Page 24 of Flynn

I sighed and loosened my hair from its tie before running my fingers through it. “You remember when I was drunk, and I said something about having a boyfriend these last few months?”

Kate nodded.

“Well… I panicked when you told me I’d said that. I drank wineand posted my situation onRateIt,and someone—well, they came up with an idea for me to fake a relationship,” I said, stopping myself just in time from mentioning Foxy’s. I didn’t know if Flynn wanted anyone to know that he was a date for hire, and I wasn’t about to out him if he wanted to keep it secret.

“And you choseFlynn? Couldn’t have found someone more controversial, like that Tate douchebag?”

I scrunched my face in disgust. As if I’d ever goanywherenear that waste of oxygen, red-pill-bro, social media douche.

“I…” I started, not sure how to answer that.

“Look, Kate,” Flynn cut in. “How it happened isn’t really important. Ara was drunk and made some calls. I wanted to help her after the way she’d been there for me as a kid, and I stepped up. We came up with a story and did what we had to do to make it believable, then we put it into action.”

“But whyyou?” she pushed. “You had to know that you being here would cause shit to hit the fan. Ellis has never gotten over being dumped by Chiara, and he’ll probably always carry a torch for her. He’s hatedyousince forever, and you had to know seeing his ex with you would make problems.”

“We did think about it,” I said with a grimace. “I was going to pull the plug, but then Sofia saw photos of us at the café and got all excited, and so we were screwed. We didn’t think Ellis would havethismuch of a problem,” I explained, dropping my head into my hands as guilt assailed me once again.

This wassucha mess.

Someone moved, and the bed dipped beside me before strong hands pulled mine from my face. Flynn’s concerned green eyes met mine and I hung my head.

“Hey,” he whispered, tilting my head back up toward him. “We’ve talked about this. It won’t happen again, and we’ll make it work. Just give me another chance to make it right.”

I sighed tiredly, not sure how he planned on doing that, but he’dpromised to do better on the terrace, so I had to give him a chance. I nodded and his thumb brushed my jawline as a small smile softened his lips.

“Are youkiddingme right now?” Kate cried.

I jumped at her sudden outburst and pulled away from Flynn to look at her. Her arms were crossed over her stomach and her face a mask of exasperation.

“What?”

She threw her hands up into the air in frustration and scoffed. “You two!” she cried. “How on earth do you two not see what’s happening here? You’re faking a relationship, but you’re gonna fall in love, and then what? Where does this relationship go? Who moves in with who? Someone is gonna have to step up and be the grown up and actually express their feelings here. You two can’t play pretend forever.”

I blinked in confusion. “Umm, we won’t play pretend forever, just for this wedding,” I answered slowly.

She groaned loudly and started for the door, her hand running through her long red hair. She turned to face us, her hand on the doorknob. “I’m not talking about faking for the family. I’m talking about you two pretending you don’t have feelings for each other. You might be fooling everyone with how this relationship started, but you two are only fooling yourselves if you think it’snotreal. Everyone else can see it. It’s why we bought the whole story.”

I shook my head, my stomach knotting. “Kate, that’s not—”

She held up a hand. “Don’t say it. I know what’s happening here, and deep down, you two do as well. It’s one of my all-time favorite movie tropes, but it’s sofrustratingto witness in real life. Just… think about what I said.”

I looked back at Flynn whose face was annoyingly blank and then back to Kate when she opened the door.

“Kate,” Flynn called, standing.

She turned to look at him, eyebrow raised in question.

“You won’t say anything to anyone else, will you?”

She sighed. “I love Sofia, and I’d never want anything to outshine her big day. I’m not the biggest Ellis fan honestly, so I don’t care about him. But there are a lot of people who risk being hurt by the truth here, so no, I won’t say anything. I stand by what I said, though. You two need to have a real conversation about your feelings.”

“There’s nothing—” I started but she waved me off.

“Don’t wanna hear it. I love you two, and I love you even more together because I’ve always felt you were meant to be. So, don’t screw it up.”

With that, she closed the door, and we were left in heavy silence.

When Flynn’s green eyes found mine again, I shook my head and attempted a shaky smile. “She’s always been a little wild, that one.”

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