Page 44 of Once Upon a Fake Date

God, I wanted him to slip his tongue inside. To taste him. Would he taste like coffee and sin? Last time we’d kissed like this, I hadn’t really gotten to explore. To memorize him.

But damn, I wanted to.

This was dangerous.

Because no matter what, he was still just my fake boyfriend.

Everyone whooped and cheered for us, and we pulled apart.

Parker had the faintest blush on his cheekbones, and he ran his hands through his hair.

“Yeah, yeah,” I deflected, trying not to draw attention to how much I liked kissing him. How much I wanted to do it again. Because we were supposed to be dating, so this should be normal.

Even though my racing heart and the butterflies in my stomach told me it was anything but normal.

No one had ever affected me like this.

No one had ever been Parker Maxwell, though.

Every year,our sorority put on a Valentine’s Day Date Auction, with all the money we raised going to our philanthropy. It was one of our big fundraisers of the year, and I’d been working on my basket for weeks. I hadn’t wanted to leave it for the last minute.

There were so many themes in my sorority sister’s baskets: Suzie had a movie date theme with popcorn and candy, while Peggy’s was a pizza night date with all the ingredients to make their own pizzas. There was such a wide variety that my more traditional picnic date felt lame in comparison. But it was fine. Even if no one bid on me, I didn’t care.

Ella stood next to me, wearing a blue gingham dress, peeking out of the curtains like she was trying to see who was out there. Her basket in her arms was for a night under the stars, with a cozy blanket and s’mores supplies.

“Don’t worry,” I said, squeezing her shoulder. “Cam’s here for you.”

“I’m not worried,” she mumbled, letting the curtain drop. I raised an eyebrow, but she said nothing else. But there was no doubt in my mind that her boyfriend would be here for her. She’d spent more time with him this semester than she had with me.

Which, I supposed, was fair, considering I’d been doing the same with Parker.

Was Parker here for me? I’d mentioned it before, and he’d sounded interested, but it wasn’t like I’d sent him a calendar invite or a reminder about tonight.

“I’m really glad you have him.”

She gave me a small smile. “What about you and Parker, huh? I’ve been hearing rumors.”

I blushed, waving her off. “It’s nothing.”

Ignoring the fact that I’d sat on his lap last week at the lacrosse party and he’d taken me out on our first date a few nights ago. Fake date, but that didn’t matter. Not with the way he’d taken everything so seriously. He was the perfect gentleman, and I was pretty sure I was slowly growing obsessed with the way he kept holding my hand whenever we were together.

Like he knew just how comforting his touch was.

Ella looked at me, cocking her head to the side, but I stayed quiet.

“Alright, girls,” Ilene said, ushering us all into our places behind the curtain. “We’re going to start soon. Just like we practiced, okay?”

“Don’t worry, Ilene,” Ella reassured her. “Everything’s going to be perfect. And the room is almost full.”

Our advisor just nodded, letting out a deep breath like she was centering herself. “Everyone ready?”

We all nodded in agreement, and then the event started. One of the fraternity’s advisors had agreed to be the MC for the night, but Ella was up first to introduce the event and our philanthropy since she was the President of our chapter.

“You got this, Ells,” I squeezed her hand. “Go get ‘em, sis.”

She winked at me before stepping out on the stage, tossing the blonde curls that were identical to mine over her shoulder. I’d done her hair and makeup before we’d left the sorority house, and she looked absolutely gorgeous. Well, maybe I was biased, considering we shared the same face. But still, my twin was incredible. Ella liked blending into the background, but she was a born leader. She was fiercely defensive of her friends and she cared more than anyone I knew. But she was also extremely talented and creative.

I hoped that one day, she’d see herself the way I saw her. The way I suspected Cam saw her.

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