He Bet I'd Fall. I Acted the Whole Time.

I found out my first boyfriend only asked me out because of a bet with his friends. So I started acting like I loved him even more. The bet was simple. Could he get me or not.

His friends figured a month, minimum. It took him seventeen days. What can I say. I'm a born actress. Hand me a three out of ten and I'll play it like a nine. Flirting. Falling.

The freezeout. The fights. I hit every beat of the script they wrote for me. And when he dumped me, I threw in two extra scenes of crying and begging him to take me back.

Then the shoot wrapped, and I got on a plane to London with a smile on my face.

Four years later I came home and heard that Theo Ashby, the one who ended it, had spent all four of those years tearing New York apart looking for me. Huh.

Somebody out there is more into the role than I am? Chapter 1 "You've got guts, Theo.

We bet you couldn't land that girl from the photography program, Wren Callahan, and here you are." "I lost fair and square. So when are you dumping her?" My feet stopped moving.

Nobody had shut the door all the way. Through the gap I could see my boyfriend in the middle of a crowd, guys and girls both. "I heard Wren was stuckup.

Figured it'd take you a month, easy. She caved in what, two and a half weeks?" "That face of yours should be illegal. She's crazy about you now. You really gonna do it?" Theo Ashby.

My brandnew first boyfriend. Very goodlooking. And I was the Wren they were talking about. He'd started chasing me last month.

Not that I hadn't known exactly who he was long before that. Good looks are a scarce resource. Plenty of people wanted him. Plenty of people wanted me. His timing was perfect.

He showed up right when I felt like finding out what a relationship was. And out of everyone circling me, his numbers were the best across the board.

They were laughing about how I'd caved in two and a half weeks. It was a compliment with a knife in it. Seventeen days. I remember exactly.

The truth is, people who look like us don't have to work very hard to get someone. And if it starts taking work, you pick someone else. Inside, another voice came in.

A girl's. "Don't take it too far, Theo. She's going to latch onto you." That was Sloane Merrick, the girl he grew up next door to.

Most of them in there were guys he'd grown up with. Three or four went to our school. The rest were at colleges around New York or one town over.

Tonight was supposed to be the night he introduced me to his friends. "Latched onto by a girl who looks like that? You don't know how good you've got it.

Send her my way." "Honestly, Theo, she's gorgeous. Why not just date her for real? She's your first girlfriend.

Ending your first one this fast seems kind of…" "Don't be stupid." Theo's voice, finally. "It's a game." A game.

The night before, somebody had held onto me in the dark under my dorm and refused to let go. He could act. Not better than me, though. I've been a drama queen since I was a kid.

I love to perform. Unfortunately I also came out pretty, so nobody has ever been able to tell how nasty I really am. Hurt at three out of ten, I can play as nine.

Which means love at three out of ten works the same way. His face did fool me. I'll give him that. But I never liked him as much as I looked like I did.

The conversation kept going. "Give it a while," Theo said. "Then I'll end it." His voice was flat. Nothing in it that sounded like hesitating.

I looked down at my phone, at the black screen, and cleaned everything extra out of my eyes.

Then I made myself wait a few more minutes before I pushed the door open, breathing hard, like I'd been rushing the whole way. Chapter 2 "Sorry.

Traffic." Every head in the room turned. The ones who'd never met me sat up a little. Their eyes changed. That's how convincing a face is. "Wren.

Come here." Theo patted the seat next to him. One of his childhood friends had given it up for him. On his other side sat Sloane.

I slid in like it was the most natural thing in the world and heard him do the introduction. "This is Wren.

My girlfriend." The ones who hadn't met me acted like they were hearing my name for the first time, dazzled, still remembering their manners enough to introduce themselves.

A few of them passed looks around the table they thought I couldn't read.

I let all of it go by and leaned in close to complain to him. "The roads were a nightmare." He put his arm around my shoulders and smiled. "I told you I'd come get you.

You said no." "You had to pick up your friends. Making you drive all the way out for me is a lot of trouble." It was break. Theo had gone home. I'd stayed at school.

The friends he was picking up were the two who went to our school. Sloane Merrick and Trent Baxter. When I told him not to bother, I was being polite. That was all it was.

He was quiet for two seconds. Then he said, "I'll pay for your ride, then." … That was the first moment something felt off. He didn't like me as much as he was acting like he did.

And then my first boyfriend went and gave me a real surprise. Which is great. Now I don't have to feel guilty. "Wren, you're the first girl Theo's liked in years.

Before we saw you, we figured you'd drugged him." "Look at her. No wonder he lost his mind." "So how'd you two even meet?" … His friends were so warm.

If I hadn't stood outside that door for a few minutes, I'd never have known there were this many actors in the world.

I answered every question smiling, with exactly the right amount of shyness in my face, and exactly the right amount of liking him. "You should be thanking me, Wren.

I'm the one who told Theo to go for you." Sloane said it out of nowhere. She took a long pull of her drink. Her eyes had that loose, tipsy shine to them. She was smiling at me.

Nothing but a challenge, all the way down. I'd already worked it out in the hallway. The bet started with Sloane. She proposed it. Everyone else egged it on.

