Page 44 of Bad at Love
I’m smiling like an idiot? I try and rein it in.
“It’s just Marina.”
“The hot blonde?” I give him a look. “What?” he says. “I told you I think girls are hot. I just don’t want to stick my tongue down their throat.”
“Well I don’t want to stick my tongue down Marina’s throat either,” I tell him. “We’re just friends.”
But even though what I just said was completely juvenile, it feels like a total lie.
And now Noah is looking at me like he doesn’t believe a word of it either.
“We’re just friends,” I repeat. Friends who are dating each other for fun. But there’s no way I’m getting into that with Noah right now. Everything is already starting to feel complicated and we’ve only just begun.
CHAPTER SEVEN
MARINA
“EASY TIGER”
“So what date is this?”Naomi asks with a sigh. “And yes, I’m doing air quotes when I say the worddate.”
“Date number two,” I tell her. I wasn’t going to tell Naomi about what Laz and I were doing because she’d think the both of us were out of our minds and surprise, she thinks Laz and I are out of our minds.
“I just don’t understand any of it,” she says. “Why are you pretending to date each other? Why not justactuallydate each other?”
“Because we’re friends and only friends,” I remind her. “Laz doesn’t like me that way. I don’t like him that way.”
“Mmm hmmm,” she muses slowly. “You sound like you’re in grade school.”
“Because you seem to have a hard time understanding platonic relationships. It’s not getting physical. And we’re not, like falling in love with each other or anything.”
“Yet.”
I roll my eyes even though she can’t see me. “There is no yet. Laz and I are friends just as much as you and I are friends.”
“Right,” she says dryly.
“Naomi, you of all people, I expected to be supportive.”
“You really thought I would be supportive? Oh. Let me guess, you haven’t told Jane yet?”
“Hell no. She’d disapprove.”
“As do I.”
“Look, you know I have a problem so why not use Laz to solve that problem? I mean it makes perfect sense.”
Doesn’t it?
“Marina, your problem, and your only problem, is that you haven’t met the right guy yet. That’s it. There’s no magic fix to this. It’s the law of averages and the law of luck and the law of putting yourself out there that eventually you’re going to find the right guy.”
“I don’t think I like all these laws.”
“I know you think Laz is helping you, but honestly, as much as I like the guy, I wouldn’t take his advice seriously.”
“Why not?”
“Because…I know this is going to sound crude, but he fucks anything that walks.”
