Page 27 of Just for Tonight

"I'm serious," I said. "You're the best one here. Just objectively speaking. Looks-wise."

He laughed.

I loved the sight of his smile. I wanted to flirt with him even though I knew better.

"I thought you were more of a Caleb girl."

"Caleb?" I asked, having no idea where he got that.

"Aunt Sarah said you were spending a bunch of time with Caleb—going for rides on the side-by-side."

I laughed. "Our dogs go on rides," I said. "Caleb comes and takes Ralphie sometimes while I'm working. The three of them go on the side-by-side all the time. Ralphie loves it."

I glanced at him as we approached my door. "Were you jealous just now?"

"No," he replied.

"Hmm," I said. It was a vague sound, and I shrugged when I made it. "You're still my only fake boyfriend," I said.

"What about any real ones?" he asked. "Do you have one of those yet?"

We had spent the whole day together, and it was the first time anything like this was brought up. "There will never be a real one again," I said as confidently as I felt.

"Well, then being your only fake one is a huge compliment."

"It is a compliment," I said.

I was officially flirting with Beau Cameron. He was, hands down, my favorite of the bunch. I was a human with needs, and right then I felt like one of those needs was being physically close to Beau. His body was magnetic. I felt compelled to reach out and touch him, and it was nearly impossible to resist. I opened the door to my room and stepped inside. As I moved I reached out and touched his arm.

"It's over here," I said, pretending the touch was only to direct him. I went to the drawer to get the small piece of leather with a strip of metal attached to it. "It's the first one I made. You'll see how uneven the letters are. And I was trying my hardest to make it perfect."

As I was talking, I took the keychain size tag from a drawer at my workstation. I handed it to Beau. My hands betrayed me and were shaking as I reached out. Because of this, I thrust the tag into his hand.

"It says your name," he said, inspecting it.

"I know. I did my name first."

"What is it, a keychain?"

"It could be, if I put a keyring on it. I just put a little leather strip on it for now. I guess you could call it a keychain. I just held onto it. It's not even really that important to me."

"I think it's great," he said inspecting it. "The one that's tilted makes it look good."

I laughed.

"Really. It looks like you did that on purpose."

"I promise I did not," I said. "And you see how the L and the A are a little too close together?"

"Again, I don't mind that," he said.

"Keep it," I said.

"No, I couldn't." he tried to hand it to me, but I put my hand out.

"You can give it back to me later. Just take Holland with you to Japan," I said. "You could take a picture of it with Japan in the background and I'll feel like I've been there."

"What if I lose it?" he asked.

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