Page 103 of Rule 2: Never Join a Christmas Dating Show

I narrow my gaze. Troy is acting strangely. I mean, I guess I started first. Still, his demeanor is definitely unusual. “You don’t normally call me bro.”

Troy blinks, then nods, reassuring smile on his face, like he’s thinking about going into pet training or something and is testing out methods on me. “Well. I could. I mean we are close, right?”

I nod. “Yeah.”

Troy’s eyes dance. “You know these walls aren’t exactly soundproof.”

I swallow hard. “Yeah. I noticed that.”

His lips curl into a smile. “It sounded like you had a good time last night. Like areallygood time.”

“Oh.” My eyes round. I stare at him. He so thinks I have someone in here. I can totally tell.

But I need to keep this quiet, and not just for me. This is Sebastian’s career. I can’t have people know the host ofSeeking Mr. Rightis sleeping with his male lead. I mean, I totally trust Troy. But that’s a hell of a secret to put on him, and a hell of a secret for Sebastian to know Troy has.

Sebastian is frightened of jocks. I know. I went to school with him. And I’ve seen him with my teammates.

I’m not going to spill all our secrets to Troy when Sebastian is tucked under the covers, being still, doing his job. No way.

I want to protect Sebastian. Make his burden lighter, not fill his mind with things to worry about.

“Dude?” Troy asks, his brow furrowing, like he’s an eleven-year-old pretending to be an old man in a school play. All he’s missing is the cotton balls taped to his face. “Everything okay?”

“Yeah. I, um...”

My mind scrambles to think of a reason for me to be noisy in that way without someone in my room. Should I tell him I used a dating app or something? And had someone come to my room?

But that feels icky. I hate the thought of being with anyone besides Sebastian, even a pretend someone.

And so, I lie.

“I watched porn!” I blurt.

Troy’s mouth drops open, and his eyes bulge, Saturday morning cartoon style. “You what?”

I nod eagerly. “Yeah. Remember how everyone was talking about porn? And I said I thought it was just a conspiracy to get people to buy porn subscriptions?”

“Vaguely...”

“So I thought...Maybe there’s something to the porn subscriptions!” My voice rises, happy to have found a solution, and I nod some extra times, just to show Troy I’m being absolutely, totally serious.

“So you got a porn subscription...” Troy says carefully.

“Yes!” I practically squeal, probably because my blood flow remains unsteady from my earlier panic. There definitely doesn’t seem to be a lot going on in my head now.

Troy snorts. “Cool. Um, good for you.”

“Yeah.” I beam delightedly at my best friend. Today is turning out to be way more awesome than I planned. I was worried when I woke up, and super worried when Troy came to talk to me, but I figured out a way to protect Sebastian’s dignity.

Even if my dignity is not entirely intact, if Troy now thinks I’m a porn subscriber. Oh, well. Totally worth it.

“You seemed to be really hammering the bed,” Troy says, his eyes dancing. “Is that why it’s still unmade?”

“What?” I stiffen. “Dude. You shouldn’t be noticing if my bed is made or not. That’s like a total bro-violation.”

“Uh-huh?”

“I mean, that would be like rooming with one’s drill sergeant.”