Yes or no, Lilah?
“I can’t believe I’m even considering this,” I said finally.
Tino grinned. “So you are considering it.”
“I didn’t say yes.”
“You also didn’t say no.”
I sighed. “You’re infuriating.”
“And yet, here we are.”
I gave him a look. “You realize how bad this could go, right? What if people actually believe it?”
“Well that’s kind of the point.”
“I’m serious,” I said because he clearly wasn’t thinking through potential consequences. “This could get messy. What if it breaks up the friend group?”
“I wasn’t thinking we’d lie to them. I doubt any of them would believe the timing even if we did. They’ll just be in on it.”
“The more people who know a secret, the more likely it is to get out.”
He cocked his head. “What exactly do you think would happen if anyone found out? If anything, we’re just going along with the joke. I don’t think it can be worse than it is now.”
Good point.
I leaned back against the shelf, letting my head thud lightly against the metal. “You really think fake dating is the best solution?”
He shrugged. “I think it’s the easiest one. Minimal drama.”
I snorted. “This is literally the opposite of minimal drama.”
“Okay, yeah, fair.” He laughed. “But it’ll give you control back. Right now, the rumour’s controlling you and this way, you get to decide the story.”
I blinked at him. That… actually made sense. “I hate that you might be right.”
“Say that again?” he said, putting a hand around his ear like he wanted to hear me better.
“Don’t push it.” I studied him, imagining how this might go. What it would be like to pretend to be his girlfriend, even if it would only be for a couple of weeks. “This might be good for us, you know.”
He raised his eyebrows. “Yeah?”
“Uh-huh. You’ll get to see how incompatible we are. Which might finally cure you from needing to ask me out every other day.”
One side of his mouth tugged up in a smile. “Bold of you to think there’s a cure.”
“You’ll see.”
“You’re really that convinced we wouldn’t work?”
“Completely.”
He smiled faintly. “Then let’s test the theory.”
He went to stand, but I pulled him back down. He looked at me with a confused frown.
“Before we can do this,” I said, gesturing between us, “we need rules.”
