Page 106 of The Ruse

I still wasn’t quite sure about how it had ended. The two kisses at the end of the night hadn’t quite gone like I’d been imagining the past several weeks. But they’d been good.

Fine.

Not horrible, at least.

“That’s good,” Scarlett said with a smile. “I know how excited Nash was about all of your plans.”

“Yeah, it was really nice,” I said. “Nash was sweet.”

“I’d expect nothing less from Nash,” Scarlett said. She was staring at the photo I had of my mom, Ava, and me that was sitting on my desk, like she was distracted or uncomfortable. I wondered if she was trying to get up the nerve to say something else.

I slipped my foot into my boot and zipped it up over my jeans for something to do while I waited.

“So, um…” She cleared her throat. “I was downstairs watching a movie when you got back last night, and I, um, noticed Asher sneak up here behind you. What was that all about?”

She’d noticed that?

Had anyone else noticed Asher sneak into my room?

Did she think something had happened between us?

Was she fishing around to make sure I wasn’t sneaking around with another guy behind Nash’s back?

I picked up my other boot and unzipped it, trying to appear as innocent as I could. “He just came up to bring me my script,” I said. “And then we just talked about some stuff.”

Nothing to feel guilty about. I shouldn’t feel guilty about just talking to a guy.

Talking to a guy I was insanely attracted to in my room after curfew…right after I’d gotten home from a magical date with another guy.

“What kind of stuff did you talk about?” she asked.

Why was she asking so many questions?

“Um, just how things were with him and Bailee,” I answered honestly.

“Really?” Scarlett’s dark eyebrows knitted together. “That’s interesting that he would bring her up…”

Did she think I was lying? She seemed surprised that he and I would talk about his fake ex.

“I don’t think he meant to bring her up, but I guess this was her room last year. And when he realized that, it kind of hit him with a bunch of memories all at once.”

“Oh, thiswasBailee’s room.” She nodded, looking around my room again like she was seeing it differently now that I’d mentioned it. “I can’t believe I didn’t even remember that.”

“Anyway,” I said. “We ended up just talking about how they got together and how close they were.”

Best friends who pretended to be in love and made out all the time.

Which, even though I hadn’t loved hearing about it, I couldn’t really blame them for. If I was in a pretend relationship with Asher, I’d probably be okay making out with him all the time, too.

Probably find excuses for why we needed to keep practicing our fake girlfriend/boyfriend kissing skills.

“They were definitely something,” Scarlett said. Then she looked at me like she was remembering something and quickly added, “But that was a long time ago. Long enough that I think he’s actually ready to move on now.”

Really?

She thought it was possible he was over Bailee enough to move on?

Wait, why was she mentioning this to me? Did she somehow know that I might have feelings for him?

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