Tackling Love's Playbook

Frankie’s POV “You do know it’s the middle of the night, right?” My best friend grumbled over the phone. “There’s this thing called a watch that lets me know whether it’s the middle of the night or not.” I retorted. “I’m not awake enough to deal with your sarcasm. I’ll call you back when normal human beings are up and about.” “I know that you more than anyone needs your beauty sleep, but it hasn’t worked for you so far, so you could as well just hear me out.” I heard him sigh. “Fine. What is it? And this had better be something serious.” “Okay, so you know how my office is full of misogynistic men.” I began. He cut me off immediately. “If you're about to start complaining about your office dynamics, I’m going to be really pissed. It’s two am, Francesca.” I winced at his use of my full name. Rhys only ever called me Francesca when he was royally pissed or unimpressed by my behavior. I had a habit of making him both, but after more than a decade of us being super close, I could proudly say that he had gotten used to me and I just got an eye roll whenever I did something stupid. I hadn’t gotten a full name in almost three months. That was a record for me. “Can you just shut up and let me talk?” I hissed. I heard the bed rustle and I strained to hear the voice of the woman that was sharing his bed tonight. Rhys was kind of a man w***e, and there was always an endless stream of women going through his loft. I didn’t blame them though, just because I would rather jump into a river full of crocodiles than think about having s*x with Rhys didn’t mean that he wasn’t an okay looking guy. Even I had to grudgingly admit that the man was… well… handsome. “I’m listening.” “So my boss is getting married.” “Which one?” he asked. Three head scientists were in charge of the lab I worked at, and they all weren’t really welcoming to me. Getting this job fresh out of school had honestly been a miracle. Retaining it this long had been another matter altogether. It involved a lot of lies and charades and pretending to not actively tolerate my coworkers. Picture a lab full of men who thought they were about to be the next Einstein or something and one singular woman who they thought was infiltrating their manly environment. “Howard. I don’t know who would agree to marry that jerk anyways.” “Congratulations to him. What does that have to do with me?” “In my defense, there’s a promotion coming up.” “Why do I have the feeling I’m not going to like what you say.” Rhys sighed. “Because you aren’t .” “Just spit it out, Frankie. It can’t be much worse than all the things you’ve done since we were kids.” Nope, this was way worse. “Okay, so I may or may not have been invited to the ceremony and I may or may not have felt annoyed when James said that I wouldn’t be able to come anyways, cause I don’t have a plus one and I may or may not have told the whole lab that I do in fact would be showing up with my plus one who may or may not be my boyfriend.” I said in one breath. Rhys snorted. “Except for the small matter of you being single. How do you always find yourself in these situations, Frankie? Fine, you want some advice, just tell them today when you go to work. Rip it off like a band-aid, trust me…” “I didn’t call you by two am for advice,” I whispered. “Why are you whispering?” he asked suspiciously. “you only whisper when you’ve done something really bad. Frankie, what have you done?” I bit my lip nervously. “Are you biting your lip right now?” he asked knowingly. I immediately stopped, then frowned. “how can you even tell?” “I may or may not know you well. Maybe too well.” He said thoughtfully. “Are you sitting down?” I asked. There was a pause. “You’re making me nervous as hell. And I’m generally not someone that gets nervous. About anything.” “I know that. I’m the nervous wreck between the both of us.” “You know I’d do anything for you. Kill a guy, bury a body, help you shave your pits when you break your arms.” I groan in embarrassment. “That was one time, Rhys. You don’t have to keep bringing it up. Can’t you just forget about that?” “You always bring up my bald patch.” He pointed out. Which I have to admit was a fair point. “The smart thing would be to tell them that I lied. I mean, it’d be humiliating as hell and I could as well wave goodbye to that promotion. Plus, James would never let me live it down.” I swallowed. “ugh, I wish I had never opened my big mouth.” “Hey, it’s okay. Everything will be fine.” “No, it won’t.” I wailed. “I was under the spotlight and you know that I don’t do well under the spotlight and James asked me in this really condescending tone what my boyfriend's name was and my head went blank…” “Frankie, you did not.” I ignored him. “and it was only your name in my head and so I said Rhys Sutton and someone said holy s**t, like the footballer, and I said yes and God, you should have seen the look on James' face.” “Frankie…” “it’d have just been one of those things. You know. Some nerdy, scientist chick reaching. I’d have hired some guy off bumble to be my plus one later, but someone dug out a picture of us together and that someone’s brother is a journalist and now half the world thinks it’s true.” “Oh God.” I laughed humorlessly. “And get this, Howard personally came to my cubicle to ask if it was true, and I said yes and apparently he’s a big fan and…” Rhys’ growled out, “What the f**k, Francesca.” Snapped my mouth shut. Oh God.