Page 33 of The Great Dating Fake Off
I use my hand as a sun shield. “Huh. I guess she’s a one-and-done kind of gal when it comes to pickleball.”
“Well, we lost, so she’s probably over it.” Benji yawns, visibly done with this conversation. “You might as well see how far you get in the quest for ultimate domination. Text me later.”
I shoot him two enthusiastic thumbs-ups. “All right, Sugar Cheeks. If you’re sure.”
He scowls. “I told you no—”
“—nicknames, other than Benji. That’s right. I’d forgotten you hate them.”
“You knew damn well.”
I fluff my hair in his sunglasses. “Bye, Benji.”
“Bye, Sugar Hair.” His face screws up in a painful grimace.
Time halts as I roll back the tapes on what he just said. “Did you just—”
“No.”
“Benjamino Tobleroni Ferraro.” I place my hand over my heart. “Did you just nickname me?”
“Speak of this again and you’re fired. And ‘Tobleroni’ is neither of my middle names.”
“You have two middle names? What are they?”
“Sorry, can’t hear you over my pounding headache.” He stalks off. If he had a cape, it’d be billowing in the mountain breeze.
I’m still laughing when I catch Rosalina watching me from the side of court one, a goofy smile on her face. My stomach turns over at how happy it makes her to see Benji interact with me.
And that’s as far as I’ll allow that thought to go before it boards the guilt turnpike.
Sebastian and Enzo, meanwhile, are wielding their paddles like lightsabers, battling and laughing without a care in the world, yelling bro, bro, bro back and forth every time one of them lands a hit. It’d be adorable if I wasn’t worried about Ro’s safety.
Sebastian turns toward me as I jog over, allowing Enzo to get in one last hit on the back of his head.
Sebastian smacks him back with an open palm. “Jackass.”
I swallow a laugh. “Sorry to interrupt the duel. Or maybe you’re welcome. Anyway, Benji isn’t feeling good. Had to say goodbye before he went back to the room.”
Ro’s eyes widen. “Didn’t you say Alessia was sick, Sebastian? Wait, you don’t think there’s a bug going around, do you? Because if a bug takes out the guests at this wedding, I will go scorched Earth. We’ve got enough problems with our families as it is.”
“Alessia’s stomach ache is, uh…different,” Sebastian says uncomfortably. “Cramps. Not an illness.”
“And Benji just has a headache because of his allergies,” I add. “Nothing contagious.”
“Poor guy.” Ro turns to her husband-to-be. “I guess you’ll have to spend time with him later. I need you and my brother to get along. Like, do some actual bonding. I have a hard time getting Benjamino to answer my texts as it is. If you guys aren’t at least friends, he’ll probably ghost me permanently.”
“Why wouldn’t we get along?” Enzo moves a lock of black hair out of her eyes. “Babe. Let’s take a few days off worrying about what people think. We decided this week is about us, yeah?”
She wrings her hands. “That sounds great in theory, but now that we’re all here at this resort with no escape and forced to deal—”
Enzo covers her mouth with his, trapping whatever she was about to say with a heated kiss.Sebastian and I look away at the same time, our gazes accidentally colliding.
Eye contact with Sebastian while those two make out is worse than just staring directly at the kiss.
When Enzo finally pulls back, he cradles her face in his hands like he’s afraid she might fire off like a bottle rocket if he doesn’t make his point. “It’ll be over soon, okay? Then we’ll go back to our normal lives ignoring them.”
A beat of sadness passes through me. It’ll be over soon is not how I’d like to feel about my wedding week, nor would I want to ignore family if I had one. As stressful as it is for Benji to attend this wedding, it must be access-to-the-nuclear-codes stressful being the bride and groom when your family trees are trying to snuff one another out.
