“First of all, no one will believe I broke up with you.” He shook his head, like the idea was unfathomable. “Second, why do we need to do this?”
“Everyone in the world thinks we’re dating.” Was it possible that ocean water had sunk through his ears and into his brain? Did he need medical attention? “Now that we’ve left the resort, we can put an end to it. Or just make them think we dated briefly.”
Noah shoved his phone into his pocket. Honestly, it was a miracle that thing was still working after he fell into the ocean with it. “Or,” he said slowly, “we can let them go on thinking we’re dating.”
Scratch my earlier thought. I must be the one who had ocean water in the brain. “What?”
“If we continue to fake date, I can post about you, too. You’ll get tons of new followers and drive traffic to your blog.”
“What blog?”
“Yourblog.” He put his hand on my shoulder. “It’s now or never. If I’ve learned anything about you this weekend, it’s that you’re letting other people decide what direction your life goes in. I think you should go after what you really want. I’ll help you.”
Oh, shit. Was this happening? Was I finally going to take the leap and start my own blog?
“What do you want in return?”
He dropped his hand. “I want your help, too. I have no idea what I want to do after the road trip. Unlike you, I have no direction in my life, and it’s time for me to change that.”
I exhaled slowly and rubbed a hand at the base of my neck. Would the public believe it? What reason would someone like Noah have to date me and me him? As the resident conspiracy theorist, Ariadne would say that many famous couples were faking it. If larger celebrities could do it, then why couldn’t we?
Maybecouldversuscouldn’twasn’t the real problem. The problem was if weshoulddo it. It would help Noah, and it would really, really help me get a new blog started.
God, I couldn’t believe I was considering this.
“Okay.” I met Noah’s eyes. “If we did agree to fake date, how would we go about it?”
“The setup is already there,” he said. I thought of the photo Opal Serenity posted of us and all the questions I’d have to field once we landed. “All we need to do is continue the cute online presence and go out once a week together so people think we’re on a date.”
Simple enough, but I wondered how this would impact Noah and me. We’d been getting along well, and I didn’t want to ruin that. I liked to think that I could conquer my unreciprocated crush on him and that we could be friends. Go on runs together. Cook matching savory and sweet breakfast foods together. Occasionally make out.
Wait, friends didn’t do that.
Fake dating could change things for the worse, but it could also be a bonding opportunity. Sure, it would be the most bizarre bonding ever, but those were where the memories were, right?
I was crazy for considering this. Certifiably insane.
“It could work…” I debated. “We’d need a few ground rules, though.”
“Like?”
“One, we shouldn’t see other people. Your followers are probably more skilled than the FBI and they’d find out immediately.”
Green eyes narrowed. “I don’t cheat, Macey.”
I couldn’t help but flinch. Hadn’t my ex once said the same thing? Noah had proved to me that he was different—and that not all influencers were the same—but it was difficult to believe that unwaveringly.
“It’s not technically cheating since we’re not together.”
Noah only glared back at me.
“Second, we should have an end date, so we can plan out how much content we need and how many dates we need to go on. Do you have one in mind?”
He thought it through, tilting his head. “How about May 15? Right before my road trip.”
That was two months from now. Plenty of time to convince the world that we were in love and then fell out right when the honeymoon period ended.
“That works.” I held out a hand, which he took. “So we’ve agreed on our fake dating plan?”
