Page 112 of Vows We Never Made
Several brilliant, breathless, sheet-ripping times.
“I don’t get it.” Margot twists her lips like it’s a struggle to digest the news. “I thought you hated him.”
“Idid. Back when we were kids for sure. But now, he’s different. He’s not so bad. He’s—” I bite my lip as I try to think of the perfect adjective. “He’snicer.”
“I knew it!” She snaps her fingers. “Fucking Ethan. Iknewmy idiot brother would make a mess of this somehow. I predicted it the second you agreed. He’sdead.”
“Wait!” My protest is weak. “It’s not just his fault.”
“No? Well, whose faultisit, Hattie? Did he trick you into falling on his dick?”
“There’s no one to blame, actually. That isn’t it at all…” I trail off again at the murderous look on her face. “He didn’t force me into anything. I was a willing participant.”
“Of course you were!” She gestures at the sky in clear exasperation. “It’sEthan. You know he fucks a new girl every week.”
My heart shakes like it’s been kicked.
Is she right?
I think back to the way he looked at me when he said he wasn’t going to be with anyone else. He expected my loyalty too.
“Maybe,” I whisper, “but we’re engaged now. That changes things.”
Her eyes flash with horror before she hisses, “Hattie, it’s not real!”
“I know. I do. I’m not stupid, Gigi.”
She huffs. “Never said you were. But my brother? Really? You’re actually falling for his crap? Holy shit.”
“You can’t tell him you know. I don’t think he’ll forgive me. But I didn’t want to leave you in the dark. We’re friends.”
“Obviously, I won’t. Girl code and all,” she says with another harsh eye roll. “But seriously, what were you thinking?”
I wasn’t.
Not at all, really.
When he kissed me, there was zero chance I was ever going to think straight again.
Not about the infinite reasons why we shouldn’t do this.
And all of them are linked to my body and the tantalizing things he does with it.
“We’ve been cool about it. We talked and agreed it’s just while we’re”—gulp—“married.”
With a defeated sigh, she shakes her head.
“But you know this isn’t real, right?” Her eyes narrow. “Or is it?”
“No! It’s just… It just happened, okay? God, why can everybody else do some weird casual hookup thing and I can’t?” And it will almost certainly happen again if I get my way. “I know what I’m doing, Margot.”
“I worry for you,” she mutters. “Shit. I can’t believe he’d do this. It’s just the kind of dumb tomcat crap I hoped he was finally growing out of. I mean, I always knew he was starting to like you, but—”
“Wait, what? What do you mean he was starting tolikeme?” I feel light-headed.
I thought I was the one delivering the bombshell.
Then again, to Margot, who makes reading people into an art, she probably thought it was obvious.
