Page 73 of Pretend Girlfriend

“Why would you do that?” he demanded.

“I don’t know! That’s what I wanted Ezra to do to me, so I did it to him!”

“You wanted him to rub your balls up and down?”

“Yes, that’s clearly what I meant.”

The server cleared her throat; she was standing next to our table, and had been for long enough to hear at least part of the conversation. Both of us giggled together and ordered our food.

“I have a suggestion,” I said. “Let’s eat our dinner quickly, then go sit at the poolside bar to catch the end of the Blackhawks game. They should be in the third period by then.”

“Yes, good, I like the way you’re thinking.” Landon leaned closer. “Counter-proposal: we watch the game right now.”

I looked around. “There was a TV in the bar, but they were showing soccer…”

Landon propped up his phone on the table. “We’re halfway through the first period. Still no score.”

“Okay, I definitely need to drop the L-bomb soon,” I said, “because our fake relationship just got very real.”

He looked relieved. “I’m glad. I wanted to put the game up from the moment we sat down but didn’t know how you’d feel about it.”

“Would it be going too far if I fake-proposed on this trip?” I asked.

“For one thing, the man is supposed to propose. For another, we’ve only been fake-dating for two months.”

“Hey,” I replied, “when you fake-know, you fake-know.”

We watched the game together until our food came, then let it continue playing while we ate. We were waiting for our dessert when Landon looked out toward the entrance of the restaurant, his dark eyes widening.

“Oh my God,” he said. “Turn around right now.”

Austin was walking into the restaurant. He had a frozen margarita in his hand, but his shorts and T-shirt were covered in sweat stains, and his blond hair was dark with moisture. His face was bright red as he looked around the room, his gaze finally settling on our table.

I shared a look with Landon, and both of us fell apart into laughter.

“Hi,” I said when Austin approached our table. “You look like you’ve had an adventure today!”

“That seems to be the case,” he drawled slowly. “Funny thing happened this morning. Front desk gave me a wake-up call. I met in the lobby for the big surprise you told me Danicka had planned. Then I got on a shuttle and we drove two hours. When I woke up, we were in the middle of the jungle and the guide was telling me to hurry up. I hiked all goddamn day.” He stuck out a foot. “In sandals. My entire foot is one giant blister.”

“Wow, you probably should have prepared better,” Landon said calmly.

“I bet it was a beautiful hike, though!” I said cheerfully.

“Oh, yeah. Real nice,” he said. “And it was a bargain at just two hundred dollars.”

I had to bite my lip to keep from bursting out laughing again. Even Landon’s face was red from the effort of keeping his face still.

“The silver lining?” Austin said. “I spent the whole twelve-mile hike thinking about how I was going to get even with whoever signed me up.”

“I feel really sorry for whoever that is,” I replied. “But it sounds like that was payback for something you did. Which means you’re already even.”

“We’ll see about that.” He smiled sweetly and held up his glass. “At least the margaritas here are good. I can barely even taste the alcohol.” He nodded to each of us. “Y’all enjoy your meal. I’m gonna go soak my feet in the pool.”

Somehow, we held our laughter in until he was gone from the restaurant.

31

Joanna

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