“Well then, as my boyfriend”—yeah, I like the sound of that—“you’ll have to watch it with me. No ifs, ands, or buts. Got it? Good talk. I need to clean.”
Anna tries to walk around me, but I grab her forearm and stop her, but then I drop it, realizing it’s the arm she got the tattoo on. “How’s your arm?”
“Sore. I still can’t believe we did that.”
I glance at my covered arm then back at her. “Believe it because we did and it’ll be on you forever.”
“I’m just glad it’s cute and not something ugly or ridiculous like a jellyfish.”
“Hey.” I feign offense. “They happen to be really fucking cute.”
She laughs and I do too. “Yeah, I guess they are.” She holds my stare and suddenly everything is white noise and nothing matters. It’s just her and me. This feels good. “I really need to clean now.”
“I already did it.”
“What?” She’s staring at me, unblinking and shocked. “You did what?”
“I cleaned. You’re my girlfriend,” I start. “It doesn’t feel right that you’re cleaning my place and?—”
“I’m notreallyyour girlfriend, and I get paid to do this, Sylas.”
There’s an ugly dip in my stomach. “I know we’re not real, but it still doesn’t feel right. So don’t worry about it. Although it definitely doesn’t look anywhere as good as you do, but it’s clean and that’s good enough for me.”
She still looks stunned but recovers. “I really need this job. If I’m not cleaning and Michael finds out, I’ll get fired.”
“Then don’t tell him. I won’t. What he doesn’t know won’t hurt him.”
“Your parents pay him to pay me. This doesn’t?—”
“Money is the least of my parents’ worries.” I realize how pompous that sounds, but it’s the truth. There’s no point in downplaying it. “Don’t worry about it. I’m not going to tell them.Either way, this is my home. What I decide to do with it is on me.”
She looks uncertain.
“I swear, the last thing I want to do is get you in trouble.”
Anna’s still quiet, so without thinking I grab her hand in mine like I did yesterday. She doesn’t jerk it away, so I think that’s a good sign.
“Let’s pretend.”
“Hmm?”
I rub circles on her now warm hand. “This…us. Let’s pretend it’s real. That we are in a relationship and because we are in one that means we need to have trust. So trust me. No one has to know what we do.” I inch closer, tucking the long piece of her bang behind her ear. “Either way, everyone already thinks we’re in one. So let’s pretend we are.”
“Sy—Sylas,” she stammers, smiling disbelievingly.
“I know it sounds crazy, but just think about it. We can make it work.”
Anna mulls it over, sucking her bottom lip into her mouth. “I don’t know…do you think we can really play pretend? What if you get tired of me? Or what if I get tired of you? Or what if?—”
“What if this all works out? It’s just pretend, and once the semester is over, we’ll mutually split. Come on, Anna, let’s pretend.”
“I-I really don’t know…” She clicks her tongue.
“Let’s do a little trial.”
She chuckles. “A trial?”
“AChristmastrial. We’ll see how things play out this month. If everything works out, we keep it up, and if things don’t, then we don’t.” It sounds really stupid when I think about it, but what’s the worst that’s going to happen? I’ll fall in love?
