The Bookworm's Guide to Faking (The Bookworm's Guide #2) - Emma Hart Page 0,27
anyone asks, say you weren’t aware of their belief that you were dating and you were only there as friends.
Damn it, that was genius.
Why didn’t I think of that?
I was just about to respond when three knocks sounded at the door, making me look up.
“Holley?”
“Yeah?”
“Can I come in? I need a piss.”
“Charming,” I drawled. “Yes, you can come in.”
The door clicked as Sebastian pushed it open. “What am I supposed to say?” he asked, strolling in like he hadn’t just given me too much information. “You’re lucky a piss is all I need.”
“You could have just said you needed to use the bathroom,” I called after him as he shut the door. “That would have sufficed!”
“Fine. I need to use the bathroom!” he yelled back.
It’s a bit damn late now.
This was going to be a longer weekend than I thought.
The sound of a flush filled the air, followed by a running tap that was accompanied by a happy hum. I didn’t recognize the tune he was making, and I rolled my eyes and turned my attention back to my phone.
Not to the text conversation, though.
I opened my reading app instead.
Sure, I could have grabbed my tablet, but that was in my bag in the other room and I was comfortable.
Seb walked back into the bedroom and perched on the end of the bed. “What are you doing?”
“Reading.”
“What are you reading?”
“How to Hide A Body,” I replied without looking up from the screen.
“Seriously?”
“Yes.”
I could feel his gaze on me as I tapped to turn the page.
“You’re fucking with me.”
With a glare, I turned my phone and pointed to the top of the screen where the title was. “You see? It’s a mystery. Like where your body will be if you don’t leave me alone to read.”
His lips twitched to one side. “All right, I believe you. You know we have to get ready soon.”
“Right, about that.” I put my phone down. “We’re not going along with this.”
He blinked at me. “My mother will have a fit.”
“I don’t really care,” I said blithely. “We’re going to act like friends, then if anyone brings it up, we’ll say we’re just friends and we weren’t aware of it.”
“That might just work.” He tilted his head to the side. “Although there are worse things I could be doing this weekend than pretend to be your better half.”
Snorting, I sat upright. “Please. In the unlikely event that you’d ever be my half of anything, you’d definitely be my worse half.”
“How do you figure that?”
“You play sports and don’t read. That’s clearly the worse half.”
“I read.”
“Sports news doesn’t count.”
“I still read.”
“What was the last book you read?” I asked, leaning back against the headboard. “Go on. Shock me.”
His smirk let me know he was about to do just that. “Read Game of Thrones. Took me two months to get through the first one, but I eventually read them all.”
Wow.
Okay.
Fair enough.
“What’s the matter, Holley? Bookworm got your tongue?” His shit-eating grin was almost begging me to slap it off his face.
“Shut up,” I mumbled. “Since when did you read?”
“Well, when you tear your rotator cuff and can’t do a whole bunch of stuff, you have to find other ways to occupy your time,” he said dryly. “And as far as hobbies go, reading isn’t all that dangerous.”
“Have you ever fallen asleep while reading and dropped a book on your face? That’s pretty dangerous. It hurts.”
“Why are you falling asleep while reading?”
“Because ‘one more chapter’ turns into ten more chapters.”
“It’s not hard to stop after one more chapter.”
“That’s the difference between you and I, Sebastian. You can stop reading. I cannot, therefore resulting in a severe lack of a respect for the thing known as a good night’s sleep.”
He leaned back on his hands and grinned. His smile made his eyes sparkle, and it was really quite irritating. “And an extraordinarily serious lack of self-control.”
I tapped the side of my nose with one eyebrow raised. “Now you understand.”
A beeping came from his pocket and stopped whatever he was about to say in response. He pulled his cell out and stared at the screen, frowning as he read whatever was there.
“What’s wrong?”
“Mom said we need to be at the rehearsal dinner half an hour early,” he said, looking up at me apologetically. “We have forty-five minutes.”
Sighing, I slid off the bed and grabbed my toiletries bag from the chair. “I guess I need to shower now, then.”
CHAPTER TEN – HOLLEY
rule ten: deny, deny, de-fucking-ny. like when your mom asks if