Bet.

four

 "Are you nervous as I am about seeing people we know?" I turn to Taylor, while we walk the 15 minutes to the beach.

"Honestly? Somehow no. I feel like we've got this in the bag."

"For a guy that doesn't like public relationships you're surprisingly calm about this entire ordeal."

"I think it helps that the girl by my side brings out the best in me already. I don't know about you, but to me it feels like we're just hanging out with some additional PDA. The chemistry was pretty much there from the get-go." Taylor turns and smiles at me while he finishes his speel.

"I guess that's true. It's honestly pretty fun getting to just hang out with you more the last few days. I think I'm just scared of being around friends and coworkers. There was really no hiding it tonight at work after Lincoln told everyone." I laugh at the memory from just a few hours prior. I walked into work and immediately was met with big grins from coworkers I barely even spoke to. Our relationship was even publicly announced by Uncle Sam in our pre-show meeting. Safe to say we had no way to back out.

"You're handling it like a champ. Let's go to this bonfire and have the time of our lives, okay?" Taylor reaches over and grabs my hand before squeezing it.

"That works for me." I squeeze back.

Once we arrive at the beach we quickly spot Carson and Layla, who are getting everything set up. Layla picks up a marshmallow and shoves it into Taylor's mouth before pecking him on the lips with his mouth full of marshmallow.

"That was gross." I remark

"Yeah. Let's not do that."

Even just a few days into this bet, the chemistry between Taylor and I is pretty undeniable. Even as just friends, we really get each other and keep up with one another's banter naturally. Even if the romance is fake, this friendship is hopefully going to last a long while.

"What are you smiling about?" Taylor nudges me with his elbow, almost knocking me into the sand, but I manage to catch myself.

"I was just thinking about how much fun I've had with you the last few days. I never realized how fun you were while also having a weird way to calm me down." I hesitantly look up, to see him smiling right back at me.

"Let's go help Layla and Carson finish setting up before everyone else shows up." He tugs my hand and we jog over to Carson and Layla.

"Hey!" Layla immediately drops everything and runs over to hug me.

"How are you?" I ask her, and look at Taylor as he walks over to Carson to help get everything ready for the fire.

"I'm honestly amazing. I think that Carson and I's little relationship might be helping him realize his feelings for me for real." Layla beams. A small ping of jealousy hits me. My stupid lingering weird feelings for Carson.

"That's amazing. I'm so happy for you!" I force a smile, praying it looks genuine. "Should we go help the guys?" I suggest, but am quickly stopped from that when I hear my name yelled from the beach' entrance.

"El!" I look over and see friends from work and school coming in, and my stomach does a quick flip. It's go time.

I quickly wave at them then walk to where Taylor is. A small part of me is freaking out and I need him to help ground me.

"Do you wanna sit?" Taylor scans my features, and apparently I'm not hiding my anxiety the way I thought. Before I can even reply, he slides his arm around my waist and leads me to sit on a towel with him on the ground.

"Hey guys!" Our friend Elton walks toward us, and stops and stares for a second when he spots me and Taylor.

"How are you Elton?" I look up to meet his smirk as his eyes dart between me and Taylor.