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When her phone pings, she grabs it out of her rhinestone-covered fanny pack, leaving my hand outstretched and empty.
“Oh! It’s Julian,” she says, clacking her nails against the screen.
“She’s an influencer.” Vedant beams proudly. “Always busy, busy.”
Shaylea doesn’t say another word.
“If you guys will excuse us. We’re going to head back,” Damon starts, but Vedant doesn’t budge.
“Will you be joining us for dinner Friday night, Kate?”
Shaylea stuffs her phone back into her pocket fast enough to give me whiplash. “We toootally understand if you can’t make it.”
It could be her too sweet smile, or the way she’s eyeing Damon, but a sudden burst of jealousy spikes my blood pressure.
“Wouldn’t miss it,” I say, equally sweet.
Shaylea’s gum pops. “I’m so sorry to hear about the roach motel you were staying in.”
Every drop of blood in my body plunges to my feet before skyrocketing back toward my face. “What are you talking about?”
“Seashell Inn,” she says.
Vedant’s head tilts. “What were you doing staying there? That’s not a good side of Tauntuma, Kate.”
His gentle fatherly tone makes the embarrassment all the worse.
“Babe, don’t worry. She’s rooming with Damon.” Her obnoxious fake lashes flutter when she turns to him. “Very generous of you.”
“I, um.” Damon’s eyes flit between all of us.
Jumping off the bike, I walk it around the open space beside Vedant. “I… need to go.”
“Kate, wait up,” Damon calls, leaving his boss behind.
I don’t look back, shaking with a mixture of anger and shame. My grip on the handlebars is deathly tight as I walk my bike the last block toward the stand.
“Hey,” Damon calls again. The clicking bike wheels grows louder as he covers more ground between us.
“I don’t want to talk to you,” I say over my shoulder.
Damon slams on his breaks when I come to a stop. He drops his bike and trots back the few feet of distance I’ve managed to put between us.
“Well, that’s too bad.” He grips the handlebars in the center, straddling the front wheel.
I sweep an arm back toward the forest. “How could you tell her about that, Damon?”
His pretend confusion only makes the betrayal that much worse. And I’m even more mad that I’m upset with him to begin with. Damon owes me nothing outside of what we’ve agreed on, but shouldn’t there be some sort of ‘fake-dating’ code?
Rule number one: don’t tell snobby hot chicks Kate was rooming with a mouse.
I take a long, deep breath, letting some of the residual anger and embarrassment subside. “Look, I don’t want to be a charity case to you, okay? I appreciate the dress and the place to stay. I even appreciate your frail attempt at friendship here. But that’s not what our agreement is about. That’s not whatwe’reabout.”
Damon’s eyes fly across my face, analyzing me in a way that makes me squirm.
I don’t need him trying to figure me out.
His brows cut in, leaving a wrinkle between them like he’s trying to decide the next best move, and the one he goes with shocks me to my core.
Damon closes what little distance remains between us and kisses me.