The only surprise was that Theo actually took the bet. And that I actually said yes when he asked. I've studied people since I was small.

Some of them, to find out whether the person they want wants them back, will offer to set that person up with somebody else, just to have a reason to get close.

I'd seen versions of that move before. Men and women both. Instead of answering Sloane, I looked at Theo. His eyebrows pulled together for half a second.

I smiled up at him and made my voice soft and sweet. "Mr. Ashby, are you telling me you were shy? Look at you.

A little courage and we'd have been together ages ago." The whole table came down on him. His face couldn't find a place to settle. But his hand stayed on mine and didn't move.

I scratched his palm with one finger where nobody could see, and he let me. I had a few more drinks than I needed and let myself go soft against his shoulder.

When it broke up, his arm was still around me. They'd written me a script. Flirting. Falling. The freezeout. The fights. Then the breakup. I took it.

I wasn't going to skip a single scene. There was one thing they didn't account for. Love at three out of ten, I can play as nine. And when this thing wraps is my call, not theirs.

So. Counting from tonight, how many days does that leave?

Chapter 3 "I'm taking Wren back to campus," Theo said. "Sloane, Trent, the driver will get you home." Sloane looked like she had something to say about that.

But a boyfriend does not leave his drunk girlfriend to drive other people home. That's just how it works.

If Theo wanted the goodboyfriend character to hold up, he couldn't leave me. He pulled up a ride and took me back himself. Under my dorm I was still leaning on him.

I opened my eyes and there was that face, blown up huge in front of mine. "Theo." I smiled at him. "You're so pretty." Then I went up on my toes and kissed the corner of his mouth.

Theo froze. When he asked me out, he told me he'd been quietly into me forever, and it took until senior year to work up the nerve.

He played it like a boy who'd never had a girlfriend in his life. I hadn't expected that part to be true.

My guess is our prince had been thinking very highly of himself for a long time. That whole group of his came from money. Real money, some of them.

And the fact that all of them fell in line behind him meant his family sat above theirs. I finished the kiss and went upstairs.

From my window I could see him still standing where I'd left him. No idea what was going on in his head. I'd given a hell of a performance that night.

I was still running the tape back in my head when I fell asleep. Honestly, if I hadn't found out what this relationship actually was, I probably wouldn't have pushed it this far.

I'm a nasty person, but I do have some conscience left. Mostly, though, I was afraid I wouldn't be able to close it out. After that night I threw myself all the way in.

I played a girl with no brain left where he was concerned. Theo, to be fair, gave me plenty to work with. He told his friends he'd end it in a while.

Meanwhile he checked on me every single day. Little gifts, all the time. Nothing to him. In a dorm full of broke students, a very big deal.

Every time, I gave him exactly the reaction he wanted. When winter came I knit him a scarf. Handmade, so obviously nothing next to the ones he paid for. He wore it anyway.

He wore it every day, no attitude about it at all, and told me with a smile that he loved it. Then came his birthday, and Sloane gave him a scarf too. Limited edition, apparently.

Three thousand dollars. So Theo started wearing that one sometimes. There's nothing wrong with wearing a scarf a friend gave you.

It's just that not long after, I noticed Sloane had the same scarf in a different color. … I wasn't even angry.

Not until one night when we were out and he touched my hand, found it freezing, turned and saw how red the end of my nose was, and pulled that scarf off his own neck to wrap around mine.

So that night we took a photo together and I put it up on my account. I'm an honest person. If I'm dating somebody, I say so.

The photo hadn't been up long before I saw their group chat on Theo's phone. He had a small group with his friends. Not many people in it. He was in the shower.

I typed in his passcode. It opened. Chapter 4 What kind of couple hides their passcodes from each other? I'd never locked him out of mine. He knew my code.

Out of mutual trust, of course, I had simply never gone through his phone. The group chat did not disappoint. Sloane: [Theo, when are you actually dumping Wren?

Don't tell me you caught feelings.] Trent, right behind her: [What, Theo, you gonna make the fake thing real? She's gorgeous, sure, but she's nobody.

Your family would never sign off.] [Theo, she takes your gifts awfully easy. Maybe she's got an angle. Don't get played.] [Right.

Families like ours marry inside the circle.] […] I scrolled down and found Theo's answers. Theo: [I don't like her.] Theo: [Not yet.] That chat log actually made me laugh.

I lifted my own phone and photographed those screens, one at a time. Occupational habit. Good lines get archived. Clearly his little circle thought he was still untouched.

Terrified that I, the pretty girl with an angle, was going to seduce him. He seduced me first.

Theo came out of the bathroom with his shirt hanging open, chest and stomach on full display. His phone sat exactly where it had been. Not even the angle had changed.

I stayed on the bed scrolling my own phone, cheerful, not once looking up at him. He didn't like that. He came over, took my phone out of my hands, and killed the screen.

So I let my eyes land on him and asked, smiling, "What?" "Your phone's that interesting?" Not really. His phone was more interesting.

But for now I touched his face. "You're more interesting." I'm very good at sweet talk. He ate it up, like always. He leaned in and kissed me.

