With his thumb and forefinger, Cole gently tilts my chin up to meet his eyes. “Darling, I’d be so in love with you, even you wouldn’t be able to tell what’s real or not.”
Caden looking at me like I hung the moon has always been exhilarating, sure, and I’m obviously disappointed I won’t be showing him around my hometown, but Cole subjugating himself to the same challenge when all he’s done is look down on me is a solid consolation prize.
Footsteps echo closer in the hallway. A familiar tap tap tapppity tap I’d know belongs to my mother from anywhere.
“Fine, you can come,” I say with a casual shrug, trying to mask my desperation.
He shakes his head. “I’m going to need more than that. A few days ago you said I’d be the last person on earth you’d willingly date, so come on. Make a guy feel wanted.” He winks.
“Hello, you two!”
I’m about to tell him how I really feel, but before the words can come out, he clicks his tongue, his eyes glinting with a playful challenge. “Sounds like she’s getting closer.”
“Maybe I’m breaking up with you.” I hiss.
“Right before I meet your family? At Christmas? Seems a little too cold even for you.”
Damn it, he’s right. I’d never hear the end of it.
“Maybe I caught you cheating.”
The light in his eyes dims, replaced by something annoyed. Serious. Determined. “I’d never fucking cheat on you. I won’t go along with it.”
“Natalie D’Amore, let’s go. Don’t make me walk down this whole hallway. What is wrong with you?”
Cole leans in. “Just say the magic words and make your mama proud, Natalie.”
With a gigantic roll of my eyes, a venomous, overly sweet smile stretches wide across my face. “Dearest Cole. Please, I’m begging you. Will you do me the great honor of being my very fake boyfriend for a week?”And potentially my first real murder victim?
“There’s a good girl.” He winks, leaning in and pressing his lips to my hair. “Ungrit the teeth,” he whispers.
“I’ll unclench them in a few weeks when this nightmare is over, or when I’ve killed you and your brother,” I hiss back.
“You’re welcome for bailing you out.” I can feel a rare smile form on his lips against my skull. “Come on, sugarplum,” he laces his fingers with mine, pulling me down the hall towards my mother. “It’s time you showed me off to your parents.”
CHAPTER
FIVE
Like many students on campus,I have mostly complaints for the Pine Valley Diner. The pleather seats are flaking. Smoke lingers in the wood panels from when people avidly smoked in here in the 1970s. And decades of maple syrup coat the tables—a hazard to anyone who dares rest their bare skin on them. But there are pancakes as big as my face, glistening with syrup, butter, a mountain of whipped cream, and sprinkles available day or night.
And that’s something.
Even if the staff is staring at us because my mom called and forced an unsuspecting waitress to reserve a table for us…at a shitty diner. In her defense, if my dad waits any longer than three minutes for a table he crosses his arms, forces his face into the ultimate entitled-man scowl, and huffs out a weighty sigh.
Considering we have an audience, I should try to eat with more grace. But there are pancakes. As big as my face. So, like the feral creature I am, I saw into my stack with my knife and stuff the first bite of fluffy buttermilk goodness in my mouth, ignoring the stares.
My current plan of attack is to stuff as many things as possible into my pancake hole—nope, regret that one—asquickly as possible, and then make a beeline for my apartment with my parents, ditching Cole, who’s strategically seated to my left, in the escape.
He looks like he’s quick, but maybe if I do something to get him off his axis, like ordering the entire chocolate whipped cream pie and then satisfyingly smashing it into his face, I can get away.
Will I have to explain why I pie’d my boyfriend? Maybe.
In this scenario, I’m counting on my parents’ ability to recognize that, despite their best efforts, I turned out to be a menace to society and therefore do things like pie-and-dash the people I supposedly love.
My mom wraps her hands around a thick beige diner mug and slowly savors her steaming coffee. Her face is etched with confusion from the plot twist hurled at her the minute Cole extended his hand for an introduction.
“Cole? Really? Natalie, I could have sworn you said you were dating a Caden. Did you think it was Caden, Gary?” She glances at my dad blowing his nose, a mound of paper diner napkins slowly growing next to him.
