Page 62 of The Fun Part
“Wait,” Harper says. “Rowan, what’s up with the sparkling water?”
She lifts one shoulder. “Cooper and I are doing this seventy-day challenge for clean eating, exercise, and meditation. If I don’t make it the seventy days, I have to do laundry duty for the next seventy days, and if he doesn’t make it the seventy days, he has to meal plan, grocery shop, cook, and clean up the dishes for the next seventy days.”
My jaw drops. “Whoa, you guys are hard-core.”
“His loss sounds much harder than yours,” Harper says.
Rowan shrugs. “That’s how much he wants me to do this with him. He gave me incredible motivation.”
“And if you both make it the seventy days, what do you win?” I ask.
“We win at life,” she says with a straight face.
Harper and I laugh. “No, really,” Harper says.
Rowan smiles. “Really. Okay, Cooper came up with that, but I’m on board. Plus we’ll be looking good for our honeymoon in St. Bart’s.” She turns to me. “So you and Cal, huh?”
“I knew you weren’t just friends,” Harper says. “Movies and cuddling is relationship territory.”
“Aww,” Rowan says. “That’s so sweet. What movie?”
“Back up. Why are you two suddenly into romance?” I ask.
“Cooper made me believe,” Rowan says with a dreamy smile.
Harper shrugs. “It’s fun. And I didn’t tell you because I knew you’d be all judgy.”
I huff. “Because we made fun of this club. We agreed it was all fake and gave women high expectations that could never be met.”
“Maybe my expectations were too low,” Harper says. “You have high expectations even without those books, but I never did.”
“You did all this behind my back,” I say, unable to keep the hurt from my voice.
“You did all this Cal stuff behind my back,” she says.
“I told you what was up,” I say between my teeth.
“Right. You left out some important stuff.”
“Like what?”
Rowan wrinkles her nose. “Didn’t your mom warn you away from him since he’s a player?”
“What does that even mean?” Harper asks. “The man had a live-in relationship.”
“What’s the deal with him?” Rowan asks.
A rush of emotions bombards me at once—his soulful eyes, the way he talks to me and really listens, the fun we have together. How I’m falling for him, and he’s still just having fun. Casual.
What the hell am I doing kissing him and letting him do all his gallant stuff like we’re right back where we were? We cannever be there again because I havefeelingsand he doesn’t. He made that clear when I asked him if he wanted a relationship. His silence was damning. And then he accused me of being the one to initiate, which, let’s face it, I did. I have to stop. Why can’t I stop?
I speak in a rush, trying to outrun the panic. “He’s fun, but I’d never want to be in a relationship with someone like him.”
Harper and Rowan stare over my shoulder with twin looks of horror. The hair on the back of my neck rises. I wince. He’s behind me, isn’t he?
I turn. Cal avoids eye contact, setting our drinks down on the table without a word. He definitely heard that.
I swallow hard. “Cal, I—”
