Faking It with My Ex's Best Friend novel · Chapter 1 of 24
Chapter 1: Nobody Here
Lainey wakes in the hospital, sees Trevor's phone, and tells the doctor she does not know him. His lie about an engagement ends with her saying Cade's name before anyone introduces him.
The doctor asked me if I knew the man holding my hand.
I looked at Trevor's face.
It was the face I had kissed goodnight for four years.
It was wet with tears, and I knew exactly when he had started crying.
He started the second the doctor walked in.
"No," I said. "I'm sorry. Who are you?"
Trevor made a small broken sound and squeezed my fingers.
I let him.
My head throbbed under ten fresh stitches, and my right wrist was wrapped tight in a brace.
I remembered every second of how I got that way.
I remembered the birthday cake in my good hand and the spare key in the other.
I remembered Candice on his couch in his gray shirt, with her bare legs tucked under her.
I remembered Trevor walking out of the bedroom doing up his jeans.
My best friend of eight years had looked at me and said, "Oh, Lainey."
Then I ran, and the stairs ended before I did.
"Retrograde amnesia is common after a concussion," the doctor said.
He was writing on his tablet and did not look up.
"It can last hours or weeks. Try not to push her for memories."
"Of course," Trevor said. "Anything she needs."
His phone buzzed on the bed rail.
He turned it face down, but I had seen the screen.
It said Candice.
He stood up and said he needed to get coffee.
The phone stayed behind on the blanket by my knee.
It buzzed again, and the screen lit up long enough to read.
"Is she awake? Does she remember? Tell me she doesn't."
I read it twice.
Then I looked at the ceiling and made my face as blank as a clean plate.
Trevor came back with two paper cups and a smile.
He had fixed his face in the hallway, and I watched him do it up close.
"Hey, baby," he said. "The doctor says you need to rest."
"Baby," I said, as if I were trying the word out.
"We've been together four years," he said.
He sat on the edge of my bed and took my left hand.
His thumb found my bare ring finger and stopped there.
"Four years, and we got engaged last month," he said.
I kept my face still.
It was the hardest thing I have ever done.
There had been no proposal and no ring, and there had been no conversation about one.
Last month he had told me he was too stressed to talk about the future until the taproom opened.
"Engaged," I said slowly.
"You said yes right away." He laughed a little. "Your ring is being sized. It was too loose."
"That's a lot to forget."
"I know." He kissed my knuckles. "I'll tell you everything. I'll help you remember, I promise."
He had never looked more tender, and I had never wanted so badly to hit him with a cup.
"There's one thing," he said, lower. "The money."
My stomach went cold.
"What money?"
"Your grandmother's money." He rubbed my hand. "You moved it into the taproom for us. For the wedding fund and the future."
"Forty-two thousand dollars," I said.
His face did something quick.
"You remember that?"
"No." I let my eyes drift. "It just sounded like a number."
His shoulders came down an inch.
"Don't worry about it," he said. "It's safe. I'll take care of it all, and you just heal."
Eight months ago he had texted me, "I'll pay you back first, before anyone."
I still had that message on my phone, in my bag, across the room.
He had said it to me in a kitchen with his hand over his heart.
Now he was taking it from a girl he thought was too concussed to count.
I thought about screaming.
I thought about the nurse, and the doctor, and a room full of people who would call it grief and sedate me.
I thought about Candice's text, and how afraid she was.
The two of them were afraid of the one thing they could not control, which was what I knew.
If I kept quiet, they would show me the rest.
"I'm tired," I said.
"Sleep." Trevor stood and kissed my forehead, right beside the stitches.
"I'll make a few calls and be right back."
He picked up his phone and went out.
I heard him say "Candice" in the hallway, low and fast, before the door swung shut.
Then it opened again.
A man stood in the gap with my gym bag in his hand and a day of stubble on his jaw.
He was Cade Brennan, Trevor's best friend, and he looked like he had slept in a hallway chair.
I had met him maybe a dozen times in four years, always across a table, always with Trevor talking.
He had never once said more than three sentences to me.
"Hey," he said. "My sister packed you some clothes. How's the head?"
"Better, Cade," I said. "Thanks for sitting up all night."
He had been about to set the bag down.
He stopped halfway, with the strap still in his fist.
I had only seen him through the door glass at three a.m., asleep in the hall chair.
Nobody had told me he was there.
His gray eyes came up to my face and stayed there.
Want to keep talking to characters like these? Chat with AI romance characters: AI Boyfriend · AI Girlfriend · Dark Romance · Fantasy Romance · BL (Boys’ Love) · Billionaire Boyfriend · Mafia Boyfriend · Possessive Boyfriend · Hockey Boyfriend · Older Boyfriend · K-Drama Boyfriend · Anime Boyfriend · Vampire Boyfriend · Werewolf Boyfriend · Demon Boyfriend · Fae Romance · GL (Girls’ Love) · Anime Girlfriend · Goth & Alt Girlfriend · Gamer Girlfriend · Tsundere Girlfriend · Fantasy Girlfriend