Page 70 of Lost & Found

Months ago? That shouldn’t have done anything to me. It absolutely did, though.

PRINCESS:

If you say so.

I attached the file and hit send before I could second-guess myself. Almost instantly, another message came through.

PASHA:

The code is 180525.

I stared at the numbers. What the hell was happening? He just willingly gave me his code. A small, traitorous flutter started low in my stomach. Not because of the code itself—but because of what it meant.

Trust. Or at least the appearance of it. And that felt more intimate than it should have. Suddenly, I was acutely aware that we were about to pretend to be something we weren’t.

PRINCESS:

You didn’t have to share it with me. But thanks.

I stared at my screen, debating whether to add something else. A joke. A tease. A deflection. Before I could come up with something, he responded.

PASHA:

Well, I am your boyfriend for the next ten days at least. You never know when you might need it. Did you catch the significance?

Boyfriend.

Even fake the word had my stomach dropping ridiculously. I looked back at the numbers, studying them.

PRINCESS:

It’s a date, yeah? Operation take out the trash?

PASHA:

One and the same. See, this is why we’re going to rock this whole dating thing.

I rolled my eyes, but my lips betrayed me by curving upward. Rock this whole dating thing. God help us both.

I stared at his name at the top of our thread. Pasha.

It had been there forever, it seemed. It was just his name, relatively detached if you thought about it. Except we weren’t anymore. Not really. I tapped into his contact settings before I could overthink it. My thumb hovered over his name for a moment. This was ridiculous. It was just a label.

Still. He’d called himself my boyfriend. If we were going to sell this, then I supposed we should commit. I changed his name. Not to something sickly sweet. I wasn’t unwell. But something that would make me smirk every time my phone lit up.

Then, because I clearly had a flair for chaos, I backed out and changed my passcode, too. 180525. If we were pretending, we might as well synchronize. I snapped a screenshot of his new contact name and sent it.

PRINCESS:

Updated accordingly. Try not to let it go to your head.

The dots appeared almost immediately.

LEV:

Bold move, Princess. Are you sure you’re ready for that level of commitment?

I huffed a quiet laugh, shifting from one foot to the other.