Date Me Like You Mean It

Lie. Lie. Lie.

He frowns. “Dan from your work?”

“Yeah, the one you saw me with at the deli.”

“Right.”

“Yeah, I mean, between you and me, I think Stephanie has always sort of wanted us to get together just because she thinks it would be a cute story. So whatever, don’t put much stock into what she said.”

“What about last night?”

Oh my god. Do we have to talk about it now?!

“Last night was fun.”

I’m moving around like a bird flitting from one tree to another. I set down my plate and head into the closet so I can grab my bathing suit out of my suitcase.

“C’mon, we don’t need to have a heart-to-heart about this,” I call out so he can still hear me. “I haven’t even had coffee yet!”

I sound cool as a cucumber, like I fool around with guys by the pool all the time. No big deal, just a hand on my boob—happens every day!

I change into my sky blue bikini then grab for a short white cover-up. I slip it on and head back out into the bedroom. Aiden’s sitting on the end of the bed, staring out the window.

“Aren’t you going to get changed? It looked like everyone was about to head to the pool.”

He nods, but he doesn’t stand. “Yeah, sure.”

His attention is still caught on something through the window.

“Want to just meet me over there?”

He finally turns and assesses me, staring like he’s trying to see something buried deep.

I smile and waggle my eyebrows, as if to say, What?

“You’d tell me, right?” he asks. “If any of that were true?”

I groan like I’m in agony. “I thought we dropped this already.”

“Maddie—”

“Yes! Aiden, yes. Sure, I’d tell you. But it’s not true, so stop looking at me like that. Now let’s go have some fun.”Turns out, all that talk about this being a couples’ getaway wasn’t quite true. Sure, there’re a few couples, but Dante is here on his own—his partner couldn’t get off work—and Cadence is single too. I’m highly aware of this because she’s taken a special interest in Aiden. She’s asked him a ton of questions about work since we rejoined the group, which I guess makes sense. She’s an assistant to a literary agent. She doesn’t represent her own clients yet, but she helps read submissions and queries all the time.

She’s chatting with us in the shallow end of the pool, trying to convince Aiden to consider pushing his career in a new direction.

“Last night, I read your article about the protests in downtown Austin. I loved the angle you took,” she gushes. “Telling the story through the eyes of the immigrant children. It took the issues down to the microscopic level, made them easy to digest.”

Okayyyy. While I’m sure his article was wonderful, does she really need to stare up at him with stars in her eyes? I mean, for all she knows we’re in love! Didn’t she listen to everything Stephanie said at breakfast? She probably did, and unfortunately, it probably only made Aiden seem more interesting in her eyes.

“I’m going to go refill my drink,” I say, though neither of them responds.

I swim over to the other side of the pool and climb out. Elliot and Dante set up a bar on a folding table. There’s every type of alcohol under the sun, plus mixers, and ice.

Dante’s there now, and I aim a winning smile his way.

“Is there any way I could tempt you into making me the grapefruit drink from the other night? It was so good.”

He winks. “Sure thing. I was about to make one for myself anyway.”

I hand him my cup and he tells me to grab a cold can of Sprite for him out of the cooler.

As I hand it over, he glances at me out of the corner of his eye.

“So should we talk about what Stephanie said at breakfast?”

“Let’s not and say we did.”

He laughs. “I know it was probably a little embarrassing, but what’s the big deal? You and Aiden are dating, so he must know you’re into him. I thought it was sweet.”

I respond with a noncommittal hum.

“I guess those early months can be tough though,” he continues, mulling over our perceived situation. “You two are still probably figuring everything out. You don’t want to seem too into him.”

“Definitely not.”

Dante pauses mid-pour and looks over at me. “Did he freak out when you two went back to your bungalow?”

“Oh…yeah…”

“He did?!”

I shake my head vehemently, realizing I’ve lost track of the truth. “Wait…no!” I’m flustered now and trying to backtrack. “He didn’t freak out,” I insist. “I freaked out.”

“Because you really like him,” he concludes.

It feels good to nod. With Dante, at least, I can confirm the truth.

I glance back at Cadence and Aiden just in time to see him swim over to the side of the pool and climb out so he can answer his phone. He hurries to pick it up and nods as he starts to speak. I can’t hear what he says as he heads back to the bungalow, apparently wanting some privacy.