The Love Wager by Lynn Painter

            He tilted his head and cracked his very-tight neck. “I’ll make sure they don’t.”

            “Can you just do this for me?”

            “No,” he barked.

            “Why not?”

            He knew he must sound totally unreasonable to her. He said, “I just think it’s a bad idea.”

            “Why?”

            “Why?” He very nearly yelled the word as he tried getting through to her. “Sharing a bed while pretending to be in a relationship? That doesn’t seem like it’s treading something that could fuck up a friendship?”

            She shrugged, and something about the gesture made him want to pull her coat tighter around her body and make sure she was warm enough. She said, “I get what you’re saying. I mean, even though we don’t ever talk about it, this friendship means a lot to me and I’d hate if something got in the way of that. But . . . ”

            He clenched his jaw together as he waited for her to continue.

            “We don’t have a normal friendship. We became friends after we slept together. Sex and feelings can’t get in the way, because we drove over them right at the beginning.”

            He swallowed. Why did it irritate him that she was so cool about it, so positive that more intimacy wouldn’t add feelings?

            Dammit, he knew he was all over the place and making zero sense.

            But the reality was that he hadn’t considered how much of a mindfuck the fake dating might be for him. He didn’t like that it felt real when she wrapped her arms around him, and he didn’t like the way he felt when he kissed her; it felt like everything he wanted. And since she was, in fact, faking it in accordance with their agreement, if he acted on his feelings under the guise of faking it, that felt like lying. Or fraud.

            He wanted to tell her how he felt about her and then give her time to explore her own feelings and respond accordingly. But if he told her how he felt now, would she think it was part of the game? Or a result of the game?

            Or, worse, would she confuse their pretend relationship with her true feelings for him?

            The best thing to do, as much as he didn’t want to, was wait until they got back to Omaha to discuss his feelings. They needed to fake date for her family like he had agreed to do, keep their hands off each other in private, and revisit what was really going on once they were wheels-down at home.

            He said, “Hal, maybe—”

            “You’re overthinking this, Jack.”

            Something about the way she said it and the look on her face made him pause. “What do you mean?”

            She looked a little bit shy but also entirely confident as she lifted her chin and said, “I really liked kissing you at the airport, and if it happens again under the guise of fake dating, I will enjoy every minute of it. But I also think sleeping in the same bed with you sounds like an absolute blast, like a grown-up platonic sleepover. We can handle it.”

            He had no idea how to respond to that tempting but terrible idea, and he could smell her perfume, which somehow made everything worse.

            When they had made their travel plans, he’d imagined they would behave like roommates for the weekend. In that scenario, they would be watching TV from two separate beds on opposite sides of the room and telling jokes in the dark.

            But talking in the dark in the same bed? Watching TV under the same blanket? His head felt like it was going to explode when he thought about it.

            She said, “The minute we cross the security line back home, we can return to being friends who are each respectively searching for their soul mates.”

            He turned his head to the side and cracked his neck again, suddenly stiff as hell. “Well, I don’t think—”

            “Tell me one good reason why we can’t make this work.”

            He had a very good reason, but not one he felt like sharing until they were home. He let out his breath and said, “Fine. We’ll stay in this room, but if you touch me, I swear to God I’m screaming.”





Hallie