Page 20 of Not That Into You

“Not necessarily.”

“Are you kidding?” She pushes her plate aside. “We grew up with the East Eggers, and it’s still a minefield for us to navigate that world. And you’re a Stanhope, and I’m a Windsor-Gray. We could both streak naked with our hair on fire, and no one would care.”

“My parents might disagree. You remember the summer after our junior year of high school?” I grin as her cheeks pinken. Our hair hadn’t actually been on fire, but a bunch of us had over imbibed around a bonfire before deciding to streak down the beach in plain sight of some of my father’s business associates.

“That’s my point, though, Cam. We come from a different world than Monica.”

I sigh. “I know. But...”

“But what?”

“But I’d much rather date Monica than an East Egger.”

Hayley’s eyes widen. “You want to date Monica?”

“No.” I backpedal immediately. “I didn’t say that. I’m just using her as an example. Because she’s real. Not...” I wave my hand around, searching for the right word. “Pretentious.”

“Hm.”

I’m not comfortable with the speculative look Hayley’s giving me, so I walk around the counter and start cleaning the blender.

“Besides, this entire conversation is moot. She said no.” I look over at Hayley. “And I’m not saying she was wrong to say no. I get it. She was right. We’d probably kill each other before we convinced anyone we were together.”

I don’t like the tilt of Hayley’s head or her sudden silence.

“Are you going to eat that?” I ask, indicating the croissant on her plate.

She takes a big bite and chews noisily, her eyes never leaving my face. “What are you going to do?”

“About what?”

She rolls her eyes. “About your parents. About the party. About the fact that your mother expects you to bring your ‘girlfriend’ with you next weekend.”

I groan. “She already called me this morning asking questions about Monica and wanting to ‘go over logistics.’ I’m going to have to come up with a good reason Monica can’t be there.”

Hayley snorts. “Good luck with that.”

I smirk. “Thanks.” I clear her empty plate. “Hey, I’ve got to take a shower, but do you want to stick around and then go for a walk in the park?”

She shrugs. “Sure.”

As I head upstairs to get ready, my phone rings. I don’t recognize the number but answer anyway. “Hello?”

There’s a pause. “It’s Monica.”

I freeze midway up the stairs.

“How much are you willing to pay for me to pretend to be your girlfriend?”

Chapter 8

Monica

Pacing up and down the busy sidewalk, I check my phone one more time. Still no message from Cameron. If he’s stood me up as the finale to some kind of drawn-out, elaborate joke, I will grab him by his perfectly groomed hair and...

“Hey.”

Whipping around, I scowl at him. “You’re late.”

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