Chapter Eight

Brent

"Wait… did I miss something?" David asks with one of his eyebrows downturned.

"Zoey and I are dating," I tell him, my arm still wrapped around her.

"You're dating Zoey?" he asks, his voice squeaking a little at the end. Then he looks straight at Zoey. "I thought you hated him?"

Zoey tries to speak but stutters for a second, so I take the lead.

"It's fascinating how easily that kind of passion can be redirected," I tell him with a grin.

"You mean deep-seated loathing?" He chuckles.

I ignore it, and Zoey squirms in my arms. Lying to David is making her uncomfortable, but this is what she asked me for so she's going to have to get used to it.

"For how long?" he asks, staring at Phoebe now as if she was an accessory in keeping this from him.

I guess she kind of is.

Zoey tenses against me even further, but Phoebe looks cool and calm. She doesn't mind this at all.

I'm not stoked about lying to David. He's one of my best and longest friends, but he can't keep a secret. It's just too big of a risk. It's not as if David isn't aware that he's a terrible secret keeper, either. By the time this blows over, if the truth comes out for some reason, David will understand… even if he will a little pissed about being left out.

Out of the corner of my eye, I see Liam lean back a little away from the woman he's sitting with at the bar to hear us better out here in the lobby. It turns out he'd like the answer to this question, too.

Zoey looks up at me. We never discussed our backstory, which now seems careless on our part.

Our eyes lock as we try in vain to attempt telepathy, but it's useless.

"Three months," I blurt out and Zoey nods profusely… overselling it a bit if I'm honest, but I think it'll work.

It's a long enough relationship that we're out in the open with it, but short enough that guys don't usually start telling their buddies that they're seeing someone exclusively.

"Three months?" David repeats, glancing over at Phoebe.

She nods too, backing up my lie.

"We've been keeping our relationship a secret because the media has been relentless lately, and I wanted to protect Zoey from the paparazzi as long as I could. And we have a reporter, Rowan, traveling with us now. Zoey wasn't ready for Rowan to report on our relationship yet, but she is now."

"Awww, you two are so cute," Phoebe says.

She remembers this is fake, right? It was sort of her idea.

"You're really dating Zoey?" David asks, one eyebrow furrowing in question—he's not convinced.

I understand why, too. Zoey has never hidden her hate for me, and everyone in our graduating class could probably tell you that Zoey isn't my biggest fan.

"Yeah. I am," I say, giving Zoey a little side squeeze. She looks up at me quickly, a spark of shyness in her eyes.

"Stop with the inquest," Phoebe chimes in, nudging David with her hip playfully. "They get hounded enough by the media. They don't need it here."

David throws up a hand in surrender. "Fine. It's weird, but… as long as you're happy. Are you guys going to drop your stuff and come back down?" he asks, pulling his glass up to his mouth and taking a sip.

Before I can say anything, Phoebe jumps in. "They had a long flight. Let's leave them to get settled," she says, winking at Zoey.

"What about cocktail hour?" Zoey asks, confusion on her face.

Phoebe smirks. "I'm sure you two could use a little time together. And besides, Brent got you the honeymoon suite. You've got to test out everything and tell me how it is. Come down later after you get settled. We'll be here all night."

Zoey looks up at me quickly and then I answer for us. We've planted the seed that Zoey and I are dating. Now we can take a minute and let it sink in.

Or in Liam's case… fester.

"Yeah, we'll be down in a little while. I'd like to take a shower and change out of these clothes."

Zoey nods in agreement.

I bet since seeing Liam, she's ready to regroup. She has a dress she wants to wear tonight, and I can't wait to see her in it.

In my peripheral vision, I notice Liam watching us from the bar.

Operation Make Liam Jealous turns out to be immediately effective.

I've lost Zoey before, more than once, and I recognize that look on Liam's face. It's the same one I had when I realized what I'd lost.

"Are you ready to head upstairs?" I ask her.

She watches Phoebe head back to the bar with David and then she nods.

"Yeah, let's go."

Zoey

I slide my card into the door lock and push through the heavy door to the honeymoon suite. The entry is large with a circular table and a huge bouquet of flowers in the middle.

I step farther in and hold the door open for Brent to pull in the cart behind him. Once he's inside, I walk past the foyer table to find a room as large as my tiny apartment in Seattle.

The room takes my breath away. It's so beautiful.

Whites and creams of varying shades make up the color palette. A huge king-size four-post bed sits against the far wall, with layers of soft fabrics and dozens of pillows. It looks good enough to jump in and take a nap.

Matching drapes over the windows soften the entire feel of this room.

A ruched, cushioned couch and a coffee table sit under the large window. I walk over, drop my purse on the couch, and then walk over to the bed to run my fingers over the creamy-colored duvet.

This is a gorgeous honeymoon suite, and it feels completely wasted on Brent and me. I could imagine how nice this room would be to spend your first night as husband and wife—an experience I was robbed of.

Brent unpacks the luggage off the cart in record time and then pushes it back toward the door.

"I'll take that down while you shower," he says, then walks over to the bathroom to peek inside. "The jetted tub for two looks nice." He sends a smirk over his shoulder at me, and I blush a little.

I'm pretty sure he's teasing, but with my sex-starved brain and only one king-sized bed happening here, it's hard not to think about sexual urges.

Besides, sex with Brent is trouble and the only reason I'm letting him this close to me this weekend is to prove to my ex that he made a mistake and to make him want me back. Even though he's currently downstairs at the bar with his fiancée.

"Too bad it will only be for one," I tell him.

I turn and take steps back toward the door, stopping right before he passes me.

"The jetted tub will be very disappointed to hear that." He smiles and then continues to his destination.

Between the way that Brent claimed me as his girlfriend downstairs and that leg-weakening smile that he's honed since our days together in high school, I have to stop myself from thinking about what could happen between two consenting adults in the dark.

I shake off the thought. One night with Brent Tomlin isn't worth making a mistake with him and berating myself about it for the rest of my life.

Getting together with Brent isn't the goal… showing Liam what he gave up is.

"Need anything from downstairs?" he asks, pushing the cart toward the door to exit our room.

"No. I'm good."

Brent nods. "See you in a minute."

He opens the door and pulls the cart out with him as he goes.

The second the door clicks shut, I jump on the bed, flat on my back like a starfish. The fabric is even softer than it looks, and I could just fall asleep here.

There's a part of me that doesn't want to get ready and go back downstairs to face the reality of Liam and Shelby.

In some ways, moving to Seattle left me with the ability to imagine things so differently. I wasn't forced to see Liam and Shelby together at all our usual spots. I didn't have to run into them at our mutual friends' cookouts this year because I had moved away. But the problem with that is that even though it separated me from the pain, I never ended up healing… It's just been an open wound ever since.

Seeing them now isn't less painful than it would have been a year ago. I've only put off the inevitability of this meeting, and now I have to face it.

Though I never thought in my lifetime that Brent and I would be back on speaking terms, I am so relieved that he'll be by my side when I face Liam and Shelby at the bar.

At least I don't have to do this alone.