Chapter 1

CHAPTER ONE

MILLER NORTON

In the book of The Most Stupidest Shit Miller Norton Has Ever Done , this would have to be in the top spot.

It was a bad idea.

Like bad bad. And stupid.

This idea was so bad and stupid, it would be the crowning glory in the aforementioned book of the most stupidest shit I've ever done. It'd have its own chapter, for sure.

"Whatcha thinking about?"

Shit. I must've zoned out. "Huh?"

He pointed to my forehead. "You get a line right between your eyebrows when you're thinking."

I resisted sighing. He knew me too damned well.

"Uh, thinking that this is a bad idea."

Brody laughed, the kind of laugh where he threw his head back and got those cute little creases at the corners of his eyes.

See, therein lay the problem.

Brody Molina had been my best friend since our first year of high school. We'd been inseparable for eleven years, and I'd been desperately in love with him for every hopeless minute of those eleven years.

I had to wonder if he knew but he was too nice to let me down, and I was certainly too chickenshit to tell him.

Why?

Because he's straight, and I'm chickenshit.

We'd been through everything together. First heartbreaks, first kisses, first times, first jobs, first parties at college, first jobs.

Doing all kinds of stupid shit like skipping school at sixteen to get stoned and sneaking into the movies. Going to college classes still drunk from a party the night before, that kind of thing.

Other stupid shit too.

Like the first time he went all the way with Becky Kirsten and I had to pretend I was happy for him when, in reality, I'd gone home and cried myself to sleep.

When I came out as gay as a gangly fourteen-year-old, he was the first person I told. I braced myself for rejection. I even kinda hoped he'd hate me so I could learn to unlove him.

But nope.

He was awesome. He didn't care one bit. It changed nothing for him, he'd said.

But for me, it changed everything.

I loved him a whole lot more.

And so my years of teen angst and unrequited love morphed into my twenties of longing and heartache.

I was stupidly in love with my straight best friend.

And you might be thinking that this doesn't sound as if it deserves a whole chapter in my book of stupidest shit, but let me get to the good part.

Because we were sitting on a plane, taxiing towards the terminal in Las Vegas. Why are we flying from LA to Las Vegas for a three-day weekend?

Because my dearest best friend won an all-expense-paid weekend in a contest for newlyweds, that's why.

Yep.

Newlyweds.

That's where the stupidest shit comes into play.

Because the unrequited love of my life entered us into a contest to win the said fully paid-for trip to Vegas. He thought it'd be funny. He thought I needed a vacation. I'd been stressed lately, he'd said.

And yeah, that was true.

See, we had some photos taken at my sister's wedding. Of Brody and me in our suits, looking all kinds of handsome.

Looking all kinds of coupley.

Looking all kinds of newly married in the church, and then when we danced at the reception.

We always looked like a couple.

People always assumed we were a couple.

But nope.

Brody was straight.

The fact he'd hold my hand, or hold a door open for me, or stand closer than he probably ever needed to, didn't help.

Most of my potential hookups took one look at the way Brody was with me and assumed I was taken. I mean, he'd come to gay bars with me so I wouldn't have to go alone...

It certainly didn't help me and my hopeless heart.

So yes, this was stupid.

Because now we had to act like a newly married couple. Just for three days, and just in front of the hotel promo people and contest organizers. The rest of our time would be free for us to do whatever we wanted. And there was a gay pool party I was interested in.

But anyway, it had disaster written all over it.

Brody thought it was hilarious. And he thought I'd have no problem with it. And normally I might not have. To be fair, we acted like a married couple most of the time.

But I'd been struggling with it lately. Every time he'd smile at me, or laugh, or put his arm around me, or take my hand...

My heart ached.

And I was tired.

Tired of pretending it didn't hurt.

Pretending I didn't want to have what we had... but for real. I wanted him to look at me and know. I wanted him to lean in and press his lips to mine. I wanted him to love me like I loved him.

So yes.

Pretending we were married for the sake of a free vacation in Vegas was a stupid idea.

Stupid, stupid, stupid.

There was no way this was going to end well.