Faking Love

Chapter Twenty-Two: the importance of being fern-est

Daisy was weighing up the pros and cons of murder.

The pros were winning. Now, she just had to decide—whether to murder Vanessa, the concierge, or just call it a day and end herself.

"Right." The concierge jerked his head of raven hair toward Daisy. "Daisy." He removed a delicate hand from his clipboard to gesture to Hunt. "And Joshua."

Daisy couldn't breathe. It happened. It was happening. They'd been caught. Caught by that smug, patronising, sweeter-than-sugar-if-sugar-was-Satan concierge ...

Daisy was out of options.

She was going to kill him.

Vanessa straightened in her seat. "You mean Hunt?"

"Sort of." Matthew looked exhausted after his and Honey's turn with the intimacy box. But he motioned to Hunt, and told her, "Joshua Hunter."

"No, Hunt Shepherd," Vanessa corrected.

"Hunter," Matthew emphasised.

"Shepherd."

Hunt's hand tensed on Daisy's thigh. She didn't know whether he even realised he'd reached for her. Like it was instinct. Like she was going to tether him, reel him back in now that he was being dragged out to sea.

Daisy didn't know how, given that she was drowning right alongside him.

She glanced at him sidelong, her fingers curling around his hand. His face was nearly drained of colour. Let's run for it, she'd been about to say. But it was Ruby who broke the awkward silence.

With laughter.

A loud, condescending, snort of a laugh that had everyone at their table jerking at the sudden sound.

"What the hell are you talking about?" Ruby near-squealed, wiping a tear from her eye with one hand and waving her sake like a baton with the other. "Joshua Hunter," she repeated, as though the name was ludicrous.

"Pardon me?" the reverend queried.

"Hunt." She threw back her shot. Wiped her cherry-red lips on her sleeve. "His first name is Hunt, you moron, not Joshua. Joshua," she muttered to Belle, as if to say, Get a load of this guy.

"I beg your pardon?" Matthew asked again.

Beside him, Honey's perfect little nose was scrunched with confusion. "No, his surname's Hunt—Hunter. He told us at the—"

"Where have you two been?" Laia cut in. She was studying her immaculate black nails, her voice as cool and steady as a gentle tide. "Joshua is the name of Daisy's ex. Like, from months ago."

Matthew shook his head. "No, it's not—"

"Yes," Kenji affirmed simply. "Joshua is her ex, Matthew."

The table went quiet, and Daisy realised she was toying with Hunt's sleeve to distract herself from playing with her hair.

But her friends had never looked so sure of anything. They were reciting a fact as plain as day: the sky was blue, the grass was green, Hunt's name was and had always been Hunt, and Joshua was and had always been Daisy's ex.

The reverend sputtered like a broken motor. "So why did Honey and I book their package under the names Daisy and Joshua?"

"Oh, I don't know, Matthew." Ruby poured herself another drink from an ornate teapot. "Why does your heavenly father give people cancer?"

Matthew's attention veered. Ruby knew it would, which is exactly why she'd asked the question. She indulged his heated explanation, and Daisy brushed her foot against Ruby's leg under the table in thanks for her sacrifice.