Page 26 of The Fake
“What?” Nathan mocks, offended. “Don’t be like that, sweetheart. Tell them how I won you over with a single glance.”
I do some quick thinking to plausible places we could have happened into each other before the athletic mixer. “We met at the fieldhouse.”
“And?” Sydney sits forward with wide eyes.
“And he asked me out.”
“Worst re-telling of the story ever.” Nathan’s eyes twinkle as he plays along. He squeezes my leg with that big hand that hasn’t moved from where it splays out over my left thigh. “What Chloe failed to mention is that she walked into our locker room.”
“What?” A collective gasp. My teammates are really eating this up.
“Yep,” Nathan continues. “She walked in early one morning and caught me as God intended.”
Emily stares blankly.
“Naked.”
Sydney giggles. “How did you get the locker rooms confused? They’re on two different sides of the building!”
“Yeah, how did you get them mixed up?” Nathan asks, giving me an amused smile.
“Like you said, it was early, and I was still figuring out the layout of the fieldhouse.”
“So what happened after you walked in on him?” Mallory, a junior teammate, asks.
“Well…” I start and take a drink of my fresh beer to give me a second to think. “I was mortified and ran out of there as fast as I could, of course.”
Nathan nods. “But I took one look at her and knew I had to ask her out so I threw on my gym shorts as fast as I could and took off after her.”
Their eyes dart from him to me, so totally enraptured with this ridiculous story. What the heck, I’m in this deep.
“Inside out,” I say, and the attention is back on me. “His shorts were on inside out when he came running after me.”
Nathan’s lips twitch. “Inside out,” he repeats.
We stare at each other for a long moment. He’s grinning wide and so am I. As fake dates go, I think we’re nailing this one.
The rest of the night goes by without any more questions about our relationship that require us to make up wild stories. I yawn and Sydney scolds me as she tries to stop herself from doing the same. “Stop that. It’s contagious.”
The party has died down. No one is in the pool anymore. The music is still going, but the few people who are still hanging outside are standing around talking.
“I should probably go. Sydney and I have an eight o’clock class in the morning,” I tell Nathan.
Sydney groans in protest of me leaving and surprisingly, I feel the same way. Somehow, I had fun tonight.
My teammates and I stand. Nathan and Shaw follow suit.
“I’ll walk you guys out,” Nathan offers.
Sydney stops. “You aren’t sleeping over?” she asks me.
“Oh.” I look to Nathan for help.
He wraps an arm around my waist and pulls me to him. “I’ve got early morning practice. How about I come by your dorm before class and we’ll grab coffee?”
I nuzzle against him awkwardly and nod. “Sounds great.”
God, he’s good.
