Chapter Twelve

CHAPTER TWELVE

EVERYONE CAN SEE IT BUT THEM – No explanation necessary.

I t was the day before Christmas, and the mall was packed. As usual, Luis had left Christmas shopping until the last minute, and as his best friend and brother-in-law, Mason was obligated to accompany him. Or so Luis claimed when he’d called him yesterday and told him he had to tag along.

“So, how are things with the lady?” Luis hedged, inspecting the Williams Sonoma kitchen gadget nearest them. Mason had no idea what it was for, and apparently neither did Luis, who spun it around curiously before promptly setting it down when something inside made an ominous clunk .

Mason choked on his coffee, partially from laughter and partially at the mention of Kara.

“We broke up, remember? Twice,” Mason reminded him.

He should get an Oscar for his ability to appear unbothered. It wasn’t that he still wanted Kara. He’d started the process of moving on months ago. It was that she’d broken up with him because he was “too serious, too fast,” and now, she was engaged.

Luis glanced sidelong at him, smirking. “And you know I’m not talking about Kara.”

Now it was Mason’s turn to feign interest in the nearest kitchen gadget. “Why are we even in this store? Margot doesn’t cook.”

“Yeah, but I do,” Luis countered. “Don’t change the subject. Who’s the girl?”

“What makes you think there’s a girl?” he deflected. Checking the time on his phone, he prayed it was time for him to meet up with Sawyer so he could ditch Luis and avoid this conversation altogether. No such luck. He still had two hours left until they ruined IKEA, which, frankly, wouldn’t be hard. Mason already hated that place, but he’d been putting off getting a second nightstand for months now.

“With you?” Luis laughed. “There’s always a girl. Especially when you check your phone every five minutes.” Luis flicked the corner of his phone, and Mason frowned, shoving it back into his pocket. “I know you’re meeting up with someone after this and you only have, like, two friends. I’m already here, and per Alissa’s Instagram, she’s in Toronto with her girlfriend, so—” He gestured as if it were the only logical conclusion.

Mason hated that he was right. He wasn’t sure when most of his friendships had faded, but between all the night shoots, failed relationships, and multiple transcontinental moves, his pool of friends had whittled down to only Luis and Alissa. Which, frankly, he was fine with. Mason and Luis had been best friends since middle school, and while Alissa was Mason’s invaluable lifeline in the industry, there was something to be said for having at least one person who knew you and liked you before you were “someone.” Luis supported Mason’s career, but he couldn’t care less about all the peacocking, bringing Mason back down to earth when he got too caught up in the microcosm that was the acting world. And he was going to have to leave him behind when he moved to LA. Guilt twisted his gut that he hadn’t told Luis yet. He knew Luis would take it better than his family, but now that Luis was family, he couldn’t ask him to keep that secret from Margot.

It was weird, at first. His best friend dating his older sister, but it did mean they got to spend all their holidays together, and he much preferred Luis’s company to the insufferable boyfriends Margot had brought home before.

“I’m judging by your lack of refusal that I’m right, so: What’s her name?”

All his warm and fuzzy thoughts about Luis and their steadfast friendship vanished. Of course Luis assumed that. Mason had a bad habit of retreating into his own head mid-conversation, so used to biting his tongue he sometimes forgot he had people he could speak freely around. But this… He didn’t want to involve his family in his and Sawyer’s shenanigans. He wasn’t sure how to avoid the conversation without piquing Luis’s interest further, so he did what his mother had taught him to do when the press asked a question he didn’t like: he gave a half answer. “Her name is Sawyer, but it’s not like that.”

“So you’re not sleeping with her?”

Mason cleared his throat. “No.”

Technically, it wasn’t a lie. Had they slept together? Yes. Were they currently? No. Did he still think about it constantly? Irrelevant.

Luis stared at him wide-eyed, and Mason feared his friend was going to call his bluff. What good were all those years of acting if he couldn’t even lie convincingly?

“Wait… did you— did you make another friend ?”

Mason waved away his comment, which was apparently the wrong thing to do, because Luis’s eyes narrowed suspiciously. Which was how Luis managed to squeeze the entire story out of him. Mason skipped the LA detail, but he told him about getting stuck in the elevator, the run-in at the Christkindlmarket, the pact at Kuma’s, the Christmas tree farm, then shouting about balls at the Millennium Park ice rink. By the end, Luis was laughing so hard that the other shoppers had begun to stare, some of their gazes lingering on Mason longer than he was comfortable with.

