Page 35 of Except You

“Yeah, but can I shower first?”

“Yeah, sure.” He points down the hallway and tells me where to find the towels, and then I grab clean clothes from my duffle and meander into the spacious, but slightly dated bathroom.

The warm shower feels good on my skin, and I spend a little too long under the spray. I may or may not have smelled the bar of soap lingering on the tub’s edge, wondering how Beau ends up smelling like a bouquet. Nothing quite measures up, and I wonder how the fuck he smells like that all the time.

When I finally wander out to the kitchen, wearing my gray sweatpants and a white t-shirt, the conversation they’re having stops and all of them turn to look at me. I swipe a hand through my wet hair, and Beau clears his throat.

“I worried you’d gotten lost,” he says, and I shrug.

“You guys have great water pressure.”

“That’s true. My dad took those water regulators out of the faucets so it’s like standing under a dam.”

“Yeah,” I reply just as Beau pulls a chair out for me, and I lower myself down next to him.

“So, Beau was telling us how you met. How romantic.”

“Oh yeah?” I say and then glance over at him, and he waggles his eyebrows at me. “I mean, that’s one word for it.”

“Late night chatting over hot chocolate,” his mom sighs. “Can’t get any better than that.”

I don’t mention that after he left me, he had sex with someone else. And I don’t even try to tell them that this is all a hoax because the way his parents are staring at me with hearts in their eyes makes me think that they’ve been waiting for Beau to bring someone home for ages.

So I can do this. I can be supportive and understanding. It’s more than I ever did for Magnus. It’s the least I can do for him.

Not that Magnus asked me to do any of this, but still, I’m committed to making a positive change in my life.

I can be a better person. And honestly, pretending to have a boyfriend is kind of like having one for real. Through this experience, I’ll be able to understand Magnus a little better.

“So, how did you know Max was the one?” his mom asks, and Beau turns toward me and bites his bottom lip, trying not to laugh.

“Oh, he just looked so adorably lost and confused. I just had to go and introduce myself.”

His mom sighs, and I roll my eyes at Beau, who is looking like he’s biting back a giggle.

“And he was wearing this backwards cap and looked all sorts of straight, and you know how I like those.”

His dad chuckles and pats Beau on the arm. “Be nice. We want to keep him around.”

“Oh, trust me, I have all the ways to keep him.”

My cheeks might as well be a perpetual shade of pink with the way he teases me. But I don’t stop him. I never want him to stop this. It makes him happy.

I make him happy.

“So, Beau was saying that you have your own place and are in finance,” his dad says, and I nod.

“Yeah, I got lucky with my condo and the job was just a shoo-in.”

“As long as you’re happy,” he says, and I nod because isn’t that what my dad should have told me all those years ago? But he never did. I think he never really cared about us except for what we could do for him.

How we could make him look good. It’s sad really, an old man still riding on his kids’ coattails. The only one who’s been able to escape is Magnus.

And damn, from those pictures he sent me, he looks really fucking good. He looks free.

“Hey, where was this convo when I was trying to decide on a major or a job?” Beau says with a pout.

“Like you’d ever listen to us, son,” his dad says with a sigh.