Page 44 of The Fake Dating War

I’m standing here about to get hard, and she’s still babbling on. If she moans again?—

She can’t moan again.

“Patel,” I say, forcing my voice to stay even. “You’ve started boring me.”

She makes a much better noise of offense.

“Shouldn’t you go back to your party? Run along now.”

“Run along?! If you think?—”

“You’d rather stay in a hotel room with me? I suspected as much, but fair warning, I’m getting nake?—”

The door is yanked open. Right before she leaves, she tells me, “You are the worst!”

Then silence.

Only after I’ve waited a few moments longer do I feel safe enough to turn around. Looking down at the obvious bulge in my pants, I mutter, “What the fuck?”

Judging by what just happened, this week is going to be a huge fucking disaster.

Great.

27

REEMA

I take one look at the store and decide. “I’m being punished, and I should accept that I deserve this.”

My sister scoffs. “Where is your sense of adventure?”

“It died,” I tell her, point-blank.

She regards me with surprise. “Is this… Are you kidding?”

“Obviously.”Dammit.I have to remember to lie, especially since my plan for this week is to Play Adult and not expose the realities of my life back home. Otherwise, what would I say? Yes, your sister sleeps in some sort of sad child’s playpen. Evenings are spent either doing crosswords with her significantly older roomie, or she is squashed and working in a parking lot. And so many instant noodle packs are had for dinner, it cuts into the food supply of poor college students.

I give Esha a nice, buttery smile.

She narrows her eyes, but can’t say more for her bridesmaids join us.

Pooja and Jyoti.

Immediately, they talk about the store in front of us as if it has a praise kink.

“Oh, you are going to do splendidly!” says Pooja.

“What a fun, little naughty place you are,” says Jyoti, giggling. “You’ve got no idea how long I’ve been waiting for you.”

“Let us not wet ourselves, ladies,” says Esha, pretending she’s not completely soaking in their reactions. “Should we go inside?”

You would think a high-end boutique of racy lingerie wouldn’t fit in Bells Falls, but it’s tailored to the wedding experience. Bridesmaids bring their brides here to do wedding night and honeymoon shopping.

Logically, it’s a brilliant upsell. There’s incentive to add a day or two extra to your itinerary to fit in these kinds of pre-wedding activities, especially if you’ve got bridesmaids coming in from different parts of the world that have been waiting to experience this together.

Upsell. The word makes me think of work and all the clients I’m not recruiting this week. Not doing that and living in a world outside of work, even for a day, has me depressingly disoriented. Like I don’t know how to act when I’m not funneling everything into one goal.

Good thing Esha grabs my hand and pulls me inside.

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