“So, while you were gone, I kind of started seeing someone.”
He crossed his arms over his chest. “You have a boyfriend?”
“What are you, jealous?” I asked, instinctively. But for a second our last night together flashed in front of me. I felt my cheeks burn.
He didn’t respond, so I tried to make light of it, pushing him on the arm. The muscles there were rock hard.
He looked at the spot where my hand had been, and rolled his eyes. “No, I’m not jealous, but people see you have a boyfriend, then they see you have a husband, they start asking questions.”
“Yeah, I know.” I swallowed. “But it’s not like you and I are going to be out in the same places I’m out with Toby.”
“Toby?” Luke asked. “That sounds like a dog’s name.”
“Don’t be mean.”
He cleared his throat, sitting back. “So you guys are pretty serious.”
Yeah!I was about to say, but it sounded off. Like I was forcing it.
I went with, “Serious enough that I don’t want to break up with him because I’ve got a fake husband in my bed.”
Luke held up his hands. “Uh, I’ll sleep on the couch, thanks.”
I blushed. “No, I meant you can take the bed. With your leg and all.”
“We’ll flip for it.”
We flipped. Luke lost. I felt bad for a minute, then I remembered him comparing Toby to a dog. We sat, saying nothing, probably thinking about the same thing. Sharing a bathroom. Sharing a life. It would be different. This was real. This was sharing oxygen, and resources, and time I usually spent on my band, on my real boyfriend. And whatever it was that Luke would do all day. I didn’t know if I could handle it. If Luke kept acting like he did today, like he was someone I’d never even met, I definitely couldn’t.
Luke broke the quiet. “Are you going to tell him?”
Deep breath in, deep breath out. “Maybe when the time is right. We’ll just have to avoid my apartment for a while.”
“Damn, Cassie,” Luke said, reaching for his pills, his lips lifting into a half-smile. “What the hell are you going to say?”