“C’mon,” Luis managed between gasps of laughter. “Let’s get out of here before someone recognizes you and I get stuck photographing you in front of the oversized marshmallows.”

Mason rolled his eyes. “Next thing you know, the tabloids will be bemoaning that I’m eating my feelings.”

“Mason West,” Luis began dramatically. “Would you say that a marshmallow a day keeps the heartbreak away? Is it—” Luis paused for effect. “Just what the doctor ordered?”

Mason couldn’t help the snort that escaped him, ducking into the novelty shop to avoid the stares he drew.

“Okay, but seriously. You and this girl—”

“Sawyer,” Mason reminded him, wandering over to a wall of mugs.

“How does doing romantic shit with this girl cure you of your romanticism?”

He shook his head, reading a few of the quotes on the mugs as he tried to find the right words. He normally found the inspirational quotes endearing, but today he found them suffocating.

Maybe the mission was working.

“It’s not just about me. The ‘romantic shit’ is supposed to break her writer’s block, and I think it’s helping.” He smiled to himself at the thought. “As for me, it’s like exposure therapy. I put way too much stock in the butterflies, but butterflies don’t last—and neither do my relationships.” Not when it wasn’t the right person. Not when he might be the problem. He’d put a lot of thought into Sawyer’s suggestion to call up his exes, to figure out why his relationships kept failing. After she halted his impulsive decision to call Kara, he hadn’t found the nerve to do it again, but he thought about it often, a secret item that he added to their list.

Luis stared at him like he was speaking gibberish. “I guess,” he said skeptically. “You do tend to fall like—” He snapped his fingers.

He didn’t know how to respond to that. He hadn’t planned on telling anyone about his and Sawyer’s pact, because he hadn’t expected anyone to get it. If anyone could, however, it would be Luis. Luis was always his first call when he needed a night of pizza and beer, because, yeah, Mason did eat his feelings after a breakup. The only exception to that rule had been Kara, all thanks to Sawyer distracting him.

“So, like, what’s her huge flaw? Because I saw her at the Christkindlmarket before she slipped off like fucking Cinderella at midnight and she’s—” He raised his brows, brown eyes widening to imply Sawyer’s attractiveness. “How are you planning on not falling for her?”

Luis had a point. He had a history of falling for people who weren’t falling back. Normally, he’d read too far into the easy, teasing banter he had with Sawyer. It was a habit he needed to unlearn. Because with her, he knew it couldn’t become anything. And even if he did spend more time thinking about her than he should, he was leaving. But he couldn’t say that to Luis. He’d thought waiting until after the holidays to tell his family about LA was the right call, but right now, the prospect of lying to them for the next few days…

He shook his head to clear it, focusing on the conversation at hand and trying to steer it into less murky waters. “Knowing she has zero interest in a relationship upfront makes it pretty easy to not accidentally get the wrong idea. We’re doing ‘romantic shit,’ yeah, but hanging out with Sawyer doesn’t feel like dating. It just feels like hanging out with my friend.” He’d almost called her his best friend, a term he’d bestowed on very few people in his life. People he’d known for years, not mere weeks. Yet, he couldn’t shake the rightness. Best friend.

The corners of Luis’s mouth turned down, considering. “Alright. Well, good luck, I guess. How many things do you have left to ruin?”

He shrugged. “We made a list, but it’s kind of open-ended.”

Luis frowned but, for once, said nothing.

When did it end? Their last “date” was his New Year’s Eve party, one week from now. Was that it? Panic gripped his insides. They hadn’t discussed it, but the idea that they would go their separate ways once the list was done seemed implied. The thought of never seeing Sawyer again after that didn’t sit right with him. He didn’t want to think too hard about why he was suddenly contemplating rom-com physics and how to get them stuck in a time loop together.

He forced himself to turn away from the wall of mugs and the person he’d subconsciously been picking one out for, only to turn around and come face-to-face with said person.

“Sawyer!” he said in surprise. Beside him, Luis perked up like a puppy who just heard the word treat .

