Chapter 2 #2
Kelsey’s world lurched sideways, the coffee-stained rag clenched in her fist suddenly forgotten.
Ex-wife. The word ricocheted through her head.
Elizabeth was divorced. She’d been married to a woman.
And now she wasn’t. A thousand unspoken questions burned along Kelsey’s tongue, her fingers pressing harder into the damp fabric until her knuckles ached.
Elizabeth’s next words sliced through her spiral, tense and raw with barely contained panic. “No I wasn’t drunk. I wish I was.” The normally measured cadence of her voice frayed at the edges. “I don’t know what I’m going to do. I need to bring someone with me to this fucking wedding.”
The ceramic cup Kelsey was holding slipped half an inch in her suddenly slick palms. A wedding.
“No.” The word came out sharp, brittle. “Grace insisted I bring her.” A beat of silence, then her voice dropped lower, rougher.
“Apparently it’s simple enough to squeeze in another chair.
” She exhaled, the sound barely audible over the café’s hum.
“Would it shock you, Paula,” she said, the words measured, “that I never planned my own wedding? Grace handled all that. And she actually became good friends with our planner. It wouldn’t surprise me if she’s using her again. ”
Not just any wedding. It was her ex-wife’s wedding.
The room narrowed to the thumping beat of her own pulse drumming in her ears, drowning out the hum of the chatter of customers. All she could hear was the ragged vulnerability in Elizabeth’s voice, the quiet unraveling of a woman who absolutely, positively did not unravel.
“Yes, I finally met her. She’s perfect, unsurprisingly.
And I’m honestly happy for Grace. She deserves to be happy.
” Elizabeth’s voice broke on the name, just a tiny fracture, but Kelsey heard it.
Her throat tightened in sympathy. “But what the fuck am I going to do now? How am I going to produce this amazing girlfriend?”
The question hung in the air, a ghost that settled over Kelsey’s shoulders.
She retreated behind the counter, placing the dirty cups in the bus tub with a soft clatter.
Her hands were shaking. She gripped the edge of the sink, the cold metal a stark contrast to the heat in her face.
Hailey was right. She was a goner. But this was different.
This was not about a crush. This was about watching someone she admired, someone who always seemed so unbreakable, on the verge of shattering.
Kelsey glanced up and realized she had left the rag on the table. She went back to retrieve it, and Elizabeth’s conversation was impossible to ignore now.
“No. That won’t work,” Elizabeth said, her voice rising in frustration.
“I can’t go on a date with someone tonight and ask them to a wedding next week.
And I’d have to ask them to pretend that we’ve been seeing each other for a while.
No. That’s weird. Pathetic.” A final, defeated breath. “No. I’m just not going to go.”
The finality in those words was what did it. The sound of surrender. Kelsey knew that sound. It was the sound of giving up before you even started because the alternative was too terrifying.
An idea sparked in her mind. It was immediate, insane, and utterly consuming. A bolt of pure, unadulterated madness.
I could do it.
The thought was so loud she almost looked around to see if anyone else had heard it.
Don’t be weird. Don’t be weird. You are a barista. She is a customer. You cannot offer to be her fake girlfriend.
But she could pretend to be amazing, couldn’t she? She was a good listener. She was good with people. She could do that.
Elizabeth hung up. Kelsey saw her in her peripheral vision.
She watched the woman’s shoulders slump, saw her run a hand through her perfect hair, messing up the careful waves.
It was the most vulnerable gesture Kelsey had ever seen from her.
It was a crack in the facade, a glimpse of the real, tired, stressed human underneath the expensive blazer.
And in that crack, Kelsey’s insane idea found purchase and grew roots. It was no longer a thought. It was a command.
Go. Now. Before you chicken out.
She moved before she could think. She went behind the counter with the rag and then wiped her hands on her apron. Her sneakers made no sound on the worn floor. Each step was a lifetime. Her heart was in her throat. This was the stupidest thing she had ever done.
The chair legs scraped against the worn wood floor as Kelsey pulled it out too fast in her nervous haste.
