"The second one. The actual flight's at ten, and then through the magic of time zones I,we,get in at noon or something even though it's a six hour flight."
"'Kay. That gives the afternoon to mock up two months' worth of photographs. Are you a 'takes pictures every day' person? Here, hang on." Luke got his phone out and lifted it, snapping a picture as Sabrina first struck a pose, then made a face.
"No, I'm not that into pictures of people. But if we take a pile of them now they'll all show up on my phone in a big bunch, which will look like we took them all at the same time. Because we did."
"I have evil software that will change photo dates in the meta data so they'll show up in the right places. Of course I would never use such a thing for nefarious purposes, but…" Luke placed a hand over his heart. "If I'm going to be a fake boyfriend, I'm all in."
And hoo boy, looking at Sabrina Keep in that cute little sundress sure did make him want to beall in, but that wasn't the kind of thing a polite man should say to his fake girlfriend. Luke tried, with some success, to drag his mind away from those kinds of thoughts as Sabrina got her phone out, took a picture of him with his hand over his heart, and laughed.
"I won't ask where you got that kind of software, or why, but okay, yeah, if you've got it, let's use it. So we met at the Fourth of July parade, but I'm sure I didn't take any pictures of you then. We might have gone for a couple of hikes, though, that I'd take pictures during? You know, past the first date so it's worth burning the pixels on you?"
Luke obligingly did a theatrical flex. "Baby, you know I'm always worth burning pixels on."
"You're not wrong," Sabrina murmured, then, aloud, said, "Wait, I gotta get that too," and took a picture of him flexing. "I should just sendthat, and tell them I won't be making it to the wedding after all. They'll understand. Except they totally wouldn't, so where can we fake hiking pics? And I should change clothes…"
"Tell you what, we'll both need some changes of clothes, and the fair is on, so what if we grab some outfits, go out to the fair for a few pics, then head up to the mountains for the hiking pictures, and then maybe just do some around town? How many do you need?"
"Most of the pictures I take are of architecture," Sabrina admitted. "My friends give me a hard time about it, but it meansthey won't necessarily expect tons of boyfriend snaps. Although I've never had a boyfriend who looked like you."
"Is that good or bad?"
"Oh, it's definitely bad for me. I should be so lucky as to have had a string of boyfriends as gorgeous as you are. What about you?"
"None of my boyfriends have been half as hot as I am."
Sabrina double-took and shouted laughter. "Really?"
"A hundred percent. Probably because I've never had a boyfriend."
She laughed aloud again as they crossed the square. "I'm going to assume that's because you've never wanted one, because I'm pretty sure if you did you'd have them lining up around the block."
"You're right about the first part, at least. Look, I live over there," he said with a nod to the B&B, which hid their house behind it. "Where are you staying?"
"Oh, my apartment is…" Sabrina waved the other direction. "Why don't we get your stuff first and then drop by my place? Do you drive? I've noticed a lot of people don't, especiallyintown. It's very walkable."
"I've got—" Luke caught himself. "I've got a motorcycle if you're into that, or I can borrow Emmy's car."
Sabrina's eyes went round. "Will you think less of me if I admit I've never been on a motorcycle?"
Luke, thinking of her arms around his waist and her curvy body pressed up against his back, cleared his throat. "No. No, I won't. But I know a lot of people aren't comfortable with them, and…" He sighed, glancing at her sundress. "That's not warm enough for a long motorcycle ride, not even on a day like today. And it doesn't offer any coverage if there's an accident. Not that I'm going to crash!"
"But I'd look hot as hell posing with your bike in it, wouldn't I?" Sabrina said with a sly grin.
Luke nearly tripped over his own feet. "Ah. Yes. Yes, you would."
Ten minutes later, Sabrina Keep was posing on, and with, his motorcycle like a professional model. Luke knew enough to use the 'portrait' setting on his phone to get a soft, out-of-focus look to the open garage the bike sat in front of, but the farther Sabrina's skirt climbed up her thigh, the harder it was to remember that he was afakeboyfriend. And he'd only been a fake boyfriend for about half an hour now. He didn't know how he was going to survive a long weekend justpretendingto be intimate with the gorgeous, grinning woman winking at him as she straddled his bike.
His rabbit, almost always supportive, alternated between,You can do it! You can do anything! She's into it! You're into it! It's great!and a very confused,She's your mate, why are you only pretending she's your girlfriend?
Luke, his attention going back and forth between Sabrina vamping it up on the bike and his camera, trying to frame those vampy pics as well as she deserved, said,Humans don't always want to learn about mates first thing, a little feebly.Especially humans looking for a fake boyfriend…
That doesn't make any sense,his rabbit said airily.She's into you. She'll like having you for a real boyfriend. Then you can make lots of babies.
Luke yelped, "No!" out loud, and Sabrina, alarmed, sat up with her hands lifted as she glanced around a little wildly.
"Did I do something? Did I break something? Was I not supposed to touch that? I don't even know what I touched!"
"No, you…" Luke couldn't think of a good reason to have randomly yelled 'no' at her. "Uh. Your skirt went really high? I don't want to be a weirdo creepy fake boyfriend?"
