Page 34 of Fake Dating Adrian Hunter
“Yes! The place you said we’d visit together after graduating high school.”
“Egypt.”
“Yeah, but which place specifically.”
He pauses for a moment. “Abu Simbel?”
“Yes! Next card. Your celebrity crush.”
“You.”
“What?” I laugh, looking at him as if he’s crazy. “No, the hot one fromThe Mask.”
“Cameron Diaz.”
“Yes!”
There’s a telepathic bond between us. It’s like I’m a child all over again, playing this game with my best friend. The two of us are shouting back and forth at each other with excitement—clue, answer, clue, answer—until Tory calls, “Time!”
I take a well-earned breather. Adrian and I are looking at each other with something that feels like amazement. Maybe even disbelief? Then we burst into laughter, the kind where I can tell we’re both struggling to breathe and see through watering eyes.
“Wow.” Tory is the first to interrupt us. I look around the group, finding everyone with beaming smiles directed at Adrian and me. “Who ever knew you were such experts on each other’s lives?”
* * *
Even though I’m staying clear of alcohol, I’m officially drunk off laughter. It’s close to midnight and the board game finished long ago. The two brides and Adrian’s parents have retired to their bungalows, but Adrian and I are still here on the couch in my parents’ garden, keeping the whole resort up with our snorts and high-pitched cackles as we take a walk down memory lane. Being like this with him is the strangest, nicest, most unexpected and confusing thing I’ve felt in my adult life.
“Do you remember how we always snuck out after midnight on Halloween and met up at the graveyard to search for zombies?” Adrian asks me as I take a sip of my drink.
Water shoots from my nose as I laugh at the memory. I cover my nose, laughing even harder. “I haven’t thought about that in years. We were so certain zombies were real. What about when we were camping in my backyard and the tent collapsed on us in the middle of the night?”
“Yes! That was hilarious. We couldn’t find our way out with all the bunched-up fabric and ended up falling asleep in there.”
“You two never told me about either of those times,” Dad calls through the kitchen window, rinsing wine glasses.
Mom is beside him with a nostalgic smile on her face, drying the dishes. “As lovely as this night has been, it’s almost twelve. We’ve got a big day out at sea tomorrow and you two need to get some sleep.”
Adrian tugs me up from the couch and leads us to the front door. I say my goodbyes to Dad and watch with raised brows as Mom pulls Adrian into a bear hug. “The two of you together are perfect,” she whispers to him, though, being quiet has never been Mom’s strong suit. “Try to ground her, will you? Bring her back to us.”
“Can’t control a free spirit,” Adrian says.
She hugs me next. “Don’t mess this up.”
When Mom releases me, there’s an aura of bliss surrounding her. Not once has she looked this pleased in regards to me. Not when I got my acceptance letter to fashion school in Milan. Not when I opened my business or got my own show. For her, the sight of me and Adrian together trumps all those accomplishments. God dammit.
“See you later,” Adrian calls to my parents.
I walk ahead of him on the torch-lit path as we travel back tomybungalow, which is reallyoursnow that every guest at this wedding thinks we’re a happy couple. Yet my heart is hurting because I’ve had a glimpse into the past and remember what it’s like to be friends with Adrian. It feels too good—whatever this is between us—and I want it back. But I can’t tell him any of this because he’d love to hold this information over my head. And what if this friendly side of him isn’t real? We’ve been parading our “relationship” around for the entire evening and acting in love with each other on purpose. Now that we’re alone, I’m terrified of what’s to come.
“What’s up with you?” Adrian asks as I kick a rock off the path. I wish he couldn’t read me so well. “You were having fun a second ago.”
“This whole fake dating thing is a disaster,” I answer without slowing my pace to engage in a proper conversation. “You heard my mom back there, and you saw how happy everyone is for us. It’s going to break their hearts when the truth comes out.”
“The truth doesn’t need to come out. We’ll tell them we broke up.”
“Even that will break their hearts.”
“They’ll survive.”
