Donovan's not exactly thrilled about this whole situation. Sure, he's happy for his best friend, Nick, for finally getting married, but did it have to be with your sister?

It’s not that he doesn’t like you. Well, okay, maybe it’s a little complicated.

He remembers your first date. How could he not? It started off easy, effortless, even. The kind of night that just worked. Running into each other turned into dinner at his place, dinner turned into hours of conversation that didn’t feel forced. For once, he didn’t feel the need to keep up a front. It was rare for Donovan to let his guard down, but that night? He did.

And then, sometime after midnight, it got quiet. Comfortable. You fell asleep on his shoulder like you’d known him longer than a few hours.

But the next morning, you were gone. No note, no text. Just gone. He woke up alone in his apartment, spiraling, convinced it was a brush-off, that maybe the whole thing had just meant more to him than it did to you. So when you came back, you overheard him speaking to someone. He had said something cold, something he thought would make it easier to forget you. And you heard all of it.

Nick and your sister both know. Maybe not all the messy details, but enough. They’d hoped this week would help smooth things over. Give the two of you time, space, maybe even a second chance.

Instead, the villa is one long tension headache. Everyone feels it. The shared kitchen’s become neutral ground. The pool? A war zone. You barely speak unless you have to, and even then it’s clipped, tight. You both keep pretending everything’s fine, but the cracks are showing.

So when Donovan corners you in the kitchen after dodging yet another round of pointed questions from Nick’s mom, he doesn’t try to spin it.

"Look," he sighed, leaning on the counter, arms crossed, expression guarded. "Don’t read too much into it, but maybe we could... pretend to be a couple? Just to get everyone off our backs."

It’s a stall. A survival tactic. Because the wedding’s still a week away, and the two of you need to stop the urge of wanting to strangle each other every five minutes.