Elliot
Relationship Guidelines
“Well, it will be much better once I have a beer in my hand,” I reply. This restaurant and brewhouse has been a staple in Blossom Peak since we were kids. Justin’s dad opened the place, and now he runs it.
As my eyes move around the restaurant, searching for Dilynne, I ask, “Say, is—”
“Dilynne is waiting for you in the back,” he finishes for me. “She said you two needed somewhere private to talk.” The corner of his mouth lifts. “If it makes you feel better, there are cameras back there, so if she tries to murder you, I’ll have evidence to put her behind bars.”
I chuckle. “I appreciate you looking out for me.”
“Always. Honestly, it kind of surprised me that she said she was meeting you here. You two barely tolerate each other.”
I push a hand through my messy hair. “Yeah, well I was pretty surprised myself.”
I head toward the banquet room in the back of the restaurant.
“Sally will be back there to help you two in a minute,” Justin calls out to me.
Nodding in acknowledgment, I walk past several booths and tables filled with families and friends having normal conversations while I think about how abnormal the conversation is that I’m about to have.
When I enter the room, I see Dilynne sitting in the farthest booth from the door, staring down at her phone. “Did they remove all of the knives from the tables?” I ask as I greet her.
Her head pops up and then she’s rolling her eyes. “Killing you would negate the reason for this meeting.”
I slide into the booth opposite her. “Are you hungry?”
“Always. I went ahead and ordered a few appetizers. Sally should be back with them soon.”
“Did you order the onion rings?”
Dilynne scoffs. “Duh. I’m not an idiot, Elliot.”
“I don’t know, Dil. This idea of yours is pretty fucking stupid.”
Sighing, she sets her phone to the side and folds her hands in front of her on the table, staring right into my eyes. And those dark eyes of hers suck me in instantly. “It’s not stupid. It’s actually fucking genius.”
“Here’s your food, you two,” Sally announces before Dilynne can continue.
She sets down a plate of the Blossom Brews’ famous onion rings, their mouthwatering potato skins, and a family-size plate of buffalo wings with several small containers of their homemade ranch dressing. “Anything else I can get for you?”
“I’ll take the hazy IPA, please,” I say as Sally looks to me.
“Make that two,” Dilynne echoes.
Sally nods and then leaves us alone again.
Reaching toward the tower of onion rings, I pluck one from the top of the stack. “Since when do you drink beer?”
“I’ll have one every once in a while, but usually only from here.” Dilynne takes a bite out of a potato skin.
“Didn’t know that.”
She snickers. “Yeah, well there’s a lot of shit that you don’t know about me, Elliot.”
I grab a napkin and wipe my mouth before replying. “Exactly, Dilynne. Which is why this little idea of yours is moronic.”
She shakes her head. “That’s where you’re wrong.
You do realize that all of the hatred between us could actually be spun as sexual tension?
” Just the mention of sex—particularly sex between the two of us—makes my blood flow south.
“People might think that we hate each other, but we could just tell them we finally gave in and had hate sex, and suddenly, feelings started to develop.”
“That’s ridiculous,” I say as I reach down and adjust my dick.
The ironic part of her explanation is that over these past few months, I’ve wondered what sex with Dilynne would be like.
Since my cock only seems to perk up for her, it’s only natural that she’d be the star of any of my sexual fantasies, which is even more of a reason why we shouldn’t do this.
Trying to avoid the attraction I’ve started feeling toward her has been working so far, but I’m not sure that acting like she’s my girlfriend would help it go away.
Although, if I was forced to know her better and had to regularly spend more time with her, it just might.
But is it worth the risk of finding out?
“It’s not ridiculous,” she continues. “Haven’t you ever heard of enemies to lovers? This shit happens all the time in romance novels.”
I tap the table in front of me. “This isn’t a fucking romance novel, Dilynne. This is real life. In a small-ass town where everybody knows everybody’s business.”
She swats my hand from the table. “No shit, Elliot. And that’s exactly why I think both of us can benefit from this arrangement.”
Sally comes back with our beers, setting them down on the table. “You two good for now?”
“Yes, Sally. Thank you,” I reply, waiting for her to leave before lowering my voice and leaning closer to Dilynne. “Forgive me, but I’ve been wracking my brain trying to figure out how the hell this helps you?”
