Page 82 of The Great Dating Fake Off
And I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t considering dragging her back inside.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Nora
I cover my embarrassingly large smile with my hand as I turn away from Sebastian’s room.
And then I stop dead in my tracks.
Mamma V’s eyes hold mine across the hall.
Every good feeling, every spark of joy, every bit of hope drains from my body in an instant.
Her name is on my tongue, but I’m too frozen to speak or move toward her.
She looks crushed.
What would I say? It’s not what you think? That’s a lie. It’s worse than what she thinks, isn’t it? Benji and I are both lying to her.
Or maybe it’s worse that she thinks I’m cheating on the same hall where Benji sleeps.
It’s all bad. Hot bile rises in my throat as she turns on her heel without a word.
Beyond her, a window lets in the bright light of…morning? My brain scrambles to make sense of it. Sebastian’s alarm clock said four something when I left, didn’t it?
I race down the hall—the opposite direction of Mamma V—toward my room.
Benji is going to be so upset. Fuck, what was I thinking?
It’s very inconvenient that my stomach is trying to exit my body when all I want to do is run to my room and hide.
I release my hold on my belly to whip my key card out of my bra.My throat burns as I picture Mamma V’s face.
No. I’m not going to make it.
Veering sideways, I stumble into an alcove, praying for a trash can—
And crash into a couple locked in a heated embrace against an ice machine.
“Nora!” Santino jumps sideways, releasing— Gloria?
Benji’s grandpa and Alessia’s grandma, sworn enemies, kissing? I can’t even begin to process that right now.
My fingers land on the clear plastic liner of a trash can as Gloria moves past me and whips around the corner. I dry heave. There’s no food in my stomach because I haven’t eaten. I’ve been too busy forgetting my priorities.
My eyes shut as Santino’s hand lands on my back. He rubs a soothing circle with his palm. “That’s okay, you’re okay.”
The pain and panic is so much worse with him here to witness it. I wish he wouldn’t be nice to me.
In the span of one kiss, I’ve made an enemy out of the most interesting, welcoming family I’ve ever met.
Remember they drive Benji up the wall.
Remember they make him feel less-than for his life choices.
These reminders feel flimsy. They feel like only half the point. His family cares deeply for him, and now I care for them.
But this was never going to be a forever relationship, and I was always going to lose them. I never get to keep the people I want.
