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“Yeah.”
The parade was over, and both of them had been out since ten o’clock that morning. Even though Ashley was seeing Brian, she’d never miss a Pride Parade.
Payton stepped in front of the fan that was blowing air from the corner of the room, needing that temporary relief. Her feet ached, and a trickle of sweat ran down her back, but she’d had a great day.
“Here you go,” Ashley said as she handed her a bottle of beer.
Payton pushed the lime down the neck before she knocked her bottle against Ashley’s. “Thanks, and cheers.”
“To another Pride.” Ashley winked. “Even if you can’t technically hook up.”
“It’s not even like that,” Payton said, rolling her eyes.
Payton hadn’t seen Ashley Friday night or all day yesterday, so she spent most of today filling Ashley in on what happened with Madison after work on Friday.
“You said,” Ashley said, pointing a finger at her. “You told her that you’d been single for the last two years and that you didn’t mind staying that way for this little charade.”
Payton sighed. “You were the one that said that I wasn’t going to meet anyone anyway. Now you’re complaining?”
“I’m just saying that this is an unusual situation.”
“And you can’t tell anyone about it. Not even Brian. I mean it,” Payton added, eyeing her best friend. “Seriously.”
“I won’t tell anyone.” Ashley took another drink. “God, I needed that. Fuck, it’s sweltering out there.”
“Not much better in here.” There was no AC, just the fan, and she couldn’t keep standing in front of it.
“So, back to your boss crush.”
“She has a name.”
Ashley smiled. “I prefer boss crush. But, seriously, how are you going to do it?”
Payton shrugged. “Well, she thinks I’m going to be acting, but obviously I’m not. I mean, I think I just have to act like myself for the weekend. I’ve been doing more acting this past year… I even managed to draw out giving my answer.”
“You mean you didn’t blurt it out and give her a demonstration of how well you’re going to play the part of her loving girlfriend.”
“What? No.” Payton wondered if Ashley was being serious.
“I can’t believe you missed that opportunity. You should have put on those seductive eyes and brushed her hair away from her eyes, leaning in and acting as if you were going to kiss her. You know, drop your gaze. Just as a flavor of things to come.”
“No. That was not something I was even thinking about. And I don’t need to give her a demonstration. Restraint. That’s what I need. I need to make sure that I don’t get carried away.”
“And that’s what I meant,” Ashley said as they made their way back outside, standing in the shade outside the bar. “How are you going to do this? Without getting hurt.”
“Oh.” Payton blew out a breath. She hadn’t really thought that far ahead. “I don’t know. It’s not something I could turn down, and it pays really well. I’ll figure out that part the week after. When we’re back in New York.”
“I know you’re happy about this. I can’t even believe that she needs a fake date, but you’ve got to look after yourself. You already have it so bad for her, and after that week in London, it’s not going to be an innocent crush. She’s going to look at you like she really cares about you. She’s going to have her arm around you. You’re probably going to dance together. Hell, she might even kiss you. How are you going to go back to normal after that?”
Payton took a long drink, her heart racing. She’d thought of a lot of those things, but hearing Ashley say them out loud, hearing her say that they might kiss, it just made it even more real, and Payton knew that there was no way she was coming out of this unscathed.
10
Madison had spent all weekend worrying if she’d done the right thing by asking Payton to come with her to Jen’s wedding.
She'd paced her office between meetings today, going through their conversation, wondering if she should have said things differently or left parts of it out.
But it had gone much better than she’d anticipated. Part of her could easily have seen it going wrong and her having to backtrack and pretend that she was joking or something awkward like that. Another part of her had expected Payton to be more eager, to say yes before Madison had barely gotten the question out, because Madison knew that Payton had a thing for her.
