What did that mean? Did he like me in the dress and not want to? Because he didn’t want to lead me on, or because he didn’t want to feel things?
“I’m going to go get the cat toy.”
“Um.” I blinked at the jarring subject change before pulling the dress over my head. “Okay.”
“I’ll go to the pet aisle and you can meet me there.”
“Sounds good,” I said, feeling like he was literally putting distance between us on purpose.
Just as I was opening the fitting room door, my phone buzzed. I fished it out of my bag, fully expecting a message from Charlie about cat toys.
But it was from Zack.
Zack: I have to know. Did you act out Breaking Bad or did you reset your password?
CHAPTER FORTY Charlie
“Oh my God, Charlie!”
I looked up from the catnip-packed bird in my hand as Bailey was running toward me—literally—and wearing a huge grin. She somehow managed to smile in a way that was both childish （like a six-year-old getting a glimpse of Santa Claus on the roof） and sexy （like a woman who knew exactly what she wanted to do to you）， all at the same time.
It made me crazy, swear to God.
“What?” I asked, and then she grabbed both of my arms and gave me a little shake.
“You will not believe what just happened, you freaking genius!”
“I like the sound of this,” I said, a little disappointed when she let go of my arms.
“He texted,” she squealed in a singsong voice. “Zack texted me!”
Huh? That was not what I’d expected her to say, and it felt like I’d just been punched in the stomach. She looked so fucking happy, and the happiness was because her ex had texted her.
Fucking awesome.
“Told you,” I said, clearing my throat and trying to ignore the tension flowing through me. “What’d he say?”
She pulled out her phone and read his response, beaming as if she’d never been so happy. “So how should I respond?”
Tell him to go to hell. The guy was clearly a moron and didn’t deserve her, but it was better for me if they got back together, wasn’t it?
“I’d go with something vague, like Let’s just say you missed one hell of a performance.”
That made her smile hitch even higher. “That is perfect.”
I watched her send the text, making happy puppy sounds that were so adorable, I wanted to hit something, but then she looked up and her smile dropped away. “Wait a second.”
“What’s wrong?” I asked, torn between being glad she was no longer Zack-beaming and already missing her happy glow.
Her eyes moved over my face, like she was thinking hard. “He has a girlfriend.”
I didn’t say anything.
“So he shouldn’t be texting me if he has a girlfriend, right? And I don’t want to be the bitch who’s texting someone else’s boyfriend.”
Bailey’s concern-crinkle formed between her eyebrows, and she blinked a little faster.
“Maybe they broke up,” I said, trying to make her feel better while hoping—like a total asshole—that it wasn’t the case.
“Maybe,” she muttered. “I should probably find out.”
“Not a bad idea,” I replied, knowing I’d lost her. Her mind wasn’t with me—with us—anymore. It was with Zack.
Why did I suddenly fucking hate that so much?
And as we walked toward the registers, it occurred to me that holy shit, they could actually get back together.
Holy. Shit.
In all of the hypotheticals that streamed through my mind on a daily basis, I’d never considered the possibility of it. Not until right now.
And no. No. NO.
What the fuck would that mean for us?
CHAPTER FORTY-ONE Bailey
“But you’ve got it under control,” Nekesa said with a heavy dose of skepticism, setting her lunch tray on the table and sliding into a seat. “Right?”
“I do.” I sat down beside her with my chicken sandwich and said, “It was just another little blip.”
“So, let’s add shopping at Target to the list of things that give you the Charlie tingles.” She looked down at the dress that’d started the whole conversation. “All your little blips.”
“It’s over now,” I assured her, trying to convince both of us. “I was tired that night, bummed about Eli, and touched that he remembered the popcorn. Total fluke trifecta.”
It’d been almost a week since we’d gone to Target together, and I’d been totally normal every other time we’d texted and worked together.
“Sure.” She opened her milk and said, “Theo knew this would happen, by the way.”
“What?” Freaking Theo.
“I mean, I haven’t told him anything about your actual feelings and what happened in Breckenridge, but he wondered if fake dating would mess up the whole we’re-only-friends vibe.”
I raised my chin, feeling defensive in the face of Theo’s nosy opinion. “Well, he was wrong.”
She looked at me with her eyebrows screwed together. “Bay, you just said—”
“He. Was. Wrong,” I interrupted, holding up a hand.
He so wasn’t wrong, by the way. The fake dating had changed everything. Now Charlie wasn’t simply my funny coworker; he was the person I thought about all the time, the person I wished would think about me all the time.
When I found out Zack was still dating his girlfriend, instead of being devastated, I felt only a little sad, because I was so Charlie-focused.
Yes, he was the person I had to pretend not to have feelings for, because if he found out, it would destroy our just-coworkers status.
“Fine,” she said, giving her head a slow shake and reaching for her pizza. “Whatever you say.”
“Hey, guys.” Dana sat down beside Nekesa, a huge smile on her face. “How’s it going?”
For the past week, Dana had been insufferable. She and Eli were gaga for each other, and it was all she could talk about. You could say the sky was blue, and she’d bring up his eye color. You could say garbage smelled, and she would wax poetic about the way Eli’s hair smelled.
It was adorable and nauseating, all at once.
“Good,” I said, opening my string cheese. “How’s life on lovesick island?”
She launched into a gushing story about how she and Eli studied for five hours at Starbucks the night before, and I had to admit that I kind of loved them together. Dana had always been one of my nicest friends—angelically nice to everyone—so it was probably her turn to wear the happy glow.
“Eli said Charlie’s mom is going out of town and he might have people over tonight,” she said, looking excited. “Are you going?”
Charlie had told me his plan, but he hadn’t technically invited me.
Not that I’d go if he had. I’d been working really hard to ignore my superfluous feelings for him, and it just felt like it would be testing that progress if I were to engage with him in yet another new social setting.
Also—if Becca showed and he looked at her like that, well, I might just die.
“I doubt it—I don’t really know his friends.”
“Neither do I,” she said, shaking her carton of milk. “But you know me and Eli.”