Twisted Hate: An Enemies with Benefits Romance

If only. 
“So, what you said earlier.” Josh twisted his head to look at me. “Good
brother and doctor, huh?” He removed his hand from mine. I mourned the
loss of his touch for a brief moment before he tugged on my braid again, a
crooked smile forming on his mouth. “Was that a compliment, Red?”
“My first and last for you, so savor it while you can.”
“Oh, I will. Every morsel.” The velvety suggestion in his voice bypassed
my brain and went straight to my core. 
“Good,” I managed.
What was happening to me? Maybe someone spiked the food with
aphrodisiacs because I shouldn’t be this flustered over Josh. 
What started as a fake date was quickly turning into an existential crisis.
Hating Josh was one of the core pillars of my lifestyle, along with my love
for caramel mochas, my aversion to cardio, and my rainy-day pastime of
browsing obscure bookstores. Take my hate for him away, and what was I
left with?
My heartbeat quickened. Don’t go there. 
Josh’s smile faded, leaving behind an intensity that sent shivers from my
head to my toes.
An endless second stretched between us, suspended by the same electric

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charge from earlier before a shriek of nearby laughter snapped it in half.
Josh and I jerked apart at the same time. 
“We should go—”
“I have to leave—”
Our voices tangled in a rush of excuses.
“I have to pack for Eldorra,” I said, even though our flight wasn’t for
another five days. 
As Bridget’s bridesmaids, Ava, Stella, and I were flying in early for pre-
wedding prep, courtesy of Alex’s private jet. Josh wasn’t in the wedding
party, but he was joining us because why fly commercial when you could fly
private?
“Right. I’m gonna stick around, help clean up.” Josh raked a hand
through his hair. “Thanks for coming. We successfully warded off all
matchmaking attempts.”
“Thanks for inviting me. Glad I could help.”
An awkward beat passed.
Given our arrangement, we should be heading to his place for sex because
that was supposed to be the cornerstone of our relationship, but after our
conversation just now, that felt...wrong.
Josh must’ve thought the same, because he didn’t say anything else
except, “See you soon, Red.”
“See you.”
I quickened my steps until I reached the park exit, too afraid to look back
lest Josh see the confusion scrawled over my face.
He was working all week, so I wouldn’t see him until our Eldorra trip. I
could take the time to reset and return to our equilibrium, AKA attracted to
but barely tolerating him. 
But I had a sinking feeling that whatever knocked our world off its axis
had done so irrevocably. Not in one afternoon, but in all the moments that led
up to it—our truce at the clinic, our ski lessons, our night in Vermont, our
sex-only pact. Hyacinth and the library and the hundreds of small moments in
which I thought about Josh and didn’t experience the same visceral irritation
I used to when he crossed my mind.
Disrespect Jules again, and I’ll put you in the emergency room myself.
That’s not shallow.
Was that a compliment, Red?
I didn’t know what to make of my strange new feelings toward Josh, but I

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knew one thing: there was no going back to whatever we used to be.

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28

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JOSH
I
N
HINDSIGHT
, 
TAKING
J
ULES
TO
THE
PICNIC
WAS
THE
WORST
IDEA
I’
D
EVER
had. The short-term gain of outsmarting the hospital’s matchmakers wasn’t
worth the long-term pain of replaying the afternoon over and over in my head
like a broken record I couldn’t bear to toss.