Page 42 of My Fake Relationship With the Popular Boy
“Do you want your nails done?” the receptionist asked Jaxon. I assumed he would say no; in all the time I’d known Jaxon Andrews, I’d never seen him paint his nails.
“I’d love to get a pedicure,” Jaxon said.
“Oh, great!” she squealed, clapping her hands together. She quickly ushered him into the chair next to mine.
“Her nails are dry,” my nail tech said, looking pointedly at my hands. Jaxon immediately took the hint and slipped his hand in mine. I was surprised at how natural it felt for him to do that after the past few days.
The nail tech who was painting Madison’s toes looked at us and sighed.
“Oh, young love,” she said wistfully. She was an older woman, probably in her sixties or seventies. Given the look in her eyes, I wondered whether she was remembering one of her old loves. I liked the idea that we could possibly be reminding her of her high school sweetheart.
I was thoroughly embarrassed by everything going on, but I could tell that Jaxon wasn’t whatsoever. He always loved to be the centre of attention, which made sense given that he was the star of the track team, and he was completely eating this up.
I glanced to the other side of Madison. Sabrina and Eli were sitting in the chairs as well, though Eli was the only one with a bottle of nail polish. From what I could tell, he was trying to talk Sabrina into getting a pedicure with him. He loved painting his nails and there had been many times that he and I had done just that at sleepovers. I wasn’t sure how Sabrina felt about it. She usually had acrylics on her hands, but I’d never seen her in open-toed shoes since they weren’t allowed in our school, so I couldn’t say whether she usually had her toes painted as well.
I smiled apologetically at Madison. “Sorry our girl’s day got hijacked.”
“I don’t mind,” Madison said. I wasn’t surprised by the response, even if I did still feel bad that all she wanted was a day with me and no boyfriend, and we hadn’t even managed that. But I knew Madison wouldn’t say that because she never said when something like that bothered her. “I love hanging out with everyone.”
“What colour nail polish do you want?” the newest nail tech asked Jaxon. I turned to listen, curious about his answer. He was probably just going to say he wanted clear polish or something else neutral, right? I couldn’t imagine him wanting brightly coloured toe nails.
“I’ll have the same colour as her,” he said, tilting his head toward me. After the nail tech nodded in understanding, he grinned dorkily at me. “We can match, Evers.”
I rolled my eyes at his antics. But, although I would never admit it to him, a little bit of warmth spread through my chest at the idea that he wanted to match with me.
“You’re like a golden retriever,” Madison said.
“How right you are,” Jaxon said happily.
“Jaxon, uh, it’s really sweet that you want to match with me but you really don’t need to feel pressured to if there’s another colour you’d rather,” I said.
“Is there some reason you don’t want me to match with you?” He asked it in a joking voice but I could see the seriousness behind his eyes.
“No!” I said quickly.
“No, no, don’t tell me,” he said. He closed his eyes and held up a hand up to stop me. “You think I can’t pull off this shade of blue the same as you.”
“No,” I said, laughing. I shook my head emphatically. “That’s not it.”
“Then there’s another man in your life, isn’t there?” he said. “You can’t match with me because he might notice.”
I rolled my eyes and used my free hand to shove his shoulder.
“Just get the colour, you dork,” I said.
He grinned. “Thank you.” His eyes fell to my nails and he sighed.
“Everything okay?” I asked.
“That shade of blue just looks so good on you,” he said in a raspy voice. I was shocked by the sincerity.
“Do you recognize it?” I asked softly.
“Of course,” he said. “It’s the colour of your romper from the other day. I’d recognize it anywhere.”
I was impressed that he remembered. Then again, I shouldn’t have been. He remembered everything I told him.
After we finished our pedicures, Jaxon insisted that we return to the hotel. I thought he was just tired of carrying his shopping bags but when we got back to the hotel, the only thing he cared about doing was changing out of his sneakers for his slides instead.
