Five
Reece
“Best fuckin’ man?” Miles shrieks, pacing back and forth in our living room.
He still smells like shit from practice, drenched in sweat with his hockey bag by the door, but he was too shocked by the news when he came in to shower or change before raging.
“Can you believe he said yes?” Drew tacks on from the chair in the corner.
Drew came over to commiserate with me after I got home from dinner. So far, he’s been more accusatory than anything, questioning my sanity for agreeing to this madness.
I groan, tossing a throw pillow at Drew. “I didn’t have a choice. He’s my brother.”
“ He had a choice when he fucked your girlfriend!” Miles squeals, running a hand through his wavy blonde hair and cutting me a sharp, narrowed-eyed glance.
Miles has been my ride or die for years. As a result, he gets angry and protective whenever someone does me wrong. Sometimes too angry and protective.
“I know you don’t like the situation, Miles. But I just have to—”
“Don’t like the situation ? I don’t like Evan , dude!”
I sigh, pinching the bridge of my nose in between my fingers. “I get that, but my family would be upset if I said no. I’d fuck up the balance of everything,” I explain.
Miles stops in front of me and stares. “Um, Evan did plenty of fucking up on his own when he slept with Tashia behind your back.”
I wince.
“He’s got a point,” Drew chimes in.
“Why’d I even invite you over?” I huff.
“Reece, we just worry about you,” Miles says, still blocking my view of the Reds game on the TV. “We know you want to keep everyone happy and think that it’s your job since Lance died.” His voice softens. “But you can’t make everyone’s happiness a priority at the expense of your own, man.”
“I am happy,” I swear, leaning back onto our polyester couch. “It’s family. What else am I supposed to do?”
“Steal Tashia back from your brother and then break her heart,” Miles says at the same time Drew says, “Sleep with Evan’s ex-girlfriend.”
I bark out a bitter laugh. “No and no.”
Miles disappears into our kitchen and reappears with a couple of bottles of beer, twisting one open and taking a thoughtful drink. “Okay, fine, but you can’t go into this wedding shit alone.”
“What do you mean?” I accept the beer Miles offers to me.
“I mean, the next few months are going to be the Tashia and Evan show,” he explains. “You’ll have to go to parties, to dinners, to a wedding , dude. You can’t be the sad ex-boyfriend-turned-best-man who’s single. ”
“I am single,” I argue.
“Nah, Miles is right,” Drew agrees.
I glance exasperatedly between my friends. “When did you two decide to gang up on me?”
“We’re not ganging up on you,” Miles groans, setting his beer down on our glass coffee table. “We’re trying to help you. Get one of your friends with benefits, find a situationship, make her your designated wedding event partner.”
I wrinkle my nose. “Designated wedding event partner sounds a lot like a girlfriend. Or like a job description.”
“That’s the point,” Drew argues. “Tashia and Evan need to think you’re okay. You don’t need the pity glances from your family. Make them really believe that you’re over everything.”
“Plus, chicks love weddings and shit. Easy lay.” Miles shrugs.
I love my best friend but, Jesus, he’s a pig sometimes.
“No.” I shake my head. “I’m not lying to my family, I’m not asking some poor girl to be my… my what? My fake girlfriend? That’s sick.”
“It’s genius ,” Drew protests.
I scoff at my ridiculous friends and the idea that’s so insane, it might just work. “And this hypothetical poor girl, what exactly is she getting out of this deal?” I challenge.
Miles smirks. “An open bar, a chance to wear a pretty dress, and the most mediocre four minute sex of her life.”
I toss the other throw pillow at him, Drew and Miles both cackling at the crass joke.
“I’m serious,” I huff. “A request like that is offensive. It’s crazy. I would have to have something decent to offer for someone to even consider going along with this bullshit.”
“Find someone as desperate as you?” Drew suggests .
“I’m not desperate.”
But I am. Just a little bit. And suddenly, the thought of walking into an engagement party, a wedding shower, a rehearsal dinner, a wedding without someone on my arm is nauseating.
I’m not being petty. I don’t want to make Tashia jealous. My endgame isn’t to win her back, not at all.
But it’d be nice to say I’m doing okay and really mean it. It’d be great to have everyone believe it. I don’t need the pity or the commiserating looks, and there will be tons of those in regard to Evan and Tashia’s wedding.
“Just think about it,” Miles breaks through my thoughts. “Maybe that girl who spent the night last night?”
“Chelsea?”
Miles shrugs a shoulder in response.
My friends with benefits situation with the Delta Sigma from Cleveland isn’t new by any means.
She’s been one of my… regulars since last year and it’s been immaculate because she’s even more opposed to commitment than me.
Chelsea’s hot, fun to be around, flexible, and casual; all the characteristics I’m looking for in a situationship.
But asking her to be my fake girlfriend for even one wedding event feels way too personal. Way too intimate.
The only intimacy Chelsea and I need is in bed.
That being said, it’d freak her out. She’s a total commitment-phobe, not even remotely interested in a relationship until she finishes undergrad and gets through a master’s program in counseling.
It’s why our situation has always worked, her and I.
I’m damn sure not screwing up a good thing with her by scaring her away.
“Nah.” I shake my head .
“Why not?” Drew challenges. “Chelsea’s hot.”
“Hell yeah, she is,” Miles snorts. “Did she play sports in high school? Do you know? I know she’s not on a team here but she’s got the body of an athlete.” He bites his lip.
“Done fantasizing about my friend?” I demand.
“Not quite. Does she look just as good without clothes on? Paint me a picture.”
“Goodbye.” I go to stand before Drew stops me.
“I think what Miles is trying to say”—he shoots Miles a dirty look—“is that Chelsea is pretty and nice and would be a perfect girl to bring home to your family.”
“There’s no way she’d say yes. She’s always really busy.
” I decide to give them a vague explanation rather than divulge Chelsea’s secrets and opinions on relationships.
I’m pretty sure her total opposition to commitment comes from a toxic relationship with her ex and it’s not my shit to share with my friends.
Especially when her trust issues reflect my own a little too closely.
“Don’t discount her yet,” Miles tells me with a shit-eating grin. “She’s already had four mediocre minutes with you so you wouldn’t have to disappoint her.”
Drew chortles as Miles hoists his hockey bag over his shoulder to head towards his room.
We don’t have enough throw pillows in this apartment.