Page 25 of Off Pitch

“Rory, the blog. Come look at the numbers.” She walks over, and I show her the phone. When she reads through everything, her mouth falls open.

Doubled. Everything hasdoubledsince yesterday. Twice as many views. Two times as many email subscribers. This all happened in the less than twenty-four hours since we announced this fake relationship.

“Lo, this is amazing!”

There’s a knock at the door. “I hear excitement, and I need to be involved!” Lucia demands, voice muffled through the wooden door. Rory lets her in, and I show her everything.

“Harlow! That’s incredible! Your fake relationship is already paying off.”

“I can’t believe this honestly. It’s not even been a day yet. My ad revenue for this month will be much higher than usual.”

Lucia and Rory join me on the bed, sitting on either side of me. They lean in for a group hug as Lucia says, “I’m so happy for you, Lo.”

“Starred and Fastis finally taking off,“ Rory adds.

The heartwarming moment is broken by the ringing of my phone. I look at the screen, and my stomach drops:Ella.

Well, I guess it’s time for another interrogation.

“Hey, Ella,” I say as I answer the phone. “What’s going on?”

“Harlow, you know exactly why I’m calling,” Ella replies from the other line.

I let out a breath. “Yeah, I kinda figured.”

“Lo, when were you going to tell me you’re dating Knox?!”

“It’s still new, Ell. I wasn’t intentionally keeping it from you.”

Technically, it is new.

And technically, I also didn’t know we were dating until a few days ago.

“I can’t believe you didn’t tell me! We just had dinner earlier this week.”

“In my defense,” I lie, “we were celebrating your engagement that night. I wasn’t going to bring up my new relationship at that point.”

“And all that talk about not being sure you can talk Knox into an interview? What was that?”

I sigh. “That was me trying to play it off. I didn’t want to steal your thunder, Ell. I was going to tell you soon, though.”

“Well,” Ella says, and I can hear her smile through the phone, “I’m so happy for you! It’s so nice to see you getting back out there after Derek.”

“Yeah,” I reply uneasily. “It’s nice to finally be moving past him.”

That part’s true, at least. Even if this relationship isn’t real, I can still feel myself finally moving on after Derek. Maybe this is exactly what I need to do for that.

I continue the call by spinning the web of lies and deceit Knox and I agreed to when we started this whole arrangement. I don’t like lying to one of my best friends, but I don’t think I have any other choice. We can’t have more people knowing than necessary. I know she’ll understand when I tell her one day.

Once Ella is satisfied with the details I provide—all fake, of course—she lets me go, and I decide to peruse the internet and see what’s happening. There are a lot of articles out right now, and I wonder what people are saying…

eleven

Knox

Thirty-seven, thirty-eight, thirty-nine, forty.Yup, still forty tiles on the ceiling of my hotel room. Just like there were the last time I counted them. And the time before that.

Even mindlessly counting the goddamn ceiling tiles can’t quell my mind from all the insanity of the last twenty-four hours. I can say with absolute certainty this is a situation I never thought I’d find myself in. Yet here I am, pretending to date my buddy’s sister, all so I can get a fucking endorsement deal.

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