Page 24 of The Fake Date Agreement

For them, it’s different. Their identity is set in stone. All I’ve known, other than summers and occasional winters in Sao Paulo, is Boston.

“You were getting high scores in all your classes,” Mom says when I don’t respond.

“Yes, because you spent an inordinate amount of money on private tutors.” She sucks in a breath, but I speak before she can. “I have to go.”

“Practice?” Her voice is tight.

I recall Tobie from last night.

I hadn’t believed she would want revenge. Something about her sweet disposition and the tears she was holding back at the arena made me think she wasn’t the sort of person who would go looking for revenge on anyone. It’s why Reid had been getting ready to choke the ex out for hurting her. A girl like Tobie stirs a guy’s protective instincts, and I don’t know anyone who has more of those instincts than my friend.

Reid wants to protect her.

I want to help her through a pain I know all too well.

And Caleb, I don’t know what he wants, but he definitely wants something.

“Something like that. And you need to tell Daniela to stop texting me. I’m not interested. If you think I will?—”

“I’m not responsible for that.” She pauses. “So she wants you back…”

Alarm bells start blaring.

“No, Mom. I’m not getting into that.”

Even if she’s the nice Brazilian girl you want me to marry.

“But you?—”

“She wants a doctor, and I’m not going to be a doctor.”

“Listening to a dying man’s last words will be a mistake.” She sighs. “I know what he said, and I know what you think, but when you’re at that age, all you have is regret.”

“I don’t want to get to be ninety years old on my deathbed likevovô, wishing I did the thing that made me happy.” He was my grandfather on my mom’s side. The first person I ever lost. Three years later, it still fucking hurts.

She’s silent for a beat. “He wants you to live the life that he wanted to lead. But you have your own life to live.”

“Not if I’m busy living the life you want. I have to go.” I hang up before she can say anything else, tossing my phone on the bed as I head for my bathroom.

I had money before. Mom and Dad never struggled for money. Mom’s family had more of it, but Vanessa and I always had the best of everything—private schools, expensive tutors, marquees big enough to host three hundred, fully catered, and with a band for all our birthdays.

Then my grandpa died, and I didn’t have to worry about my parents cutting me off if I didn’t become the doctor they’d always wanted.

Life should be easy.

Anything I want is achievable with one swipe or tap of my credit card. Nothing is out of reach.

Yet I’m more miserable now than I’ve ever been.

I offered to pay back the tuition for my first year of pre-med so my parents wouldn’t feel like I threw that money away when I dropped out in my freshman year at Harvard and chose the life I wanted instead of the one they wanted for me.

They refused. They’d set up a trust to pay my tuition years ago, but I’m paying for this new life myself. The only thing I can’t buy is a way to please my family.

The sound of my phone vibrating across my bed chases me into the bathroom. I start the shower, step under the spray before it’s fully hot, and lower my head.

My phone is still vibrating when I step out of the shower with a towel wrapped around me, twenty minutes later. Except this time, I don’t reluctantly pick it up when I see who’s calling. I’m smiling as I answer. “Will you ever stop being the favorite child?”

“Stop being the apple of Mom and Dad’s eye?” Nessa snorts. “As if. What’d you say to Mom? She’s trying to worm her way into my life, and she only does that when she fails at worming into yours.”

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