Page 18 of Knot Just for Show

“What!? Did you go on a date with him too? I haven’t even said anything yet!” Roxy snips in an incredulous whisper.

“Anton the ‘gym owner’? Who couldn’t stop talking about the gym he owns, or his ex, the model?” I have to hiccup down a laugh in the middle of my confirmation.

Instead of getting angry with my assessment, Roxy only snorts out a strangled laugh—trying to maintain our low profile.

“Fuck me, Ursula, when you say it like that—he sounds worse than I was going to paint him, and I was going to call him: a surprisingly charismatic meathead.” Roxy puts great effort into keeping her voice down, despite her shoulders gently shaking with captive laughter.

I cover my mouth with my napkin until I can manage to pull myself from my fit of silent giggles.

“Ok, ok–can I guess the second one then?” I ball my hands into excited fists and shake them gently at the table’s edge.

“Yes–but no laughing at me, if you’re right.” Roxy fake pouts. “Plus, Anton didn’t mention his ex at all beyond saying that he had one during our date.”

It seems so surreal that all of us are dating within the same limited pool—that it’s going to be totally normal for Roxy and I to have these kinds of conversations for the next few weeks.

“Ok, so if Anton, the gym owner, was up your street—you must have enjoyed your training session with Teddy.” I lean forward until I notice that our foreheads almost touch.

Roxy rounds her lips over her teeth, and for a second I’m worried I’ve messed with the sigma and I’m going to get the horns, or at least a headbutt. Instead, she jerks slightly with another stifled laugh, a rueful smirk turning her scrunched mouth upward.

“Oh come on Roxy—the two biggest himbos? I thought you said you wanted to break patterns, not complete the sequence,” I prod her, delighted by her reaction.

“Listen, I know it’s indefensible—I know that. But what can I say? The heart wants what it wants!” She leans backward—her hands flashing open, palm out as if letting go of something.

“Since I’m gathering that neither of them impressed you much, who haveyougot your designs on so far, Ms. Ursula?” Roxy raises one of her perfectly shaped brows at me.

“Well, if we’re being entirely honest, I actually kind of enjoyed the tail end of my date with Teddy. He seems like he might not be a total flake…even if he started off our date by working out on the other side of the goddamn divider,” I whisper confidentially.

Roxy coughs to hide her laugh.

“He was working out on your date!?” she hisses, eyes watering with the effort of containing her hysterics.

“I called him out on it, of course.” I sniff, proud of myself.

“As well you should! How did he handle it?”

“Shockingly well. I had all but checked out of the date because I thought he was too self involved, but he stopped me and asked for a second date before I could blow him off. He said he liked being challenged.” I’m surprised by the flutter of butterflies in my stomach as I recount the end of the date to Roxy, who lets out a soft, low whistle.

“Wow, ok—we only talked about what we do on leg day. Way to make me feel superficial as fuck, Ursula.” She grins, landing another affectionate punch on my shoulder. Is it my imagination, or was there a teensy bit more strength behind this one?

“N-no, I just meant that–” I scramble to course correct—but Roxy waves me off.

“Chill out, babe. I’m just fucking with you.” She flashes me that bit of canine with her off-kilter grin and ushers me onward.

“Ok, so you actually liked himbo Teddy. Who else?”

“I really liked Mavren, the chef.” I blush, suddenly shy and more interested in picking at my salad than meeting Roxy’s eyes.

Part of me is worried she’s going to say she liked talking with him too, but more of me is worried that he’s enjoyed every single date after ours more than the last—that by tomorrow, I’ll have already been eliminated from the running as far as he’s concerned.

“Oh? Mavren, huh? I haven’t been on a date with anyone named Mavren yet.” She blinks, shaking her head slowly.

“Good, make sure you don’t end up liking him, or we may have to enter ourromantic rivalsarc.” I stick my tongue out at Roxy and give her a wink.

“Well, now I’m obviously duty-bound to seduce him. Move over babe, the boy is mine.” Roxy unexpectedly hooks her arm around my neck and pulls me in to ruffle my hair just like my older brother used to do when I was a kid.

We pull away from one another just in time to see Brittney and her passel of mean girls whispering and glaring at us, but Roxy just spins our chairs around away from the high topped counter so that we’re directly facing the camera crew, while giving Brittney and company our backs.

“I know that she wants some kind of confrontation—for me to come and kick her ass for doing this kind of mean-girl shit, but that’s not my bag. We’re just going to ignore her as long as she doesn’t start shit directly.”

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