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I understood completely. The lying was getting out of control, and nerves made my palms slick. I could hardly remember who I was supposed to be anymore.
“Nice that your cousins are close to you,” Bash said.
“Oh yes. We’ve always been close.”
Bash seemed like he was trying not to laugh… and failing. “I meant geographically close. If you live on the Park and they live east of the Upper West Side.” He took a slow sip of his beer.
“Fine,” I snapped. “They live in Queens. There, you happy? They’re not rich. But they’re hard fucking workers. And they love me. They’d do anything for me.”
Bash’s amusement fell away, and he looked at me intently. “Good,” he said at length. “Everyone needs someone like that.”
“Well, family is family, right?” The blank look on Bash’s face made me ask hesitantly, “Is your family not that way?”
He shrugged and seemed to consider his answer before speaking. “I’m an only child, and my parents travel a lot. We get along fine, but they have different priorities. I don’t really know how to explain it. We’re not close.”
I wished he wouldn’t be so careful. I wanted to know more about the man behind Bash’s beautiful face. But I was in no position to be asking the truth from anyone.
I picked at the label on my beer bottle. “You don’t have to tell me. Sorry if I got too personal.”
Bash reached out to pull the empty bottle away from my fingers. The warmth of that tiny touch made my whole body flush with heat. “My parents are good people but… shallow. They seem to care more about their reputation than truly making a difference in the world. That’s all.”
“Oh.” I was surprised by his words. By the honesty of them. And I had no idea what to say next. Any more details about my own family would make it glaringly obvious I wasn’t Sterling, but I couldn’t stand to meet Bash’s truths with more lies.
Everything up to this point had felt like playacting. Mostly harmless to anyone except myself. But the longer I kept things up, the worse I felt. Lying to rich people for a few hours last night for the sake of my project had been one thing. But lying toBash, the man who’d been nothing but kind and helpful, when it was possible that he was feeling this connection between us, just like I was? Nope. I couldn’t do it. The very idea made me nauseous.
“Bash, there’s something I should probably tell you—”
A firm knock sounded on the door, breaking the tension and sending my newfound resolve skittering into a million pieces.
Fuck.
A room service attendant came in with a rolling table full of domed dinner trays at the same time some other people came to deliver the suitcases, and I took the opportunity to duck into the smaller of the two bathrooms, trying to catch my breath and calm down.
No more lies, I promised myself.No more.
When I emerged, Bash beckoned me toward my seat and poured me a glass of wine. “Sorry. What were you saying before we got interrupted?”
“I… I…” I gulped my wine greedily. “You see, the thing is…”
“Yes?”
“I want to tell you about…”
Bash tilted his head. His eyes were warm and patient, and his expression was kind.
“…that table downstairs,” I said weakly. “Wasn’t it lovely?”
“Yes, very much. I hadn’t known you liked antiques so much. When did that start?”
Okay,thiswas a topic I could discuss with no lies whatsoever. Of course, it also had a tendency to bore everyone in my life to tears after mere seconds. “It’s not antiques, really. It’s interior decorating. I love finding beautiful pieces, especially ones that have a bit of a history to them. I think they add so much character to a space.”
Hello. I’m Rowe Prince, the world’s most boring human.
I felt my face heat. “Anyway. That’s silly.”
“Silly?” Bash frowned. “How could it be silly to want to make a space look and feel better? Expressing your personal style is important. Isn’t that what you told Constance Baxter-Hicks?”
“It is,” I said softly. Damn it, why did the one person who listened to my rambling and paid attention have to be a man I was never going to see again once he knew who I was? I took another big gulp of my wine. “So, um. Tell me about you. What are your hobbies? Do you have any close family besides your parents?”
