Read with BonusRead with Bonus

Chapter 6 - Nadia

It took me a moment to realize I was Angela. And this guy had just called me out on it.

“Uh, what?” I said. “Who are you?”

“You’re Angela, the Tinder hookup we were meeting tonight.” He held up his phone and nodded. “Look, I’m not saying I’m a digital forensics expert when it comes to tits, but this is totally you.”

“Is it?” Braden asked me. “Did you go into the bathroom and cancel the date?”

All four of them were staring at me. I felt like I’d been ambushed.

“Yes,” I said.

Braden visibly deflated. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

I crossed my arms. “Why did you give me that bullshit story about not liking Tinder?”

“Because it’s true,” one of the other guys said. “Braden isn’t the kind of guy who trolls Tinder for sex. Hey, aren’t you the backup dancer in the show? Tatiana’s understudy?”

I realized how I knew him. The blond hair, the glasses, the button-down shirt… “You’re the technician whose lights malfunctioned,” I said.

“His name’s Andy,” Braden said.

“My lights are fine!” Andy insisted, pushing his glasses up on his nose. “It’s that damn theater that’s messed up.”

Once I knew who the three of them were, it was easier to recognize the fourth guy. Dorian, is one of the minor roles in the show. I danced with him for a few songs in the show, including one of the numbers we’d rehearsed tonight.

“What is all of this?” I gestured at the four of them. “Are you all here for moral support? Scoping out his Tinder dates before he takes them home? Were you sitting in another booth, judging how hot I was?”

“It’s not like that,” Braden began.

“Then what is it like?” I demanded with a little more anger than I intended. “You claim you don’t use Tinder, yet here you are, waiting on a Tinder date with your buddies watching.”

“You wouldn’t believe me if I told you.”

I finally sat down, hip-checking Dorian until he gave me more room in the booth. I poured beer from my fresh pitcher into my glass and set it down hard on the wooden surface.

“I’ve got beer and time to kill. How about you explain it to me?”

The four of them shared a look. One that excluded me. I was about to get up and walk away when the stage hand guy—Ryan was his name, I thought?—spoke up.

“It’s not Braden’s profile.”

I snorted. “It’s got his name and photo, but it’s not him?”

Ryan rolled his eyes at me. “It’s a photo of the four of us. And the name on the profile says BRAD, all in caps.”

“Which is short for Braden.”

“Nope,” Ryan said. “It’s an acronym.”

It took me a moment to put it together while looking around the table. Braden is across from me, with Ryan next to him. Andy at the end of my seat, with Dorian wedged in next to me.

Brad.

Ryan.

Andy.

Dorian.

BRAD.

“Oh shit,” I said. “Oh shit!”

“It’s not quite what you think,” Braden hastily said.

“Braden, Ryan, Andy, Dorian,” I said, pointing to each of them in time. “You lure girls in for a date, and then what? Try to have an orgy?”

“No!” Braden said, at the same time Ryan said, “Not exactly.”

“Four guys, one profile,” I said. “Help me understand what I’m missing here. Because right now it looks really fucking creepy.”

“We should tell her,” Braden said to Ryan. The latter shook his head.

“It’ll be weird with someone from the show.”

“I don’t think so,” Andy chimed in with a thoughtful look on his face. “If anything, it will make a lot of logistical sense.”

Braden ignored the rest of Ryan’s protests and turned to me. “Being a guy on Tinder is tough. It’s mostly rejections.”

“So you have been on Tinder?” I cut in. “Mostly rejections, huh?”

Next to me, Dorian quietly said, “He’s telling the truth if you would let him finish.”

I nodded and glued my lips together.

“These guys are on Tinder a lot,” Braden said. “I mentioned earlier my friends used it a lot. Remember? Well, they get mostly rejections. All guys do. Part of it is that they all want very different things from the app. So rather than going at it alone, they decided to pool their efforts. And they recruited me for part of it.”

I had a million questions already, but the immediate one that leaped from my lips was, “What do you mean, you all want very different things?”

Dorian twisted in the booth to face me. He was still wearing the same black pants and tight black shirt he’d worn during rehearsal, and his long blond hair was pulled back into a man-bun. Unlike most guys, he pulled it off.

