Page 63 of The Boyfriend Swap

“Take care of yourself, and may your next boyfriend be all you’ve ever wanted.”

I blinked back a tear. The Perry who stood before me was a much more sensitive version than the one I was used to.

“Of course, good luck finding one as sexy and talented as me.”

Or maybe not.

Anne Marie gaped at me from her side of the sofa. “Yowza. Makes my Christmas of attending midnight Mass, eating obscene amounts of food, and exchanging presents seem verybourgeoise.”

Chuckling, I said, “It was actually a pretty typical holiday. Well, aside from pretending Will was my boyfriend and coming home to find out the guy I wasreallydating had a sizzling suck-face session with the girl he was pretending to be in a relationship with.”

Anne Marie leaned forward to top off my glass of wine. “Yeah, aside from all of that.”

I let my head drop back toward the ceiling. “Who am I kidding? It was a disaster.”

“How could Sidney do that to you? To me? I’m her secretary, and I’d never have introduced you to her if I’d known she’d stab her claws into your man.”

“I should be mad. But I don’t care enough.” I frowned. “Isn’t that sad?”

“What’s sad is that you slept in the same bed with your lifelong crush for three nights and nothing happened, while my slutty boss was throwing herself at your boyfriend.” She cocked her head at me. “By the way, I can’t believe you didn’t tell me you had feelings for Will.”

“He’s your boss’s boyfriend. I didn’t want to put you in the middle. And besides, I didn’t think I’d still like him after nine years.”

“But you did.”

I gulped my wine. “I did.”

“Does he like you?”

I brought my glass to my mouth and let my lips linger on the edge for a moment before taking a sip. “James thought so. Will had nothing pleasant to say about Perry, and James said it was because he was jealous that Perry was my guy. I wanted it to be true, and that’s when I knew I had to end things with Perry no matter what.” I thought back to dancing with Will and how right it felt to be in his arms. He’d called me sexy. But I didn’t miss the regret in his eyes immediately after he said it or the way he hoofed it to the porch to get away from me later. He was holding his phone when I followed him outside. He probably missed Sidney and wanted to hear her voice. “I think Will might have gotten caught up in the moment and the performance of it all, but he has no intention of breaking up with Sidney.”

Anne Marie harrumphed. “Wait until he finds out what she did.”

“I’m not going to tell him.”

“You’re a much better person than me.”

Shrugging, I said, “It’s not my place or my business.” My phone rang and I picked it up, gasping when I saw who was calling.

Will.

Chapter 16

Sidney

After Will left my apartment, I stretched across the length of my couch and remained there for an hour. With effort, I lifted myself to a seated position, feeling as if my body was weighted down with concrete cinder blocks. I removed my wine glass from the table and stared into the bottom, tempted to swallow the backwash. Instead, I returned it to the silver Hammertone coaster with a loud sigh. Despite putting my best effort into my expression of remorse, I was prepared for it to not be good enough. But I hadn’t expected Will to end things between us for any other reason than my infidelity. It had never even occurred to me that simply asking Will to play along with the swap was akin to treating him like shit and making it clear his feelings didn’t count nearly as much as my own. Once I decided the boyfriend swap was more than just a drunken suggestion by Anne Marie, but the perfect antidote for mine and Robyn’s holiday dilemma, no one else mattered. When had I become so focused on winning that I’d do anything to get my way? Success at all costs was the name of the game, at least the one I’d been playing for most of my life.

I might have been oblivious to how my dysfunctional personality affected my romantic life all these years—or just too busy winning to notice—but based on their outburst at Christmas dinner, my family knew something I didn’t. I wondered who else was in the know. Lisa? She’d never said as much to me, but considering how open I was to unsolicited advice—not at all—it didn’t mean anything. There was only one way to find out. I removed my phone from where it had been charging in my kitchen, headed to my bedroom, and called her.

After telling Lisa about my indiscretion with Perry and my subsequent breakup with Will, I said, “And that’s what’s happening with me. What’s shaking in your neck of the woods?” The resulting silence on the other end of the phone unnerved me. “You there, Li?”

After another beat, Lisa said, “Yeah, I’m here. I’m trying to come up with an appropriate response.”

“You’re my best friend. Just say the first thing that comes to mind—appropriate or not.”

Lisa clucked her tongue. “Here goes nothing then. The boyfriend swap was not one of your wisest schemes—something I would have told you if you’d asked my opinionbeforegoing through with it—but it’s not as if you would have listened to me anyway. When Sidney Bellows devises whatsheconsiders a brilliant plan, God help any naysayers. In short, nice going, friend. Hashtag fail.”

I whistled through my teeth. “Wow. Don’t sugarcoat your feelings or anything.”

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