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?”