Page 30 of On My Side
And then he laughs.
I’m so startled by the fact it sounds like Ren’s laugh directly in my ear that I rip my headphones off and throw them across the room like they’re on fire.
Ren is Sky.
Sky is Ren.
“Mom?” Piper calls. Shit, she usually isn’t awake this early. “Are you okay?”
“Fine, birdie!” I wheeze. “I’m great.”
She buys it, I guess, because she doesn’t push it further.
I, meanwhile, am spiraling.
Why? A small voice inside me asks.Why are you freaking out over Ren and Sky being the same person?
The thought gives me pause, because whydoI care? Ren is allowed to do whatever he wants, and Sky is one of the few 4Play creators with zero social media presence. That made me think he had a personal life he didn’t want associated with the work he did for the app.
I mean. I was right. And he deserves that privacy.
But I ruined it.
He’ll never know, that one voice says again.You’ll keep it together and not embarrass him or yourself and never say anything.
God, one can only hope.
Chapter 11
Audrey
Playlist: Close To You | Gracie Abrams
I spend the next few hours staring blankly at the ceiling. I don’t want to go to Piper’s lesson. I don’t want to look into the eyes of the man who’s made me come every night for a year.
If I act differently than I have the past few weeks, both Piper and Ren will know something is wrong. But after Piper leaves for class, I force myself out of bed, showering before making Ren’s coffee with sugar and oat milk in one of my favorite mugs.
It’s strange, knowing Ren is Sky. Sky is Ren. I look at Ren, and I see Piper’s piano teacher, a man who genuinely cares about her and her success and talent. But I listen to Sky and… fuck. He’s pure sex.
I wonder if it has anything to do with the pesky butterflies that arrive in my stomach when he glances up from the piano and his face brightens as he takes the mug from me.
“You’re a godsend,” he says.
“No, you,” I say, and immediately wish I didn’t, because yikes.
He blushes. “If you insist.”
“I do…”
“Are you two done flirting yet?” Piper interrupts, a bored expression on her face. She leans her elbow against the keys, the loud clang echoing through the lobby.
“Piper!” I hiss as Ren chokes on his sip of coffee, his face somehow turning even redder.
“What?” Piper asks, looking between the two of us. “Are you not flirting right now? When Luke and Lorelai do it, you say…”
“Can we talk for a moment, birdie?” I ask, not waiting for an answer before reaching around Ren and wrapping my hand around Piper’s bicep.
She sighs heavily and gets to her feet. “That’s your ‘I’m giving you the illusion you have a choice, but you and I both know you don’t have one’ voice.”
