Page 75 of Empty Net

“I…” Auden shakes her head. “I’m confused. How does your mother even know Fox?”

“It’s… I…” I huff. “Can we sit down?”

She doesn’t respond, just turns on her heel and makes her way to my living room, plopping down on the couch. She crosses her arms and legs simultaneously, and it may look like she’s waiting patiently, but I know that’s far from true. I follow behind her, sitting on the other end, a few inches more than strikingdistance away, just in case she flies off the handle at what I’m about to tell her.

“I am engaged to Fox.”

She gasps. “What the hell?! I?—”

“But it’s not what you think,” I interrupt before she explodes more than she already has.

“Really?” She lifts her brows pointedly. “Because this photo looks like he’s proposing to you, and you’re wearing that tacky ring you’ve always hated on your finger. I thought you weren’t into Fox. I thought youdidn’thave a crush on him. Have you been lying about that, too?”

I wince, fiddling with the ring that’s felt like it weighs a hundred pounds since Fox slipped it on. “Yeah, I guess that does look pretty bad. But there’s more to the story.”

“Then you better get to telling it because I’m really losing patience here. I know I’ve kept things from you before,” she says, referring to when she snuck around with Hutch before they officially got together, “but this ismarriage, Lilah. I didn’t think you’d hide something that huge from me.”

“I’m not hiding it. Not intentionally. It just sort of…got away from us, and I didn’t know how to tell you.”

She tips her head. “Well, I’m listening now.”

“Remember how I told my mother I had a boyfriend because she was on my ass about having a date for my father’s birthday party?”

“Of course I remember. You told me you found someone. You did not, however, mention thatsomeonewas Fox.” She cuts me a nasty look that I completely deserve.

“Surprise?” She huffs, and I continue. “We…didn’t mean for it to be this big.”

“Howdid it get this big? How did this even start?”

“New Year’s Eve. I was on the phone with my mother”—I hold my hand up when she tries to interject, likely about tolecture me about answering my mother’s call—“and Fox heard her grilling me and being her usual snotty self, telling me she didn’t believe I had a boyfriend.”

“Told you so,” Auden mutters, and she’s right. She did tell me so. Perhaps if I had listened to her then, I wouldn’t be in this situation now. “Let me guess, then: he stepped in to help you and agreed to be your date for the night?”

“Yes.”

“I mean, I get that. It’s Fox. He’s the sweetest man alive. I’m not surprised he wanted to help you. I bet he’d stop every lane on I-5 during rush hour traffic if it meant helping a turtle cross the street.”

I smile. She has no idea.

“I don’t get how it went from one date to an engagement.”

“Fakeengagement. We’re not really getting married.” I finger the gaudy ring. “It’s all to keep my parents off my back. I…I didn’t want to lie to you, Auden. I swear it. But I’m too afraid to tell my mother the truth because I don’t want to turn into the bitter old woman she is.”

That last part tumbles out of me before I can stop the confession. I didn’t mean to say it, but it feels good now that it’s out there. Especially because that’s exactly why I keep letting myself play this game with Fox.

Idon’twant to end up alone and bitter. I’m still not over the moon at the idea of marriage, but the idea of a relationship… Well, it doesn’t sound so wild anymore. This pretending thing has made me realize there are definitely perks to it. It’s nice to have someone who cares and remembers all the little things about you and doesn’t find your quirks to be strange, but rather cute.

Someone like Fox.

I shake that thought away, my eyes drifting to the door of the bathroom he’s currently hiding in. Auden came in with such ablaze that I nearly forgot he was here. Can he hear all this? What does he think of my admission?

“That is…” Auden sighs. “That is the dumbest thing I have ever heard.”

I whip my head back, surprised. “What?”

“First of all, you’re not going to end up bitter and alone like that old…that old…bitch!”

A laugh bubbles out of me. “You just called my mother a bitch.”

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