“You’re wrong, we’re fake dating, which, by the way, thanks for telling Serena before me. I got interrogated like she was the FBI.”
I wince, a twinge of guilt creeping up on me. I was supposed to talk to Alli first about how we’d handle telling our friends, but it just slipped out. “Yeah, sorry about that.”
Alli rolls her eyes, but there’s a hint of a smile tugging at her lips. “It’s fine, really. You kind of relieved me by telling her. I don’t think I could’ve kept a straight face explaining this whole situation.” She exhales and recasts her focus to the snacks. “So, what do we have here?”
I pull out the snacks one by one, setting them on the coffee table. “Popcorn, chips, chocolate, and some sodas. And for dinner, I’m thinking of Chinese food. Figured we’d need a sugar rush to get through our date night.”
She laughs, grabbing a bag of chips. “This is not a date.”
“But we’re in a fake relationship, we need to warm up to doing this in public.”
“That reminds me”—she plops a couple of chips in her mouth—“we should set some rules.”
“Rules? This isn’t a job, Allison.”
“Stop calling me Allison like you’re my father.”
“Okay,Allison, we don’t need rules to fake date.”
“Uh, yes, we do. I’ve known you for years, and I respect you too much to not know what your boundaries are.” She walks over to the couch and gestures for me to sit down.
I peel a textbook off the armrest and set it on the table. “Alright, Alli girl, hit me with it.”
“First, no kissing unless it’s absolutely necessary,” she says, settling down on the couch beside me.
“Define absolutely necessary,” I say, throwing her a teasing smirk.
She levels me with a look. “You know exactly what I mean.”
“We’re fake dating, Alli. We can’t just skip over the couple stuff. Come on, a few kisses aren’t going to ruin our friendship.”
She rolls her eyes while putting the chips on the table. “Okay, fine. We can kiss, hold hands, and all that jazz when we’re in public. But if it’s just us two, keep your hands to yourself.”
I hold out my hands in defense. “Noted. What else?”
“We need to agree on a backstory. How we got together, why we’re together, all that.”
“Sounds fair. What are you thinking?”
“I told Ser that we decided to give romance a chance,” she pauses like she’s deciding on what to say, “and that you’ve been there for me.”
When she says I’ve been there for her, I feel a swell of pride, but there’s also something else—a jumble of emotions I can’t quite place. It’s true, I have been. We’ve known each other forever, and, hell, we’ve even seen each other through puberty and stayed. The idea of us giving romance a shot isn’t entirely outlandish. It’s almost too easy to play along with.
But navigating this fake relationship is going to be tricky. We’ve got to make it believable, and that means trusting each other more than ever.
Without letting my real feelings get in the way.
“Okay,” I say, nodding. “I can work with that. What’s next?”
Alli pauses, her expression turning serious. “Just one more thing. If either of us starts feeling… anything real, we need to talk about it. No hiding.”
“No bullshit. Got it.” I say, leaning forward to grab the remote. “Now, let’s get this show on the road.”
“No, no, no,” she protests, placing her hand over mine as I hold the remote. I feel a quick jolt of energy at the touch, but I shake it off as she continues, “I bought a new puzzle the other day. Want to help?”
“Since when did you start doing puzzles?”
Alli jumps up and heads down the hallway to her bedroom. A moment later, she returns with a box—on the way, sliding books shamelessly onto the floor—then drops it onto the coffee table with a soft thud. She sits cross-legged on the floor, her handsalready pulling open the flaps. She looks over at me, raising an eyebrow, and tosses the box cover into my lap.
