4 | Side by side
Hailey was refilling her wine glass in the kitchen when I found her.
“Hey,” I said. “I’m heading out. Theo’s going to walk me home.”
She looked up. Looked past me to where Theo was waiting in the hallway. Then back at me.
And smiled.
Not surprised. Not confused. Like she’d been expecting this.
“Good,” was all she said. “Text me when you get home.”
“That’s it? Just ‘good’?”
I stared at her. This was Hailey—the same Hailey who’d made me share my location before a second date with a guy from a coffee shop. Who’d given me a full safety lecture about Charles after two months of dating.
And now? Now she was sending me off with Theo with nothing but a smile and “text me when you get home.”
“Yes. What do you want me to say? You’re a big girl.” But she was still smiling, that knowing smile that made my stomach tighten.
We made it three steps toward the front door before Charles materialized.
“Tessa. Hey.” He glanced at Theo, then back to me. “I can give you a ride if you want. I’m parked right outside.”
“No, I’m good. Thank you.” I said it, but I wasn’t thankful. Not even a little.
“Come on, it’s late. I’m going your direction anyway—”
“She said no,” Theo said.
His voice was calm. Almost pleasant. But the temperature dropped.
Charles’s jaw tightened. “I was offering her a ride.”
“You’ve been drinking.”
“I had two beers—” His voice went up, the high pitch of someone losing and unable to do anything about it.
“That’s two too many to drive her.”
The silence stretched. Charles looked at me like he was waiting for me to contradict Theo. To defend him.
I didn’t.
His expression shifted. Hurt, maybe. Or anger dressed up as hurt—I could never tell with him.
“Tessa—”
“I’m good,” I said again.
The words came out steadier than I felt.
Charles's eyes moved between us, searching for a crack. A hesitation. Anything he could use.
He didn’t find it.
“Right.” He stepped back, hands in his pockets. That patient smile back in place, but thinner now. Sharper at the edges. “I’ll see you at the wedding then.”
The words hung there—half question, half challenge.
“Actually—” Theo said. “We’ll both see you there.”
Charles didn’t blink.
“Sorry, what?”
“The wedding,” Theo said. His voice was easy. “Tessa and I. We’re going together.”
Charles’s eyes moved to my face. “Together,” he repeated. Flat.
“Together,” I confirmed.
Surprise flickered across his expression, then anger. “Since when?”
“Since yesterday,” Theo said. “Is that a problem?”
My heart was hammering.
“Right,” Charles said finally. His smile was tight. “Well. Get home safe, Tess.”
Theo nodded once. “I’ll take care of her.”
The street was quiet. Cool air, distant traffic, the sound of our footsteps on pavement.
We walked half a block in silence.
“So,” I said finally, because someone had to. “That was—”
“Convincing?” he offered.
I laughed—short, nervous. “I was going to say ‘intense.’”
“Yeah. It was.” A pause. “Sorry if I overstepped back there.”
“You didn’t,” I said quickly. Too quickly, maybe, because he glanced at me. “I mean—thank you. For that.”
“Anytime.”
We walked another block. The adrenaline from the Charles confrontation was fading, leaving just the cool night air and the rhythm of our footsteps.
“Remember when we used to make deals like this?” he asked.
I blinked. “What?”
“In my treehouse.” His mouth curved. “We were always making deals up there.”
“Those were different.”
“Were they?” He looked at me. “We shook on those too. And we kept them.”
The memory hit—summer nights, making ridiculous pacts about who’d do whose homework or who had to take the blame for the broken window.
“This is a little more complicated than tricking your mom into staying awake past midnight, Theo.”
“Maybe.” He shrugged. “But the principle’s the same.”
I studied him.
“You really think we can pull this off?”
“I think—” He paused, considering. “I think we can.”
“That makes one of us,” I said.
He smiled, and I matched it without thinking.
“So,” I said. “How do we actually do this?”
