Page 75 of The Hopelessly Bromantic Duet

I shrug. “I guess London rubbed off on me,” I say, snickering privately over my own dirty joke.

Chance taps his chin. “You know what I’m thinking?”

That I just lied by omission to you?

“No, my twin-tuition is on the fritz right now,” I say.

“I’m thinking this new look of yours will make it easier if we ever need to switch,” he says.

“You guys do that?” Nolan asks like this is the coolest thing ever. “You pretend to be each other?”

“We have,” I say. “We did growing up.”

“His beard would make it hard right now,” Chance says, pointing at me.

I rub a hand along my jaw, and that makes me think of Jude too. I go hot all over, remembering our nights together.

That’s the true reason I say nothing. I can’t feed this fire inside me by talking about him.

If I say nothing, the fire of Jude will eventually die out.

But not quite yet. Two months later, I watchMachine Lovewhen it premiers online, retitledThe Artificial Girlfriend.

It’s a test of my willpower. Will I tell Jude I saw it? I want to since he’s incredible in it, completely becoming the scientist and falling madly in love with his creation.

The kiss scene lights me up from head to toe.

I’m more tempted than I’ve ever been to contact him.

I make a new vow. I won’t follow his career. I won’t look him up on social media or Google him.

I won’t give the fire any oxygen at all.

Several months later, I finish my first book, but when I reread it, the best part is the love story.

I don’t have to show it to a writers’ group to know what I need to do. Shelve it. Turns out I like reading mysteries, but I don’t want to write them.

I start all over again.

The following year, I workon my first romance. I don’t call itThe Look Me Up Promise. It’s not about Jude. Ican’twrite about Jude.

Instead, I write a whole new story, one straight from my imagination. I call itYes Man. It’s about a brash, sarcastic lawyer who’s got a big mouth and tells the senior partner he works for that he has a date for the firm’s weekend in the Hamptons barbecue. But oops, the perennially single dude doesn’t. So he convinces his quirky, cute next-door neighbor to be his pretend girlfriend. The story is chock full of sexual tension until they finally bang.

Spoiler alert: They screw a lot, fall in love, and live happily ever after.

It doesn’t matter that I’ve never been with a woman. I know what it’s like to fall. I know how infatuation feels. How desperate it makes your heart. How intensely it consumes you.

The rest is body parts and choreography.

Two years after I leave London, I find an agent and a publisher. This dream comes true while my dream guy becomes a distant memory.

27

MY LITTLE OBSESSION

The Night ofTheArtificial GirlfriendPremiere

Jude