Page 78 of Not Fooling Anyone

Behind him, I spot Savannah chatting with a dark-haired guy eerily similar to Ethan. Guess she gave up, then.

We make our way out of the party, Ethan easily creating a path for us with his big body, and we walk in silence toward the street.

“Where are you parked?” he asks. “I’m up this way.” He points in the opposite direction of where my car is.

“I’m over here.”

He starts toward where I motioned and I lay a hand on his arm. “You don’t have to walk me to my car.”

He slings an arm over my shoulders. “You think I’m letting you walk out here alone at night?”

Even as his words make something inside me go a little gooey, I still resist. “I can take care of myself.”

“I know. But humor me.”

We head down the sidewalk, his arm heavy over me. He seems at ease, but the bundle of nerves in my belly steadily grows until I actually have to hold a hand over my stomach to settle it. If I was unsure how to act around him after kissing him in the lab, I definitely don’t know what to say now.

“You work tomorrow night?” he asks casually, as if we just didn’t share the most intimate experience of my life.

“No.”

“Want to come over? My roommate and his girlfriend are doing a horror movie marathon.”

He’s inviting me over to watch a movie?

“Um, sure,” I say as we reach my car, my wits still addled.

“Be there around eight? I’ll text you my address.”

“Okay.” I’m so confused right now. I need time to process everything that just happened.

“See you tomorrow.” He leans down, giving me a quick kiss on the lips, and waits as I fish my keys out.

He stands at the curb, holding a hand in farewell as I pull away. It’s not until I’m a mile down the road that I realize what I agreed to. We’ve never done anything together not directly related to the study or class. Even tonight was a way to be seen as a couple, to legitimize our fake relationship.

Sort of.

He wasn’t… asking me on a date, was he? No, he said his friends will be there. And it’s just watching a movie. It’s not like he asked me to go to a fancy restaurant with him. That’s what people do when they go on dates, right? I’ve never actually been on one. Cody always wanted to meet up somewhere secret where no one would see us. He said it was because his ex-girlfriend would cause trouble for me if she knew we were together, but I realize now he just didn’t want to be seen with me. I was never good enough to be anyone’s girlfriend.

I shove away that whole train of thought, compartmentalizing it. I need to worry about what I’m doing with Ethan, not what happened years ago with Cody. Ethan’s not the same as him. Not anywhere close.

Even so, what exactly is he to me?

CHAPTEREIGHTEEN

ETHAN

“There wasa problem with your timecard this morning,” my shift manager, Keith, says, standing awkwardly a few feet away from me in the aisle.

I yawn loudly and pull the next set of hedge clippers off the pallet, sliding them on the rack. “Oh, yeah?”

“You clocked in five minutes early.”

I keep my eye roll at bay. The guy always thinks I’m trying to game the system because my brother is the assistant manager. “Better to be early than late, am I right?” He’s lucky I came in at all. It took forever to fall asleep last night with how worked up I was.

“Make sure it doesn’t happen again.”

I stand up straight, giving him a salute. “Yes, sir.”

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