Page 42 of Movers and Fakers

She rolls her eyes and holds the phone out to me.

“You know what I meant.”

I do not, but we don’t have time to discuss that right now, considering I can hear her mom’s voice muffled through the speaker.

“Hi, Mrs. Driscoll,” I say, cutting off whatever she had been saying before.

“Oh—hello!” a warm voice chirps. “Is this Hayes?”

“Yes, ma’am, it’s nice to meet you. I’ve heard a lot about you.”

The last part comes out sounding a little too much like a question, earning me a side-eye from Aurora. But she’s still holding my hand, so I guess I’m doing something right. The mixed signals might give me a migraine later, but it’s worth it if I get to be close to her.

“I wish I could say the same, but our Rory has been holding out on us!”

“Rory?” I mouth to Aurora, and she glares, giving me a sharp shake of her head.

“I think she just wanted to take some time before telling you and make sure it was worth it. She values your opinion.”

Aurora’s head dips. I can’t see her expression, but I’m sure it’s not good. My words might go over well with her mom, but they do serve as a reminder that none of this is real.

“She’s always so careful,” Mrs. Driscoll says, like it’s a bad thing. “But I’m glad she’s finally dating. Though now I’m wondering if instead of you being her first boyfriend, you’re just the first she’s told us about.”

Her musing makes my stomach drop. I glance to my right. Aurora is still looking down as we shuffle through leaves on the sidewalk.

Has she really never had a boyfriend? Her mom could be right that Aurora has had one and simply didn’t tell them, but with how quickly she answered the phone and how she talked about wanting them to stop pestering her …

I don’t say anything for a moment, too stunned to reply. Mrs. Driscoll doesn’t hesitate to fill in the gap, though.

“Anyway! All that to say, we’d love to get to know you better. You should come by the house for Sunday dinner. Do you like pot roast?”

“Oh, sure?”

I’m so thrown off by the new information about Aurora that I don’t realize until after the words come out that it sounds like I’ve agreed.

“Perfect! I’ll see you two Sunday at six. It was lovely chatting with you. Tell Aurora I love her.”

She hangs up as if she knows that talking to Aurora might result in a refusal.

“How did it go? I didn’t catch everything,” Aurora says, her voice meek.

I hand the phone back to her with a grimace.

“Don’t hate me.”

She stops in her tracks and looks up at me.

“What did you do?”

“I might have accidentally agreed to go to Sunday dinner.” I spit the words out fast.

Panic flits through Aurora’s eyes before she squeezes them shut. If I made any progress with her tonight, it was sufficiently ruined just now. There’s no way she holds up her end of the deal and goes on a date with me now.

She lets out a long breath.

“Okay.”

“Okay?” I echo, my brows furrowed.