Page 26 of Seduced in Ink

“Yes, I am. You look great too, by the way.”

Aaron just shook his head. “I spent forever trying to decide if I needed a tie. This is like the weirdest prom ever.”

She gave him a look and then threw her head back and laughed.

“Where’s my corsage, then?”

Aaron snapped his fingers and shook his head. “I knew I forgot something. I almost brought you flowers, but then I thought that was weird. I do have flowers in the car, but they’re for your mom. And now I feel even weirder.”

“Oh, that’s so sweet. And you were right to not get me flowers. Mostly because I’d have no idea what to do with them because I don’t think I have a vase right now.”

“We’re bad at this, aren’t we?”

“Considering I don’t know whatthisis and there’s no path? Maybe we’re doing okay.”

Aaron smiled and held out a hand. When she took it, he did his best not to cheer. They were just friends, one doing a favor for the other. That was all they needed to be.

“Okay. Let’s do this.”

“We can run away and never deal with my family again if you’d like?” she said quickly. Aaron froze, giving her hand a squeeze as he shook himself out of his reverie.

“Is that what you want to do? We can go elope right now if you want.” He was only joking, but given the way her eyes widened, he was afraid that she didn’t get the joke. Hell, he wasn’t surehegot it.

“What do you want to do, Madison? I’m in. No matter what.”

“I just want to get this over with so my mother can lord the fact that she thinks we’re lying over me. Which we are. But maybe they’ll give me space so I can breathe and not have to deal with them. Because, Aaron? If I walk away right now… If I never talk to them again? It won’t matter. They’ll still find me and judge me. This way, hopefully, it will get them off my back.”

“That’s why we’re doing this. I’m here for you. That’s what friends are for.” He helped her into the car and tried not to think about why his chest constricted at that statement. Theywerefriends. That’s why they were doing this. They didn’t need to be anything more than that. Sure, they were engaged, but it wasn’t real.

They were silent during the car ride. It was completely awkward, and he didn’t know what to say.

“They’re going to ask questions.”

“They are,” he said. “And we can tell them the truth as we have been. Our version of it anyway. That we’re friends and met because of Lincoln—a person they know.”

“And don’t necessarily like,” Madison added.

“Their loss. They’re just assholes.” Aaron ground out the words and sighed. “That’s probably not the best way to start this thing. They know how we met. They know that we hang out. Because we do. Just because your mom doesn’t believe this as of yet—which sort of makes sense considering it was out of the blue—that doesn’t mean we can’t try to pull it off. It’s why we’re here. We’re going to make it believable. Which means you need to stop freezing every time I touch you.”

She gave him a look as they pulled up to the gate. “I do not flinch.”

“You do. Then again, I freeze every time you reach out and touch me, too. It’s something we’re going to have to get over.”

He reached through the window and punched in the code that Lincoln had given him. The gate started to pull back, and he looked over at Madison, noticing that her eyes were wide. “Maybe we should’ve talked about this before. They’re going to know. More than they already know.”

“I know.” He smiled at that. “And that was a whole lot of knowing just now.”

“Should I say I know, or should I just keep going over the fact that we’re going to get caught? They’re going to hate me even more than they already do.”

Aaron slowed to a crawl on their way to the house. “If they hate you so much, and you truly believe that, then why are we doing this?”

That was honest. Yes, the idea of a fake fiancée and all the stuff that came with it sounded fun and was an interesting way to get out of the typical day-to-day gloom, but it was a lie. And Aaron hated lying.

“I don’t want to lose them forever. And I know that makes me sound a little bit sad—the fact that I can’t just walk away. But they used to be so sweet and amazing. I figured maybe if they saw that I was happy, finally, they’d go back to the way things were.”

Aaron was silent for enough time that Madison started to squirm in her seat.

“I hope that’s true. I hope this gives you some form of peace. And you know what? I’m going to make sure that happens. Because, fuck this.”