our relationship was always fake, and doomed to end this way, then why is the pain I’m feeling so damn real?
20
Callie
In a sadistic twist of fate, my fake breakup with Dash winds up hurting more than 99% of my real-life relationships. I spend the next week replaying that awful fight, wondering how it could have gone differently.
How everything could have turned out differently.
“It’s not fair!” I wail to Lorelei, when she stops by on Friday night. “It’s been a week, why am I still miserable?”
“Do you want the real answer, or the supportive friend answer?” She dumps a bag of supplies on my kitchen counter and starts unloading. Chips, Chinese food, a bottle of tequila…
God bless her.
“Supportive friend, please.” I reply.
“Everything’s going to be OK, trust me.”
