Chapter 2
CHAPTER TWO
REMI
“Excuse me. What?” Remi cleans out her ear because she must not have heard Paige correctly. “You want to be … my girlfriend?”
She nods, smiling. Her blonde braid swings forward with the gesture, and she tosses it over her shoulder.
Remi’s mouth opens and shuts a couple of times. “But I thought you were …”
“What? Straight?” Paige’s smile drops for the first time since bringing up this idea. “No, um, well … it would just be pretend.”
“Pretend …?”
“Yes. You’ll have a hot date for your ex’s wedding—”
“Not my ex.”
“—and everyone can see I’ve moved on, and Tyler will finally give up trying to get back together. The whispers and pitying looks can finally stop.”
Remi scratches her head. On one hand, she can see where Paige is coming from—she’d also love it if Tyler finally left Paige the hell alone, and she has noticed the way the regulars are always gossiping, speculating on the reason behind the breakup—but, on the other hand … fake dating?
Sure, Remi’s mom annoys her with how often she brings up wanting Remi to find a wife and start a family, but she’s a grown-ass adult fully capable of handling her feelings and figuring out how she wants to deal with that.
She doesn’t need to pretend to date someone.
She can try again to put up another boundary with her mom—even though her first couple of attempts haven’t worked.
Then she looks at Tyler in all his obnoxious, shirtless glory. He catches her and scowls.
She smirks in return.
He may be nice and “charming” to everyone else, but he’s been a dick to Remi since their first conversation. She may be a mature adult, but there’s a petty side to her that would relish in getting under his skin.
Paige groans and drops her face into her hands. “You think this is a stupid idea. Ugh, I’m sorry. Just forget it. We don’t have to.”
“No, it’s not that.” She sets her hand on Paige’s knee. “I was just processing.”
“And?” Her voice is soft, curious.
“And I have some questions.” Remi takes a deep breath and meets Paige’s eyes.
It’s always bothered Remi that brown eyes don’t get enough love, especially when looking at Paige’s. They are a rich chocolate, as smooth and comforting as a morning cup of coffee on a rainy day. They are undeniably beautiful, and, right now, they are full of something—hope? Vulnerability?
Remi isn’t sure, but it tugs on her heart.
“Are we telling people here we’re dating?” she asks. “I mean, it’ll basically be like coming out even though you’re not—”
“Oh, my god!” Paige grabs Remi’s forearm. “Is this like a messed-up thing to do? To make people think I’m into women when I’m not even sure that I am? God. Yeah, never mind. Let’s forget this whole thing.”
Remi brightens, her attention locking in on one key sentence. “Wait. Back up. What’d you say?”
“Hm?”
“Did you just say you’re not sure if you are? Like … you might be queer?”
Paige’s cheeks flush an adorable shade of pink. “Shit. I didn’t mean to say that. Okay. Yeah. We definitely should forget this whole thing.”
“Wait.” Remi stops her before Paige can scramble to her feet. “Hold on. We don’t have to talk about it if you don’t want to. Say the word, and I’ll act like I never heard a thing, but … if you do want to talk about it?”
Paige glances around anxiously, her blush spreading to the tips of her ears. “Okay, but um.”
“Come on.” Remi hops up and guides Paige outside, where they climb into Remi’s car, and she turns the heat on low. While it’s always warm inside the gym, it’s windy today, and Remi doesn’t want Paige to be cold in her tank top and leggings.
“Is this better?” Remi asks. “Or we could go to my apartment if you want? I live around the corner, and Elena isn’t home. If you’d prefer some privacy?”
“No, this is okay.” Paige sighs and wipes her face with her hands. “Okay, so, I haven’t told anyone this, but recently I’ve been starting to wonder if maybe …”
“You might be attracted to women?” Remi finishes for her after a long silence.
Paige gulps and nods.
“How do you”—Remi licks her lips, picking her words carefully—“feel about that?”
“I don’t know,” Paige admits softly. “Part of me is embarrassed.”
“Embarrassed about liking women?”
“No!” Her eyes widen. “Oh, my god. No. That’s not something to be embarrassed about.
I just, I mean … I’m thirty-two! Is it silly I’m questioning things?
Like my best friend—Kennedy—she’s known she’s a lesbian since the fifth grade.
I feel like if I actually were into women, I would’ve figured it out by now. ”
“You’re a late bloomer.” Remi shrugs one shoulder. “It’s more common than you’d think. Compulsory heterosexuality is a bitch.”
