Twisted Hate: An Enemies with Benefits Romance

Dammit, Chen.

---

Well, it was too late now. We had to face the music as it came.
I pasted on my most charming grin. “Hey, sis. You look absolutely
ravishing today. Here.” I shoved a box containing her favorite Crumble &
Bake red velvet cake at her. “I brought you a gift.”
Ava didn’t take the cake. Instead, her eyes roved between me and Jules,
who stood next to me with an overly bright smile of her own.
“What are you doing here together?” Her suspicion visibly deepened.
“You’re not going to ask me to mediate another argument, are you? Because
you’re both grown adults.”
Jules and I exchanged a quick look.
Maybe we should’ve come up with a better plan than bring Ava cake to
butter her up.
Alex came up behind Ava and notched an eyebrow when he saw the
Crumble & Bake box.
Really? That’s your plan? He didn’t have to say the words for me to hear
them, loud and clear.
I glared at him. Shut up.
He replied with a smirk.
Asshole.
He seemed to have forgotten that he once snuck around my back to date
my sister.
“Let’s talk about this over cake,” Jules chirped. “Nothing like red velvet
to start the night right.”
Ava crossed her arms over her chest. “I need to sit down for whatever
you’re about to tell me, don’t I?”
“Maybe. Probably.” I cleared my throat. “Definitely.”
The four of us settled in the living room—Ava and Alex on one couch,
me and Jules opposite them. It was near sunset, and the dying rays of light
streaming through the windows spliced the room into half shadow, half
golden warmth.
The cake box sat on the coffee table between us, unopened.
“So, the reason we’re here together is because, uh, we came together,”
Jules said.
Alex sighed and rubbed a hand over his face.
“And the reason we came together is because…” C’mon man, it’s a
Band-Aid. Rip that fucker off and deal with the consequences later. “We’re
dating,” I finished.

---

Ava stared at us with a blank expression.
“Romantically,” Jules clarified.
“Boyfriend and girlfriend,” I added.
More silence.
Ava hadn’t moved since we started talking, which wasn’t good.
A bead of sweat trickled down my spine.
It was crazy. I shouldn’t be scared of my little sister. But chatty Ava was
normal; silent Ava was kinda terrifying.
Then, she did the last thing I expected. She burst into laughter. She
covered her face, her shoulders shaking, while Jules and I exchanged another,
worried glance.
Fuck, did we break my sister?
“Good one,” Ava gasped in between breaths. “You almost had me.” She
tried to straighten her face only to collapse into laughter again a second later.
“Uh…” Of all the ways I pictured this conversation going, Ava losing her
marbles wasn’t one of them.
Jules knocked her knee against mine. “She thinks we’re joking,” she
hissed.
“I know.” I cleared my throat. “Ave…”
“Honestly, I’m impressed you guys put aside your differences long
enough to come up with this plan.” Some of Ava’s mirth had finally
subsided, though her grin remained.
“Ave…”
“Is this payback for Vermont? Because that was months ago, and I had no
idea there’d only be one bed.”
“Ava, we’re not joking!”
My declaration rang through the room, followed by thick, stunned
silence.
My sister’s grin disappeared. “You’re not…” Her eyes darted between us
again, taking in our tense expressions and the way our thighs touched. Horror
dawned on her face. “You’re actually dating? How is that possible? You hate
each other!”
“Welllll…” I dragged the word out. “Not anymore.”
Jules chimed in. “We’ve been working together at the clinic—”
“It started as a no strings attached kinda thing—”
“We didn’t plan for this to happen—”
Our voices overlapped in a rushed explanation before Ava held up a hand

---

and cut us off. “How long have you been dating?”
I winced. “Er, a week this time around.”
“What do you mean, this time around?”
Goddammit. We definitely should’ve come up with a script for this.
Since it was too late, Jules and I forged ahead and told Ava everything,
starting with our sex-only arrangement and ending with our reconciliation
last week. We left out the ugly details about Max and chalked our breakup up
to a misunderstanding, but otherwise, it was a pretty comprehensive
summary.
By the time we finished, Ava’s skin had taken on a faint green tint. She
glared at me. “You’re telling me you’ve been sleeping with my best friend