Page 34 of Falling for your Fake Boyfriend

We’d gotten most of the shards piled on the tray as the new server reached us. A woman who was apparently the catering manager came in next, and my mom was off in a flurry of anger to let the woman know just how upset she was. She would blow this up into a calamity of gargantuan proportions before she was through with her tirade.

I knew every pair of eyes in the room was on Isla and me. I spotted Alex in her teal green sundress out of the corner of my eye. I offered Isla my hand and helped her to her feet. It was the perfect opportunity to show that missing affection my mom had noticed. I leaned over and kissed her cheek and whispered into her ear. “Thanks for reminding me how to be human. I forget far too often.”

Isla blushed. It was the perfect reaction to leave everyone in the room speechless. There were even a few “ahh, isn’t that sweet” comments being bandied about.

Isla and I returned to our lunches. Alex strolled over. She’d pulled on a pair of cowboy boots, designer and very fancy, to pair with the sundress. “That was so cute. I admire your spirit of—you know—oh, what’s the word?”

“Kindness?” Isla supplied.

“Hmm, is that what it was? I suppose so. So, are the two of you singing a duet tonight at the karaoke party?”

Isla turned to me for an explanation. I’d read my mom’s list of activities but hadn’t really taken the time to absorb them. “There’s a party tonight after the rehearsal. There’s a karaoke and sound system being set up in the downstairs party room. You can pick your song ahead if you like. But you don’t have to sing.”

“Actually, I love to sing. I do it all the time in the shower. The acoustics really work with my particular sound,” Isla said confidently. She was undaunted by the snootiness circling around her, and I admired her for it.

Patricia Carlton had joined us to continue the conversation. “Alexandria studied with a music teacher for ten years. She could have gone professional if she’d wanted. Her father disapproved of the idea, of course.”

Alex shrugged. “He’s the great disapprover of all things. The two of you should really sing a duet,” she prodded again.

“Well, I, too, sing in the shower, and since I sound like a dying whale, that is where my singing voice will remain,” I said.

“What a shame.” Alex clucked her tongue. “Well, at least we’ll get to hear Isla sing. I’m heading downstairs to give them my song choice right now. Care to walk with me Isla?”

Isla held up her lemonade. “Still finishing my lunch. Maybe I’ll see you down there.”

“All right.” Alex left, her mother following close behind on her shiny red heels.

“Don’t feel pressured,” I said.

“I wasn’t until her mom brought up that Alex has professional training. Of course she does. No, I’ll sing. Just point me in the direction of the karaoke room, so I can pick a song I know. Then I think it’s straight up to the shower for me, so I can do a little vocal cord warm up. Sure you don’t want to come down and pick a song? How about a duet? I think your mom would love it.”

“What I said about the dying whale was not an exaggeration. I’ve got a tin ear. I know good music when I hear it, but it’s always better if I leave it to the singers. I can walk you down.”

“No need. Just a few directions and I’m sure I can find it.”

“All right. I should probably go up and shower off the horse smell. Thanks again, Isla.”

“For what?”

“For everything. I’m glad I brought you, and I hope my mother’s behavior doesn’t stress you out too much.”

“I’ll probably have nightmares about her for months, but I’ll also have some very entertaining stories to tell my sisters.”

ChapterSeventeen

Isla

There was an actual elevator to carry me down to the bottom floor, what we regular folk would call a basement. I supposed a crass word like basement wasn’t part of the upper crust vocabulary. Luke had been very specific with instructions—a right turn from the elevator and then take the second left. But there was always so much to see in the magnificent house that I got sidetracked, and there was no Google Maps to tell me how to reroute my path. I came to two swinging doors. One side was marked entrance and the other exit. I pushed open the entrance and found myself in a theater that could rival our town theater in size. One wall even had an entire concession stand complete with popcorn machine and a glass-fronted cabinet with a rainbow-colored supply of candy bars. There was a soda fountain and a soft serve ice cream machine. There were plenty of pitfalls to growing up in one of these cold, formal rich families, but it also came with a lot of perks, huge perks. I could just imagine my sisters and me sitting in our very own theater, nibbling all our favorite snacks while one of our favorite movies played on the big screen. It would have been pure heaven for girls like us.

I pulled out my phone to text them about it, but instead my thumb tapped Luke’s name. “You have a theater, an actual theater, and there are Almond Joy bars and M&M’s in the candy case.”

He texted back. “I haven’t been down there in a few years.”

“I think I won’t really get the whole grandeur of your childhood until I sit in this private theater for a movie. I’m thinking ‘Young Frankenstein,’ an Almond Joy and a box of popcorn.”

“Maybe we can make that happen later tonight.”

I squealed with glee and sent a picture to my sisters. I was on my way out when I heard someone giggling in the dimly lit room. It was coming from somewhere up front. There was another giggle, and I was pretty sure the giggler wasn’t alone. I hurried out. There was no movie up on screen, but someone was definitely enjoying the theater.

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