“Sweetie, you’re trying on wedding dresses for a wedding that you have no intention of going through with,” Claire said gently. “Not that this isn’t fun,” she was quick to add.

“It does sound sort of depressing when you put it that way,” Audrey said, checking to make sure the saleswoman wasn’t nearby before sinking onto a puffy blue cushion, doing her best not to wrinkle the dress.

“Having second thoughts?” Naomi sat beside her.

“Weirdly, not really,” Audrey admitted, looking down at the bubbles rising in her champagne glass. “I’m having so much fun with this. My followers are loving it, and it does feel weirdly good to keep calling Linda’s bluff.”

“But?” Claire asked.

Audrey looked up, surprised to realize her friend knew her well enough to sense there was something lurking beneath the surface, then realized she shouldn’t be. She sometimes thought she knew these two women better than they knew themselves—she’d certainly known they were falling in love before they had. She supposed it made sense that they’d know her pretty well, too.

She bit her lip. “It’s probably nothing. Maybe my imagination. But I keep having these fleeting moments where things with Clarke feel a little… weird.”

“Weird how?”

“It’s hard to describe. Like, when we kissed—”

“Oh, thank God,” Naomi said, flopping back in relief. “I thought I would die if you didn’t talk about that, but Claire said I couldn’t bring it up unless you did.”

“Why would you bring it up?” Audrey asked in confusion.

“Because it was hot,” Naomi said. “He all but bent you over backward in front of everyone. And the way he looked at you after…”

Audrey’s eyes rolled. “He just puts on a good show.”

“Mmm-hmm,” Naomi said, not bothering to hide her skepticism. “If it was just a show, then what was weird about it?”

Audrey huffed out an irritable breath. “I don’t know. It was just… I guess we’ve kissed before. Pecks. Playful smacking kisses. But we’ve never kissed. Not like that.”

“It was pretty great, huh?” Claire asked.

“It was a good kiss,” Audrey admitted. “Though, the guy’s had lots of practice, so I sort of keep trying to chalk my butterflies up to his sheer skill. But then…”

“Oh, there’s more. Did he touch your boob?” Naomi asked gleefully.

“Boob? How old are you? And no. He just… we held hands.”

Out of the corner of her eye, Audrey saw Naomi’s nose scrunch in disappointment, but Claire seemed to have the opposite reaction, her gaze sharpening slightly. “When?”

Audrey filled them in on dinner and Clarke doing damage control after Scandal Boy posted a picture of him looking horrifically bored to be in her presence.