The Love Wager by Lynn Painter

            “I’m fine,” she said, but he must’ve heard the tone because he said, “I’m coming in.”

            The door opened a crack, and when he saw her, his face went from relaxed to dead serious. He swallowed and said, “Holy shit, what happened?”

            He walked into the room, and in a second, his arms were wrapped tightly around her, which made her cry harder.

            “It’s no big deal,” she said, kind of snuffling it out in a hiccupping sob, “but Alex broke up with me.”

            “Oh, God,” he said, and she felt tension in his arms as he asked, “Did he say why?”

            She shook her head and said, “Just the whole ‘it’s not you, it’s me’ bullshit.”

            She tried to sound unaffected as she said it, but she felt unlovable at that moment, which made her too sad to act cool.

            “Well, it is bullshit. You know that, right?” He was talking into her hair, his voice low. “He’s a moron, because you’re incredible and any guy would be lucky to scoop your cat’s fucking litter pan, do you hear me?”

            That made her smile a little.

            “Honestly, I didn’t know you liked him enough for him to hurt you this way.” He cleared his throat and sounded emotional when he said, “God, I’m so sorry that I didn’t know how hard you’d fallen.”

            A tiny part of her was incredibly touched by that apology, by the fact that her friend felt bad for not reading her feelings better. But as Hallie lay there, staring into space, his first sentence gave her pause. I didn’t know you liked him enough for him to hurt you this way. When she pictured Alex’s face, she didn’t feel that sad. When she thought about no more dinners with him, she didn’t feel that disappointed.

            “I didn’t know, either,” she whispered. “Hell, I don’t even know now. Is it awful that I think I could be sadder about getting dumped than about actually losing Alex?”

            “Not at all,” he said into her hair, his arms staying tight around her. “I’m the same, Hal. Rejection feels like shit, even when it comes from someone who might not matter that much.”

            “Don’t enable my bad behavior,” Hallie said around a half laugh.

            “It’s true, though, horrible human.”

            She laughed again and started to face him, Jack’s grip loosening so she could. She knew she looked hideous when he looked at her with a pitying smile. She said, “Shut up, I know I look good.”

            He gently swiped under her lower lashes with his thumbs. “No comment.”

            “The thing is,” she said, blinking fast to stop more tears, “I just really hate starting back at square one; with Alex, at least I had hope that I was maybe on the way.”

            His eyes traveled over her face, and he said quietly, “I get that.”

            Of course he does.

            “And now I have to go to my fucking perfect sister’s wedding alone next week!” she cried, unable to stop herself from full-on bawling over that one. “I was so happy to call my mom the other day and casually drop that I had a boyfriend who would be coming with me, and now I have to roll into Vail with my tail between my legs.”

            “No, you don’t.”

            “And I don’t think I’ve ever told you about my ex, other than the fact that we broke up, but Ben is going to be IN the wedding. With me.” She pictured his face and groaned. “I’m going to look so pathetic.”

            “You don’t have to go alone,” he repeated.

            “Yes, I do. I don’t have anyone.” Her eyes filled with tears again.

            “No. You don’t. Listen,” he said. “If you want, I’ll go with you. You can pretend I’m your boyfriend, and we can be the greatest fucking couple they’ve ever seen until we return home from the trip and break up.”

            She sniffled and looked at his face. He looked serious. She asked, “You’d do that?”

            He gave a little shrug and said, “Sure. I love Colorado.”