The Chemistry of Love(36)

“You like him!” she exclaimed.

I made a face. “I just told you he was nice. Yes, I like him.”

“No, I mean you like like him. You’re attracted to him.”

“What? I am not!” I immediately said.

I wasn’t the only one not believing the lie. “Anna!”

“Catalina!” I retorted, as strong a comeback as I could manage given the dishonesty.

“You do so. I can hear it in your voice.”

“Okay, yes. You saw the picture. He’s very handsome. I’ve been thinking about it, and I figured it out. The reason I find him attractive is because he’s Craig’s brother. There’s got to be a genetic component there that I’m instinctually responding to.”

“They’re half siblings. They only share twenty-five percent of their DNA. I reject your claim. You want to science up another excuse?”

No, because that was the only one I had. I had grown up believing that there was one perfect person for everybody in the whole world. I rejected the notion that I could be in love with one man and attracted to his brother.

When I didn’t respond, Catalina’s tone shifted to concerned. “Based on the ancient texts, or every romantic comedy that we’ve ever watched together, I say again that this is going to blow up in your face. I’m sorry if I keep repeating myself, but I’m worried about you. I don’t want you to get your heart broken.”

I smiled a little. Catalina was the only person who could call rom-coms “the ancient texts” and sound like it was a real thing people said. “It may not end well, but maybe I’ll have some fun in the middle.”

“That will be good. You could bookend the tragic ending with the humiliating beginning.”

“I hear what you’re saying,” I told her. “But I’m committed now, so I guess I’m going to see it through.”

“This doesn’t seem like something you would do, so I’m going to guess that Marco Kimball is a hard man to say no to.”

I couldn’t help myself. I laughed. She had no idea.

“I’ll take that as a yes,” she said. “So what now? Am I going to be getting a fake invitation from you inviting me to an imaginary wedding?”

“No, now we’re going to go on actual dates as we pretend to fall in love. He thinks it’ll help if we spend time together and know stuff about each other.”

She agreed. “Definitely. It makes me think he’s seen a rom-com or two in his day. You guys absolutely do not want to be answering questions where you give opposite answers. Getting your stories straight is a good idea. I’m against you having real dates, though. You tend to like unobtainable guys, and I don’t know if there’s anyone more unobtainable than Marco Kimball.”

“You think I only like guys who won’t like me back?”

“Sometimes I do.” She sounded so sympathetic that my heart squeezed painfully in response.

Was that true?

While I wanted to argue with her, I couldn’t think of a response to refute it. In my mind, I ran through all the men I’d crushed on and how I hadn’t ever had a real relationship. My crushes usually never crushed back on me.

This was new information that I’d never considered before. I felt the need to examine it, test it, and make my judgment after the first two steps. Right now, though, there was too much to process and so I was going to let my subconscious work on it while I talked about other things.

Catalina cleared her throat and, thankfully, kind of changed the subject. “So when is the first date? Besides today, I mean?”

“Your D&D party, actually. Marco agreed that it would be a good idea for us to show up at an event with a bunch of people from Minx so that the word will spread back to Craig.”

“Smart, smart,” she said thoughtfully. “I’ll do what I can to get the word out.”

“No.” I stopped her. “I mean, yes, tell people Marco and I are dating, but nothing else. Marco didn’t want me to tell anyone, but I said telling you was nonnegotiable. In large part because I knew you would figure it out.”

“You’re right. I would have. And my lips are sealed. I won’t tell anyone.”

I knew I could trust her. “Thank you.”

“Coming to my party as your couple debut . . . that seems significant. Does this mean you’re finally going to roll a character?”

“No, thank you.” I rolled my eyes. We had had this discussion so many times that I could predict what she’d say next.

You like Lord of the Rings; how can you not like D&D?

“I’ll never understand how you can be so obsessed with the Lord of the Rings movies but not want to play D&D.”

Okay, so it wasn’t verbatim but close enough. “They’re not even remotely the same thing. Plus, I prefer being a passive observer rather than an active participant.” The truth of that statement struck me—not just about the game but how it was generally true in my life.

It felt depressing. I added, “It’s going to be stressful enough without trying to play the game, too.”

“I think you’d have fun. But at least you’ll be there when my half-elf bard makes a move on Zhen’s half-ogre barbarian/paladin.”

Her ability to bounce back from a failed relationship never ceased to amaze me. Sometimes I wished I could be more like her and not fall in love with a guy for two years without even really talking to him.