Page 99 of Not Fooling Anyone

Everything I’ve avoided for so long is suddenly a possibility, cautious optimism coursing through me. The feeling is strange but welcome, like something’s finally been unlocked inside me.

I mean, he said he wanted me to be his girlfriend. His GIRLFRIEND. I know it doesn’t mean to him what it does to me, but for someone to want me like that… I can’t even describe it. The way I’d woken yesterday morning, wrapped in his arms, listening to his soft breaths, had filled me with a sense of peace I wasn’t aware was possible. And though he said he’d go slow, I think I might be ready for… more.

“I’ll see you next week,” I tell Marty, grabbing my backpack. It’s already late and I’ve done everything I can for the night.

He waves me off and I head over to the ring, watching Dad and Ethan spar. I’ve spent the last however many years turned off by boxing, but I have to admit, I like seeing Ethan move. How serious he gets, the physicality he displays, a kind of primal vibe emanating from him. Outside the ring, he’s sweet and smart and goofy. But in here…

A shudder runs through me, calling to mind the way he’d been with me in bed too. Confident. Skilled. In control. But it hadn’t veered into domineering territory. He’d also been giving. Patient. Supportive.

My heart thumps painfully in my chest. What would it be like to be his girlfriend for real?

“Lex,” Dad calls out, finally noticing me. “Ethan tell you he has a fight coming up?”

Why would he think Ethan and I talk? Did Ethan tell him about us?Idon’t even know what our relationship is. I never actually answered Ethan about the girlfriend thing.

Oh, wait. Dad caught us talking out in the parking lot last week and knows we have a class together. Crisis averted.

“Yeah, super exciting,” I call back, laying the sarcasm on thick.

Dad grins at Ethan. “She’s just jealous because she gave up on boxing years ago. She could have a title under her belt by now if she had kept with it.”

My lips thin. So that’s what he thinks? That I quit on a whim? Not because it had anything to do with him, obviously. Why would it possibly be his fault?

Ethan moves out of his ready position, brows knitting as he looks at me.

I rearrange my expression, knowing Dad won’t catch anything out of the ordinary. Only Ethan picks up on my moods so easily.

“I’ll see you later,” I tell Ethan, ignoring everyone else as I cross the room and exit the gym. I take a fresh breath as I climb up the basement level stairs to the parking lot, glad to be out of the sweaty funk that’s always lingering there. At least Marty’s office doesn’t have the same smell.

“Lexie, wait.”

I turn around, Ethan at the bottom of the steps, his gym bag over one shoulder.

“You didn’t have to stop because of me,” I mumble.

“I was about done anyway,” he says, taking the stairs two at a time to reach me. “You should talk to him, you know.”

“Oh, should I?” I don’t mean for it to come out as bitterly as it does, but I can’t take it back now.

“Tell him why you started boxing,” he urges. “That it was to be close to him. And why you quit too. He obviously doesn’t know.”

I blow out a breath, continuing on to my car on the other side of the lot. “There’s no use in bringing up the past. We can’t change it.”

“Yeah, but it still upsets you.”

“Who said I’m upset?”

I reach my car, turning around to face him. He gives me a deadpan look, calling bullshit without actually having to say the word.

Damn it.

“I’m fine,” I tell him. “It’s not a big deal.”

“Do you want me to talk to him?”

“No,” I blurt out, way too quickly to pass as casual. “Don’t worry about it.” I avoid his eye, knowing he has a point, but not wanting to admit it. “Did you say anything to him about… us?”

He shakes his head. “I figured it should come from you.”

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