One Little Lie: a hate to love rom-com

by Whitney Barbetti

  “Of course.” He swallowed and looked me over a moment. “Look, about last night.” He ran a hand over the back of his neck and looked down at the ground.

  “I liked it. A lot,” I blurted out. I didn’t want to have an awkward conversation right before bed. I wanted to get it out in the open, because at least I could feel reassured that he’d liked it as well. “All of it. But it’s new for me, I don’t really understand things. I’m sorry if I made it awkward or anything.”

  “You apologize a lot.” He took one small step toward me, and I had to tilt my head back in order to look up at him. With the small light from the lamp, all of the angles and planes of his face were more pronounced. Shadows settled in the little dip in his chin, and along the line of his jaw. When one side of his mouth tilted up in a smile, a dimple made a small canyon in his cheek. What was it about dimples that made a smile even more attractive?

  “What are you thinking about?”

  “There’s a theory that dimples are caused by a divide in the large muscle along the side of your face.”

  It was so quiet for a moment that I swore I could hear crickets outside, but then his half-smile spread wider and he laughed—a real, from the belly, laugh. “That’s what you’re thinking?”

  I nodded. More or less. Really, I’d been thinking about the weird desire I’d had to kiss that little crevice in his skin, but admitting that was definitely going to make things awkward. So I went for the secondary thought I’d had, when I had been wondering at my own lustful thoughts over a tiny patch of skin.

  “That’s interesting,” he finally said. “I guess I didn’t think about it too much, but it does make sense. Do you have dimples?”

  As if to illustrate my lack of them, I smiled. “Nothing.”

  “So your muscle here,” he said, and glided one finger over my cheek, “is intact.”

  I couldn’t speak. My smile fell from my face as I stared up at him. This was what I meant when I told Navy how sharing a room didn’t make me anxious. I felt completely safe in Adam’s company, as far as any kind of danger went. But I didn’t feel safe in ignoring our sexual chemistry. Which, there was no doubt of. I mean, he had a single finger on my cheek and I could feel the tingle spread through me like wildfire, igniting every nook and cranny of my body.

  “I want to hear you say it again.”

  I just blinked dumbly at him. “What?”

  His smile went soft, his eyes went soft, and his lips went soft. My body went soft too, with his hushed words and the soft glow of lamplight. “That you liked it.”

  Those four words had an immediate effect on me, roping around me and pulling me to him like a magnet finding its match. He still only touched my cheek, gently gliding over my skin like he was testing its texture. He wanted to hear that I had liked it when he kissed me? Like was such a mild term for how I felt.

  I forced myself to keep my breathing even so I didn’t act like a dog panting, but it was an effort to say the words, “I liked the kiss.” Luckily for me, those four words had an effect on him too because I barely got them out before his lips came down on mine.

  Like the first time, and the second time, and the third time, kissing Adam was surreal. His hand moved into my hair, cradling the back of my head as he tilted it, warm lips testing mine, teasing them open. He took such care with me, like I was an instrument he was learning to play. His other hand met my spine, fingers pressed there like the keys of a piano he was holding down. I swore, if I listened closely enough, I could hear music too. In the breaths we exchanged, in the swish of our clothes as they moved against each other, in the thrumming of my heartbeat in my head.

  I held him at his waist, unsure and tentative. My hands curled around his back, climbing and climbing until my fingers met the back of his shoulders and we pressed together, solidly as one.

  He pulled back, blowing a shaky breath across my forehead as his hands slid from my hair to glide along my chin. I wanted him to keep touching me in the reverent way he was, to keep holding me like he was learning my body and how it responded to each caress, to each press. It was sensory overload, in the best possible way.

  “If I keep kissing you, I’m going to get us both in trouble.”

  “And you said you weren’t a bad boy,” I said, forcing my voice to be light and teasing. “You know, for someone who claimed to hate me as much as you do, you sure like to kiss me an awful lot.”

  He pulled back, allowing the light to fill in the space between our faces. “I don’t hate you at all, Hollis.”

