Page 103 of Relationship Goals

“It’s not Michelle,” I finally say. “Hi, Tristan. Uh, Michelle’s in the bathroom. It’s Abigail. Abigail Hunt?”

Michelle falls back against the couch and smashes a throw pillow into her face.

Argh.

“Ooooh, you’re having a girls’ night? That’s so great. I’m so happy for you. Michelle is so great.” Another hiccup, his words so slurred that I’m having a hard time understanding him.

“She is great. I’ll tell you what, I can have her call—”

“I think Luke really likes you, too, you know?”

I pick at the corner of the fleece blanket that I’m now too nervously hot for, shoving it off my lap. “Uh-huh. That makes two of us—”

“Yeah, like hereallylikes you, I think, because you know, he’s kind of hard to read. Anyway, it’s great, because now everyone gets what they want.”

Michelle slowly moves the pillow from her face, a combination confused and curious look contorting her expression.

“What?” I don’t understand. “What do you mean, everyone? Me and Luke—”

“And the owners. Because they put him up to asking you out. Forced him to. He was so fucking pissed about it. He did not want to date you, not at all. But it’s all working out now.”

My stomach drops, and the phone falls out of my hands with it.

I can’t breathe.

Michelle grabs the phone, horror bleeding into her face.

“I—I don’t understand?” I ask.

“The Aces owners, they’re kind of dicks, right? But they’re good at business. They thought you two dating would kick up ticket sales—raise ticket sales? Rise ticket sales? Make people buy the tickets. So they asked your director for you.”

“They asked my director…for me?” I am literally going to throw up. Cheese was, for once in my life, a very bad choice.

“Yeah. It was, like, a scheme. A scheme. Scheme. What a weird word. That’s a weird word, right? So yeah. They forced Luke to ask you out. For what’s it called? Marketing. Public marketing. Personal relations. Relationships are hard.”

My chest hurts. I rub at it, like that will make the pain lessen, but it doesn’t.

“They are hard,” I say softly. “We’ve gotta go. I’ll tell Michelle you called. Drink lots of water, okay?”

“Okay. Love you, bye,” Tristan says, and the line goes dead.

Michelle stares at me.

I take a deep breath and then burst into tears.

Chapter Twenty-nine

Abigail

“Hey, hey, it’sokay to be upset, it’s okay,” Michelle tells me soothingly, rubbing between my shoulders. “It’s okay to be sad. But let’s think. Do we believe Tristan?”

“I’m not sad,” I say, wiping my tears away.

A lie.

“Oh?” Michelle asks, her voice gentle and her eyes disbelieving.

I am devastated. Completely, utterly devastated. Luke…I thought Luke was it for me. I thought he might be my person. I thought he meant all those things he said about liking who I was: the chaos, the silliness, my absurdity, and the constant too-muchness.

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