“álvarez-West,” she drawled. She reached past him to grab a mug with a seventies-style mushroom pattern from the shelf. The smell of coconut drowned his senses, and he felt himself relax.

“And I’m Luis,” his friend interjected, seizing the opening. “Wanted to introduce myself this time before you could bolt.”

Sawyer frowned in faux concentration. “I’m sure I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

Luis sucked on his teeth and shook his head, smiling.

A redhead appeared at Sawyer’s side. “Are we doing the introductions thing? I’m the best friend, Lily.”

As Luis and Lily shook hands, Mason locked eyes with Sawyer, biting his lip to keep from grinning. They hadn’t discussed whether or not to keep their mission a secret, to keep family and friends out of it, but oh well. Too late now. Luis and Lily were swapping holiday plans like old friends, not two people who’d met five seconds ago.

Can you believe them? Sawyer’s dancing green eyes seemed to say.

“You should come!” Lily exclaimed.

Mason tore his gaze from Sawyer’s, tuning back into the conversation. “Sorry, what?”

Lily smiled at him knowingly. How long had he and Sawyer been staring at each other? “New Year’s Day! We’re doing a hangover brunch. I couldn’t convince this one to spend New Year’s Eve with me—”

“It’s you and Beau’s first anniversary!” Sawyer protested. “I’m not third-wheeling that!”

Lily waved away her words like she’d heard it a million times. She probably had. “Oh? And what’s your excuse for Christmas, then?”

“It’s your first Christmas together,” Sawyer said emphatically.

“Ohmigod,” Lily moaned. “We’ve spent the last two Christmases together.”

“Wait,” Mason interjected. He got the impression that Sawyer and her parents didn’t speak, so if she wasn’t spending the holidays with them or Lily… “What are you doing for Christmas?”

Sawyer hesitated, her gaze bouncing around their little circle nervously. “Reading, relaxing, the usual.”

“Nonsense,” Luis declared. “You’re spending it with us. No anniversaries here, so you can’t say no—and you don’t want to, because my Christmas dinner is better than anything you could cater.”

“You can say no,” Mason offered softly. Spending Christmas together was leagues deeper than their agreed-upon surface-level rule, but the idea of Sawyer alone on Christmas, eating shredded cheese straight out of the bag… Yeah, no. She was coming to dinner. “But I’d love for you to come.”

“She’d love to come,” Lily declared for her. Before Mason could decipher whether that heavy-handed innuendo was intentional or not, she plowed on. “And if Luis gets you for Christmas, then I get you for New Year’s Day.”

Sawyer straightened. “I’m sorry, are you two our divorced parents, divvying up the holidays?”

“Yes,” Luis and Lily said at the same time.

“What are you doing two weeks after New Year’s?” Luis asked Lily, like they were entering business negotiations.

Mason shot him a warning look. That was the tamale party—with the entire extended álvarez family. The only people more hopelessly romantic than Mason were his aunties. If he brought Sawyer to that, he’d never hear the end of it. For the rest of his life, they’d ask him about the spicy blonde he brought over that one time, why he’d let her get away—and he’d never have a satisfactory answer.

“We’ll just start with Christmas and New Year’s,” Luis amended with a clearing of his throat. “For now.” As if there would be more holidays to divvy up in the future, and not like they’d be out of each other’s lives in a week’s time.

Sawyer shot Mason a befuddled look, clearly wondering the same thing as him: How had this happened in the span of five minutes? But Luis’s question was still lingering in the back of Mason’s mind. When did this thing with Sawyer end? Their last concrete plan was New Year’s Eve, but Lily’s brunch would buy him another day. He wasn’t ready to lose her. His friend. His friend whom he liked spending friendly time with, as a friend. Who looked fucking amazing in the baggy old-man sweater she wore, sexy in a totally platonic way.

“Alright, well,” Sawyer said brightly, returning the mug to the shelf with a wistful look. “I’d say it’s been fun, but, frankly, I’m terrified to let you two scheme further, so Mason and I are gonna skedaddle. IKEA’s calling, gotta go ruin romance and maybe friendship now, too. Just to be safe.”

They said their goodbyes, Sawyer practically dragging him out of the store. They both glanced back at the last minute, Luis and Lily waving them off like proud parents on a porch stoop.

“I don’t trust that,” Sawyer said with a frown.

“Oh, I definitely don’t trust that.”