Page 168 of Fake As Puck
“Best post-game celebration ever,” he says.
“Better than celebrating with the guys after?”
He nods. “Better than anything, baby.”
“Good. Because I have a feeling we’re going to have a lot more games to celebrate.”
“This season’s going to be incredible.” He smiles, kissing me. “I’ve got you. I get to come home to you after every game. I get to share all of this with you.”
“I love you, West Carmack.”
“I love you too, Liv Rodriguez. But you should probably take those skates off before one of us gets hurt.”
I sit up and take them off. “I aim to please.”
“You definitely please. Are you hungry?”
I smile. “There’s food in the microwave for you.”
He shoots out of bed. “Fuck, you’re the best thing to ever happen to me.”
I chuckle watching him run through the house naked.
I take a quick shower, and when I return to bed, he’s eating on top of the blankets.
“Hey,” he smiles.
I walk over and get into bed. “Good?”
He nods. “Delicious. Thank you.”
He offers me a bite, but I already brushed my teeth. Then he puts the dirty dishes in the kitchen sink, showers, and then joins me in bed.
He pulls me into his chest, and we’re quiet for a few minutes.
“Are you awake?” he asks after some time.
“Yeah,” I murmur with my eyes closed.
“I've been thinking about something.”
“What?”
His fingers trace along my shoulder blade, gentle and absent-minded. “About how this all started. Those weddings. All that fake dating we did.”
I open my eyes and turn to look at him. “Yeah? What about it?”
“I realized that the only thing that was fake about any of it was me pretending I wasn’t already completely gone for you.”
My heart does something acrobatic in my chest. “West.”
“I'm serious. The only thing that was fake was me pretending it was fake. None of it was fake. It wasn’t fake for me.”
“It wasn’t fake for me either.”
He laughs, pulling me into him. “I love you. And I'm really glad we’re together.”
“Me too."
As I drift off to sleep in his arms, I think about how sometimes the best things in life start as lies and become the most honest truths you've ever lived.
How sometimes pretending to love someone teaches you what loving them for real actually feels like.
How sometimes the fake thing becomes the realest thing you've ever had.
And how sometimes, if you're really lucky, you get to stop pretending and start living the truth instead.
