Page 41 of Four Steps to the Perfect Fake Date

“I wanted to talk to you about something.”

“What’s that?”

“Just a question I had,” he said. “I’m at your place.”

“I’m not home,” she answered. “I’m busy.”

Frowning when he heard a voice in the background that sounded older and female, Calvin grunted and headed for the driver’s door ofhis truck. “Busy sitting outside my mother’s house in a car with your grandmother and her friends?”

“What?” Daphne’s voice went up two octaves. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

She was a terrible liar. “You’re a terrible liar.”

“Oh, you’re breaking up. I gotta go!” And the line went dead.

Ceecee was staring at him, eyes wide. “Who was that?”

“She was sitting in the back seat of that car.”

“Who is it?”

“Daphne Davis,” Calvin replied through clenched teeth.

“Oh, your girlfriend!”

Turning to meet his sister’s gaze, Calvin frowned. “What?”

“Mom was soooooo shocked when she heard. But then she got all happy because she said you were settling down. And then she tried to play it cool, but I could tell she was all over the place.”

“What does ‘all over the place’ mean?”

“She asked me if I wanted a snack like seventeen million times.”

Calvin huffed. It didn’t sound like the mother he’d grown up with, but what did he know?

“Is she really your girlfriend?”

“Who?”

“Daphne. Is that why she was spying on you? She wanted to see what you were up to.”

“No,” Calvin replied, then paused. He didn’t know what Daphne had been doing. “It’s complicated.”

“Are you in love with her?”

“What? Why are you asking me this?” He drove down the street and turned toward one of the main arteries through town. Where would they have gone? Mabel’s house, or one of the other two?

“It’s just that usually, people date people they love.”

“Not always.”

“So you don’t love her?”

“I—Ceecee, drop it, okay?”

“Mom said Jenna Deacon had been asking about you, but she was happy you’d been telling the truth about having a date.”

“Of course I was telling the truth,” Calvin grumbled, even though he hadn’t been. “Did she not think I could find a date on my own? And what do you mean, Jenna Deacon was asking about me?”

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