Page 2 of Festive Faking
“Ah.” Mac folded his lips inward. “Finally came out, did he?”
“What?!” I shrieked. “No! Mike’s not—“
“Oh, he definitely is. Caught him and Ethan making out right over there.” He tilted his head toward a secluded area of the library. “A few times, actually.”
My first impulse was to call him a liar. Mac attempting to rile me up was nothing new. But I couldn’t deny that his words played into a nagging suspicion in the back of my brain—a conclusion I hadn’t wanted to accept.
In the year I’d spent dating Mike, not once had we made it past second base. It was borderline pathetic that I was still a virginat twenty-six, and it didn’t look like that would be changing anytime soon.
Fuck my life.
Collapsing onto the closest chair, I covered my face with my hands. “Not again.”
“Again?!” The shocked tone of Mac’s voice had me groaning. “What do you mean, again?”
I dared to peek through my fingers. “Any chance we can drop this?”
“Not on your life.” Amusement at my distress played out across his face.
Getting comfortable, he rested his ass against the table opposite me and crossed his legs at the ankle while awaiting my explanation.
My sigh was heavy enough to move mountains. “Let’s just say I have a history of dating unavailable men.”
“Unavailable. That’s one way to put it.”
I tilted my face toward the ceiling, and everything came pouring out. “Look, I don’t know what it is. Maybe I send out some sort of signal. But none of that matters right now because I already told my parents I was bringing him home for the holidays. And I’m gonna become the subject of town gossipagainbecause I can’t hold down a man. Where I come from, everyone is in your back pocket, and I’m under extra scrutiny because I left Rust Canyon behind. There’s already the perception that I think I’m too good for my roots, so coming home minus the plus-one I promised is only going to feed into the rumors as to why I’m still single at my age. They’ll all be wondering if there’s something wrong with me because, where I come from, I’m practically an old maid. Girls get married young and have popped out a bunch of babies by the time they’re twenty-six.”
My chest heaved as I dragged in deep lungfuls of air, having said all of that in a single breath.
“Feel better getting all that off your chest?” Mac asked.
“Not even a little bit,” I huffed out.
“Sounds like you’re dealing with a lot.”
“Ya think?” Sarcasm leaked into my tone. I didn’t need him to point out the obvious—that I had enough issues to sink a battleship.
“What if you take me home instead? Mac and Mike are close enough that you might be able to blame a bad phone connection for the confusion.”
The world came screeching to a halt, and for a second, I wondered if maybe I was having a stroke. Because there was no way Macallan Blaze had just offered to help me. That was a direct contradiction to our entire dynamic. We only barely managed to tolerate each other when forced to work together, and even then, it was fraught with tension, the reminder that the other was just as talented ever present.
My mouth opened and closed a few times before my brain settled enough to formulate a response. “Don’t you have your own family to spend the holidays with?”
Mac’s lips twisted. “You wanna know what I’m facing if I head up to the Blaze family compound in San Francisco for Christmas?”
When I remained silent, he continued with the answer.
“Let’s see.” He used his fingers to tick off family members. “The step-monster will be self-medicating the entire time because my father is married to his job. My older sister is a chip off the old block, trying desperately to show that she doesn’t need a penis to head up the company, so she’ll be right alongside him at the office while the rest of their employees have the day off. My cousins will probably find the nearest strip club and drop enough cash to put the entertainers’ kids through college.”
Before I could shoot back that that last part seemed right up his alley, he held a hand up to stop me. “You think you know me, Aspen, but you don’t.”
Well, that shut me right up. I had made a lot of assumptions about his lifestyle based on his arrogant personality and financial status.
Sufficiently chastised, I dropped my gaze to the floor. “Sorry your family kinda sucks.”
His heavy exhale reached my ears as he blew out the words, “Yeah, me too.”
“So, um. . .” I twisted my hands in my lap. “How would this work?” My eyes lifted to meet his. “If I agreed, which I’m not saying I will.”
