Page 20 of The Weight Of Falling
“Ever?”
“Ever.”
I’m itching to ask why not, but that feels forward. And this whole conversation feels forward enough as it is.
“Is she still watching?” he asks.
“Afraid so.”
He drags a frustrated hand down his face. “I’ve saidnoin every way I can think of...”
“And she still won’t listen,” I finish for him.
“Nope.”
“I feel sorry for her,” I say softly.
He looks offended. “I’m the one you should feel sorry for. I’m the one being stalked.”
“I bet you wish you had a wardrobe you could step through to disappear into another world.”
“You a Narnia fan?” he asks.
“One of my favorite stories as a child. I’m a huge fan of C. S. Lewis overall.”
His expression turns thoughtful. “Well, we don’t have a wardrobe, but we do have a fake date,” he says slowly. “Maybe this can work in both our favor. A very public date with you might get Farah off my back. And you can use our fake date to give Bobby the middle finger.”
My brow furrows.
He grins. “Right, let’s leave your middle finger out of it. How about you use our fake date to show Bobby you’re over him?”
I draw myself up straighter. “I am over him!”
“You arranged to kiss him in a storeroom. That doesn’t sound like you’re over him.”
“It wasn’t like that,” I try to explain. “A part of me just wanted to show Bobby that I was no longer the boring Kenzie he dated.”
That makes him scowl. “That’s what he said to you? That you’re boring?”
I don’t say anything, but he must have noticed me wince.
His jaw works back and forth. “Let me guess, you didn’t sleep with him.”
“That is a wildly inappropriate statement.”
A negligent shrug rolls off him. “Am I right?”
“I’m not answering that question,” I say stiffly.
He nods grimly to himself. “I’m right.”
“I just wanted him to know there’s more to me than he thinks,” I whisper, so embarrassed I don’t know where to look.
“He’s a fool if he didn’t already know that,” Joel tells me in a brusque voice. Abruptly, he changes topics. “So, are we in agreement? One fake date next Saturday?”
“I’m not very good at lying,” I admit.
“Not lying, pretending.”