  “You did.”

  “If I hated you for real, I wouldn’t have agreed to this.”

  “In high school,” I said, reminding him. I swallowed a lump that formed in my throat.

  “I don’t think I hated you even then. I was just … disappointed.”

  I thought hearing that he didn’t hate me would give me some relief, but what he’d said was actually worse than hate. Hate was a powerful yet fleeting emotion, but disappointment was bitter and lingering.

  “It’s late,” he said, stepping away from me. Coming off the high of kissing him to the low of knowing I’d disappointed him were two intense and different emotions, so jarring that I felt the breath whoosh right out of me. It’s a terrible thing, knowing you’ve disappointed someone you care for. Especially when you’ve only just realized the depth of your care for them.

  He made it over to his side of the bed and switched off the light.

  I changed into my pajamas—not the sexy ones—in the silent dark and after crawling into bed, I replayed our conversation over and over in my head, on a loop. If Tori were here, she’d know exactly what to say. She’d give me a pep talk, cheer me on. And because I missed her so much then, I shot her a quick text before shutting off my phone, finishing the can of diet soda, and settling in for a long night in the same bed as Adam Oliver.

  31

  Adam

  I woke before Hollis the following morning. I glanced at her as I climbed out of bed, not bothering to change out of my PJ bottoms and tee before I left the room.

  She was going to drive me fucking crazy. One minute she was putty in my hands—and let’s be real here, I was putty in hers too—and the next, we were cold with one another. It was the strangest shock to my system, from hot to cold in an instant.

  The kitchen was empty, thank Christ, which meant I was able to drink three cups of coffee before anyone else had a chance to, the last of which I drank outside on the deck.

  I spent many weekends growing up with Keane and his family at the cabin. It was a nice break from the small city we lived in year round, and out here on the water, it felt calmer than back home in Amber Lake. Because this lake was smaller, with fewer houses having access to it, the water stayed mostly undisturbed. The rising sun reflected off the water, stretching across the widest part of the lake. Mist covered the rest of the lake, fat little clouds that seemed to hover just inches off the surface.

  My phone buzzed in my pocket and I pulled it out. Another text from Sarah. I didn’t mean to ignore her as long as I had, but she wanted to talk about things she’d seen on Facebook. I’d known as much when she’d sent me texts that were just a stream of interrogations, asking about Hollis and why I hadn’t told her about her. Even if the whole thing with Hollis wasn’t a ruse, I doubted I’d have had the time to explain it all to Sarah anyway.

  It wasn’t a ruse anymore, was it? The scales had tipped after dinner with her parents, and I could no longer discern where our fake relationship ended and this new one began. I liked to think that if Hollis and I hadn’t been tied together by the fake premise of our relationship—forced to spend time getting to know one another—we wouldn’t have ever gotten to this point.

  She was more than the girl I’d maybe hated in high school. Much, much more. And it was hard to reconcile the girl who’d betrayed my trust that night at the party with the woman who had chased down a bunch of paper plates in a park. The girl who had stood up for me to her dad, who’d tremble
d with a kind of fury that I wanted to bear witness to. The past and the current versions of Hollis didn’t even exist in the same reality.

  Except they did. And I didn’t know what was real for her anymore.

  The screen door opened and I heard Keane’s unmistakable yawn and the creak of his steps across the deck floor. “Morning,” he said as he approached.

  I looked sideways at him. He, like me, was still in his pajamas, but he wore a robe that looked like it belonged in some fancy pants hotel, and not on Keane. “Nice slippers,” I said, eyeballing the unicorns on each of his feet.

  “These are my mom’s. All I could find.” He brought a coffee cup to his lips and sipped, looking out over the water with me as he leaned on the railing. “It just feels good out here, doesn’t it? Like there’s extra oxygen or something. The air just fills your lungs, with no side of smog.”

  “You’re in a good mood this morning,” I said, sipping my coffee.

  “You’re … pensive.” His eyes narrowed as he took me in. “Trouble in paradise?”

