Page 20 of The Game

“At your service.” He gets an awkward salute to match my awkward words. “I’m here for you.” I don’t want to owe him, or anyone anything, so if I can help him out somehow, that’ll even us up.

“Ok, so you know how we both seem to have problems with our exes right now?”

“Yes.” Where is he going with this?

“I was thinking of something one of my teammates said, about how I need a girlfriend.”

He had me leaning in, hanging on his words, but this, this has me pulling back, wary. I shake my head. “I’m not looking to date. We talked about that.”

He’s shaking his head, leaning back. “No. I’m fucking this up. Sorry. That’s what makes this so perfect. You aren’t looking to date, I’m not looking to date, but we both need an excuse to keep our exes away, right?”

The words dangle in the air on the verge of forming a coherent thought, but remain elusive.

He leans forward again. “What if we pretended to be dating? It would keep our ex’s off our backs, hopefully, and we could still hang out. Try out this friend thing.”

The silence must have stretched on for longer than I thought, because he’s shaking his head again. “Now that I say that out loud, it sounds crazy. I have no idea what I was thinking. I’m sorry. I’ll let myself out.”

He stands up, swiping his hands down the front of his pants, but the words finally sink in, so I hold up my hands to prevent him from taking off. “No. It’s not. Fake dating. That’s totally a thing.”

“Really?”

I shrug, smiling. “In books and movies.”

“What? Really? Is that common?”

“Yeah. Fake dating, fake engagements, fake marriages. Totally the stuff of romance tropes, and with Jordan as my friend, I know all about those. Of course, in books the fake dating always turns to real dating, but I guess that’s the fictional part.”

He still looks a little sheepish, but the shine of eagerness is back in his eyes. “So, do you think it might work? Are you interested?”

I tilt my head up to stare at the ceiling. Can we do this for real? It would be helpful to keep Darryl away. Not that I need an excuse to say no to him. But if he sees me with another guy, it might deter him from the relentless pursuit he’s already started only a couple weeks into the school year. And I did want to hang out with Cole some more. He seems like a cool guy. And yes, he’s attractive. I can look at him and see the objective handsomeness of that face, but I barely know him. If we’re hanging out, I can quickly move him into the friend zone. Keep him at a distance.

“Yes.”

“Really?”

“Yes. I think it’s a great idea.”

“Cool. Awesome. Then should we shake on it or something?” He still looks a bit like he’s in shock. Like he’s surprised I agreed to his impulsive plan.

I stick out my hand, and we shake on it. “Should we make some sort of a plan? Like, how is this going to work?”

“I don’t know. You signed up for Walk Safe. I’ll make sure I’m your trainer. We’ll have a few hours together, so why don’t we make a plan then? In the meantime. Some of the team made plans to go bowling. Would you maybe be interested in coming with us? That would be a good way to introduce you to them. Get the ball rolling, so to speak. Sorry, that wasterrible.”

“When?”

“Oh. Tonight. Sorry. I wasn’t thinking. You probably already have plans. Don’t worry about it.”

Oh, just let me check my packed social schedule. Nope. I’m free and clear, but should I admit that? Kind of makes me look a little pathetic. At least it’s a weeknight, and I do love bowling. “Actually, I’m free.”

“Good. Cool. I’ll pick you up at seven?”

“I can meet you there.”

“No. Remember, I’m your boyfriend now. I can pick you up.”

“Sure.”

I let him get up for real this time, springing up after him. “Wait.”

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