“Well, that fixes that problem. How many dates total? I’m assuming you want more than just the one?”
I thought about it, biting my lip. “Maybe two dates plus the dance?”
He nodded. “Works for me.”
I was done sifting the sugar by then, so I jotted down parameter six.Two dates, plus the Nerd Prom.
“And pictures at each date?”
“More than that. People need to believe we’re serious. How about one picture a week? We can take it here at the shelter. Plus, one picture at each date. Eight pictures total.”
He nodded. “Fair.”
I wrote:Eight pictures together for social media.“What else?”
“What about PDAs?” Daniel said.
Oooh, that was a good point. “I assume you mean public displays of affection?” I asked.
“Yup. At the dance, how handsy are you going to be? And how handsy do you want me to be?” He waggled his eyebrows.
I rolled my eyes.
He laughed. “Kidding, kidding. No one needs to be handsy. But ... I assume we’ll need to dance at this dance. Should we keep two meters apart?”
“No, of course not. How about twonormalslow dances?”
“Works for me. Only PDA will be dancing,” he said.
I frowned. “I don’t think that will believable. Maybe ...” I paused to think. I couldn’t believe this was happening. I was supposed to be with Devin forever, or at least until university. Now I was negotiating physical contact for a fake relationship with a hockey player. “Holding hands?” I asked. “Anything else, we ask first. How does that sound?”
“Perfect.” He grinned. The timer went off for the brownies, so he put on oven mitts and took the trays out. He put them on racks on the counter in front of me. They smelled like absolute heaven. “We need to let these cool a bit before we even think about cutting them,” he said.
“The hard part will be not eating them.”
He laughed. “I have great self-control. I worked in a bakery, remember? I don’t think anyone’s ever used me to be more popular before.”
I frowned. That wasn’t really what I was doing, was I? “It’s not really to be more popular. More like ...” I paused, thinking. “To not be seen as a loser. I really don’t want to be single at the dance if Devin is there with Hana. Everyone will be staring at me to see if I’m crying again when they slow dance. Earl’s Whispers said you were an upgrade to Devin Kapadia, so maybe they will stare at him when we dance instead.” I shrugged. “Plus, this will make Devin mad.”
Daniel grinned widely. “Ah. I love a little bit of pettiness.”
“So we have a deal?” I asked.
He shook my hand. “This is going to be fun. We have a deal.”
After the brownies cooled, and we’d sugared the lemon squares, we packaged them all up for Andre to take to the sale the next day, then said good night to Andre and Muniba.
On the walk to the bus stop, Daniel suddenly leaned close to me and flashed one of those whole-face, dimpled smiles. “Shall we get our first relationship picture with no photo manipulation needed? Lean in.” He held his phone out in front of us.
He texted me the shot right after he took it. Our heads were almost, but not quite, touching in the picture. My smile felt a little out of practice, but I knew his would more than make up for it.
“One down, seven to go,” Daniel said. “We should give this arrangement a code name in case we have to talk about it in front of others. How about ...Operation Lemon Squares.Lemonsquaresfor short.”
I snort laughed at that. “Sure. Whatever.”
“Yay! Okay, see you next week, Count!”
He headed across the street to catch the bus going in the other direction, that smile never leaving his face.