“If we’re going to make this work, it needs to be believable,” he said. “We need to be seen together regularly. Are you okay with that?”
“What are we telling people? Are we… dating?”
He considered that. “Let’s say it’s new. A beginning. Hard to define yet. That gives us flexibility.”
“But committed enough that we’re each other’s plus-ones?”
“Exactly.”
I nodded slowly, working through the logistics. “So when does this happen? Like, how often do we need to—”
“Weekends,” he said. “That’s when everyone gets together anyway. Barbecues, dinners, the wedding. Most of my work events are Friday or Saturday nights.”
He paused, thinking. “Emma’s wedding is in a week. I’ve got that work dinner the week after. Then there’s Nate’s birthday party, and—” He stopped.
“Six weeks. Maybe seven. After that, things calm down. We can… reassess.”
Six weeks.
“Okay,” I said. “Six weekends.”
“Six weekends,” he repeated. “During the week, we’re just… us. Living our lives. But weekends—”
“We’re together.”
“Right.”
It felt manageable. Contained. Like we could keep this thing in a box and open it only when necessary.
“So we only fake it on the weekends,” I said.
“Yeah. We only fake it on the weekends.”
The phrase hung there between us.
“What about boundaries?” I asked.
He looked at me.
“Like—” I gestured vaguely. “Touching. In public. What’s okay?”
“I’m fine with whatever you need,” he said.
“You should probably touch me,” I said, then felt my face heat. “I mean—for show. Around people. So it looks natural. Like you did back there.”
“I can do that.”
My breath stopped, just for a second. Too much for something that was supposed to be nothing.
“And kissing,” I added.
He stopped.
I nearly walked into him.
The silence stretched.
“Is that okay with you?” I asked quietly, holding my breath without meaning to.
His eyes dropped briefly to my mouth, then back up. It happened so fast I might have imagined it.
“Yeah,” he said. His voice rough. “I can do that.”
“You’re sure?”
He looked at me for a long moment. “Tessa. I think I can handle kissing.”
But he didn’t smile when he said it. And his hands stayed firmly in his pockets, like he didn’t trust them outside.
“Okay,” I said.
“Okay.”
We started walking again.
My building came into view—a narrow brownstone with a crooked porch light that never quite illuminated the steps properly.
We stopped at the bottom. Theo turned to face me. The porch light caught his features, softening them.
“I’ll call you this week,” he said. “We’ll figure out the first event. Get our timeline straight.”
“Okay.”
“Good night, Tessa.”
“Good night.”
He didn’t move. Neither did I. For a second, I thought he was going to say something. Instead, he reached out and tugged gently at the sleeve of my jacket—just once, quick, the way he used to when we were kids and he wanted my attention.
“Hey,” he said quietly.
“Yeah?”
“This thing we’re doing—”
He paused.
“It’s going to be all right.”
“Yeah,” I said, grateful. “I know.”
He dropped his hand. Stepped back. Turned to walk away.
I watched him go—hands in his pockets, shoulders relaxed, like we’d just had the most normal conversation in the world.
Like we hadn’t just agreed to fake an entire relationship.
Like I hadn’t just asked him to kiss me.
I unlocked my door and went inside, my hands shaking slightly as I dropped my keys on the table.
My phone buzzed before I’d even taken off my jacket.
Hailey: I’m so happy you finally gave him a chance
Hailey: Call me. I want to hear EVERYTHING
I stared at the screen.
Finally gave him a chance.
What did that mean?
My thumb hovered over her contact. I should call. Explain. Tell her… something.
But what would I even say?
That this wasn’t real? That we were faking it? That I had no idea what I was doing?
I set the phone down.
The apartment was quiet.
I looked at my reflection in the dark window—same face, same place, same life. Except it wasn’t. Not anymore.
I didn’t call Hailey back that night.
If I tried to explain this, it would only get more confusing.
For her.
For me.
For whatever the hell I’d just agreed to.
????
Hailey said “finally.” Do we think she knows something Tessa doesn't?
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