Page 91 of Faking it For Summer

I give him a look, and he wiggles his eyebrows.

“Let me go and get …” My voice trails off when I hear his phone beep.

He hands me the tote bag and frowns down at the screen. “Shit,” he mutters under his breath.

My heart stills. I already know what’s coming.

“What is it?”

“Nothing.” He’s doing some mental calculations in his brain. “Do you mind if I join you in the water in thirty minutes?”

“What do you mean? What are you talking about?”

“I have to take a call. It’s for work.”

“It’s—let me guess. It’s really important.”

“But I promise it will be thirty minutes, an hour at most.” He nods.

“How did you just go from thirty minutes to an hour? This is the middle of the day, Luke. I’m working as well. I can’t just take off endless amounts of time. Juniper would not be happy about that.”

“Well, I’m in the middle of a really big deal, Mia. It requires my focus.”

“You’re always in the middle of a really big deal.”

“Not big like this.”

“Whatever. Do what you have to do. I’ll just find some cute surfer who wants to swim with me instead.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” He puts his phone in his back pocket. He takes a couple of steps toward me. “What are you saying, Mia?”

“What am I saying? What do you think?”

“You’re going to find a really hot surfer to swim with? Really?”

“Well, maybe a hot surfer on the beach will have time for me and my itty-bitty white bikini with the pineapples on them.”

“It’s a cute bikini. I want to see you in it as well.”

“Maybe you will. Maybe you won’t. Guess it depends on how long your phone call is.”

“Mia, I don’t think it’s a good idea for you to go and flirt with some random surfer. I’m sorry that I have to take this call, but it will be quick.”

“Rex and Andi have gone to taste wedding cakes today,” I say, “so it’s not like they’re going to see me on the beach. You’re safe. Our cover won’t be blown.”

“I don’t give a fuck about our cover,” he says. “I think it’s highly inappropriate for you to go looking for some hot surfer to flirt with.”

“Why is it highly inappropriate? Why do you care, Luke? It’s not like any of this is real.”

He pulls his phone out of his back pocket and walks away.

“I’m going to work. Enjoy your swim, Mia.”

“Fuck you,” I whisper under my breath as I stand there, watching him leave me.

I’m furious. I can’t believe he just walked away from me. I can’t believe that he didn’t even respond to my concerns about him prioritizing work again. I can’t believe he didn’t even answer when I said this wasn’t real. He could have said last night was real, or our friendship was real, but nothing. Not even an apology, like,I’m sorry that I have to work, but our friendship means a lot to me, and that’s really what matters.

All he could do was walk away. Just like when he left for New York and never came back. Luke would rather ignore something than deal with it head-on, and it is annoying as hell.