Page 20 of Let's Kiss and Tell

“The text you read,” she says, and my heart stops for a second. Lucy holds up her phone and shows me our message history and a small note under her text that saysRead: 6:57p.m.

Fuck.

“Oh, that text.” I make a mental note to turn myreadmessages off. “Sorry, I was trying to make a deadline and I completely forgot,” I say, bending the truth.

“So, did you find a date?” she asks.

This is where I should lie. I should lie and tell Lucy,Yes, actually, I coincidentally found a date in the past forty-eight hours so I will no longer need your matchmaking services.We can just go about our lives like nothing happened.

“I mean, technically…not yet.”

“Amazing.” Her smile widens like I told her good news. “I’ll go with you.”

My face drops. “What?”

“I’ll be your date for the wedding.”

I replay our conversation from the other night in my head, wondering if along the way I unintentionally made it sound like Iwantedher to be my date. Or if she felt obligated to ask me. That wasnotmy intention.

“Lucy, you don’t have to do that.” I shake my head, feeling awful. “That’s not what I was implying, believe me—”

“Marsh, I want to,” she interrupts me, taking a step forward.

I have no other choice than to ask the blatantly obvious question here. “Why?”

“Well, I was thinking about it yesterday and I mean, a weekend trip to Palm Springs? Another night where we get to hang out? I also love weddings,andI love dancing. It’ll be fun!”

My brows pinch and I stare at Lucy waiting for her to continue, but she doesn’t. Instead, she’s just smiling waiting formeto say something. While women are by no means my area of expertise, I wasn’t born yesterday.

“What’s therealreason, Lucy?”

Her smile falters. She looks like a contestant onShark Tankwho was just told they’re not getting the loan they’re asking for.

“I need a boyfriend.”

That’s the last thing I was expecting her to say. “Wh—”

“I mean, not arealboyfriend. Like a…temporary boyfriend?” she clarifies like it’s the most normal thing in the world to be saying right now.

“I’m confused…” I say slowly.

She sighs, tucks her hair over her left ear, and takes a seat in the chair across from me. “Okay, so remember how I was telling you that the audience for my column isn’t relating to my stories anymore? How they’re all focused on finding their one true love or looking for houses or trying to make babies or whatever else they think is important?”

“Mhm,” I say skeptically.

“Well, what I need to do is start writing about being in a relationship…ahealthyrelationship.”

I wait for Lucy to continue, but she doesn’t. “And this is related to me because…”

“Because of the wedding!” she says. “Youneed a date, andIneed someone to do relationship-y things with.”

I take a deep breath and adjust my glasses. Very much trying to understand how we ended up here. I haven’t a clue how this escalated so quickly.

“Look, Lucy, I’m flattered, really…but I’m okay. I don’t think that’s a good idea.”

“Why not?!” she says, a devastated look on her face.

“Formanyreasons. This is something I shouldn’t be agreeing to on a normal day and especially not on my first day of work.”