Page 121 of Perfectly Complicated
“Present and hiding,” comes Brendan’s voice from off-camera.
“He’s mortified about his karaoke performance,” Brax whispers loudly.
“No, I’m not.” Brendan’s face finally appears on screen with a scowl. “And it wasn’t karaoke. It was a grand gesture.”
“Right, afailedgesture,” Leo concludes.
“Definefailed,” Brendan mutters. “Because I had her laughing.”
“Atyou,” Leo clarifies.
“Did you get the girl?” Miles asks.
“Well, no.” Brendan drags a hand through his hair. “She won’t even give me the time of day now. Says we can only be friends.”
“Ouch.” I wince. “Friend zone. That’s rough.”
“You know what might change her mind?” Leo says. “Groveling. Lots of groveling.”
The guys erupt into laughter.
Brendan leans back, crossing his arms. “You don’t think I can just be friends with her?”
Brax chuckles. “Nope, but good luck trying.” He gives two thumbs-up to the screen.
Brendan huffs. “What am I going to tell my family, then?”
“What do you mean?” Tate asks.
He sighs. “I may have told them I was seeing someone. And they’re expecting to meet my girlfriend at some point.”
“But you don’t have a girlfriend,” Miles points out.
“Thanks for that insight,genius,” Brendan snaps.
“Why’d you tell them that?” Leo asks.
“Because they’ve been on my case about settling down ever since my sister got engaged a few months ago. I thought if I told them I was seeing someone, they’d back off. All I needed was a name.”
“What name did you give them?”
Brendan pauses for a second. “Scarlett.”
Tate pinches the bridge of his nose. “You really didn’t think this through, did you?”
“At some point, I thought I could ask her for a favor and have her show up as my girlfriend, but that was before what happened at the Christmas party.” Brendan shakes his head, clearly regretting everything about that night.
“Let me get this straight,” Leo says slowly. “You want to ask the girl who friend-zoned you to pretend to be your girlfriend in front of your entire family?”
He frowns. “When you put it like that, it sounds worse.”
“Because it IS worse,” Tate says. “The probability of that ending well is approximately zero percent.”
“What could go wrong?” Brendan asks defensively.
“Everything,” I mutter.
“Just tell them you broke up,” Leo says.
