Page 51 of My Silver Lining

She was clearly in a state of panic now. So, I did the only thing I knew to do.

I leaned her back on the bed and tickled her senseless until she was laughing hysterically.

She wasn’t yelling anymore, so I pulled back.

“I hate being tickled,” she hissed.

“You were spiraling. Take a breath. It’ll all be okay.”

“Well, you should have just said that everything would be fine. You didn’t need to grope me like a wild fucking animal.” She pushed to her feet.

“I think you like that I knew how to calm you down.”

She crossed her arms over her chest. “Are you drunk?”

“I just woke up; I’m far from intoxicated. But I might be on a sugar high from the gummy bears,” I chuckled.

“This is not a joke, Rafe. We need a plan.”

“The plan is that we’re dating. We have to keep it up until next weekend anyway. More people just know about it now. It’s not that big of a deal. People date all the time. They’ll think we dated for a little while, and then we’ll say we broke up and remained friends. You are making way too much out of this.”

She marched toward me, pointing her finger in my face. “This is complicated, Chadwick. People are going to be watching now, so we need to be very careful. No more tickling and no more orgasm showers. We need boundaries. Clear-cut boundaries so this doesn’t get any more complicated than it already is.”

I picked up my phone to see seventeen messages from my mom. She went from asking what was going on to deciding that I was in love.

“Well, buckle up, girlfriend. You’re having dinner with my parents tonight,” I said, as I read through the messages. “Apparently, they’re very hurt that we’ve kept our love affair a secret, and they want to talk to us.”

“What the hell are we going to tell your parents?” she said, as she paced around the bedroom. “This is such a mess.”

“I’ll just tell them that we’re having fun. I’ll be honest. We did go on a trip. I do find you attractive, even if you have caused me more physical pain than any woman I’ve ever known and you’re always yelling at me. I’ll just pussy foot around the truth.”

“Did you just say pussy foot?”

“It’s one of my favorite kinds of foots.” I barked out a laugh.

“You’re disgusting.”

“And I’m all yours, baby.” I grabbed a T-shirt from the drawer and pulled it over my head before tugging on some gray sweatpants. “Come on. I’ll make us coffee, and then we’ll come up with a plan.”

“It’s not every day you read on the internet about your son being in a relationship,” my father said.

“But I’d be lying if I didn’t say we were thrilled about it.” My mom winked at me.

“I’m sure you’re used to this kind of stuff, Lulu, growing up in such a public family,” Dad said.

“Yes. But that doesn’t make it right. I’m so sorry that you found out the way that you did,” Lulu said.

“You have nothing to be sorry about,” my mother said, reaching for Lulu’s hand.

“Listen, I’m a grown man. I don’t go running to my parents every time I date someone. We weren’t at the point where we were ready to tell anyone what was happening because we wanted to see where it was going first. And then the interview was sort of sprung on us,” I said, reaching for another breadstick.

“I’m really sorry about all of this.” Lulu blinked several times, before straightening her features and scooping some salad onto her plate. “I didn’t mean for it to come out like this.”

My mother was on her feet and coming around the table. She wrapped her arms around Lulu and squeezed. “Honey, no. This is not your fault. We aren’t upset about any of it. I told Keatonthe night we met you, when you shot that ball off the table into Rafe’s family jewels, that there was something special about you. I saw the spark there. I just didn’t know you two were already together. You put on a good show pretending you couldn’t stand one another.”

Apparently, our acting skills preceded us.

Mom walked back to her seat and sat down.

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