Annabeth checked and rechecked the tickets in her hand. The 5:15PM Long Island Rail Road from Penn Station to Montauk. Platform 7. She had that info submitted to memory from the moment she bought the tickets. Her phone buzzed. Her hand flew to her jacket pocket. A boarding notification. She exhaled, glad it wasn't the "Hey, this plan is crazy and so are you, I'm out!" text she had been expecting.

"Annabeth?"

She whirled around, dragging her suitcase along with her. Oh gods, he was taller than she remembered. And much more handsome. "Hi."

"Sorry I'm late, babe." grabbed her waist and kissed her.

"Honey, I'm home!" Rachel yelled, kicking off her red rainboots and dumping her keys on the dining table. Annabeth waved at her from the couch, motioning to her phone.

"Who is it?" Rachel asked, already stalking across their apartment to the kitchen to rummage for food.

"Piper," Annabeth mouthed. She covered the receiver, "Rach, if you're looking for the leftovers from yesterday, they're long gone."

"You bitch." She swung open the refrigerator.

"What—No, of course I'm paying attention, Pipes—Yeah, got it, dress rehearsal is at seven, pictures on Sunday at ten."

"Bridezilla come out yet?"

Annabeth rolled her eyes. Piper was the most laid-back bride in the world. She covered the receiver again, "More like Groomzilla." Rachel laughed, as Piper continued to rattle off the list of appointments Jason had asked her to pass along to Annabeth. "Listen, Pipes, I have to go. Facetime me during your fitting tomorrow. Love you. See you soon. Bye."

Annabeth tossed her phone on the coffee table before walking into their tiny, Manhattan-sized kitchen to join her roommate. "How was rehearsal?" Annabeth asked, leaning against the counter as Rachel scarfed down leftovers she managed to dig out of their fridge.

"Terrible. How was your day?"

"Also terrible."

"Why? Remote wedding planning not working out?"

"No, the wedding is going to be perfect. I'm an awesome bridesmaid even though I'm across the country from them. It's just, you know, certain people..."

"Luke."

"Yes, Luke. He's going to be a groomsman now."

"Oof."

"So now I won't just have to bear seeing him at the wedding. He's going to be there all weekend for all the wedding prep."

"I'm sure Piper and Jason will know not to put you in a situation where make you have to interact."

"Still! I haven't seen him since he, you know. And this is the first time I'm going to see so many of our friends again since the breakup. There's no way he's not bringing a date. I can't show my face! My pathetic, single face."

"Then you bring a date! Show up with some hot arm candy and show him."

"The wedding is next week! Where am I going to find a date?"

"Doesn't matter as long as he's hot."

"Also, if I do somehow meet someone in the next week, I can't bring them to a wedding. Wedding's are not first date material. Wedding's say, meet my parents, I want commitment! And we all know how guys feel about fucking commitment," Annabeth spat out, "No guy would go to wedding as a first date."

"He would if you paid him," Rachel scoffed, "Or slept with him."

Annabeth smacked her arm, "Stop joking! You know what, I'm tired of talking about this, it's stressing me out." Annabeth wrenched open the freezer and grabbed her emergency pint of half-baked Ben & Jerry's. "How was rehearsal?"

"Lousy. I still can't believe you're going to miss my show."

"I'm coming to opening night!"

"Yeah, but it's an off-off-Broadway production of Romeo & Juliet I needed you to come every night to fill the house so at least we know for sure we'll have an audience."

"You won't need me. Shakespeare always draw a crowd."

"This is going to be the worst show I've directed ever. Grover got poison ivy, poison oak, and poison fern believe it or not, so I had to find an understudy last minute. I specifically told him not to hook up with his girlfriend in Central Park."

"I'm sure it will be great."

"Let's just hope Juliet doesn't get poison fern."

Annabeth was the only one in a crowd of about seventeen who gave the cast a standing ovation, but she didn't care. In this basement theater of a rec center in Washington Heights, seventeen was basically a full house.

"Great job!" Annabeth said, hugging her roommate and thrusting a bouquet of sunflowers, Rachel's favorite, into her arms. She and a couple of the actors' friends and family members had been invited to the 'cast party' after the show — aka pizza and soda in another room of the rec center.

"Thanks, Annabeth. You really liked it?" Rachel said, beaming as various crew members patted her on the back as they went to grab pizza.

