Page 101 of Play Fake

“Of course.” She smiles brightly.

“All right. Well then, I’m gonna run and change.”

“Hey Mac, can we talk after dinner?” Ben stops what he’s doing and looks up at me.

And I know Ben Lawton, the perfect man, doesn’t want to chat with me for fun. He’s yet another emissary sent by the Captain.

“Not you too. I already got ambushed by Lauren today on campus.”

“But you’ll hear me out though, right? On account of the delicious food?”

“And the dimples. Don’t forget the dimples.” Olivia adds pinching his cheeks.

I sigh dramatically at the two of them, “You’re not helping Liv.”

“Well, I just think you should hear what he has to say.”

“Are you all just going to gang up on me? What happened to ‘whatever you want Mackenzie’”

“You started making bad choices?”

“Me?? Do I need to remind you that you, the football mom, are feuding with the quarterback?”

“That’s different.”

“Okay, Lawton. When does she get the lecture?”

“I’ll add it to the list. But you first.”

“Fine. I’ll pencil in ‘get a dressing down by Lawton’ to my list for the evening. Can we add an actual dressing down to the post dinner events?” I smirk at him. It’s so much easier to flirt with someone when you know it can’t come to anything.

“Sure, if you want to pencil in attending my funeral later this week after he kills me.”

“It might be worth it.”

“Mackenzie…” he gives me a look that says I’d better hush, and I smile and take off upstairs.

I don’t knowwhy I thought I had to go back to my old friends and the way things were before. This life is different, but I love it just the same. I’m still surrounded by good people who care about me. Although, I think they might care about Waylon a little more.

Now I’m just left to wonder if he sent them, or they all just love him so much he doesn’t even have to ask. Either way, it’s breaking down my defenses. I already miss him and there’s a gaping hole where he used to be. Where our friendship used to be. Even if we can’t ever date again, I wonder if we might at least be able to fix that.

But then I think about him with someone else. I might be able to stomach seeing him hookup with the usual round of jersey chasers. It would hurt, but then it would just be going back to the way things used to be. But if he started dating someone, seriously? My stomach churns and I feel a little sick, my chest constricting a little at the thought of him looking at them the way he looked at me sometimes.

After dinner,I make some hot apple cider, and Ben and I go out and sit on the back deck. It’s a cold day, and I wonder how many more days of the fall leaves we’ll get before they’re all gone. I try to soak up every second I can while it lasts.

“So?” I look at him expectantly.

“So…” he trails off, looking down at his cup.

“I assume this is about Waylon.”

“You’d be right.”

“Lauren already told me he’s mopey and sad. And I miss him Ben, I do. But I can’t get the idea of him and Amber out of my head. It’s already hard enough he has any gorgeous woman he wants on campus at his beck and call, but then he had to go and fuck her? Of all people. If you could have seen the look on her face when she told me, you’d get it. It was just sheer pleasure for her that she can just take any guy I want away from me. I don’t even know what I did to her to deserve it.”

“So don’t let her take him away.”

“Right. I’m just going to forget he went after the girl who slept with my boyfriend? And he took her on a date, Ben. Waylon doesn’t date.”