Page 44 of The Romance Rivalry

“No,” he says. That one word feels like it echoes through the entire library and down into my bones. “We have to see this through to the end. We have to fall in love.”

I’ve never seen or heard Aiden this serious, this adamant. The angles of his face even seem to shift. I don’t point out that there’s a very good chance at least one of us is not finding love from this competition, and I’m pretty sure that’s going to be me.

I nod and make a mental note for us to have this conversation later.

“Okay, okay, fine,” I say. For now.

“Anyways”—I reach over to pick upPride and Prejudice—“back to the book. You know how people love to see themselves in a novel? I have a feeling that reading about poor, unremarkable Charlotte Lucas, who marries an awfully dull man for money and not love, despite not even being his first choice whatsoever, will be like looking in a mirror,” I joke.

“Hey, that’s the second time today you’ve referred to yourself as ‘unremarkable,’ and I’m calling bullshit.”

I shake my head and shrug. “Middle-child syndrome, impostor syndrome, only-at-Brighton-to-make-my-parents-happy syndrome. That’s all. Anyways... back to the book...”

I jump a little as Aiden’s hand covers mine. I try to pull mine away. I don’t do sympathy comfort well. But he wraps his fingers around my hand.

I swallow.

The heat creeping up my neck is not attraction. It’s humiliation. Aiden may have opened up and shared with me. But I did not intend to do the same with him.

Aiden gives my hand a squeeze and smiles. “Look at you finally reading Austen,” he whispers, dimples finally making an appearance, letting me off the hook.

I lean in and whisper back, “I saw the movie, the 1995 version.”

He shakes his head and laughs. “You’re missing all the best parts if you don’t read the book. Promise me you’ll do it. If for nothing else than the fact that our grade in lit depends on it.” I know he’s joking, but I hear the tinge of concern in his voice.

I’m letting him down. I’m letting myself down. Worst of all, I’m letting my parents down. I swear to myself that I’ll try harder.

“I promise,” I say.

“You know what’s funny?” Aiden asks. “Me being here at Brighton is basically a ‘fuck you’ to my parents. And you being here at Brighton is the best thing that could ever happen to yours. We’re pretty much complete opposites.”

It’s true. Aiden and I couldn’t be further apart, opposites in so many ways.

So why, then, is he starting to feel like someone I’m growing closer to and can relate to more and more each day?

Epigraph

It’s the combination of “marriage of convenience” and “he falls first” in this book that really stole my heart. The way that Miles insisted on marrying Emma, making it seem like it was to get them both out of their sticky situations, when really Emma was the one who had everything to lose... ughhhh and sigh. Miles Miller, you are a saint. And I love you.

—@irene.loves.love.books

I want to be Miles Miller when I grow up.

—@aidentheguyreadsromance

Ten

marriage of convenience

“Okay, remember, it’s all hands on deck.”

We’re in the common room of Charles and Aiden’s dorm. Jeannette has the three of us lined up, standing at attention. I don’t know whose idea it was to get us matching coveralls for this situation, but we’ve all got them on. Mine are rolled at the hem a few times since no one thought to get them tailored for me.

“Jackson and Jeremiah will be here at”—Jeannette looks down at her watch—“thirteen hundred hours, which gives us exactly two hours and ten minutes to finish preparations,” she barks at us.

“We need to fill the fridges in each of our rooms with the necessary refreshments. Which are?” Jeannette turns to me, puts her face directly in front of mine, and bores her gorgeous green eyes into me.

I hold back a “meep.”

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