Page 24 of Fake It for Christmas

I dropped my hand away a few moments later, my thoughts looping in on themselves and threatening to make me overthink every part of this whole fake-boyfriend thing.

“If you think that shot will be good for the video, then do it,” I said. “Even though I’ll cringe internally every time I see it.”

We watched through the whole video one more time. A slight smile spread over Rowen’s face as he saw the part where he kissed me, and in the glow of the laptop screen, I loved seeing his face light up.

It made him happy. So I was kind of starting to like it, too.

“If the Fixer Brothers don’t like this video, I don’t know what’s wrong with them,” Rowen said afterward.

“I’m never going to stop nitpicking myself, so I’m going to go with your judgment on this one,” I said. I pulled in a slow breath. “I just want it to be perfect.”

He squeezed my shoulder. “You did great. Once you finally got used to me kissing you.”

“They were just kisses. Really not that big of a deal,” I said, knowing damn well that I was full of it.

Rowen seemed equally aware that I was bluffing. Something twinkled in his eyes and already I felt my heart rate ticking up from having his gaze on me.

“After we kissed a few times that night, it did seem like you started to get more comfortable next to me on camera.”

“It made me feel better, sure,” I admitted.

He held up his glass. “Want to call this video done?”

I raised my glass to his, clinking them together. “Let’s submit it.”

I navigated to the application website, where I’d already had all of the other information ready to go for days now. All I had to do was log in, upload the video, and presssend.

I breathed deep, going through the steps as Rowen leaned back near me, perfectly calm while I was like a fireworks show inside.

“I’m going to do it,” I said once the video was uploaded. “My finger is literally shaking above thissubmitbutton, but I’m going to do it.”

Rowen reached over, gently putting his palm on top of my hand. He moved it downward, and then in one quick motion, pressed my hand down and clicked the button.

It was done.

My fate was in the hands of the Fixer Brothers now. And within a few weeks, I’d know if I’d won the contest.

“Holy fuck,” I said.

“Fuck yes, Shane,” Rowen said.

My heart was pounding. “I feel like I’m going to jump out of my skin and straight up into the atmosphere,” I said. “Wow. Fuck.”

“You did it.”

I leaned back on the couch, looking up at the multicolored shadows on the ceiling, cast from the lights strung around Rowen’s Christmas tree.

This was real now.

So, so fucking real. Kind of like I was going to get totally wigged out if I kept thinking about it for too long.

I thought of what my grandma said the first time I’d shown her an episode of the Fixer Brothers TV show.

“You’d be so perfect for this show,” Gram had said. “They’d love you, Shaney.”

“I don’t know about that,” I’d told her.

She’d just waved a hand through the air, chuckling. “Just give ‘em a good blue-eyed wink and a Tennesseeyee-haw, and they’ll put you on the show in an instant.”

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