The noise startled Elizabeth from whatever dark thought had gripped her, and her shoulders tensed for just a second before she turned her head sharply, eyes snapping open wide.
All the usual careful distance was gone from her gaze.
The windows behind her caught the morning light, making her pupils contract like a cat’s in daylight.
For the first time since Kelsey had known her, Elizabeth looked genuinely rattled.
Kelsey’s own pulse hammered in her wrists and throat like she’d sprinted across Manhattan instead of just walking ten feet from the counter. She could feel the adrenaline running through her.
Elizabeth’s lips parted slightly, probably wondering what the hell she was doing sitting at her table.
Kelsey swallowed once, twice, before her voice could work properly. It came out hoarser than usual. “I’ll do it.” Three simple words that would either wreck her or save her, and she wasn’t sure which was worse.
Elizabeth just stared at her. A frown line appeared between her perfectly shaped eyebrows. She blinked once, slowly, as if reorienting herself. “I’m sorry?”
“I can be your girlfriend.” The words tumbled out before Kelsey could stop them, her voice a shaky exhale weighed down with nerves.
Oh christ, she’d actually said it. The heat crawling up her neck felt like a physical flame now, burning so bright she wouldn’t be surprised if all of Manhattan could see it.
She swallowed around the sudden thickness in her throat and forced herself to keep going. “For the wedding.”
Elizabeth’s reaction was instantaneous—that razor-sharp awareness snapping into place, every line of her body tensing like a courtroom attorney bracing for cross-examination.
Whatever momentary vulnerability had been there a second ago vanished behind the carefully constructed mask of composure.
Her lips pressed into a thin line, fingers tightening around her phone.
Even her breathing changed, going deliberately slow and controlled.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Elizabeth said smoothly, the words crisp and detached.
It should have shut Kelsey down completely. But the slight tremor in Elizabeth’s voice, so subtle most people would miss it, told another story.
“I heard you,” Kelsey said, her voice quieter now, but steady. She met Elizabeth’s gaze, refusing to look away. “On the phone. I didn’t mean to listen, but it’s not the biggest coffee shop.” She took a breath, letting it all out. “You need a girlfriend. I’m… I’m willing to do it.”
Elizabeth’s face went from startled to a fortress of composure in a single, chilling heartbeat.
The lawyer was not just back; she was armed.
Her eyes, suddenly the color of a storm-tossed sea, narrowed on Kelsey, scanning her face as if searching for a weakness in her argument. The silence stretched.
“And why,” Elizabeth’s voice was dangerously soft, a blade wrapped in silk, “would you do that?”
Okay, cool, we’re doing this. Kelsey’s mind raced, a frantic scramble for a reason that sounded helpful and not completely unhinged.
She could feel the heat radiating from her own neck, the dampness of her palms as she pressed them against her jeans under the table.
She had practiced a thousand imaginary conversations with this woman, none of which involved offering to be her fake girlfriend.
A a small, hysterical part of her brain was screaming, you have made a catastrophic error.
“You seemed… stressed,” she managed, the words sticking to her tongue. It was the truth, but it sounded thin, inadequate. It sounded like pity. “I just thought… I could help.”
The storm in Elizabeth’s eyes pinned her in place, unrelenting.
Kelsey’s pulse thudded in her throat—too fast, too loud—as if trying to escape the crushing weight of that gaze.
Her fingers curled into the rough denim of her jeans, gathering fistfuls just to feel something solid.
A drop of sweat trickled between her shoulder blades, cold despite the warmth of the café.
She could practically hear Hailey’s voice in her head: You absolute disaster. You dumbass with a heart of gold.
Every second stretched into an eternity under Elizabeth’s scrutiny.
She thinks I’m insane. She thinks I’m some desperate idiot who— Her gut twisted, the ridiculousness of the situation hitting her like one too many shots. Nothing like flinging yourself at the woman you’ve been crushing on for months.
The truth landed with brutal embarrassment, and Kelsey wished she weren’t such an impulsive person.
You complete idiot.