Page 51 of Play Your Part

Tonight, we faced a true test, and we made it work, convincing everyone of the realness of our feelings, of our relationship. I should have felt triumphant, well on the way to getting everything I wanted.

And yet, the thought of how simple it was to pretend tugged insistently at the back of my mind.

22

KENNEDY

Thankthepowersthatbe for champagne; otherwise, I might not have survived shopping with Gemma for her wedding dress. She tried on ten different dresses. All of them looked amazing on her, but with each one, she became more agitated.The hem looks weird. This dress istoowhite. My boobs don’t look big enough.And on and on.

As honored as I was to be chosen as her maid of honor, I had no idea how to handle the escalating situation before me. The poor attendants at the shop looked equally worried and kept tossing pointed stares at me. What did they expect me to do? I tried to go into the dressing room with Gemma to talk with her in private, but she snapped that she didn’t need a babysitter to remove another hideous dress.

My phone dinged, giving me an excuse to look away from the questioning stares of the staff.You know how to make a guy feel cheap.Alexei’s words sent a little ping to the pit of my stomach. He’d landed safely in Philly yesterday, beginning the longest road trip of the season.

My phone dinged again.You sleep with me, and then I don’t hear from you.

I rolled my eyes, refusing to give in to the bait of calling what we didsleeping together.

You saw me yesterday.I reread my text and realized the words sounded harsher in black and white than they had in my head. I followed up,What did you expect, a full Yelp review on your accommodations?

And flowers and chocolate waiting for me in my hotel room,he answered.

You better lower those expectations or get a new girlfriend.

He said:That’s the last time I’m apologizing to you with baked goods.

Those are end of relationship kind of words, I texted after sending a shocked-face emoji.

He sent back an eye roll emoji.You know you’re stuck with me. Just like I can’t hold it against you that you drool in your sleep.

Stop creeping on me when I sleep, Volkov.

His reply took longer this time, the three dots appearing and disappearing several times. Finally,Thank you for the other night. Seriously.

“What happened the other night?”

I jumped out of my chair at the sound of Gemma’s voice. How did I not realize she came out of the dressing room and stood beside me?

“With that grin, it must have been something good.”

Flustered, I tossed my phone into my purse. She wore her regular clothes, which explained why she wasn’t yelling about another dress. “Nothing happened.”

Gemma winked at me. “Y’all lookedverycozy at the party.”

I blew out a breath. “It’s not what you think. There was a fight—”

“Yeah, I heard about it from Matt.” She twirled her finger in a circle. “Fast forward to the part where you slept with Volk.”

“I didn’tsleepwith him,” I said in a whisper-yell. “Zach told me Alexei needed company—”

“Oh, I bet he did,” Gemma said under her breath.

“So I went over, and he had all these bruises… and I felt bad about it. He said it would be suspicious if I left right away. We cooked food and watched TV and fell asleep at some point.”

Gemma shook her head at me in exasperation. “You spent the night in Alexei Volkov’s bed, and all you did was watch TV, eat food, and sleep?” She paused, giving me a chance to correct her, but I only nodded. “Oh, Kens, you disappoint me.”

She didn’t know the little detail of him being only half-dressed when I first got there.

“What, you expected me to jump the guy as soon as we were alone? He was injured.”

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