He'd gone from clumsy to fluent, and everything in the way he did it said he was obsessed with me. And in bed he was weirdly devoted to the job.

Cold face the whole time, doing every single thing he could think of to please me. Even I got confused sometimes. Was this really just a game to him?

His friends obviously had no idea where we were. They thought the two of us held hands and hugged and that was the extent of it.

In reality, the only time I made the first move was that kiss under my dorm. Every other time it was him, and he was not subtle about wanting it. Such a shame.

The spotless Theo in their heads had been gone for a while. And yet what he typed into that group was cold and clear and rotten. I couldn't even tell who was getting conned here.

Me, or his friends. Set aside whatever was going on inside him. He really was an excellent boyfriend. A body and a face buy a lot of forgiveness.

Now and then I'd let something ugly slide and give him a chance to come clean. He never once took it. His friends loved a group dinner. There were a lot of them.

Every time, I liked him more than I had the time before. Eyes full of nothing but him. Once I kissed him in front of all of them.

The group chat updated accordingly. [Theo, so how far have you two…] [She's acting like it's you or nothing. And you keep spending on her.

You're never getting rid of her.] [Once a girl like that latches on, the only thing that works is making her take the hint.

Go cold on her.] [This is the girl who wouldn't look at anybody, and Theo's got her.

I can't even imagine how hard she's going to cry the day he drops her.] […] Theo's replies were interesting too. He skipped the first question entirely.

Theo: [Haven't spent much.] Theo: [Noted.] Chapter 5 Sloane added one more, right after his reply.

Sloane: [Wren's showing off your gifts on her account again.] The rest of them jumped on that. Gold digger, gold digger.

Theo: [Everything I've spent on her put together is less than one gift I've given any of you.] That set them laughing again. [Fair.

That's smalltime for you…] What a fun little group. Anybody else would have come apart. I took a few more photos. For the next stretch, Theo went cold, exactly on schedule.

I pretended not to notice and kept sharing my whole life with him, warmly. Then came Valentine's Day, and he told me, not quite meeting my eyes, "Sorry.

I forgot to get you anything." "That's okay." I smiled at him and pulled a gift box out of my bag. "I got you something." "Happy Valentine's Day, baby." It was a watch.

One look and I could tell he knew the brand and the price.

Something moved behind his eyes. "Where did you get the money…" "You've been so busy since break started, and I had nothing going on, so I picked up a parttime job.

Eighteen hundred dollars. I worked two months off campus. That's what I earned. Do you like it?" I'm confident the love on my face was perfect. Enough to move a man made of stone.

For the record, I knew his busy was an excuse. Somebody always made sure I found out that all that busy time was spent hanging out with his friends.

His lips moved. "You didn't have to work like that. I…" "It wasn't hard. I know I don't have anywhere near what you have.

I still wanted to give you the best thing I could afford." You judge people by what they do, not what they think. Put my inner monologue aside and I never actually did him wrong.

I stepped into the role of a girl who loved him and I loved him from the inside out, bought him the most expensive thing my budget allowed, and let his coldness roll right off me.

He still wasn't moved. He didn't come clean. After that night he was good to me for a few days, the way you're good to someone when you're paying off a debt.

Then his friends got in his ear again and the cold came back. The watch came off his wrist too. Because I saw it on Sloane. She even posted a photo of it, all very deliberate.

That was our first fight. I asked him, eyes red, why he'd handed the Valentine's gift I gave him to another girl to play with. My tears seemed to stall him out for a second.

Then he steadied himself. "It's just a watch. Sloane grew up with me. She was curious, she borrowed it.

Besides, I have a lot of watches, and that entrylevel model isn't something I can always wear out." He thought the watch was too cheap. Two months of shifts.

Not something he could always wear out. Naturally I made it a fight. And naturally, in the end, because I loved him so much, I let him talk me down.

But once something cracks, it doesn't go back to how it was. I started being impossible. Sometimes it was because he didn't answer a text.

Sometimes it was about where the line was between him and all those childhood friends, male and female.

Sometimes it was insecurity about the gap between what his family had and what mine did. Most of the time it was because I had an itch to perform.

That whole stretch, tears on command. My crying scenes reached an art form. Theo ran out of the patience he'd started with. His friends tried to smooth it over.

Every word out of them dripped with the assumption that I was beneath him, so mostly it was gasoline.

The calendar dragged into late March, right when everything about graduating comes due at once. That stretch, I barely had time to perform.

I found out later that during those same few days, they were already picking the date I'd wrap.

Chapter 6 Right in the middle of all that, Theo and his friends left on their postgraduation trip. Thesis review dates land differently for different programs.

So on top of everything else, I had to make time to fight with my boyfriend. That one got a little real. Theo and his friends had no sense at all.

They always picked the weeks I was drowning to make trouble. On the other end of the line, under his voice, I could hear the laughing. "Theo, your girlfriend is so clingy.

How do you even survive that?" "Grown woman, checking up on him like…" Theo didn't say much. "We'll talk when I get back." After that, my messages went in circles and my calls went nowhere.

When Theo came back, what I got was my wrap notice. "Wren, let's break up." It's hard to describe how complicated I felt in the second I got my wrap notice