Page 21 of It Was Always You

"Seriously? You’re, like, absolutely no help here," I said.

Her head fell back as she laughed. "Fine. If you aren't comfortable with that, just invite him over and tell him you want to go over some rules or something. He plays sports, so tell him you want to have a game-planning session.”

I sighed. "You think that’ll work?"

She smiled. "It's worth a shot. And make sure you tell him kissing is mandatory. At all times."

"Juliette!" I scolded.

She laughed again. "Okay, do whatever you're comfortable with. But try to be open to possibilities. I mean, it's not every day that you have an opportunity like this. Make it count.”

"Okay, I'll try that.” She may have only been six months older than me, but that whole year she had ahead of me in school really had given her a lot more experience with guys than I had.

"And make sure to keep this going as long as you can. I want to see this show of yours when I get home in two weeks. Okay?"

I laughed. "I'll do my best."

"Au revoir." She blew me a kiss through the phone.

"A bientôt," I replied, happy I'd get to see her soon.

After endingmy call with Juliette, I paced around my room for fifteen full minutes, trying to summon the courage to text Noah about "game planning" this new arrangement of ours.

I should be a lot cooler about this, since it was fake, but every time he said something about my crush on him in the past, I was scared he'd be able to see just how true his words were. Ihadcrushed on him growing up. Five long years’ worth of crushing on Noah. But I had finally bit that bad habit in the bud and had moved on a year ago.

I couldn't have him figure out that it was ever true, or that a tiny piece of me might still be just a little attracted to him.

Yeah, he definitely couldn't find that out or he was sure to make our fake-dating scheme a whole-lotta painful for me and a whole-lotta fun for him.

But we still needed to talk somewhere private, where we wouldn't have any prying eyes and ears discovering what was really going on.

So I clicked send on my message.

Me:Can you come over? I think we need to set up some ground rules.

Noah:Ground rules? Those don't sound like any fun.

Of course. Rules were like a bad word to guys like Noah. He was all about breaking them.

Me:Ground guidelines then?

I could just picture him laughing at this. He had a nice laugh. It was deep and full and did funny things to my insides.

I waited for him to respond, but when I didn't see any conversation dots, I texted him again.

Me:My dad is making meatloaf, potatoes, and carrots for dinner. We can eat first.

He was like a bottomless pit. I probably should have offered food in my original message.

My phone chimed almost instantly.

Noah:What time is dinner?

Yep, I should have definitely mentioned food first. I'd know better for next time.

Me:6:30

Noah:I'll be there.

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