Page 9 of The Guy Who Fake Dated Me

Natalie held on to Kyle’s arm. “I know.”

“Do you want your usual spot?” Martina asked.

“Yes, please,” I said.

“Follow me.” Martina led us toward the far corner, which gave us the best view of the rest of the tables.

I took the time to compose myself. Kyle and Natalie were dating, not getting married. And if, sometime in the future, Kyle proposed, I would be one hundred percent supportive.

The three of us sat, and I pretended to scan the menu while Kyle gave Natalie suggestions on what she might like.

“The chimichangas are amazing, but the fajitas are good too.”

With the way Natalie looked, I’d bet she’d go for the fajitas, eat all of the veggies, a quarter of the meat, two bites of a tortilla, and nothing else.

Don’t do that.

I inwardly winced. I hated it when people judged me by the way I looked, and here I was doing the same to a woman that my cousin clearly liked. I inhaled and told myself to chill out.

As soon as Martina took our orders, Natalie turned to me. “Kyle tells me you guys went through Stanford together.”

“We didn’t plan to, but it ended up that way,” I said. “We both wanted to stay local-ish, and we were both interested in computer science.”

“And you create websites?”

“I do.”

This didn’t seem to phase her like it did other people. Most would give me a confused look and ask me why a woman had wanted to go into a male-dominated field. Others asked me how I was smart enough to do all of that “computerie stuff.”

“What type of websites do you make?” Natalie asked.

“Anything, really. I’m working on one for a small, subscription-based business right now. Last week, I finished up a redesign for a prominent import company.”

Kyle gave me a wide grin. “She does it all.”

I waved a hand. “Enough about me, what do you do?” Kyle had hinted that Natalie came from big money, so I was curious about her job, if she even had one.

Natalie took a sip of water before answering. “I went to school for business, and I’m working with one of my dad’s companies.”

At least she was working.

“She has a masters,” Kyle said. “From Berkeley.”

I made a face. “Can we be friends with her?”

Natalie’s eyes went wide, and she looked a bit panicked.

Kyle laughed. “I’ve completely vetted her, she’s okay.”

“If you say so.” I gave her a dubious expression. “How did you two meet?”

The couple exchanged a doe-eyed look before Kyle answered. “Remember that river rafting trip I took at the end of the summer?”

“The one where your boat turned over and you all fell out?” He’d sent me epic pictures of the event.

“That’s the one.” He draped his arm around Natalie. “Her boat capsized too, and the two of us ended up floating down the river together until we could stop and wait for our crews.”

Kyle had asked me to go on that trip, but I’d declined. Mostly because I couldn’t imagine a scenario where Kyle was involved in which I would have stayed in the boat the whole time, and I didn’t want to think about how badly it would go when someone tried to fish me back out of the water.

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