Page 114 of Betting on You

CHAPTER FORTY-ONEBailey

“But you’ve got it under control,” Nekesa said with a heavy dose of skepticism, setting her lunch tray on the table and sliding into a seat. “Right?”

“I do.” I sat down beside her with my chicken sandwich and said, “It was just another little blip.”

“So, let’s add shopping at Target to the list of things that give you the Charlie tingles.” She looked down at the dress that’d started the whole conversation. “All your little blips.”

“It’s over now,” I assured her, trying to convince both of us. “I was tired that night, bummed about Eli, and touched that he remembered the popcorn. Total fluke trifecta.”

It’d been almost a week since we’d gone to Target together, and I’d been totally normal every other time we’d texted and worked together.

“Sure.” She opened her milk and said, “Theo knew this would happen, by the way.”

“What?”Freaking Theo.

“I mean, I haven’t told him anything about your actual feelings and what happened in Breckenridge, but he wondered if fake dating would mess up the whole we’re-only-friends vibe.”

I raised my chin, feeling defensive in the face of Theo’s nosy opinion. “Well, he was wrong.”

She looked at me with her eyebrows screwed together. “Bay, youjustsaid—”

“He. Was. Wrong,” I interrupted, holding up a hand.

Hesowasn’t wrong, by the way. The fake datinghadchanged everything. Now Charlie wasn’t simply my funny coworker; he was the person I thought about all the time, the person Iwishedwould think aboutmeall the time.

When I found out Zackwasstill dating his girlfriend, instead of being devastated, I felt only alittlesad, because I was so Charlie-focused.

Yes, he was the person I had to pretendnotto have feelings for, because if he found out, it would destroy our just-coworkers status.

“Fine,” she said, giving her head a slow shake and reaching for her pizza. “Whatever you say.”

“Hey, guys.” Dana sat down beside Nekesa, a huge smile on her face. “How’s it going?”

For the past week, Dana had been insufferable. She and Eli were gaga for each other, and it was all she could talk about. You couldsay the sky was blue, and she’d bring up his eye color. You could say garbage smelled, and she would wax poetic about the way Eli’s hair smelled.

It was adorable and nauseating, all at once.

“Good,” I said, opening my string cheese. “How’s life on lovesick island?”

She launched into a gushing story about how she and Eli studied for five hours at Starbucks the night before, and I had to admit that I kind of loved them together. Dana had always been one of my nicest friends—angelically nice to everyone—so it was probably her turn to wear the happy glow.

“Eli said Charlie’s mom is going out of town and he might have people over tonight,” she said, looking excited. “Are you going?”

Charlie had told me his plan, but he hadn’t technically invited me.

Not that I’d go if he had. I’d been working really hard to ignore my superfluous feelings for him, and it just felt like it would be testing that progress if I were to engage with him in yet another new social setting.

Also—if Becca showed and he looked at her likethat, well, I might just die.

“I doubt it—I don’t really know his friends.”

“Neither do I,” she said, shaking her carton of milk. “But you know me and Eli.”

“True. Yeah, maybe,” I replied, even though there was no chance of me going.

Zero.

As if he could hear our conversation from his school across town, Charlie texted me an hour later.

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