Page 35 of It's Only Make Believe

“Do you want to watch a movie in bed?” she asks.

“No,” I say. I grin at her. “But what I do want to do involves you in the bed, just without the clothes.”

Louisa laughs and when I stand up and drop the towel, she pulls the comforter back and invites me into her bed beside her.

Chapter

Twenty-Five

TIA

Yesterday was the best day ever. Luke and I visited some fantastic places, and the company was obviously good and spending a full day and night together like that and not getting even remotely sick of each other’s company tells me that Luke and I definitely have something special between us. To be honest, I’m kind of missing his presence already and he’s only been gone for like an hour or so.

We woke up this morning and Luke told me to stay where I was. He got out of bed and came back with our half eaten pizza and some orange juice for each of us. We ate the rest of the pizza for breakfast in bed and then we made love. Afterwards, Luke said he had to go because he was having brunch with his mom. For a horrible minute, I had thought he was going to invite me along. I don’t have any issues with meeting Luke’s family per se. As I said, I think we have something special and for all I would normally say it’s far too soon, it doesn’t feel that way for us. But I really don’t want to have to meet Luke’s family as Louisa. It’sbad enough that I have to lie to him, but I think – I hope – that when the time comes, I can make him understand why I had to do this, but I don’t think I could ever make his family understand and I would really rather wait to meet them, but I couldn’t think of a good reason not to go if Luke had asked me. I didn’t want to have to tell him it was too soon, because it’s not how I feel at all.

We are seeing each other again tonight – he said I have to choose what we do because he chose everything yesterday. I’m debating some options when my cell phone rings. I expect it to be Luke, but when I pick it up and look at the screen, it says it’s Justin calling. I press answer and bring my cell phone up to my head.

“Hi,” I say.

“Hey you,” Justin says. “How are you?”

“I’m good,” I say. “How about you?”

“Same, same,” Justin says. “Listen Tia, I’ve met someone. A girl. We haven’t been seeing each other that long, but I really like her, and I think she might even be the one. Would it be weird if I asked you to have dinner with us tonight and meet her?”

I think for a moment. That would solve my problem of what Luke and I can do tonight and it might be nice to meet this girl – she and I could even become friends.

“It’s not weird at all,” I say. “I’d love to meet her. And actually, I’m seeing someone too. We should make it a double date.”

“That works,” Justin says. “What about The Pasta Bowl? I’ll book us a table for eight o’clock.”

“Yeah, that sounds good,” I say. “I’ve never been to the restaurant though.”

“The food is lovely. Obviously Italian. You’ll like it,” he says.

“Tell me about your girl then,” I say.

“Her name is Emily, she’s twenty-three and she’s a teaching assistant in a high school,” Justin says. “She’s really pretty and she’s funny and we seem to have a lot in common.”

“That’s good. She sounds like a good match for you,” I say.

“She is,” Justin says. “What about your new guy?”

“His name is Luke and he’s my boss,” I say. “So, get all of your ick at that situation out now.”

“Hey, no judgement here. As long as you like him and he treats you right, that’s all that matters,” Justin says, and I smile and nod even though he can’t see me.

“He treats me like a princess,” I say. “Something happened at work, and I had to pretend I had diarrhea – I know, don’t ask – anyway, even after that, he still wanted to date me. I reckon that makes him a keeper.”

“It definitely does,” Justin agrees laughing.

“Oh, that reminds me. You’ll have to call me Louisa tonight,” I say. “Do you think you can do that without slipping up?”

“Sure,” Justin says. “But do you really think it’s a good idea to lie to this guy like that if you’re that into him?”

“Probably not,” I admit. “But I don’t really have a choice now and it’s only for a few more weeks.”

“Ok, well see you at eight o’clock then, Louisa,” Justin says, emphasising the name.

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