  I laughed without humor. “It’s hardly paradise. It’s confusing.”

  Keane laughed, but with humor. “Oh, poor Adam, having to cuddle and kiss Hollis. I get it, man. Rough life.”

  I elbowed him. “Feel like going swimming?” I asked him.

  Keane raised an eyebrow. “What?”

  Before he knew what hit him, I grabbed him by the legs and tossed him over the railing and into the sure-to-be-freezing lake.

  “You fucker,” he spat when he surfaced. The back of the robe floated behind him as he eyed me angrily. “The least you can do is help me out. This robe weighs like fifty pounds soaking wet.”

  He had a point. “Don’t patronize me next time and you won’t end up in the water, dick.” I set my coffee cup on a nearby table and reached down, wrapping one arm securely around the railing and held my hand out for his.

  Keane clasped my arm, but he winced and I could tell he was struggling to tread water. “I need your fucking help, man,” he said, encouraging me to reach for him with my other hand.

  Which proved to be a mistake because the next thing I knew, I was in the water along with him.

  “Asshole,” I spat water when I came up for air.

  “You put me in here first,” he reminded me, grinning like an idiot.

  “You didn’t need help getting out?” I asked him, teeth chattering from the cold.

  “Oh, no, I’m gonna need help out. This robe is an anchor.”

  “Dumb ass,” I said without heat. “I would’ve helped you out. But now we’re both fucked.”

  “Navy’s up, I’m sure she’ll help us.”

  “You think I’m going to help you after watching you both act like idiots?” Navy asked, coming into view as she walked toward the end of the deck. “Nope. You’ll have to swim over to the beach.” She motioned to the sandy beach on the side of the house, a solid ten yards from where we were.

  When I glared at Keane, he shrugged and grinned. “Your fault, brother.”

  By the time we’d hoisted ourselves onto the sandy shore, Navy was calling us in to eat breakfast.

  Keane stripped out of the robe and laid it on a chair to dry off. “I’m going to need a shower,” he told her as he took off toward the upstairs.

  I would need one too, but I settled for the towel Navy laid on the back of the couch. My clothes felt twenty pounds heavier and my cold limbs made moving difficult, but the towel was warm, fluffy, and dry, so I relaxed into it as Navy dished plates of eggs and sausage.

  “Smell’s good, Navy,” I said, reaching for a sausage link.

  She slapped my hand away. “You’re not getting lake water all over this food. If you’re not going to shower, at least change.” She cocked her head toward the front bedroom, where Hollis and I were, so I trudged across the floor and into the room.

  Hollis was rubbing her face when I entered the room. She slid glasses onto her face and then her eyes went wide as saucers as she took me in. “What happened?”

  She looked fucking adorable in glasses, her hair mussed up and her face flush from waking up. “Keane and I went swimming.”

  “In your clothes?” She eyed the soaking wet flannel pants and the shirt that clung to me like a second skin.

  “Sure, who doesn’t? I need a shower.” I wrapped the towel around my waist and moved to pull the shirt off, but it was so heavy and stuck to my skin that I struggled. “Can you help me a sec?”

  She hesitated a moment before coming to me, grasping the hem of my shirt and lifting it up.

  If it wasn’t for the fact that pulling off the wet shirt felt like a workout, I might’ve found myself awkwardly hiding a boner. But as it was, every part of my body—including that part—was ice cold. It’d take an act of God to even get a tremble in my dick, and I didn’t think God was eager to make that happen for me.

  “I’ll pull the neck hole out, just dip your head down so I can get it off and over your head,” she said, stepping so close that her chest brushed my bare one. I wanted to press more fully against her, to feel that warmth, but I didn’t want to get her wet as well.

  R-rated images of Hollis flitted through my mind with that thought and I pushed them down, along with the feel of her breasts against my torso as she pressed her front to mine. She was struggling with the neck, so I obliged her request and dipped my head down. Which put my eyes so I was staring directly at her boobs.

