After finding out about your boyfriend’s cheating, your mind races, hurt mingling with anger in a mess you can hardly sort out. But then, a single idea slips into your mind—maybe a little dramatic, definitely unconventional. You sit with it for a moment before deciding there’s only one person you could even ask to help pull this off: Spencer Reid, your boyfriend’s best friend and, ironically, one of the kindest, most thoughtful people you know.

You find him at his place, and his eyes widen the moment he sees you standing at his door, a mix of concern and surprise on his face. “Hey,” he says, voice gentle as always. “You okay?”

As soon as you tell him what happened—about your boyfriend’s cheating, the hurt, the betrayal—Spencer’s brows furrow, a soft anger seeping into his expression. But then you float your idea, and Spencer’s surprised gaze turns into something unreadable.

“So…pretend to date?” he repeats, and you nod, embarrassed by the plan now that it’s out. “Just to get under his skin, make him see he doesn’t just get away with it?”

“Exactly.” You say and Spencer’s face is a mixture of empathy and something else.

Spencer blinked, processing, but before you could add, he was nodding slowly, something unreadable flickering in his eyes. “You really want to do that?”

“Yes,” you replied, nodding with more confidence than you actually felt. “I want him to feel even a fraction of what he put me through.”

After a pause, he nods, his expression softening. “Yeah,” he says, almost too quietly. “Yeah, okay."

A few days passed, and you and Spencer started the act. He was surprisingly natural, resting his arm over your shoulders, whispering comments that would make you laugh, keeping you close with easy affection that almost made you forget this wasn’t real. You were half convinced it was real, which was ridiculous. He was your ex’s best friend, after all.

Then one afternoon, Spencer sent you a text that made your heart race.

| “He invited me over to meet the new girl. Want to come with?"