Page 19 of Fake Dating My Best Friend

ELAINE

I bet you want to know.

ASHER

Know what?

ROXANNE

Promise you won’t tell Isla we told you this.

ASHER

Okay.

ELAINE

Isla said you sort of rejected her in college. Is that true??

Rejected her?

I was barely surviving every time she dated someone else. Spent half of college pretending it didn’t kill me. Smiling through it. Being thegood friendwho didn’t break that friendship pact.

Wait.

Does she meanthattime?

“Asher?” Mom’s voice cuts in. “You look like you’re buffering.”

“Nope.” I clear my throat. “Just . . . mashed potatoes went down wrong.”

Mom turns to Isla, her voice sweet enough to raise alarms.

“Isla, dear. Sorry for the confusion earlier. But now I’m curious . . . have you ever considered using your matchmaking skills on Asher?”

The mashed potatoes really did go wrong this time.

“Mom—”

“I’m just saying,” she shrugs, “he’s been single for a long time, and I’m starting to worry.”

“Really? We’re doing this now?”

But Isla’s not laughing it off like she usually does. Instead, she’s gone quiet, dangerously quiet. Her eyes flick to me, then away, then back again, like she’s solving a particularly complex puzzle.

My stomach drops. Because the last time Isla got that look in her eyes, I ended up in a bunny costume at the town’s Easter parade. With a tail. And glitter. And something tells me this time, I’m in for something much, much worse.

“You’re the second person who’s mentioned that today,” she says slowly, like she’s still processing. “I hadn’t really thought about it . . . But maybe it’s not a bad idea.”

Chapter 5

Isla

Twobirds,onestone.A genius idea.

This is why I’m standing outside Asher’s apartment door now.

I thought about it the whole ride back from his parents’ house, paced around my apartment for twenty minutes, then marched straight here before I could talk myself out of it.

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