Page 56 of In the Net
I don’t know why Sebastian volunteered to be my wedding date. But he was so insistent, and the arguments he gave me made so much sense, that he wore me down.
Could it be something about him wanting to, I don’t know, pay me back for looking after him when he was melting down in Paris? It’s not like I did anything for him he didn’t do for me when I was sick …
Either way, I agreed, and now I’m stuck with this arrangement. Even if I haven’t shaken off all the doubts.
I’d love for us to be able to just keep our distance until the day of the wedding, but I realize that won’t work.
For one, Mackenzie’s envy is going to make her a certified hater, and she’s going to be on the lookout for any opportunity to cast doubt on our relationship. Sebastian and I need to get more comfortable around each other, and we need to be seen in public as a couple more often.
There’s a fancy restaurant a couple miles outside town where I know one of her sorority sisters who she’s friends with works as a hostess. If Sebastian and I go there for dinner, she’ll see us, and no doubt word will quickly get back to Mackenzie. If she hears about us being out on a date like a normal couple, it’ll make our relationship seem more real. Then, hopefully she’ll be less inclined to try to poke holes in it, especially when we have to spend the day around my family.
This is one of those restaurants with a dress code. Dressing nice, being picked up by Sebastian who’s also going to be dressed nice, having dinner with him at a restaurant that cultivates anintimate, romantic ambiance … everything about tonight has my nerves frayed and anxiety rolling through my body.
It doesn’t help that he’s late.
I take out my phone to check his last message.
Sebastian (ugh)
Be there at six-thirty
It’s six-fifty already.
He’s twenty minutes late. But I’m already wound so tight with a combination of dread over having to pretend to be smitten in public with the hockey player I can’t stand, and eagerness to just get it over with, that it feels like I’ve been waiting for hours.
“Just look at her,” Scarlett says, the coyest grin in the world carved on her face, “so in love that she’s counting the seconds until her boyfriend arrives.”
I told the girls about what Sebastian and I are doing, so they know it’s all an act. Of course, that doesn’t stop them from getting all the mileage out of this as they can.
I love my roommates, but they’re getting on my nerves right now. I’d rather just wait for Sebastian outside. Maybe some fresh air will do my anxiety good, too.
I roll my eyes when Jasmine calls out, “We won’t wait up!” as I pull the door open and step outside. When I close it behind me and step onto the porch, I find Sebastian in front of me.
His eyebrows bounce, a wry grin on his face. “Wow, someone’s eager.”
I give him a flat look. “You’re late.”
“Counting the seconds, huh?”
I show him my phone, open to the message he sent me. “Twenty-five minutes late is bad even for you.”
He looks at my phone and his jaw drops, amusement spreading over his face. “No way you have my name saved in your contacts like that.”
“If I had to put your number in my phone, I figured I might as well add the sound I made while doing it.”
He’s chuckling, shaking his head while he takes out his own phone. “Look.”
He holds his screen to my face, with our text thread open, and I read my own contact name.
Harper (ugh).
My stomach tilts. We both saved each other’s names into our phones in the exact same way.
“Eerie, huh?” Sebastian says, still laughing to himself.
“Downright creepy.”
“They do say great minds think alike.”