“I just want a close female friend,” he explained. “Someone to talk to, hang out with, just be around with no strings attached. I was best friends with my sister until she moved to Tokyo. I miss that.”

On the other side of Dorian, Andy leaned forward and ran a hand through his wavy blond hair. “I want, well, that is to say I would be interested in, something more serious. A real relationship, if we find a woman who wants the same thing.”

Ryan laughed and shook his head. “Unlike these two, I’m DTF—down to fuck. No questions asked, no answers needed.” He looked at his friends and put his hands up. “What? Fuck me for using the app for what it’s meant for?”

I looked between the three of them. “And you were hoping to find one girl that meets each of these individual criteria? Someone to share?”

“Easier than four separate ones,” Ryan said. “That’s just math.”

I turned my eyes to Braden. He’d been conspicuously silent during the entire thing. “What do you want?” I asked him.

I already knew the answer because he’d told me. He wanted to get to know someone the old fashioned way. To go on dates, learn about them, and figure out what made them tick. I stared into his crystal blue eyes and waited for him to repeat it…

Ryan jerked his thumb and answered for him. “Braden here wants an actress to pretend to be his girlfriend. To convince his parents he’s not gay.”

It felt like I’d been kicked in the gut by a mule. Braden’s awkward smile confirmed it. He wants someone to pretend to be his girlfriend.

“That’s actually what caught our eye about your profile,” Andy said into the uncomfortable silence. “We were looking for an actress who can be convincing, and you mentioned being in theater…”

I barely heard him. I was busy studying Braden. Of course, he was gay. It was stereotypical, but he was a gorgeous muscular dude in theater and had perfect hair and skin. He’d practically televised this fact to me. Guys get hard-ons when their jeans rub, he had said.

That was probably why he was complimenting my acting. He was sizing me up to be his fake girlfriend. Not because he was actually impressed with how I’d done.

I’m such an idiot.

“And before you ask,” Andy said, “we’re fine with sharing. Ryan and I are practically brothers. It would not be weird for us.”

“What’s in it for the girl?” I asked numbly. I was still staring at Braden, who was doing everything he could to avoid looking me in the eye.

Ryan snorted. “You mean besides getting to be around four of the best looking dudes in New York?”

“That’s a stretch,” I said with a weak smile.

Next to me, Dorian pretended like his heart had been pierced with an arrow, slumping over into Andy with theatrical poise.

“As far as we’re concerned, this is a two-way street,” Andy said. “You were on Tinder, so clearly you’re interested in some sort of arrangement. Think of it this way, Nadia.” He pushed his glasses up his long nose. “In a traditional relationship, you have one partner to meet several different needs. Friendly companionship, romantic intimacy, and sex. Those are three very different things. In this arrangement, you would have an individual to focus completely on one of those. Completely devoted to you.”

“Plus,” Dorian said when he’d recovered from his arrow wound, “we have a kickass place here in the city where you can crash. It’s a few blocks from here.”

I gave a start. “You guys live on the upper east side?” I thought it was a joke since this area was ridiculously expensive, but none of them laughed.

“Braden’s grandma’s old place,” Ryan said. “Paid off already. Just got to deal with property tax.”

Braden was looking at me, I realized. He seemed hurt. I couldn’t understand why; I was the one who had been led on.

“I still think we should find someone else,” Ryan said. “Having someone from the show might make things weird…”

“Dude, it’s already weird enough,” Dorian said.

Andy nodded. “Besides, it makes logistical sense. If we’re going out on a date, we can travel together from the theater.”

“That’s what every girl wants,” Ryan muttered. “Carpooling options.”

A waitress arrived with a plate of nachos. There was an awkward moment as she placed it on the table and then handed out five individual plates and silverware.

I took the opportunity to finish my beer, slamming it down so hard it shook the table. “I’ll make the decision easy for you,” I said to Ryan. “I’m not interested.”

“Nadia…” Braden said.

Before he could stop me, I slipped away from the table and fled out into the night.

Previous Chapter
Next Chapter