Page 34 of My Fake Fiancé

The bathroom is still steamy from Kurt’s shower and the water heats up quickly for me. When I get in, I spend a few minutes just standing under the hot stream, trying to relax after a long stressful day. I try not to think about everything that happened but of course, I can’t stop myself. My thoughts go to Kurt and how he handled Callum’s immature behavior and my tears. It reminds me of when we were younger at his parent’s lake house when he comforted me through the tears and pain. We were just talking about that recently and again he proved that he is great at comforting me through the tears.

Close to the end of my shower routine, I’m brushing my hair and thinking about Kurt. I want to talk to him before bed. I need to hurry up. I finish washing my face and then turn off the shower. I dry off, put my hair up in a towel, and wrap my shower towel around me. I take my time brushing my teeth then peek back into the bedroom. Kurt is facing away from the door and I can’t tell if he is awake or not. The TV is still on, with the volume off but that’s how I left it.

The closet is a short distance away from the bathroom and I’m able to grab a t-shirt, underwear, and pajama shorts. I head back to the bathroom and change quickly, hoping Kurt is still awake. When I go back to the bedroom, I take a closer look at Kurt, his eyes are closed while he breathes deeply.

Darn, I guess I’ll just have to talk to him tomorrow. I sigh quietly before turning off the TV and making my way to my side of the bed in the dark. I slide beneath the covers and turn to face Kurt. He is facing me as well, deeply asleep. I smile.

“Goodnight, Kurt.”

Chapter 33

Kurt

Waking up, I grip my throbbing head. I look over at my alarm clock and it shows that it’s barely past 7 a.m. Turning back over, I see Juliana sound asleep next to me. Flashes of last night come back to me and I remember us kissing. I remember more than just a normal kiss, it meant something to both of us.

Before I can think about it too much, my phone starts ringing. I forgot to turn the ringer off last night so the blaring noise is startling. I quickly turn off the sound and take a peek at Juliana, seeing her stirring from the noise but she only turns over and does not wake up. Answering the call, I hear my mom on the other end.

“Good morning, Kurt.” My mother’s cheery voice comes through the phone loud and clear. I get out of bed and move away from Juliana so I don’t wake her.

“Hey, Momma,” I say, shutting the bedroom door behind me, going to sit on the couch. I prop my feet up on the coffee table and yawn. I start to ask her about her weekend but she continues talking after my initial greeting.

“Are you and Juliana coming to church today?” I can sense she has an ulterior motive when asking this question.

“Uhm, I’m not sure. Juliana is still asleep and honestly, I’m still pretty tired too.’ I rub my eyes and hold back another yawn while I talk. When I finish my sentence though, the yawn escapes.

“I know everyone would love to see you two again. And your father, sister, and I were hoping to take the two of you out to lunch after church.” Ah, there is the ulterior motive. I close my eyes and lean my head back on the couch. “Of course, we want to invite Juliana’s family too. We didn’t really get to spend time with our two families at the engagement party. I talked to Juliana’s mom and she agreed with me. Obviously, if you two have plans today then we can all get together another time but I figured since we will all be at one place today, for church, then we can go out after.”

“Uh, yeah, sure. Church starts at 10 a.m., right?” I look over at the clock and it’s 7:30 a.m. now. I’m still exhausted but I guess I can try to sneak in at least one more hour of sleep.

“Yes, 10 am sharp. Well, not sharp, they usually run a few minutes behind.” My mother pauses. She sounds excited. “Okay well, I will let you go back to sleep but don’t forget about church and lunch today!”

Her excitement elicits a chuckle from me. “Okay, mom. I’ll let Juliana know so she can prepare herself.” This gets a laugh from my mom.

“Okay, honey. See you in a few hours. Love you.”

“Love you too, mom.” I hang up and debate getting up to go back to the bedroom but a headache has come on strong and I just want to go back to sleep now. I quickly set an alarm on my phone to make sure I actually wake up in time to attend church and also give myself some padded time so I can tell Juliana so she’ll have time to get ready as well. I give myself only one hour to sleep, setting the alarm for 8:30 a.m. before tossing it next to me on the couch and falling back asleep.

Chapter 34

Kurt

Waking with a start, I see Juliana standing in front of me. Her hands are on my arm and I can tell she’s just been trying to shake me awake. I sit up and run my fingers over my head, looking around the room.

“Hey, your alarm is going off.” Juliana moves away from me when she sees that I’m awake. I reach over and grab my phone, shutting off the alarm.

I watch Juliana walk around the kitchen and soon the smell of scrambled eggs makes its way to where I sit on the couch. I catch myself from gagging but it does not smell good. Then she starts using the blender. Oh no, why is she doing this to me? Is she doing this on purpose? Did I annoy her or make her angry because of my actions last night? Maybe I don’t want to know the answers to those questions.

I haul myself off the couch and join her in the kitchen. I lean against the counter as Juliana makes breakfast for us. She has two plates set out and two glasses. She blends one more time and I wince. She doesn’t seem to notice though. When she stops blending, she pours equal amounts into each glass and then hands one of the glasses to me.

“Thank you,” I say before taking a sip. She nods and takes a drink from her own glass. I take another small sip then take a bigger one. “Wow, this is really good.” I finish the smoothie quickly and my head is already starting to feel better, even the eggs start to smell alright. I go over to Juliana, peering over her shoulder and wrapping one arm around her waist.

“Eggs?” Juliana offers as she leans back against me, scraping the bottom of the pan and mixing the eggs so they cook evenly. She sprinkles on some cheese, salt, and pepper. Then while she waits for them to finish, she grabs the salsa from the fridge, unraveling herself from my grip.

“Sure, thanks.” Juliana turns off the stove, puts some eggs on each of our plates, and then scoops out some fruit from a bowl that I didn’t even notice we had. We bring our plates to the kitchen table and sit silently eating breakfast together. After a few minutes of silence, I remember that I haven’t told Juliana about church and lunch with our families. “Oh hey, my mom called this morning and wants us to attend church, that’s why I set my alarm. And then apparently, she is setting up a lunch with our families afterward.”

“Oh, okay, sure. What time do we need to leave?” Juliana keeps eating her breakfast but shoots a glance at the clock.

“Church starts at 10 so we probably need to leave about 9:40.” I polish off my eggs and get up to get a second helping. There isn’t that much left so I lift up the pan to offer more to Juliana, she shakes her head no so I dump the rest onto my plate.

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