Page 31 of Unromance

Sawyer had definitely considered that. They were having fun and she liked spending time with Mason, but he wanted the epic romance. She was fairly confident he was self-aware enough to realize she was not the person to give him that. Though how he was planning on finding that in LA, while managing a new production company, she didn’t know. RIP to his next partner. He was going to be married to his work.

Sawyer’s heart twisted uncomfortably, knowing all too well what it was like to be left for pursuing a dream. She knew their mission was logically a little flimsy, butfuck. If she could help Mason evena little, spare him from going through what she did with Sadie… it was worth it.

She grasped tight to that resolve, blinking as she came back to the present, in a mall packed with people and a Lily who was staring at her a little too knowingly. Time to shut that down. Lily and her imagination could not be left to their own devices. “He’s moving to LA so there’s not really any future there, even if either of us wanted it. Which we do not.”

“Okay, so there’s no future, but in the present, there could be orgasms.”

Sawyer groaned. Lily wasn’t going to drop this, and she was so desperate to get her to drop it that she slipped.

“I’ve thought about it,” she admitted. “The sex was great, but I don’t think he knows how to keep it casual. When we slept together—” Sawyer shook her head in disbelief as the memory came back to her. “He prepared this whole breakfast-in-bed spread. Like, not just a post–booty call bagel and a coffee and get on your way. Like, fruit, homemade pancakes, French press, yogurt and granola… I never understood those sitcom kids who woke up to that and took, like,onestrawberry and ran out the door but—” Sawyer shuddered. “It was too much. I couldn’t get out of there fast enough. I didn’t even grab a single strawberry.”

Lily’s mouth hung open. “I’m sorry,” she said breathlessly. “Did you say breakfast, as in Little Miss Never Spends the Nightspent the night?”

Fuck.

Sawyer held up her finger in warning. “It was late, and I accidentally fell asleep.” Under her breath, she confessed in a rush, “AndthemorningsexwassogoodIfellbackasleep.”

Lily nodded in faux seriousness. “Of course. You poor thing,getting your back blown out and then he hasthe audacityto bring you breakfast in bed? The horror! You definitely shouldn’t sleep with him again. Sounds… terrible,” she said wistfully. “Unbearable, to be so attentively taken care of. It’s a feat you survived, really.”

Sawyer clenched her jaw so hard she was in danger of cracking a tooth.

Lily mimicked Sawyer’s stony expression back at her. “All I’m saying is, would it be so bad to sleep with someone you actually like for once?”

Sawyer nearly swallowed her tongue. “What does that mean?”

Lily snorted. “Please. We both know you purposefully pick partners you know you won’t get attached to.”

Craning her neck, she feigned concentrating on finding an unoccupied table, but the food court was as crowded as the coffee shop. “I don’t have time for that right now, I’m—”

“Focusing on my career,” they said in unison, Lily with a mocking undertone.

Sawyer scoffed. “Why do you say that like it’s a bad thing?”

“Because you can do more than one thing at once, Sawyer.” She wasn’t sure if the growl Lily let out was frustration at her or the tweens who stole the empty table they were angling toward.

“The last time I tried to do both,” Sawyer mumbled. “I fucked up both. I just… I need to get my shit together, and falling head over heels is the antithesis of feelingtogether.”

“You’re the one who keeps talking about feelings,” Lily pointed out smugly. “Not me.”

Sawyer sighed through her nose. “My pointis he doesn’t know how to be casual. So no, we can’t keep sleeping together.”

Lily hummed thoughtfully. “Fair. It would be torture if the sex god caught feelings for you.”

“He’s moving to LA!” Sawyer bleated.

Lily raised her eyebrows. “The perfect out,” she said reasonably. “Unless it’s not him catching feelings you’re worried about. I mean, you drove here and paid way too much for parking all so you could drive forty-five minutes to Schaumburg after this and brave IKEA with him. That’s—” She began singing Meatloaf’s “I’d Do Anything for Love (but I Won’t Do That)” under her breath.

At Sawyer’s scathing look, Lily held up her hands innocently. “Fine, fine, I’m done. So what’s in LA that he can’t find here?”

“Besides sunshine?” She loved Chicago, but she wouldn’t mind a bit more sunshine in her life to balance out the never-ending winter. “He’s going for work,” she hedged carefully.

“Oh, what does he do?”

She hadn’t told Lily about that particular revelation. She stalled for time as they pushed their way through the crowd in pursuit of a table that wasn’t occupied. “He’s an actor.”

Lily perked up immediately. “What theater?” Lily loved Chicago’s theater scene, and was a regular at more than one collective. Sawyer had sat front row at more avant-garde Shakespeare reimaginings than she could count.

“TV, not theater,” Sawyer clarified.

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