Page 57 of A Forever Love

I bite my bottom lip, staring at my flushed face in the mirror. “You need to be calm.”

“Mere, now you’re scaring me, honey. Are you safe? Are you well?”

“Yeah. Yeah. I’m perfectly fine. I’m in a situation.”

“That has to do with Carter?” she asks slowly.

I nod before humming. The night Carter moved, Clem and I texted, and since then, I’ve been giving her regular updates.

“Did you see him naked again?”

“Clem!”

“What? I was wondering what could get you more agitated than not getting a good look at his man parts.”

Her words transport me back to that steamy bathroom, and before I can start imagining things, I shake my head. “No, there’s no nakedness involved, but it’s related to Carter.”

“What happened?”

“I told you about his business rival I bumped into at the café.”

“Who told you that Carter has a girlfriend?” Clem asks, and I realize I never shared the whole story with her.

“Yes, him. But there’s a new twist.”

“I’m all for twists.”

“It seems Carter was talking about me.” When Clem doesn’t reply immediately, I explain. “Shawn Hades mentioned I’m his girlfriend, and Carter agreed. But there’s another twist.”

“Uh-huh.”

“Shawn already knows that I’m not the girlfriend, and he just said all that to get a rise out of Carter.”

“Holy crap. This Shawn guy is slick.”

“You don’t know the half of it. This morning, he had the chairman of the Security Excellence Guild outside the apartment building and introduced me as Carter’s girlfriend.”

“What the heck?”

Before Clem can comment further on the craziness, I blurt everything out. “And I played along. Now the problem is, everyone expects Carter to show up with his girl at the gala this weekend, and they think she’s me. Plus, I already told him I would be his fake date.”

“Mere!”

“There’s more. Carter refused in the beginning, but now I guess he knows there’s no way out, so he wants me to be his girlfriend for a night. And I’m going to accept it.”

The phone line stays silent. I check if Clem is still on the call, because God, telling everything a second time would be the death of me.

“Please tell me you heard all of it.”

“I did and I don’t know what to say. Are you sure?”

“Not really. What I do know is that whatever I’ve done until now to get rid of my…feelings for him hasn’t worked. But when we’re together, Carter feels like the same guy I’ve known all my life. He’s the familiar, safe friend.”

“You guys have a long history. He knows you better than anyone.”

“Yes, but when he’s away, my brain concocts an image of an unapproachable man, someone my heart hopelessly loves while he wants nothing to do with me. Does that even make any sense?”

Clem is quiet for several beats before she says in a soft voice, “Until today, you always referred to him as a crush and never mentioned love.”

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