Best Served Fake

forty-six // there will never be two

A/N: sit down and brew some tea, bc this is the longest chapter i've ever written

There's only ever one bed, Madeleine said. There will never be two. It's a romance guarantee.

After the wedding, Isabelle had led the way—skipping arm in arm with me and Will, with Kai trailing behind—to Zac's farmhouse. As the best man, Zac had told us he took his duties to get sloshed and have a blast very seriously, and he was across the road at the house with the bride and groom living up to his word. He handed Isabelle a key to his house, and gave us instructions for where we would be staying. There was Zac's room, which he would be returning to later, one room with two twin beds and another guest room with a double bed. I was glad for the extra space, but it also made me furious. He had space for his siblings, the money to afford that space, and yet they still lived with Maria?

But I wasn't going to waste time being mad when I was too busy internally freaking out. Isabelle had automatically claimed the twin room and announced that Will could look forward to a long night of chick flicks. Kai patted his friends back sympathetically, but Will just shrugged and went to join Isabelle, leaving the door open behind him so that Kai and I, standing on the landing, could see Isabelle bouncing on her bed with unrestrained glee.

Madeleine would flip the fuck out. How many times can Kai and I be put in a situation where there is only one fucking bed.

A lot, I hoped.

The room was neat, but small. Zac had clearly made the bed in preparation for our arrival; hospital corners and white sheets were fitted carefully to the bed.

"Country houses are cute," I said, when Kai shut the door behind us, and I desperately needed to say something to diffuse the tension brought about by the realisation that we would spend the night lying side by side.

Sharing a bed with Kai felt different when it wasn't for the express purpose of making sure Jameson didn't die in his sleep. Even though we'd woken tangled together the next morning—an inevitability I can now admit probably wasn't accidental from either of us—we'd slept side by side with good, platonic intentions, though I probably wouldn't have begrudged a wandering hand or two. Now, what was between us hardly felt platonic, even though technically it should have. But the bounds of our relationship stretched far beyond fake, and I was almost certain he felt the same.

So, yeah, if I had it my way, we'd start the night tangled together, ideally with one of us firmly on top of the other. I was willing to negotiate which.

Kai eyed the generously-sized mattress when he caught me doing the same, and then turned to me. "Uh. I'm, uh, you know, happy to take the floor. If you like."

It was sweet, how nervous the self-assured Kai Delaney suddenly seemed. I felt privileged to see this version of him, the one that didn't always know the right thing to say, even though he still somehow managed to find the best thing, the most endearing thing, that made me love him just a little bit more.

I grinned. "We've done this rodeo before, Delaney."

"Well, I didn't want to assume."

"Are you still nervous of my wandering hands?" I untangled them from where they had nervously gathered the fabric at the waist of my dress and wiggled them near his chest. "I can't help it! They have a mind of their own."

Kai scrunched his nose at me. It was very cute. "So, you don't mind sharing then?"

"Well, you are my boyfriend now, right?" I wasn't even sure if I was asking comedically anymore. Kai Delaney was going to break my brain. It was too hard doing this with him; we'd always flirted, every joke dripping in innuendo, and it was very confusing when I actually meant it, and wasn't sure if he felt the same.