Saturday morning in the girls’ dorm apartment felt like a military command center.
Zoya sat on the kitchen counter, sipping black coffee and watching Chloe meticulously apply her eyeliner in the hallway mirror.
"You spent eight hundred dollars," Zoya stated flatly.
"It goes to the children’s hospital," Chloe said, not looking away from the mirror.
"You hate children," Zoya pointed out.
"I am learning to tolerate them for the sake of charity," Chloe replied smoothly. She capped her eyeliner, turned around, and struck a pose. She was wearing a flawless beige trench coat, a white turtleneck, and knee-high leather boots. "How do I look?"
"Like you are about to ruin a man’s life," Audrey said, walking out of her bedroom.
"Perfect," Chloe beamed. "That is exactly the aesthetic I was going for."
A loud, hesitant knock echoed from the front door. It didn’t sound like a normal knock. It sounded like someone gently tapping on the wood, terrified of what might answer.
Audrey opened the door.
Leo stood in the hallway. He was wearing a dark button-down shirt and nice jeans. He actually looked great, but his expression was that of a man walking to his own execution.
Standing right behind him, leaning casually against the doorframe, was Mason.
"What are you doing here?" Audrey asked Mason.
"Supporting my fallen soldier," Mason said seriously. He patted Leo heavily on the shoulder. "He wrote a will this morning. I get his gaming console."
Leo swallowed hard. "Audrey, please. Tell her I have a highly contagious disease."
Before Audrey could answer, Chloe walked up to the door.
Leo immediately stood up straighter. His eyes widened slightly as he took in Chloe’s outfit.
"You look..." Leo started, his voice cracking just a little. "...expensive."
"I am," Chloe smiled, looping her arm through his stiff elbow. "Come along, Leonardo. We have a lot of shopping to do, and you have excellent carrying posture."
Chloe basically dragged him down the hallway. Leo looked back at Mason over his shoulder, his eyes silently screaming for rescue.
Mason just offered a slow, respectful salute as they disappeared into the elevator.
Audrey closed the door. She looked at Zoya. Zoya looked at Audrey.
"I give him an hour before he cries," Zoya said, taking another sip of coffee.
Audrey grabbed her jacket and a pair of dark sunglasses from the counter.
"Where are you going?" Zoya asked.
"To make sure she doesn’t actually bury him in a mall," Audrey said. She opened the door again. Mason was still standing in the hallway, checking his phone.
Audrey looked at him. "Are you coming?"
Mason looked up, a slow grin spreading across his face. "Are we spying on them?"
"We are monitoring a volatile situation for safety reasons," Audrey corrected, slipping her dark sunglasses onto her face.
Mason laughed. "Ellis, you look like an extremely obvious spy."
"Shut up and walk, Calloway."
Thirty minutes later, Audrey and Mason were sitting in a small coffee shop across the street from the high-end boutique district.
Audrey was hiding behind a laminated menu, peering over the top edge through the window. Mason was sitting across from her in the small booth, taking up entirely too much space, happily eating a blueberry muffin.
"Update the command center," Mason said, taking a bite. "What is the hostage doing?"
"He is currently holding four bags from a shoe store," Audrey reported, squinting through the glass. "Wait. Now she is making him hold her iced matcha."
Mason shook his head. "Tragic. He used to be my best defender. Reduced to a coat rack."
Across the street, Chloe and Leo exited the boutique. Chloe pointed toward a small park at the end of the street. Leo nodded, dutifully carrying the bags, and they started walking.
"Move," Audrey said, standing up quickly. "We are losing them."
"I haven’t finished my muffin," Mason complained.
Audrey grabbed his wrist and dragged him out of the coffee shop. Mason didn’t resist. He just followed her down the sidewalk, easily matching her quick, frantic steps.
They ducked behind a large oak tree near the edge of the park.
Audrey leaned around the rough bark to get a better view of the bench where Chloe and Leo were sitting.
Mason leaned too, trying to look over her shoulder.
They both realized at the exact same time that there was only about six inches of space between them.
Neither of them moved.
It wasn’t intentional. It wasn’t him trying to trap her or flirt. It was just an accidental, magnetic closeness. Audrey could feel the heat radiating off his arm, smelling the faint scent of mint and the cold morning air on his jacket.
"Quiet. Look," Audrey whispered, trying to ignore how fast her pulse was suddenly jumping.
Chloe and Leo were sitting on a park bench under the sun. The shopping bags were set on the ground.
Then, Leo reached into a small paper bag he had been carrying separately all morning. He pulled out a strawberry pastry and handed it to Chloe.
Chloe paused. She looked at the pastry, then looked at Leo with genuine surprise.
"She loves those," Audrey whispered. "The bakery near our dorm sells out of them by eight in the morning."
"Leo got up at seven," Mason murmured near Audrey’s ear. "He left the dorm and came back before training. I thought he was just going for a run."
On the bench, Chloe took a bite of the pastry. She laughed at something Leo said. It was a real, bright, throwing-her-head-back laugh.
Leo smiled. He reached out and casually wiped a crumb of powdered sugar off the corner of Chloe’s mouth with his thumb.
Chloe didn’t flinch. She didn’t yell at him. She just blushed.
"Huh," Mason said quietly behind her.
Audrey turned her head slightly. "What?"
"He’s done for," Mason said.
Audrey looked back at the bench. "Done for?"
"He doesn’t know it yet," Mason noted, his eyes fixed on his teammate.
"You sound very sure," Audrey whispered back.
Mason shrugged, leaning his shoulder comfortably against the tree. "Just an observation. People do crazy things when they don’t want to admit they are falling."
Audrey stared at the side of his face.
Just an observation.
She thought about a bright blue daisy pen sitting in his pocket. She thought about him walking away from a conversation just because she was having trouble with a zipper. She thought about his hand holding hers while crossing the street.
He was completely diagnosing himself, and he had absolutely no idea.
Mason looked down at her. His brown eyes caught the sunlight filtering through the oak leaves.
"What about you, Ellis?" Mason asked, his voice dropping into that low, teasing tone. "If I was on the auction block... how much would you bid?"
Audrey stared up at him. She refused to let him see how much the question actually rattled her.
"Five," Audrey said flatly.
Mason waited. "...Hundred?"
"No."
"...Thousand?" Mason tried, an amused smirk playing on his lips.
"No."
"...Dollars?"
Audrey pushed off the tree. "...Pounds."
She didn’t look back. She just started walking down the paved path.
Behind her, Mason burst out laughing. It was a loud, rich sound that echoed across the park.
"Ellis, wait!"
Audrey followed the path out of the park, heading back toward the main campus.
For the first time since the fake relationship had begun, she caught herself matching her pace to his without thinking. She didn’t even notice she was doing it until they reached the crosswalk on the next street.
Somehow... Mason had become the person she naturally walked beside.