Page 32 of Fake Engagement with my Brother's Best Friend

She nods absently, taking a sip of wine, but she’s barely listening. I can feel it—the way she’s not really here with me. It’s like there’s something on her mind, something big, and she’s not telling me what it is.

I try to keep my tone light, to cheer her up. “You know, I’ve got to say, I think we’ve done pretty well for a fake engagement. No major disasters yet, right?” I laugh softly, trying to coax a smile out of her, but she only nods, her expression unreadable.

“Yeah,” she murmurs, her voice distant. “No major disasters.”

I watch her for a moment, the weight in my chest growing heavier. This isn’t how tonight was supposed to go. She’s not herself—she’s so far away from me, and I don’t know how to reach her. I thought this would be a moment for us to connect, to take things to the next level. She’s not here. Not really.

“Grace,” I say, my voice soft but firm, hoping to get through to her. “What’s going on? You’re not… you’re not acting like yourself.”

She hesitates, her eyes finally meeting mine, and I can see the conflict in her gaze. There’s something she’s not telling me,something that’s eating away at her. But before she can respond, she looks away again, her shoulders tense.

“I’m fine,” she says quietly, but I know it’s not the truth.

I lean in slightly, trying to reach her, my voice gentle but firm. “Grace, talk to me. I can tell something’s wrong. You’ve been distant all night.”

She takes another sip of her wine, barely meeting my gaze. Her shoulders tense even more, and it feels like a wall is being built between us brick by brick. She’s shutting me out, and it’s driving me insane.

“I’m not distant,” she snaps, her voice sharp, catching me off guard. “I’m just… processing. You’re being overbearing, Logan.”

I blink at her, surprised by the bite in her tone. Overbearing? I was just trying to be there for her. I thought tonight was supposed to be special, a moment where we could reconnect, but every attempt I make seems to push her further away.

My patience starts to wear thin. “Overbearing? Grace, I’m just trying to understand what’s going on. I thought… I thought you’d like this. I put all of this together for us.”

She sighs, rubbing her temples, clearly frustrated. “It’s not the night, Logan. It’s not the setup. It’s us. You… you’re missing the point.”

I feel the knot in my stomach tighten, a sinking sensation settling in as her words cut through the tension. “What do you mean ‘it’s us’? I thought we were working through things, that this—" I gesture to the beach, the candles, the wine— "was a way to move forward.”

She shakes her head, her voice soft but laced with exhaustion. “How can we move forward when our whole relationship is based on a lie?”

I freeze, her words hanging in the air like a slap to the face. I open my mouth to respond, but nothing comes out at first. All I can do is stare at her, my heart pounding in my chest. She’s not wrong, but hearing her say it aloud makes it sting even more. I thought we’d moved past that. I thought we were building something real.

“Grace, it’s not all a lie,” I say, my voice more pleading than I intended. “We may have started this under complicated circumstances, but what I feel for you… it’s real.”

She looks away, her hands gripping the wine glass tightly, her knuckles white. “Logan, I don’t even know what’s real anymore. We’ve been pretending for so long. How can I believe that any of this is true?”

I step closer, my frustration rising. “Because itistrue! Don’t you see? I care about you, Grace. I’ve wanted to tell you for days, but—”

She cuts me off, shaking her head, her voice trembling. “How can we expect to be anything when this entire relationship is built on lies? From the moment we started, we’ve been pretending—for everyone else, for ourselves. It’s exhausting, Logan. I can’t keep doing this.”

Her words hit me like a punch to the gut, and for the first time, I feel a flicker of doubt creeping in. Is this too much? I thought tonight would fix things, bring us closer, but instead, it feels like everything is unraveling.

Grace’s voice wavers, her eyes filled with a mix of frustration and sadness. “I’m tired of lying to everyone. To my family. Theythink this is real. They think I’m settling down, finally finding someone… someone who’ll be there for me. If they knew the truth… they’d be heartbroken.”

I feel my chest tighten, my frustration morphing into something more raw. I didn’t mean for this to happen. None of this was supposed to hurt her. I step forward, trying to close the distance between us, but she takes a step back, her eyes filled with uncertainty.

“Grace,” I say softly, “I never wanted to hurt you. This was supposed to be temporary, but it changed for me. You changed it for me. I care about you more than I’ve ever cared about anyone. I want to make this real.”

Her lips tremble, and for a second, I think she’s going to soften. But then she shakes her head, her voice cracking. “ How can it be real when everything between us started with a lie?”

I run a hand through my hair, feeling the weight of her words. I get it. I do. But I’m not willing to give up on this. Not now. “We can move past it, Grace. We can make it real. We don’t have to lie anymore.”

She lets out a shaky breath, her eyes filling with tears she’s trying hard to hold back. “I don’t know if I can, Logan. I don’t know if we can.”

Her words hang between us, a chasm that feels impossible to cross. My heart sinks further as I realize that tonight, the night I was supposed to tell her I love her, has turned into something entirely different. Something heavier.

I want to fix it, to tell her that everything will be okay. As I look at her, standing there with her shoulders hunched in defeat, I realize this isn’t something I can fix with words or romanticgestures. This is deeper. It’s about trust, about the lies that have built a wall between us.

I don’t know how to tear it down.

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