Not that I was all that surprised. This wasn’t the first time Simon had done this for me. He’d even remembered what flavors of protein bar I liked.
Of course he had.
“Do you know you’re amazing?”
Simon smiled wryly, rubbing the back of his neck and shrugging. “If you starve to death, I’ll be here all alone.”
I picked the dark chocolate and peanut butter bar off the bed, sitting heavily on the edge of it. The solid warmth of Simon’s body settling beside me cut through the knot in my stomach, and before the mattress had even stopped creaking under his weight, I was suddenly starving.
We sat in silence as I tore the protein bar open and bit a chunk off the end, making a happy noise. Tension ebbed out of me as I chewed, the stress of having been seated between Audrey and my mother beginning to ease.
“Madelaine knows,” Simon spoke up. “That we’re faking.”
I stopped chewing.
“It’s fine,” Simon continued. “I mean, she told me she’s not planning to say anything.”
“What gave us away?” I asked, taking another, more cautious bite.
“You failed to mention me on the drive.” Simon shrugged. “If we’d been dating for real, you wouldn’t have been able to shut up about me.”
“Oh.”
Madelaine knew me better than I’d thought, then. She was right—I had a habit of overtalking about people I was dating.
I didn’t talk about Simon very much to other people at all.
He was mine. About the only thing I really feltwasmine.
I didn’t want to share.
“Like I said, it’s fine, she won’t tell. I guess now I know for sure none of this was premeditated.”
I turned my head to look at him so fast my neck twinged. “You didn’t?—”
Simon waved me off with a laugh. “I knew it wasn’t. Desperate times, and all.”
I wished now that I’d thought to ask Simon to pretend to be my boyfriendbeforewe’d arrived. I hated that I’d sprung it on him, that he hadn’t really had a choice. He theoretically could have asked me what the hell I was doing, pushed me away, but I’d known he wouldn’t. I’d known as soon as I asked him to play along that he would, regardless of how he felt about it.
I tried so,sohard not to take advantage of him, and the fact that I’d done it made my stomach pinch again.
“How was sitting next to Audrey?”
“Awkward. She asked about you, though,” I said, shoving the last of the protein bar in my mouth.
Simon laughed again. “Like,what are you doing with that idiot over there who can’t even wear a suit right?”
I raised an eyebrow, mouth still occupied with chewing.
“Something Madelaine said. I’m, uh. Wearing it like I’m going to prom and it’s my dad’s, apparently.”
I wrinkled my nose. Simon looked great. Okay, he was always a little awkward around my family, but so was I. They were awkward people.
I shrugged, licking chocolate off my fingers. “I think it looks good on you. You’re just not used to it, is all.”
“I think that was her point.” Simon smiled wryly. “Do you want another one of those?”
I turned around to consider the selection still lying on the bed behind us.