“I guess.” Paige wipes some chalk off the knee of her black leggings.
“I mean, yeah, I’ve always considered myself an ally.
I don’t know, I just never realized it was an option for me.
My parents are traditional. They love Kennedy”—she takes a deep, steadying breath—“but I don’t know.
As the eldest child, there’s a lot of pressure on me both professionally and personally.
I know what the expectations are for me—including marrying a nice man and popping out a couple of beautiful grandbabies. ”
Remi frowns. There was such a heavy emphasis on “eldest child” that Remi’s mind immediately circles the idea that Paige is a secret royal, but that might be because she reads too many romance novels. Then her mind snags on what else Paige said.
“I thought you didn’t want kids?”
“I don’t.” Paige’s voice is flat. “But with how disappointed that makes my mom, I guess I never thought about the fact I don’t really get excited by the prospect of ‘marrying a nice man’ either.”
“Shit. I’m sorry, Paige,” Remi says. “But please know, it’s never too late to question your sexuality or come out. There’s nothing wrong with not having everything all figured out.”
Her lip trembles slightly, but she still manages a small smile. “Thanks.”
Remi squeezes her hand.
Paige can be a little cagey with certain topics, and as cute as Remi finds her when she’s flustered, she can tell Paige needs a little break from this, so she switches gears. “Let’s talk about ground rules.”
Paige’s eyebrows furrow.
“For the fake dating.”
Her lips part. “Wait. Does that mean you actually want to do it?”
“Sure,” Remi says. “But what does this look like?”
“I don’t know. I didn’t really think this through.” Paige chuckles. “Tyler made a comment about you liking me, and it made me think: If he sees me dating someone, he’ll finally give up trying to get back together. Plus, it would piss him off so much that it’s you.”
“I’m sold on that reason alone, to be honest.” Remi laughs, a slight wobble to her voice because she wasn’t expecting Paige to say Tyler thought she liked her.
She didn’t realize she was so obvious.
Remi coughs to clear her throat. “All right, well, we don’t have to figure everything out right now. How about we just say we started dating a few weeks ago, if anyone asks. And, while at the gym and the wedding, we can hold hands and flirt and—”
A faint flush dusts the fair skin of Paige’s cheeks.
“What?”
She shakes her head. “Nothing.”
“Paige.” Remi levels her with a playfully stern look before softening to something more sincere. “If you’re going to be my fake girlfriend, you have to tell me if you’re uncomfortable with something.”
A ghost of a smile crosses her lips. “It’s nothing, I just … I’m not sure I know how to flirt with a woman.”
“Okay. That’s easy. How do you flirt with men?”
“I don’t.”
Remi stares at her.
Paige stares back.
“I’ve never really wanted to before,” Paige whispers. “Probably should’ve been my first clue I’m not totally straight.”
Remi snickers. “Probably.”
“But guys will flirt with me, and I’ll talk to them and smile and it seems to be enough.” Paige lifts her hands in the air in a helpless little gesture that says, I don’t know what else to say.
“Fair enough.”
“I want to know how to flirt though,” she says. “For the future. So I don’t embarrass myself when I try to date a woman.”
Remi swallows. Her stomach hardens as jealousy swirls in her gut, which is so silly. A huge reason why she put herself in a dating timeout is because she always goes after women she shouldn’t. Emotionally unavailable because they aren’t over their ex, in love with their best friend, or straight.
Although Paige is no longer straight.
Well, most likely isn’t.
But she’s confused and figuring things out. Remi’s been here before, and it never ends well. So, no, her focus is entirely platonic. She’ll be a good friend to Paige. Emphasis on “friend.”
“I can teach you,” Remi says. “How to flirt.”
Because friends help friends out.
“Really?”
She nods.
“That would be—Shit.” Paige is cut off by her phone vibrating multiple times in quick succession. She glances down with a frown, then her eyes widen. “It’s a work emergency. I’m so sorry, I have to go.”
“Yeah, no problem. We can talk more later.”
Paige already has the passenger door open. “Thank you, Remi. Seriously.”
“I should be the one thanking you.” She chuckles. “You’re the one helping me get my mom off my back.”
Paige gives her a quick smile, then darts across the parking lot to her car. Remi sits there long after Paige peels out of the lot, replaying the conversation over in her mind. What did she get herself into?
Remi never could tell a pretty girl no.
She just hopes she won’t regret this.