Page 104 of The Ruse

An image of them making out on the backseat came to mind.

Though, her hair hadn’t seemed too much messier than it had when she’d left. And if I was going to make out with her, you bet I would be tangling my fingers in her hair…

Would it be weird if I asked her to just tell me what had happened so I could stop imagining things?

Yes.

Yes, it would be weird to ask her that.

So instead of saying anything about the text or her night with Nash, I said, “I should probably go.”

“Yeah, you probably should.”

I put my hand on the doorknob. Looking back at her once more, I wanted to ask what Nash had meant about the debutante ball. But deciding it probably meant what I thought it meant—that he was her escort—I simply said, “I’ll see you later. Sleep well.”

29

ELYSE

I triedto fall asleep after Asher left my room, but instead of drifting off into a peaceful slumber, I lay there on my bed with my mind racing.

Had Asher actually confessed that his whole relationship with Bailee was just a big production? That they had simply been playing characters of themselves with Eden Falls as their stage?

It didn’t seem like it could be real. People didn’t do those kinds of things in real life.

Except, I knew it could actually happen in real life because that was exactly how Ava and Carter had gotten together. They’d started with a fake relationship.

Thankfully for them, they had both felt the same way about each other and it had worked out.

Asher hadn’t been so lucky.

Was he still in love with her?

If Bailee were to come back today and tell him that she messed up and that she actually had feelings for him, too, would he want to be with her?

Ugh, I didn’t want to think about it. Hearing about how much they’d kissed had already been enough for me.

Did that mean I was jealous? Jealous that they had such amazing chemistry that even when he knew it wasn’t real, it made himwantit to be real?

Was Bailee a better kisser than me?

I pushed the thought away. I didn’t need to compare myself to a girl I’d never even met. I didn’t even know what she looked like.

But Asher had said she was beautiful, so she was probably gorgeous. And fun and funny and all the things everyone had been saying about her since Asher came back to school and his missing ex was a hot topic again.

Was it bad that I hoped she wasn’t actually as awesome as everyone had made her sound? That everyone was just viewing their memories of Bailee through rose-colored glasses because she was gone now?

Did that make me a bad person?

Yeah…it probably did.

I picked up my phone to do some research of my own. Everyone had social media these days—maybe Bailee did, and it was still up.

I typed in the name Bailee Vanderbilt in my Instagram app. A second later, my search page populated with a single account.

Really?

There was only one Bailee Vanderbilt in the world?

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