Page 4 of Hard to Pretend

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Itookadeepbreathof the coffee scented air and tried to focus on what my best friend, Mason Freeman, was saying. I should have been paying better attention, a fact I was well aware of, but it was hard. He was talking about another date he’d gone on with Vince, this guy from his office that he’d been seeing for the past few months in some unlabeled and undefined thing.

I didn’t get it.

Maybe it was the fact that I didn’t date often, but I didn’t see the point in seeing someone for months and not putting some kind of label on it, not putting in any kind of demands for fidelity or forming some emotional connection.

“Anyway, he has a friend.”

Mason’s words broke through my mental fog like a blaring siren.He has a friendwas code, one I’d heard from him and our other friends hundreds of time. It always ended with them attempting to set me up withsaid friend. I’d allowed it a few times, and it always ended in disaster. There had never been any kind of compatibility or spark or whatever it was that made people want to go on a second date.

At this point, I wasn’t sure if it was me or them, but I knew that I had no interest in being set up with any friends of friends at this stage of my life.

“No,” I said firmly, shaking my head and cutting Mason off in the middle of the pitch.

“Oh c’mon,” he argued. “You could at least hear about him.”

“I could,” I agreed. He opened his mouth to start again and I lifted a single finger to shush him, “but I already know how this is going to go. We’ve done it enough times.” Mason opened his mouth again, and I could already imagine the arguments he was about to give. So I cut him off again. “Besides, I’m seeing someone.”

Mason’s mouth gaped, opening and shutting like a fish struggling to breathe on a dock. He hadn’t heard about this mysterious person I was seeing for one very simple reason: they didn’t exist.

I was an idiot for saying it. Now I had to make up some person that I was seeing, because I knew Mason wasn’t going to let this lie.

His shock lasted only half a second longer, just enough time for me to realize that I’d made a grievous error.

“Who? Tell me about them. And also why the hell am I only hearing about this now? I’ve been on you forhowlong to start dating and you’ve been seeing someone? Does anyone else —”

The sound of the bell chiming overhead distracted me from his rant.

The person who pushed through the door saved me.

I’d met him before, about eight months ago at Goliath. We’d danced, and we’d gone home together. We’d exchanged numbers, and I’d meant to text, but work had gotten busy and I’d never reached out. And now, I was going to make an ass out of myself and justhopethat he wasn’t the type to throw someone under an eighteen wheeler.

“Seb!” I called out, lifting my arm to greet him.

His expression almost spoiled my master plan. His dark brows furrowed for a moment as his eyes landed on me, and then they relaxed. His lips curved upward, and his head cocked to the side. I motioned for Mason to hold our spot in line and sped over to meet him as he walked toward me.

We met closer to the door than the middle of the coffee shop, hopefully out of earshot of Mason. I slid my arm around his waist and leaned in. “Can you pretend we’ve been seeing each other for a few weeks?” I whispered.

He studied me, that same bewildered expression on his face that he’d had when I’d called his name.I was certain he was going to tell me to fuck off or something. There were a few moments where all I could hear was the sound of my heart pounding in my ears as he studied me. Then he slipped his hand into mine.

He gave me a small smile and angled his face closer to mine. “Let’s do this,” he whispered. The way his warm breath caressed my lips felt too intimate for a coffee shop.

I walked with him back to where Mason still waited, holding our place in line. “Apparently, when you speak of the devil, the devil doth appear,” I said with a laugh. “Mason, I’d like you to meet Seb.”

Mason’s eyes moved over Seb, as if checking to see if he was real and not some robot I summoned with previously unknown mental powers. Seb extended a hand toward my best friend. “It’s nice to meet you. This one’s told me a bit about you.”

Had I? I didn’t remember much of what we’d talked about that night. Actually, I didn’t remember doing a lot of talking at all, but clearly I’d said something if he remembered Mason. Unless he was pretending, in which case he was a damn good actor and I owed him a coffee for saving my ass.

“All lies, I’m sure.” Mason’s voice was good-natured. Maybe he accepted that this was some mysterious guy that I’d been seeing and had never told anyone about. I could only hope. “So, how long have you two been…” Mason trailed off, unsure what to say.

“A few weeks,” Seb lied easily, “but we actually met seven or eight months ago at Goliath.”

“So you guys have known each other for awhile?” Mason sounded skeptical. For good reason. There was no way I would’ve kept someone a secret for months.

“Wemet, but it was one of those things where we meant to keep in touch but life got busy,” I explained. Better to stick with the truth right? “Finally managed to run into each other again, and here we are.”

Mason nodded. The line moved forward a few steps. Was it moving slower than usual this morning? It felt like it was moving slower.

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