Page 32 of Once Upon a Fake Date

“Thank you,” I whispered, not having enough words.

“Of course,” he murmured back, his lips pressed against my hair.

I could almost imagine him pressing the faintest of kisses into the crown of my head. But I knew that wasn’t what this was between us. And that was okay. I was under no delusions about our friendship or what I expected from him. I was just glad he was back in my life.

As we pulled away, I shook my head. “You have no idea how much this means to me. Really, I can’t thank you enough.”

“You don’t have to, Audrey.” He squeezed my shoulder. “That’s what best friends are for.” He lifted a to-go bag. “Plus, I brought sustenance.”

“Oh, good.” I reached for it greedily. “I’m starving.” Biting my lip, I looked between us and the sorority house. “Do you want to… come inside?”

The house was quiet since most of the girls were still out for the afternoon.

Which was good, because I wanted somewhere private to have this conversation. At least, not on campus, where I had to worry about someone listening in.

Parker blinked. “Really? That’s not like, against the rules?”

Laughing, I shook my head. “Only if you tried to stay overnight after curfew.” Not that I’d ever had a guy over before. When Duke and I had been dating, I hadn’t had a room to myself, and he’d wanted us to spend all our time at his place. “Then Ilene would have some words for you.” While I loved our sorority advisor, Ilene was not one to mess with the rules.

Even though I knew for a fact that last semester, when Ella had been in bed sick with a fever, Cam had definitely spent the night taking care of her.

So I left my door open as I let Parker enter my space. He let out an amused chuckle, and I wondered what it looked like from his eyes. After Ella had moved into her own room, I’d lucked out without another girl moving in and had taken over the rest of it.

My bulletin board was decorated with pink roses and bows that I’d tied myself. I had a stack of friendship bracelets from the Taylor Swift concert last year on the corner of my desk. There was pink everywhere: my bedspread, the tiny pink bow pillow—even in the little paintings I’d added to the walls. The details that made this place feel like mine.

“I like it,” Parker finally said.

“Yeah?” I mumbled. “It’s not too much pink?”

He blinked. “Is that possible?”

I shrugged. I’d been told I wastoo muchmore times than I could count. Maybe at some point, I’d started believing them.

Parker’s gaze zeroed in on my desk. “What’s all this?” he asked, running a finger over the basket and craft supplies.

“Oh.” He wouldn’t know since this was his first year at CU. “Every year, we do a Valentine’s Day date auction to raise money for our philanthropy. Each sorority sister takes part. I’m just trying to get a head start. That way, I don’t have to do it at the last minute in a few weeks.” The semester was already flying by fast enough as it was.

He raised an eyebrow. “So someone… buys a date with you?”

I picked up the spool of pink gingham ribbon I was using to weave through the basket. “Yeah. We make a basket, and then whoever buys it gets to go on the date we planned.”

“Huh.” Parker looked intrigued. “And what is yours?”

Blushing, I fiddled with the ends of the bow instead of looking at him.

“Come on,” I said, wanting to avoid the rest of the conversation. Telling him about my date felt too personal. Because then I’d also have to admit who I’d been picturing when I planned it. “We should eat.”

He seemed to accept it, dropping onto the bed across from mine. It was hard to ignore how big Parker was when he lounged on it. I grabbed the paper bag I’d carried inside, pulling out sandwiches and bags of chips. I read the labels on them, tossing Parker his usual order. My heart felt warm as I realized he’d ordered mine for me, too.

It was strange to think that in a year of dating Duke, he’d never once ordered me food without asking me what I wanted.

And yet, after less than three months since we’d started hanging out again, Parker had memorized what I liked to eat.

Even though it was such a small thing, a gesture that shouldn’t mean anything, it did.

Because it was becoming more and more apparent to me how Duke had never been a good match for me. How he’d never cared about me the way I’d cared about him. Maybe it was just a status thing for him like I was Elle inLegally Blonde. Some pretty blonde he could have on his arm when he was a hotshot businessman.

And I knew in my heart that Parker was nothing like that.

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