"Yes! The decision to set the play in a post-apocalyptic, Game of Thrones -y Verona was so cool. And the actors were phenomenal. Even when that magician walked right onto the stage. The way they improvised—"

"It's because it's happened before! People also book birthday parties here and they get the rooms confused! During our tech rehearsal, a clown walked in!"

"Well, your show was amazing. I'm so proud," Annabeth said, sincerely. "Your cast was great." Over Rachel's shoulder she spotted the actor who played Romeo talking with brown-haired woman and man with glasses and salt and pepper hair. "Especially Romeo."

Rachel beamed, glancing over her shoulder at him, "I know right! Wasn't he amazing? He's the understudy!"

"No way," Annabeth said. His performance had been captivating to say the least. His monologues as Romeo were enough to make Annabeth swoon.

"His name's Percy," Rachel lowered her voice, "I love Grover, but I'm almost bummed his poison ivy rash is almost cleared up."

"How did you find him?"

"Our theater major alumni Facebook group. He's a friend of Grover's."

"And he willingly memorized a lead part's lines in a Shakespearean play in less than a week?" Annabeth asked, incredulous.

"You know actors, Annabeth, they'll do anything for a gig. Especially a paid one." Rachel said, "I have to go talk to my stage manager, go get pizza!"

Annabeth walked over to the table spread with food. Pizza, chips, various dips, soda, utensils and blue cookies? As Annabeth filled a red solo cup with lemonade, her eye wandered back to Romeo. The couple, his parents she assumed, had left, and he was now chatting with the actress who played Juliet.

He was so handsome. Actors always were. Tall, dark-haired, green-eyed. Dreamy. He definitely would still be taller than her in the stilettos the bridesmaids were wearing. If only she could roll up to the wedding with someone like him on her arm…

Annabeth shoved him away, "What are you doing?"

Percy looked at her, confused, "Um? I'm your…boyfriend?"

"We don't have to start now. Not until we get to the wedding." Annabeth straightened her blazer. She thrusted his ticket into his hands, and extended the handles of her rolling suitcase, "Come on, they've already started boarding."

Percy followed her, smoothly taking her suitcase from her and loading it up the steps of the train for her. She shot him a look.

Percy lowered his voice, following her through the aisle of the train car, "Any of the other wedding guests could be on this same train, we don't want to ruin this before it even starts." Annabeth chose two seats at the back of the train car. She slid into the window seat. Percy lifted her suitcase and his oversized duffle bag into the overhead compartment with ease.

"It's Thursday and the wedding isn't until Sunday. The only people heading up there now are in the wedding party, mostly out-of-towners, and they all flew in this morning," Annabeth said, curtly. She tried to remain cool even though she was feeling so flustered by him. She could barely even look him in the eye. She felt so embarrassed even though this was her damn idea.

"You look very nice."

Annabeth flushed. "Thank you," she muttered. Her hair was frizzy after commuting in the midsummer humidity straight from her office building to Penn Station, but she knew she looked good today. She smoothed imaginary wrinkles from her cream pencil skirt.

His hair was messier and curlier than it was the night of the play, contrary to his Romeo's gelled down locks. He looked so relaxed and cool in a button down with the sleeves rolled up and navy shorts.

"Okay," Percy said, shifting towards her as the other passengers began to fill up the remaining seats. "Debrief me. What's my job? Where am I from? How did we meet?"

Annabeth stared at him. "You're Percy, an actor from New York. We met at my roommate's show." Duh?

"Come on, no cool backstory for me to try method acting?"

"No, the most convincing lies are closest to the truth," Annabeth replied, "And I need this to be convincing."

"I want a challenge."

"Isn't pretending to be my boyfriend enough of a challenge?"

Percy grinned, "Shouldn't be that hard."

Annabeth flushed again, "Then why exactly am I paying you $2,000?"

"Like you said, I'm convincing,"

"Please have your tickets out. Next stop is Babylon."

Annabeth looked out her window as the platform fell away into the darkness of the tunnels. The train gained speed and made its way out of Manhattan.

When Annabeth awoke, the LIRR train was no longer underground, but racing through the tracks of Long Island. The train ride to Montauk was three hours long so the last rays of sun had just disappeared.

Annabeth glanced over at Percy, also was dozing away, head tilted back and mouth fully open. He really was so attractive. Tan, chiseled face with a jaw some women would murder for, but he still had a boyish softness to his expression, especially when he slept.

"Next stop, Montauk."

Annabeth nudged him. Percy blinked groggily and cracked a goofy grin when he saw her looking at him.

"You drool in your sleep."