  Fuck. Me.

  One of her warm hands cradled the back of my head as she tugged the neckline over it, releasing me from the freezing cold of the shirt and into the warmth of her.

  Well, it hadn’t taken an act of God after all. My dick twitched all thanks to her. At the most inopportune time.

  “Your lips are turning blue,” she said, her brows creasing as she frowned. “You need a shower right away.”

  I did the only thing I could think of doing at that moment. I placed my hands on her shoulders and dipped down to kiss her. I might’ve kissed her longer than I’d intended. My hands might have roamed her back, along the teasing bits of flesh her tank top exposed. My kiss might’ve deepened, shifting from a thank you kiss to an I want you kiss. And after that, even though I didn’t want to, I pulled back, belatedly mindful of the coldness of my skin against hers.

  “Sorry,” I said, dropping my hands from her.

  “I’m not,” she returned, surprising me. She grabbed an extra towel from the top of the dresser and pressed it into my chest. “Shower.”

  32

  Hollis

  Leaving Adam to the shower, I exited the room when I heard a loud commotion from the kitchen area.

  There were feminine laughter and loud male voices—one of which I recognized: Keane. And the female voice that followed was unmistakable, so I quickened my pace into the kitchen.

  Tori stood with arms outstretched and laden with grocery bags. She had sunglasses on and a giant hat, like that crazy aunt that always followed you on vacation.

  “Babe!” she shouted from the kitchen island upon seeing me. She shook the bags loose, a cacophony of glass bottles rang all over the counter, and then she ran to me, launching herself onto me seconds before I braced myself for the impact.

  “You’re here,” I said, half-stunned and half-confused.

  “Yep. The party has arrived.” She let go of me and stood back, cocking her head to the side as she took me in. “Just wake up?”

  I had. I never slept in late, but being without an alarm and in a new place had meant that it was already well past eight. “What are you doing here?”

  Navy was busying herself at the kitchen island, but kept glancing our way. She didn’t have a problem with Tori, but Tori hadn’t ever been welcoming toward her.

  Tori pulled off the wide-brimmed hat and tossed it aside, along with her sunglasses. She wore skin-tight jeans and a black crop top; not exactly mountain weather appropriate, but Tori didn’t pride herself on behaving appropriately, ever.

  “I got
your message. Read the subtext of it. So I said goodbye to the roomies and high-tailed it up this way. Stopped at the convenience store for libations, of course. Why are you looking at me like that? I thought you’d be happy to see me.”

  I was happy to see her. I had missed her, of course, but Adam and I were on tenuous ground and I didn’t think Tori’s presence would strengthen our status. Yes, he’d kissed me before getting into the shower and we’d done that quite a few times now, but that didn’t change the history we shared. I forced cheer into my voice, knowing she’d see right through it, when I said, “Of course I’m happy you’re here.”

  She pouted and looked around for a moment before she looped an arm through mine and pulled me outside onto the deck. I waited until the glass door was closed behind us before whispering, “What are you really doing here?” I thought she was over Keane. They’d played around in high school, but it hadn’t ever been serious between them. “Is it because of Keane?”

  She looked at me like she’d just smelled something bad. “What? For real? No way, toots. I’m here for you. You texted me at like ten last night, sounding super sad.” She held her arms out. “Ta-da! Like your fairy fucking godmother.”

  “Am I going to a ball I don’t know about?”

  She tucked her fist under her chin as she looked me over. “No, but you’ve got a distinct smell of the sads on you.”

  “The sads?”

  Tori looped her arm through mine again and we continued across the deck until we were out of sight from everyone gathered in the kitchen, our view being the side of the house. “Yeah, the sads.” She made a show of sniffing me and then pulled back. “Did Adam already break your heart?”

  “What? No. No way.” Where had she gotten that from? “I’m not sad. It’s just confusing. Everything is.” I had so much to fill her in on, I realized. She didn’t know what had happened at all. And suddenly, as I took her in, I realized I had missed her. And I was glad she was there.