Page 57 of Just Bromantically Invested

Dating? I stall halfway into my living room. “Oh fucking no.”

“What’s wrong?” She holds up the bottle she’s just opened. “Want some?”

I shake my head and make it to my dining table to collapse into a chair. “Madden thinks we’re dating.”

“Yes …” She creeps closer like she’s worried about me. “You were there, remember? Unless, of course, you have a secret twin I don’t know about, and it was him going along with the act instead.”

“Fuck.” I bury my face in my hands. Madden thought I was dating Lana when we hooked up. What the hell does he think of me? Is that why he was being so weird?

Her voice softens. “Maybe try explaining what this meltdown is about?”

“I’m not straight.”

“Huh.” She sits down and pushes the drink she’s made my way. “Continue.”

“I have feelings for Madden, and the other night, I made a move on him. It was …” I let out a long rush of air. “Everything. But as soon as it was over, he bolted.”

“Weird.”

“Orhe thought I’d cheated on you.”

Lana’s lips form a perfect, glossy O. “Do you think he’d care about that? He doesn’t like me much.”

“Even if he thought you were the worst person on Earth?—”

“Yikes.”

“He’d never support you being cheated on. Madden is a good guy.”

Lana folds her arms over the table. “That actually makes me like him a whole lot more. That he feels guilty over our fake relationship.”

I huff and rub my eyes. “I need to tell him.”

“Yesterday would have been a good time for that.”

I want to sarcastically thank her for the help, but it’s not Lana’s fault. I’m the one who got the three of us into this position.

“Okay. Tell me about your kiss, and then I’m going to go and see him. And hopefully, he doesn’t think I’m completely fucking weird for, well, everything.”

“He won’t,” she says confidently.

“You didn’t see him today. It didn’t feel like us.”

“My story is that I met a girl, we kissed, the end. Go and talk to him. I’ll spill all the details tomo?—”

Lana cuts off at the sound of the front door opening. Only one other person has a key to my apartment because I always wanted him to feel like this was his place too. I always wanted him to move out of Bertha and into my spare room.

Now, it’s less the spare room and more my bed, but one thing at a time.

I have a dopey smile across my face the second I see him, and my hope that he doesn’t notice is answered when his gaze immediately lands on Lana.

“Shit, I’m sorry. I didn’t know Penn had company.”

“I thought you were busy?” I’m glad he’s not busy. So, so glad.

“Changed my mind. I … sorry. I’ll go.”

“Wait.” I jump up from the chair. “Stay.”

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