Chapter Thirty-Three

After lunch, Natalie and Darcy got back to the hotel and went their separate ways. They needed to prepare for the next day’s show, but first Natalie needed a shower. She’d made it into her room and turned on the shower when her phone rang.

She flipped it over and saw who it was. “Hello?” She walked to the bathroom to turn the water off. She’d never had a short conversation with Grace.

“Don’t give me that hello crap. I find out you’re dating Darcy fucking LaCroix from goddamned Twitter and all you have to say is hello?”

Natalie laughed. “Most people, when answering the phone, say hello. But, of course, you would think you deserved your own special response.” She sat down on her bed but as soon as Grace started talking, she got up and paced the room. They hadn’t asked her to lie but telling her best friend that the flirting—and whatever the shippers thought they saw—was fake felt like something Raquel would not be happy about. Especially because Grace had a big mouth.

“Stop stalling, Nat. What the hell is going on with you and the ice princess? Do I have to remind you what happened in college?”

Natalie felt a prickle of anger. “Oh yes, please remind me again how it felt to get my heart broken. I’ve forgotten.”

“Clearly you have if the internet is to be believed. Nat, she treated you like shit!”

“I remember! I was there!” Natalie shouted into the phone before realizing she was in a crowded hotel and should probably keep her voice down. She took a deep breath, then another. “Do you really think I would be stupid enough to give Darcy a second chance to break my heart?”

Grace was silent on the other end of the line for a moment. “I hope you know what you’re doing, Nat.”

Natalie laughed. “I’m a TV host, of course I have no idea what I’m doing.” She sat on the edge of the bed and felt exhaustion creep into her body for the first time all day.

“I’ve seen the clips, you’re good at this.”

“Clips? You mean you’re not watching the whole segment? You’re my best friend. If I can’t convince you to watch, we must be really awful,” Natalie said with a laugh.

“In case you forgot, some of us have full-time jobs that don’t involve flirting with our college girlfriend for all of America to see.”

“Stop being dramatic. It’s not a big deal. We go out there, do some goofy shit, fall on our asses, and generally look like dorks. It’s not the worst job I’ve ever had.”

“So you admit you’re flirting with her!” Grace gave a triumphant whoop.

Natalie let herself fall onto her back. “Oh my god, will you let it go? It’s nothing. We have good banter but that’s it. The network likes how we are together. We’ve known each other for a really long time, it’s not surprising that we’d have a good rapport, right?”

“Hmm.” There was silence for a moment before Grace sighed. “This good rapport, does it include you forgiving her?”

Natalie groaned. “Grace, that was a really long time ago.”

Over the years, Natalie had tried to get to the place where it didn’t hurt so much. But no matter how much she tried to logic her way out of it, the hurt remained. She wouldn’t admit it, but that hurt kept her from being able to trust any of the women she’d dated in the time since.

No way. I’m not into Carpenter. It’s nothing, really.

She knew it made no sense. She knew none of the other women she’d dated had done anything to deserve her wariness. She’d tried to let them in, but it never worked. She kept waiting for them to laugh and say “This isn’t real, it was never real. It was all in your head.” So, she’d kept them at an arm’s length, or worse, never let them get that close.

“Nat. Whether you want to hear it or not, I’d be a shitty friend if I didn’t remind you to protect yourself.”

Natalie sighed. “I know. And I love you for looking out for me. But I promise you, I am not going to fall in love with Darcy fucking LaCroix. I’m too smart for that. This is a job. Nothing else.”

Grace made a noise that suggested she was not convinced but willing to give it up for now. “Tell me about this job. From what I can tell, you and Darcy do a little interview, flirt a little bit, and then make complete asses out of yourselves doing shit like curling?”

Natalie laughed. “Nailed it. That’s exactly the job. But the ratings have been good so far. Apparently, people love to watch us fall on our asses. And the athletes like us because we show the public just how hard sports are that they otherwise think they could do.”

Grace giggled. “That part is true. Curling always looked like such a beer league sport but you guys convinced me to leave it to the pros.”

Natalie checked the time. “Shit, I’m sorry but I have to get showered so I can go back to work.”

“You’re trying to get rid of me.”

“No, we have to prepare for whatever we’re doing tomorrow.”

“I hope it’s ski jumping,” Grace said with a laugh.

Natalie groaned. “God, I hope not. I don’t have a death wish.”

After they hung up, Natalie collected some clean clothes and made her way to the shower. Grace was wrong. She didn’t need to be protected from Darcy because she’d never let her get close enough again. She may have been a teenager when it happened, but the lesson was burned into her. This was all fake. There was no way Darcy could hurt her again when they were just pretending for the cameras.