Page 22 of Empty Net

“That soundsmuchmore reasonable.”

“And if anyone asks how long we’ve been dating?” he asks.

“Keep it vague. Like we did with my mother.”

“Fair enough.” He nods. “Your mother… She’s, uh…”

“Terrible? Absolutely abhorrent? Evil personified?”

He chokes out a laugh. “Gosh, no. I just…”

“You can say those things about her, Fox. I do it all the time.”

He grins again—always grinning—but this time, there’s a hint of sadness to it, like he feels bad for me because that’s how I view my mother. I wash his look down with a swig of booze, an inkling of that buzz from earlier already returning. Guess I didn’t sober up nearly as much as I thought.

“I’m sorry your relationship with her is like that,” he says, watching me closely.

I shrug. “It is what it is. Let me guess—your relationship with your parents is picture perfect?”

Even in the dim lighting, I can see his cheeks turn red, and he ducks his head like he’s embarrassed by my accurate guess.

“Figures,” I mutter, finishing my drink just in time for a server to pass. I steal another glass off their tray. I’m sure I sound every ounce as bitter as my mother claimed I am, but that’s because I’m not used to someone with a perfect home life. Growing up, I at least had Auden and Rory to commiserate with. None of us knew what it was like to have a family that wasn’t riddled with issues.

Fox here doesn’t know that struggle.

“Are they still married?” I ask, curious now.

“Thirty-five years last summer.”

I whistle. “Wow. I mean, my parents are still legally married too, but it’s not like they actually love each other. It’s all forshow. And because my father knows my mother would take him for everything in court, and he loves his money far more than he loves her.”

It’s the most I’ve ever told anyone other than Auden about my home life, and it’s precisely because of the look Fox is giving me right now—pity—that I don’t share that information broadly. He feels bad for me, and honestly, I feel bad for me too. But what can I do about it? It’s their fault, not mine.

I take another sip of my drink, my head starting to feel that fun sort of fuzzy, and my body finally loosens up after my mother’s phone call. My mother, who I definitely don’t want to talk about anymore. In fact, I want to do literally anything else other than talk about her, maybe even jump out of a plane. But, since there are no aircraft around and everyone else is doing it, I guess I’ll settle on relieving the tension building in my shoulders on the dance floor.

“Do you want to dance?”

Fox looks surprised for only a moment before nodding. “Yeah, let’s dance.”

He sets his half-empty vodka soda on the table, then thinks better of it, picking it back up and drinking the rest before setting it down and coming my way. He holds his hand out to me like he did earlier, bending at the waist like he’s courting me, and this time, I’m just intoxicated enough to find it cute.

“May I have this dance, ma’am?” he asks, his drawl turned up to a ten.

I giggle. “You may.”

No sooner than our fingers touch, he tugs me into his arms, spinning us both out to the dance floor. We run right into Auden and Hutch, and if they look surprised to see us together, they don’t say a word.

“Lilah!” Auden throws her arms around me with a shout, and I smell the sweet alcohol on her breath as she smooshes her face against mine. “Come dance with me!”

I laugh. “We already are dancing.”

“Oh. Right. Come dance with me!” she repeats.

I look at Hutch, who, based on the grin on his face, appears to have had too many drinks himself, and he just shrugs. So we dance. And dance some more, so long that I completely lose track of the number of drinks I’ve had and Fox and even what time it is. I don’t know anything until I hear people shouting random numbers, and even then, it takes me three of them to realize the numbers aren’t random and they are counting down to midnight.

Midnight. The new year. The year I’m starting with a boyfriend. Afakeboyfriend.

I glance around the room, searching for the man I’m supposedly dating, but he’s nowhere to be found.

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