Page 90 of Please Save Me

“So… What’s the catch?”

“Nothing.” Sebastian finally looked back at me. “But, I need you to help me call his bluff.”

“And how do I do that?” I tried not to sound as desperate as I felt.

I would have done just about anything for this to be true. If Sebastian asked me to run through the mall as naked as the day I was born, I would have hesitated, but as long as I could cover my decency, I’d have done it.

“... You’re out with Mason, right?”

I nodded. “Her clothes don’t fit right anymore, and she’s tired of wearin’ my stuff.”

That seemed like a good way to explain what we were doing while leaving out the fact that she wanted something to wear on a date with his brother.

“Why?” he scoffed. “She has under four weeks left.”

“Don’t matter why,” I replied before clearing my throat. “Back to the topic at hand, what do you need me to do?”

Sebastian took a deep breath, and his eyes flickered with what I assumed to be jealousy. “I need you to go back inside and lay it on thick. If nothing gets said within the days after, we know Dale was serious.”

My lashes fluttered as I blinked at him. There’s no way he was saying what I thought he was.

“Lay it on thick? Like go inside and–”

“Be happy, excited even,” he begrudgingly muttered. “Put your hand on her stomach and kiss her on the lips. If no one says anything to you, Dale’s actually done.”

Emotion built in the back of my throat, and I struggled to force it down. “Seb, that’s dangerous.”

“You think I don’t know that? Look, no part of mewantsyou to go inside and fawn overmygirl.” Seb’s words had a lot of conviction for someone who got rejected yesterday. “Ineedto see the outcome of this.”

My fingers started to tingle as I thought about just how badly I wanted to rush inside and embrace Mason. No part of me had ever been embarrassed about her, and I’d been dying to show her off. But I wasn’t sure if it was a good idea.

Sebastian’s patience seemed to wear thin as the muscles in his neck corded. “So, are you going to do it or not?”

Chapter 29

Mason

After one too many times of almost being kicked out of a store, Sophia was banned from entering dressing rooms with me. I didn’t know what it was about fluorescent lights and full-length mirrors, but Sophia always took that as a challenge to fuck me so hard I couldbarelywalk out of the store.

She rapped on the door, separating her from devouring me like a starving wolf.

“Come on! It can’t be that bad!” she pleaded.

And that was where she was wrong. I turned to the side and pressed the emerald silk to my skin, examining my body from every angle. I tried not to look at myself in mirrors too much right now. That wasn’t my idea, but more my therapist’s. I was the healthiest I had been in years; I wasn’t starving myself to be perfect, and I also had a whole human growing in me, a human I made with the tallest man I’d ever met. Which, I should have known, was a terrible fucking idea.

“I look like I’m smuggling a beach ball!” I called back.

“... But it’s a cute beach ball!”

I rolled my eyes before reaching for the door handle and poking just my head out.

Sophia stood inches away from the door, looking perfect as always. Her make-up was flawless, her smile bright, and she didn’t even have a hair out of place. How the hell was I supposed to feel comfortable in my skin when my girlfriend wasliterallyprettier than Aphrodite?

“You’re not helping,” I warned.

“How can I help if I can’t see?” She tapped the tip of my nose, and I thought about biting her.

Part of me considered texting Lucian and asking if we could just wear sweatpants to our date, but I knew he never left the house like that and that he’d also be fine if that were what I wore, which would leave me underdressed.

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