Page 48 of Waiting for Acceptance
“What?” I look over to see her perfectly shaped brows pulled together.
“I just mean, I told him I had a girlfriend I would be bringing with me this weekend. He doesn’t think you actuallyexist, but I assume it’ll be pretty hard to deny when you’re standing right in front of him.”
“He might not be able to deny it but he can ignore it. I wouldn’t be surprised if the other girl is there waiting for you when we show up.” She snorts and the thought makes my skin feel like sandpaper.
“You won’t be ignored. Not if I have anything to say about it.” He would do it too, wouldn’t he? He’d invite Jessica and try to make me look bad if I ignored her after all the times we’ve been seen together in the last few months. Suddenly the sandpaper feeling is gone and it feels as if a silk blanket is covering my arm.
“You okay?” I look down and see her tiny fingers curled around my forearm, and when my eyes meet hers a fire spreads throughout my entire body. I want her to touch me more. To feel this sense of calm everywhere. She looks so concerned about me and that makes me want to do something completely irrational.
“All good,” I assure her, forcing a small smile. When she goes to move her hand I quickly reach for her fingers, bring them to my lips, and kiss them, then I place her hand back on my arm and we remain silent the rest of the way to the airport. I expect her to try and move her hand at some point, but she never does. When we finally get our bags checked and get through security my phone alerts me that our flight is already boarding.
“See, this is why I get to the airport at least two hours early,” she says, anxiously chewing on the inside of her lip. I squeeze her cheeks together with one hand, forcing her teeth to release the skin.
“You’re going to start bleeding if you keep doing that.” She rolls her eyes and my dick stirs.Yeah, I know. I think she’s doingit on purpose at this point too.“And two hours is way too fucking long to be at an airport. What the fuck do you do while you wait?”
“Read. Watch a show on my phone. Listen to music. Nap—” I look down at her and frown.
“Younap? Alone. In an airport?” She glares at me and I can’t quite tell what she’s thinking.
“No. I only nap if I’m traveling with someone. I do actually care about my safety, you know?” I give a look of disbelief and she swats my arm again.
“Could have fooled me, Sweetheart.” She turns to face forward as we move further up the line to board.
“Well, at least I don’t have to worry about that anymore.” She shrugs.
“What do you mean?” She looks up at me and bats her eyelashes and fuck me for falling for it.
“Didn’t you hear? I have averyprotective boyfriend to look out for me now.” She wraps herself around my arm, making that same feeling from the car spread through me again. “Now I can nap anytime, anywhere.” I huff out a laugh but pause when she doesn’t remove herself from my side. I’m not used to this side of her. She’s actually playing into this role pretty damn well and we aren’t even in New York yet. She better be careful. I might enjoy her calling me her boyfriend a little too much and never let her stop.
CHAPTER 26
LAUREN
God, I missed flying first-class. I may be a practical girl who likes to spend her money intentionally, but I think one of my intentions just became flying comfortably for the rest of my life. The legroom alone is enough to sell me on it, not to mention the added bonus of only having one seat neighbor. Speaking of which, mine smells as good as he looks and it’s taking everything in me not to press my nose into his chest just to savor the scent a little longer. He smells the way you would imagine a man who looks like Fitz would smell—expensive and delicious.
“Can I get you anything to drink?” the stewardess asks, looking right past me at Fitz.
“Water please.” My face captions must be turned on because he gives me a sexy little smirk and grabs my hand. “Anything for you, Sweetheart?”Asshole.He knows I hate when he calls me that. I roll my eyes and feel him squeeze my hand, making me lift a brow at him. Daring him to challenge me.
“Same for me.” When we have our drinks I settle into my seat and turn to face Fitz. “Okay. We have a lot to discuss.”
“Such as?” He looks at me as he locks his phone and drops it into his lap. I can’t help but notice the gesture. Our firstencounter, well what Ithoughtwas our first encounter, was me going off on him for being on his phone while someone was talking. I guess I got my point across.
“Well, our backstory for starters. It was very awkward when my mother started asking questions the other day and I had no idea what to tell her.”
“You told your mother about us already?” The look of shock on his face reminds me I never told him about the date I was supposed to go on the night I asked him to be my date to Taylor’s wedding.
“I kind of didn’t have a choice. Do you remember me mentioning the guy she and my father were trying to set me up with?” He nods. “Well, I think she intended forhimto escort me to Taylor’s wedding. I never texted him back about the plans for that night and she showed up Sunday shortly after you left to let me know how rude it was. So I had no choice.” I shrug and his eyebrows rise.
“Alright then. What did you tell her? So we can keep the story the same for everyone.” I scoff remembering how she responded when I used the phrase‘hanging out’in reference to what Fitz and I had been doing until things were official, buthating each otherdidn’t exactly feel like the right selling point.
“I just told her that we only recently made things official and that we’d been hanging out and then she cut me off and told me you probably worked at a Dairy Queen.” He laughs with his whole chest and it makes me smile.
“And what if I did? Does she not think I would be a good boyfriend and bring you enough free ice cream?” The sarcasm in his tone makes me laugh but I avoid answering.
“Anyways, that’s all I really told her before she left.” I shrug, realizing how sad it is that my own mother isn’t interested in the guy I’m seeing. Outside of thinking he has, what she considers to be, an unacceptable job.
“Okay well, we can work with that. But we have to say something other thanhanging out. We aren’t fifteen.”
