Page 29 of Hard to Fake

I tuck the bank statement under the other mail and round the counter to the living room, sinking into my plush couch. “Miles. He’s my brother’s teammate.”

“Standby while I look this guy up.” She frowns and types away, her brows rising. “Little Sis, you’ve been holding out on me.”

I laugh. “I’m not interested in a boyfriend. It’s one weekend only.”

“You’ll be sharing a room. Making eyes at each other. Flirting and laughing and cuddling.”

Now I’m imagining doing those things with him.

“What about Hannah? Is she going?” Ruby’s question brings me back.

“I haven’t heard from her lately.” One of the handful of sisters I keep up with regularly since graduation was a year ahead of me and one behind Ruby. She was partly responsible for me pledging, being the smiling face who helped recruit me, and one of the few sisters I knew I could take any of my school problems to.

“Being partner track at her firm in New York probably doesn’t leave much time for a social life.”

“True, but Caroline will love that. Hannah was always part of her carefully curated collection of friends.”

Ruby rolls her eyes. “You ever regret pledging?”

“No, because I met you.”

Ruby knows firsthand the daily challenges of being Black in a white sorority—all the girls who’d say loudly that they were color blind but in the next breath, they were fascinated by your hair or impressed by your family’s seamless integration into the state’s political fabric.

We each had our own reasons not to pledge a historically Black sorority. For me, I did it for my mom.

She wanted me in this sorority because it was full of high achievers in business, law, and medicine, and it presented the right image.

Like my mom, it wasn’t as if the sorority had explicit expectations. More like there were unspoken ideals, and the fact that Jay and I came from a family where success and education was important meant we should be successful too.

Didn’t matter that Jay wanted to play basketball. Once he got an athletic scholarship, then was drafted into the NBA, his image proved to poll surprisingly well for my mom.

Me on the other hand…

One night of mayhem and a near scandal in college ruined that.

“You’ve always had my back, Ruby. With what happened junior year…” I shake my head. “I wouldn’t have made it through without you.”

She sighs. “It gets pretty lonely even in a house full of girls. We all need allies. If Miles is going to be that for you, then I’m glad you’re bringing him.”

7

MILES

People think my life is all glamorous, but it’s not.

Sure, I make millions, have an agent who fields requests for my time, and my dog has a fan page with more followers than there were people in the small town I grew up in.

Otherwise, I have the same issues as anyone else.

Like when I go to sign in at the front desk of the single-story building, glancing around the unmanned station for a pen.

Nothing.

I skip out on the sign-in sheet and make my way down the hall.

A light flickers overhead, but when I glance up, it comes back on.

As I continue on my path, a man rounds the corner in front of me. His eyes are narrowed, but it’s hard to focus on them when he’s wearing a dressing gown hanging open and nothing underneath.

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