Page 81 of Not Fooling Anyone

He sighs but doesn’t seem too offended by my insult. “So you have a girlfriend now or something?”

“No.”

But maybe soon I will.

* * *

I’m the first one at the door as the doorbell rings, Tyler looking at me as if I have two heads as I sprint out of the kitchen.

“What’s your deal?” he shouts after me. “It’s Mia.”

Yeah, but it could be Lexie. I mean, she’s thirty minutes early, but still.

Opening the front door, my smile drops. It’s Mia.

She blinks up at me, her curly brown hair a halo around her head. “Can I come in?”

“Oh, yeah. Sorry.” I step out of the way as she passes by, looking out at the darkening rain clouds. I hope it doesn’t pour before Lexie gets here. Would she use it as an excuse to not come at all?

Returning to the kitchen, I find Mia pulling ingredients out of a tote bag, placing them on the island in the center of the room.

“What are you making?”

“Cookies,” she replies. “I thought it’d be nice for the movie and to make the house smell good.”

Right. A kitchen full of warm, gooey chocolate chip cookies won’t be at all hard to resist. I already took an insulin shot before dinner a couple hours ago. And I’m not taking my last one of the day until ten-thirty. Can I get away with dessert? I’m sick of testing my blood sugar.

Okay, just one. That’ll be fine.

“Oh, look what I have,” she says to Tyler, excitement in her voice as she pulls out what looks like a magazine.

“You actually bought this?” he asks, taking it from her.

I peek at the title,Clinical Psychology Reviewon the front.

“What is it?” I ask.

“Our study we worked on earlier in the year. The paper we wrote was finally published.”

“Oh, congratulations.” Tyler never mentioned anything about that. I guess it’s not the kind of thing we normally talk about, though. “How’d it turn out?”

“Do you want to read it?” Mia takes it back from Tyler, flipping through to the dog-eared page.

I take it from her, skimming through, but I don’t know enough about psychology to fully understand it all. “So biofeedback and physical activity were the most effective?”

“Yeah. That’s what we figured it would be.”

“Is this a big deal? To be in something like this?”

Tyler shrugs, but Mia says, “It’s a huge deal. We’re only undergraduates. Dr. Price’s name is first, but still.”

I take a closer look at the page. “Surprised you let Mia have more credit than you,” I tell Tyler, seeing his name listed third.

“It’s alphabetical,” he says. “Clemons comes before Jenkins.” He steps in behind her, circling his arms around her waist. “And she deserves it.”

Here they go, getting lovey-dovey again.

I turn away, thankful for the interruption as the doorbell rings. There she is.

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