Tamara: Already on my calendar. Figured you’d get around to asking me.
Me: Thanks T. You’re a lifesaver.
Tamara: Don’t I know it. Your parents going to be there?
I stare at her question,irritated to have forgotten that fun fact. They didn’t used to go, but my parents have made it a point to attend all of the team's required events. I rarely show up to their weekly dinners, and this is their way of still cornering me to get an update and whatever other information they want to know about my life.
Me: Probably.
Tamara: Cool. Semi-modest dress it is.
With a sigh,I toss my phone in my bag and tug on a fresh set of clothes before closing my locker. Turning around, my eyes land on Roman and Emilio. Both are dressed now but giving me expectant looks like they’re waiting for something, but I’ll be damned if I know what it is.
“What?” I brush past them, forcing the pair to keep pace if they have anything else to say.
“Who are you taking?” Emilio asks.
My brows furrow. “Same chick I always take.”
Lines bracket his mouth and his lips tug down at the corners into a frown. Emilio rubs the back of his neck. A nervous gesture of his, but it’s Roman who asks, “You’re not taking baby Henderson?”
Coming to a hard stop, I spin on my heel and turn to face my best friends. I need to lock this shit down right here. Right now.
“What the hell would make you think I wanted to spend my Monday night trapped at a fundraiser with Baby fucking Henderson?” I snap.
Roman’s eyes flash at my tone. “You’ve been spending a lot of time with her.”
“And you’ve always had a thing for the girl,” Emilio adds.
“I did not have a thing for her.”
E rolls his eyes. “Bro, we all went to the same school. Anytime Kasey walked into a room, your eyes were glued to her fucking ass.”
“Your point?” My upper lip quivers into a snarl. “She’s Aaron’s fucking sister. And I’m not the only one who's checked out her ass.” I give both guys knowing looks.
“Neither one of us has ever wanted to fuck her.”
“Thinking and doing are two different things,” I remind him. “I checked out her ass a few times in high school. None of that explains why you’d expect her to be my date. You know I’ve taken Tamara to every athletic function Coach has made us go to since freshman year.”
“Yeah, but you don’t want to fuck her.”
Irrelevant. Tamara doesn’t want to fuck me either. We have a mutually beneficial arrangement. She pretends to be my fake girlfriend at the events and whenever she needs it, I pose for the occasional picture and she passes me off to her family as her long-term boyfriend. We’ve been dating for three years, but have no immediate plans to get engaged because we’re responsible young adults and want to graduate college before embarking on our lives together. We’re career driven the way both our parents expect us to be and so far, no one has questioned the decisions we present.
Tamara has her master’s degree after she gets her bachelors, and I’ll most likely drag my education out and get my MBA. Whatever it takes to postpone the inevitable.
Either way, we have time to drag this relationship out until we break the news to our families that things between us just didn’t work out.
Her parents live in Canada, so pictures and the occasional video call are all I’ve needed to endure. If you ask me, I’m getting the better deal out of this. She shows up to four or five events with me throughout the year and at almost every one of them, she’s forced to play the role of girlfriend. The hand holding. The fake smiles. The occasional kiss. Tamara gets to play at the whole nine yards.
I never planned to make her my fake girlfriend. I only wanted her to stand in as my plus one to athletic events. We met in class and wound up partnering up for labs and realized we got along. A pleasant surprise since I have a hard time tolerating new people. And rarely pass the stage of tolerance and move into liking them. There’s a reason I have three friends in my life. Roman, Emilio, and Aaron. If you count Alejandra and Bibi, I have two more and zero need to add to the list. But T is laid back. Chill.
She was the one who suggested our current arrangement. And it was what we both needed at the time. Still is.
Tamara comes from a conservative family. One who won’t support her actual relationship with Holly Webster, her girlfriend. I’m her hetero stand in at least until she graduates from college. After that, if her parents disown her, she’ll have graduated already and be fine. She already has to foot her own masters degree, so her only goal is to get through this year and the next before she comes out and lets the chips fall where they may.
She wanted a fake relationship. I only needed a stand-in. But then Richard and Sheridan Price came to an annual fundraiser and decided Tamara Vinzent is the kind of woman you settle down with. It was easier to go along with the lie with the added bonus of getting my parents off my back than it was to untangle myself with the truth and risk jeopardizing Tamara’s side of our imaginary relationship.
Mom’s tried setting me up on dates with daughters of her friends from the country club and I’ve wasted a significant amount of my time getting out of them.
