“Congratulations, son,” Alton said, lifting his glass. “We’re so happy you two kids finally decided to quit with that best friend nonsense.”

Audrey pressed her lips together to keep from protesting that their friendship wasn’t nonsense. That the fact that they’d been best friends since they were children showed that boys and girls could be friends.

And that men and women could be, too.

Clarke’s fingers dug slightly into her hip, reminding her of the plan, and she played her part, winding an arm around his waist and beaming up at him. “Me, too. I don’t know what took me so long to see that he’s the one, but I’m glad I finally woke up.”

The smoldering look Clarke gave her in return caused her breath to hitch just for a second and made her think the man had seriously missed his calling—that was some Oscar-level acting right there.

“So,” Elizabeth asked, after the five of them had clinked glasses, “have you two set a date yet?”

“Oh, no, not yet,” Audrey said, keeping the details vague, the way she had been all week. “We’re just enjoying being engaged for a while.”

“But of course, you’ll be having an engagement party?” Linda pressed.

“Oh, we hadn’t really—”

“Of course,” Clarke interrupted.

This time it was Audrey who dug her nails into him. He shifted slightly beside her in discomfort but didn’t back down.

“Well, I’d love to help with that,” Linda said, the enthusiasm in her voice veiled ever so slightly with mockery. “In fact, I called Audrey’s parents just this afternoon to see if they might be able to fly out next weekend for a party. My treat.”

Audrey released Clarke to reach up and scratch behind her ear. Damn. The woman was good. She’d neatly and effectively called their bluff.

Ah, well. They’d had a good run. Time to concede gracefully.

She glanced up at Clarke to see how he wanted to handle the extraction from the mess they’d gotten themselves into. If he wasn’t ready, she had a whole arsenal of ways she’d planned to get them out of their little game.

Actually, Clarke and I have been worried we might have been a bit hasty…

We’ve realized that maybe we really are better off as just friends…

We have a few things to work out regarding our future…

Personally, Audrey thought the first one was the best, and it was what she planned to announce on Instagram next week, when she went back to her regularly scheduled posts of lipstick recommendations and her latest skin-care regime.

She wasn’t worried about it. If celebrities could get engaged and disengaged within the span of a month, then a pseudo-celebrity like herself could certainly do it in the span of a week.