We had to work on Saturday morning—just a half shift, so Scott and my mom were going to leave early in the morning, and we’d drive out when we got off. In my opinion, this was a total best-case scenario, because we wouldn’t even have to spend any time in the car with him.
As long as something insane didn’t happen, like Scott proposing to my mother on the slopes, this could actually be a great trip.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR Bailey
The night before we were supposed to leave, Nekesa called me, crying.
“Oh my God—what’s wrong?” I asked, sitting on my bed, watching a rerun of Monk.
She was sniffling and trying to keep it together, but the moral of the story was that she’d come in an hour late the night before （because she’d fallen asleep at Aaron’s house） and gotten into a fight with her parents, and now they wouldn’t let her go on the trip. She was grounded indefinitely, only allowed to leave the house for work and school.
I knew the proper response would be something nurturing, words to make my best friend feel better.
But oh my God, I couldn’t go without her! I just couldn’t.
“What if my mom calls your mom?” I asked, desperate. “Do you think that might help?”
“No,” she said, still crying. “This is big-time. I’m seriously grounded for months.”
“Noooooooo,” I groaned. It was too late for me to get out of the trip now, and I’d been so nice to Scott for letting Nekesa come along that he was totally going to push the whole I-want-to-be-your-pal agenda in her absence.
“Listen, I know you won’t want to,” she said, sniffling before loudly blowing her nose, “but what if you take Charlie?”
“Whaaat? What? WHAT!? No.” That was ridiculous. Right? It was ridiculous. I couldn’t take Charlie, dear God. That was batshit bonkers. My voice was a little high-pitched when I asked, “Why would I do that?”
“Listen.” She cleared her throat and said, “I mentioned the idea to Theo, and he agrees that it could—”
“When did you talk to Theo?” I interrupted. She told Theo she was grounded before even telling me?
“I just got off the phone with him.”
Whoa. I tried to sound casual when I asked, “You guys talk on the phone now?”
“Sometimes, but it’s no big deal,” she said, brushing it off. “Aaron knows and he’s fine with it.”
Should he be? I wondered how to proceed, because even though it wasn’t my business and she didn’t sound concerned, it felt like my friendly duty was to intervene.
“Are you sure that’s a good idea?” I said, trying to keep my voice light and breezy. Though I was anything but.
I knew Charlie would tell me to butt out, but Nekesa’s happiness was more important to me. I needed her to slow down and think before she had regrets. I said, “Don’t you think Theo is rather flirty with you?”
“Nah, he’s just a playful guy,” she said, and I could tell she truly believed it. “So anyway. Back to the trip. Call Charlie.” Huh. That was a quick change of topic, but… okay. I decided to dismiss it and focus on the current tragedy at hand.
I let myself flop back onto my mattress, starting to freak out at the mere idea of Charlie and me in Breckenridge. “I cannot take him on this trip—come on.”
“You don’t want to go alone, and he’s your other bestie. Why not?”
There were a million reasons, starting with the fact that he was Charlie Sampson.
Also—my other bestie?? Where. When. Why? How???
“Not only should you take Charlie,” she said, “but what do you think about pretending to date him?”
“What? Have you lost your mind?” I said, a little too loudly, when my mom and Scott were asleep in the room next door. I lowered my voice and said, “No way.”
I couldn’t even imagine it. It was weird enough when Charlie asked me to go to his friend’s party with him for support in dealing with his ex. But this was different. Pretending to be into Charlie romantically? Exploring what that entailed? No. No way.
Just the thought of it filled my stomach with nervous stressful butterflies, but it didn’t matter because it wasn’t happening.
No way.
“You two always say you’re only friends, right? Like, no chem whatsoever…？”
“Right. Absolutely no chemistry,” I said, which was true. For the most part. There might’ve been a small workplace flirtation that elevated my blood pressure, but it’d already been established in my mind that it was nothing. NOTHING. Two humans that happened to stand close together, and body temps naturally increase in moments like that. It was science. And NOT the chemistry kind of science.
Still, that didn’t mean I wanted to embark upon a weekend full of awkward false affections. No, no thank you. I added, “I’m actually feeling queasy at the mere thought of me and Charlie.”
“So who cares, then? Fake date the hell out of him. Do you realize the amount of tension that can be added to the Breckenridge weekend if you show up holding hands with Charlie?”
Holding hands? That felt… dangerous somehow.
“Nekesa, dear, this is real life,” I said. “Not a Hallmark movie.” Fake dating happened in movies, not in the normal world. It was wild that this behavior was even being suggested, and especially by my practical friend Nekesa.
“Just do it,” she said, sniffling. “What do you have to lose?”
God, Scott would absolutely lose his shit. It could even ruin the whole trip for him, which the good part of me didn’t want but the desperate part of me did. “But couldn’t I add the tension without fake dating him? Not that I’m even considering this, but his presence alone would make things testy. I don’t think I’d need to pretend to be into him.”
“Bay, you know so little about men,” she said, finally sounding like herself again. “My little sweet baby.”
“Screw you,” I said around a laugh, mostly because she was right. I knew very little about men.
Except for Zack. I knew everything about him.
Nekesa laughed—and then sniffled again—before saying, “I just mean that your dad hasn’t been around since you’ve been old enough to date, so you’ve been spared male stupidity.”
Nekesa was being helpful and sweet, but her succinct summation of just how long my dad had been absent caused a pinching feeling in my sternum.
I swallowed and pictured my dad’s face. “I suppose that’s true.”
“There’s this primitive, cavemanish thing that happens to fathers when they see guys they don’t like around their daughters. They become like hissing cats, peeing on your sweaters.”
“I don’t. Even. What?”
“And even though Scott’s not your dad, since he already hates Charlie, Theo and I predict he will go full-on defecating-on-every-cardigan if he sees Chuckles holding your hand.”
So why did those words continue to make my stomach dip? Why did just imagining it feel like I was treading into deeper waters? Even if it wasn’t real.
But maybe more importantly—Nekesa and Theo had discussed me and Charlie? Had she brought it up, or had he? And why would Theo be weighing in at all?