Page 8 of Allured By Her

“So the way to get him to come back to me is to make him think that he can’t have me,” she said, and I still didn’t know where she was going with this, but her grip on my arm was starting to cut off my circulation.

“Get to the point, Tenley,” I said.

“Date me,” she blurted out.

“What?!” I said, my voice way too loud in the shop. I felt my face go red. “I’m sorry, but what?”

“I mean, don’t actually date me. Just pretend to. Show up at a few parties with me and pretend to be my girlfriend and it will make Shane so jealous that he’ll come back to me,” she said, and I was about ready to ask her if she had lost her fucking mind.

I started to protest and tell her that under no circumstances would I be doing any of that, but then she shook her head.

“No, no, it’s perfect. I’m not gay. I’m only into men, so there’s no way that feelings will complicate things. If I asked another guy to do it, he might get confused and I don’t need that. I just need to be seen with someone to snap Shane back to the reality that he loves me and that we’re meant to be together.”

“I’ve got to be honest, this plan sounds ridiculous. He’s not going to buy it,” I said.

Tenley shook her head again, and I couldn’t help but be transfixed by her. Even as a mess, she was still fucking gorgeous.

“It’s not. It’s perfect. You’re perfect. We’re both straight, so it will be easy.”

Oh. OH.

Tenley thought I was straight. In high school, I had definitely pretended to be straight. I wasn’t that great at it, but I faked it enough to blunder my way through four years. Sure, there were other people who were out, but I just hadn’t wanted to share that piece of myself. I’d come out in college, and it had been the right decision.

Now, though, I didn’t know what to say to her.

An impulse that came from nowhere made me say, “Right. We’re both straight.”

Once the words were out, I tried to take them back, but I didn’t. Instead, I nodded, and Tenley smiled in such a sweet and heartbreaking way that I thought I was going to slide right out of my chair and end up under the table.

“This is going to work,” Tenley said. “I’ll let you get back to work, but here is my number so we can coordinate.” She grabbed the sleeve off the tea I’d brought her and pulled a pen out of her bag. Tenley wrote down her number and handed it to me.

Mechanically, I took it from her and walked back behind the counter to find Lark waiting for me.

“Well? I’ve been dying of suspense and wishing I could read lips over here,” she said. I stared down at the coffee sleeve Tenley had given me.

“I think I just agreed to be her fake girlfriend,” I said, and my voice didn’t sound like my own.

“You did what?!” Lark said.

* * *

A flood of people came in, so I was off the hook for a little bit. Somehow, I was able to shut Tenley away in my mind and just go on barista autopilot until we could breathe again.

Sometime during the rush, Tenley had left, but I couldn’t stop glancing at her table, which was probably making the new people sitting there uncomfortable, but I couldn’t help myself.

“Okay, now that we have a moment, you did what?” Lark asked me.

“I think I agreed to pretend to be Tenley’s girlfriend to make her ex jealous,” I said. Those words strung together still didn’t make much sense, and I was the one who had agreed to them.

“Mia, why the hell would you do that? You hate her,” Lark said, stating the obvious.

“I know,” I said, poking at a splotch of something sticky on my shirt.

“Then what the hell were you thinking?” Lark asked.

“Honestly, I have no idea. She seemed so sad and I just kind of…agreed? She gave me her number, so I’ll just message her later and say that I changed my mind. What should my excuse be?” I asked.

“I’d go with temporary haunting by a vindictive ghost. I think that’s your best bet,” Lark said, nodding.

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