She leans back in her side of the booth, the harshness in her face melting slightly. And then she catches me off guard. “Because…because you’re not the only one with an ex you want to convince everyone you’ve moved on from.”
And then my memory catches up. “That Vinnie guy?”
She straightens her spine again. If there’s one thing I’ve noticed about Dilynne over the past year, it’s that she doesn’t like to let that shield of hers down for very long, a detail I hadn’t bothered to notice until I couldn’t look away from her any longer.
It’s subtle. It’s in the way her lips fall from her smirk, or a few too many blinks when words hit her harder than she lets on.
But I’ve caught it, and now I can’t unsee it.
I can’t unsee her.
“Yes, and in six weeks, I have to face him for the first time in years at Motorlux.”
“That’s the car show you’re restoring the Porsche for, right?”
She seems slightly surprised that I know that but doesn’t let it linger too long. “Yes.”
“So what? He’s in the competition too? Are you afraid he’s going to beat you?”
She scoffs. “First of all, he’s not going to beat me. And second, you don’t get it. You’re not a woman, let alone a woman in the car industry…”
“Dilynne, you’re one of the most confident people I know. Why the fuck would you care about your ex being at the same competition? Knowing how you are, you’re probably already envisioning winning the whole fucking thing…”
Her lack of response makes me feel uneasy.
She looks away from me, lost in her thoughts for a few moments, but I’m captivated by the way her face transforms as she thinks—her throat bobbing with each rough swallow, her lips moving from flat lines to frowns and back, and the wrinkle between her brows that only softens once she’s ready to speak again.
When her eyes lock back onto mine, I realize I’m holding my breath as I wait for her to fill the silence.
“Everyone has an ex that feels like a weakness, Elliot—that one ex that gets to you like no other. Tori is yours, and Vinnie is mine. I don’t need you to understand my reasons for wanting a buffer between me and him, but the thing I do think you can understand is that having that buffer makes being in the same room with them easier to deal with, am I right? ”
I think back to how grateful I was that Dilynne was in my office today when Tori came back in, trying to force me to talk to her. “Okay, I understand that.”
“You and I don’t see eye to eye on a lot, but I think we can on this.
” Nodding, I wait for her to continue. “So, in this situation, I think we can help each other. Once Motorlux is done, we can break up, go back to hating each other, and no one will be shocked because, well? It’s you and me.
That’s what we do.” She shrugs, but confusion fills my head.
“Why?”
Her brows draw together again. “Why what?”
“Why do we hate each other, Dilynne?”
Her lips part, but she closes them again.
And for the second time, she ignores that question.
The only other time I’ve prodded was the day she took me to the junkyard.
After that, I tolerated her intrusion in my life because her annoying me actually gave me something to look forward to—whether it was her showing up to my house to make sure that I’d showered or eaten in those first few months, or the insulting baked goods she still delivers to me.
But I’d never fucking admit that out loud.
Unfortunately, it’s those gestures that have also made me realize what my grandfather used to talk about—how the small things really turn out to be the big things in the long run.
And as I realize that my first crush on Dilynne back in high school wasn’t as far-fetched as I thought, I’m struggling with why these feelings are so much stronger this time around.
No matter what, though, no one can know about my feelings—past or present.
“Are you gonna agree to this or not, Elliot? I don’t have all night. I have a bubble bath with my name on it at home.”
“You take bubble baths?”
“It’s one of my guilty pleasures,” she answers curtly, surprising me yet again.
I drum my fingers on the table as I consider it. “Tell me how this is going to work, Dil.”
That makes her perk back up. She folds her hands together on the table in front of her. “Well, I think being boyfriend and girlfriend won’t be enough to deter Tori. If she thinks we are getting married, that will really seal the deal.”
I nearly choke. “You want to be my fiancée? Not just my girlfriend?”
Dilynne laughs behind her hand. “I don’t want to be your anything, Elliot.
But that girl is not giving up easily. And if she thinks that you really moved on from her, it’s going to piss her off even more.
” The corner of her mouth tips up. “That part makes me even more giddy about this idea. But the reality is, she needs to really believe that there is not a single chance you would take her back.”
“Trust me. I wouldn’t.”
She nods. “I know. I know how far you’ve come and you’d be stupid to even consider it, just so we’re clear.”