Page 40 of The Enemy of My Enemy Is… My Fake Boyfriend?

"Still..."

"It's just a chocolate croissant."

"Oh, no. The French way is much more fun to say."

"Isn't it always?"

I giggled, surprised to realize how much I was enjoying this little soft launch of ours. After taking a sip of my latte, I leaned in closer to Ethan who did the same.

"You are never going to believe who I just ran into," I whispered to him.

"Who?"

"Him. And you are never going to guess what he smelled like."

His practically translucent eyes widened. "If you say chicken soup, I'll fucking die."

"Chicken soup."

For a split second, he sat there stunned before he threw his head back, laughing his ass off. We both laughed way too long and way too hard, until I sensed eyes on us.

We stopped at the same time, maybe getting that same feeling together. From the corner of my vision, I spotted a person taking a selfie, thinking they were so stealth as they captured Ethan and me in their background.

Ethan and I kept our gazes on each other, having a mind-meld moment, both of us quiet as the hushed whispering sounded around us, a word or two standing out to my ears.

Aria Stratton, Ethan Locke... are they together together?

With an amused light in his eyes, Ethan smiled at me. "So..." he began, ignoring the quiet hubbub surrounding our table. "How was work this weekend? How did your event go?"

For a second, I was stunned at his questions, shocked that he actually seemed interested in my silly little job. But then, I realized he was just trying to make conversation in an attempt to appear like we were an almost couple, doing a very couple-y activity.

"Pretty good. No big issues."

He chuckled quietly. "That's it? That's all you're going to tell me? What about the color scheme? The flowers? The DJ you hired? Was she any good?"

"She? You know it was a female DJ?"

"Yeah. I checked out the event page beforehand but didn't see any updates about it afterwards."

"You checked out the event page?"

His eyes narrowed. "Of course. Why wouldn't I?"

"No. The real question is... whywouldyou?"

"Because it's interesting. Because it's your work. Becauseyou'reinteresting."

"I'minteresting?"

"Yes. And the real question is... why would you think you're not? Who the hell has been filling your head with nonsense and making you think you're not interesting?"

My mind whirling, I stalled for a bit and took a bite of my pastry, the delicious chocolate exploding on my tongue, making me momentarily forget what we'd been talking about.

But Ethan didn't wait for me, his eyes piercing me. "I think I can surmise exactly who's made you feel less than interesting."

"Hmm? What?" Taking a sip of my drink to wash down the chocolate, I decided to just brush it all aside, embarrassed and humiliated that I'd let Chase have any sort of effect on me at all. He didn't deserve it. "Anyway, the event went well. The DJ was incredible, super talented. It was one of those rare times where we didn't have any problems, no crazy last minute catering cancellations, no emcee passing out beforehand drunk, no disco ball crashing down in the middle of the dance floor."

"All those things have happened?" he asked, eyes wide.

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