4
For the next two hours, Beth and her rent-a-date drank punch, nibbled on refreshments, and chatted with friends from years past. Despite her earlier worries, she found herself having a lovely time. It was fascinating to see how people had changed. Some were stay-at-home parents, and others were lawyers and business executives. Some, like her, had stayed in their hometown, and she chatted with them about local events and weather. Others had traveled in from other states and countries. It was a melting pot of congratulating and reminiscing.
Alex charmed everyone with his easy smile and jovial conversation, and by the time the evening wound down, she had started to feel like they were a real couple. And when they’d danced, there had been nothing fake about how close they’d held each other. Or the way they’d stared into each other’s eyes while the music played on. It occurred to her that her desire to remain single might be overrated. Alex’s trademark grin and sparkling hazel eyes were making it harder and harder to remember why she didn’t want to actually date him.
“You okay here?” she asked, picking up her clutch from their table.
He downed what remained of his punch and nodded, there gazes lingering for a moment longer than necessary. “Sure. I’ll get us some more punch.”
With butterflies fluttering in her stomach, she smiled and left. Her smile didn’t last long. As she went into the restroom, she practically ran into Rylie Taylor-Reed. The brunette mom-to-be and her clan of harpies were crowded in front of the mirrors, touching up their makeup. It was a scene straight out of high school. Beth inwardly groaned. She’d glimpsed Rylie and the others a few times throughout the evening, but Beth had been able to avoid them so far. Her luck had just run out.
Rylie paused with a compact poised in front of her face and glanced over. “Well, hey, Beth. We’ve been so busy mingling we haven’t had a chance to talk to you yet this evening.”
The others exchanged discreet glances, and then offered Beth a round of smiles and semi-polite greetings.
Beth smiled back. “How are you guys enjoying the reunion?”
“Oh, it’s been . . .” Rylie paused as if searching for the right word. “Enlightening.”
The other women chuckled, and Daphne checked her hair, saying to Beth, “Looks like you and Alex make the perfect couple.”
“Yeah,” Beth agreed, clearing her throat. “He’s really great.”
Rylie smirked. “And here I couldn’t even get my husband to attend tonight.” She glanced at Beth as if to say men. “He’s away on business. You know how it is.”
Nicole, a petite blonde with painstakingly sculpted eyebrows, said, “Maybe you should have tried paying him, Rye.”
The group promptly dissolved into laughter, and it took Beth a moment to comprehend what Nicole had said. What they knew.
No. Suddenly feeling like she was seventeen years old again, Beth scrambled for a response. She laughed, trying to sound carefree and failing. “The best kind of date comes with a receipt. If you don’t like it, you can just return it, right?”
The joke sounded lame even to her own ears.
“Oh, honey,” Rylie said, her voice dripping with pity as she slid her compact into her purse. “I don’t know what is more pathetic. The fact that you paid him, or that he actually went through with it.”
Beth’s face heated. “It was a joke.”
“Oh?” Rylie asked. “So, you didn’t pay Alex a hundred dollars to be your date?”
Beth hesitated, and Rylie smirked. Then the wolfpack walked out, looking nothing like the adults they now were and everything like the stuck-up mean girls they used to be.
Alone in the bathroom, Beth’s heart pounded as she tried to figure out what had just happened. What had started as a playful transaction between her and Alex had now become the most embarrassing moment of her life. And, worse, Alex had obviously betrayed her trust. It was the only explanation. Her previous suspicions that Alex and Rylie had been involved reared up in her mind as if to say I told you so! Had the two of them set the whole thing up? Had they been laughing about Beth the entire time behind her back? And why did she care? It wasn’t even groundbreaking news. Yes, she’d hired a date. But had she really? Down deep, hadn’t she considered their barter flirtation? A game of cat and mouse? Maybe it had been a practical joke. That didn’t mean Beth still hadn’t had a good time. It didn’t mean she hadn’t enjoyed Alex’s company—whether or not it had been an act. And it didn’t mean she couldn’t walk away from this with her head held high and chalk it up to nothing more than a crazy misadventure. She met her own gaze in the mirror.
You’re jumping to conclusions again.
Was she? She didn’t want to believe the worst. That Alex was a jerk in disguise. What did he gain? In the brief time Beth had known him, he didn’t strike her as the vindictive type. He’d been funny. Charming. A gentleman. A roguish gentleman, but still. And he’d genuinely seemed to like Beth. There had to be an explanation that didn’t involve him being in league with Rylie.
Annoyed with herself, Beth groaned and touched up her makeup. Clearly, she’d been reading way too many romance novels lately. There was no villain in this story.
Feeling marginally better, Beth left. She would just ask him. Simple. Straightforward. He would have a plausible explanation, and they would enjoy the rest of their fake date like nothing had ever happened.
As she entered the gymnasium, she headed for her and Alex’s table brimming with determination. But as she wove through the remaining alumni who were making their rounds, saying their goodbyes, Beth saw Alex talking to Rylie by the refreshments table. From Beth’s angle, she couldn’t see Alex’s face, but she could see Rylie’s, and the wicked witch of the west was assaulting him with a glitzy smile. She laughed at something he said, and the sound carried above the music and conversation of the room.
Beth raised her chin and kept walking. There was no reason she couldn’t interrupt their conversation. After all, she was Alex’s date, rented or not. Before she could, however, Alex removed his wallet from his back pocket and pulled out a bill.
Beth’s heart stopped. And so did her feet.
She couldn’t make out the bill’s denomination, but it was green, and it was money, and he handed it to Rylie, who accepted it with a triumphant gleam in her eyes. She laughed again and touched Alex’s arm, saying something Beth couldn’t hear, and then walked away.
Alex gave her the money.
The thought sank into her like a poisonous stone.
Alex picked up two plastic cups and turned, noticing Beth. Grinning at her, he held up the cups of punch in a welcome back gesture. When he saw her face, though, his grin faded.
Beth had the sudden, overwhelming urge to cry, but she refused. Instead, she gave him the visual equivalent of the finger and turned on her heel, pulling out her phone as she went. As she exited the school, she wanted to be anywhere else in the world. Jogging down the steps—a precarious feat in her towering heels—she hurried down to the curb to impatiently wait for her cab.
A few minutes later, she heard Alex’s footsteps behind her.
“Beth,” he called. “What’s wrong?”
She crossed her arms over her chest as if they would protect her from his presence and looked for the cab. “What’s wrong is I can’t believe I agreed to this.”
He frowned. “Agreed to what?”
“You,” she said. “This date. Our deal.”
“Did I do something?”
She finally looked at him, and she wanted to smack the confused look off his face. “Really?”
He eyed her as if he wasn’t sure whether to run from the angry bear or approach it cautiously. “Yeah, really.”
“I talked to your girlfriend,” she said. “She had a grand time laughing at me because I had to pay you to be my date.”
His frown deepened. “You didn’t have to pay me. Hell, I would have paid you if that’s what it took to get you to go out with me.” He held up a hand. “Wait . . . my girlfriend?”
Beth stared at him. He looked so convincing that doubt trickled in. But then she remembered the exchange of money between him and Rylie, and her ire was renewed. There was no doubting what she’d seen. As her cab turned down the street, Beth wanted to take flight rather than wait for it. “Yeah,” she said. “You and Rylie had your fun. I hope you both enjoy all the laughs.”
The cab pulled to a stop, and she hurried over before Alex could respond.
“Beth,” Alex called, sounding flabbergasted. “Wait. I’m not with Rylie.”
With the door open, Beth paused and glanced back at him. “I saw you give her the money.”
When he hesitated, Beth offered him a shaky smile. “Don’t worry. I guess I got what I paid for either way, right? Goodbye, Alex.” With that, she climbed into the cab and slammed the door. Mumbling her home address to the cabbie, she sat stiffly and didn’t look back as they pulled away.