Page 11 of Pretend You're Mine
I gave him a supportive pat. “Maybe she’ll have found someone else by now,” I said, although we both knew how unlikely that was.
Angela was Reginald’s sister, and about as much of an undesirable as he was. She wore glasses so thick they would’ve rivaled bulletproof glass, while her tendency to blow her nose as loud as a trumpet wasn’t exactly endearing either. In any case, Teren and I were both screwed.
“So he won’t give you the annulment?” Teren asked, after I’d explained what had happened over dinner with Xander and our phone call later.
“No.” Feeling like some doomed heroine in some Victorian novel, I raised an entreating gaze to the moon. “What am I going to do now?”
“Couldn’t you just invite him to the bazaar for real?” Teren said.
“No,” I said immediately. “Of course I can’t. Then he’ll meet our parents and I’ll have to explain how and why we broke up afterward.”
“You’re right,” Teren said with an understanding nod. “It’s not a good idea.”
I frowned at him, although he had a point. Xander would probably be game for it, considering he owed me a big, big one for me upholding my part of this fake marriage nonsense.
Anyway, it wasn’t like I was crazy enough to introduce him as my husband – accidental or otherwise – at the bazaar. He’d just be my boyfriend Xander, who I met on a night out and who – sadly, less than a month later I will have broken up with. What was the harm in that? It would get my parents off my case for a few months at least. Maybe even more if I could really milk the break up.
Part of the reason why, I suspected, their attention had been growing increasingly intrusive lately was the fact that since Eric I hadn’t really dated at all. Sure, I’d accepted the odd blind date here and there, but the last time I’d gone out on an actual date date had been half a year ago.
My phone buzzed and I dug it out of my pocket to see who was calling. I sighed. Reginald was still probably at home with Mom and Dad, so there’d be no avoiding his call.
“Hello,” I said.
“Naomi. I just wanted to let you know, that despite … the circumstances,” he spoke in a hallowed voice, as if God himself was on the third line, listening to what we said. “You and your boyfriend can stop by my fanny pack table. I’ll even give him a deal. And….”
I flickered a crabby glance at Teren, who was smiling as if he could hear what was being said.
“Just so you know,” Reginald said, with all the gallantry of Romeo serenading Juliet. “I’ll wait for you.”
I practically choked on the air I was inhaling.
“Thanks,” I said weakly. “But I gotta go. Night.”
And before I was subjected to any more mockery from the universe, I hung up.
I glared over at Teren, whose face indicated that all although he hadn’t heard everything verbatim, he’d heard enough to get a hint.
“Guess that’s it then,” I said. “I’ll be seeing you tomorrow.”
He nodded but didn’t say anything for a minute. When he did, his tone was much more serious than it had been.
“Maybe Mom and Dad aren’t totally wrong, though,” he said. “The whole Xander situation is royally screwed up, but dating him…”
“I’m not dating him,” I interrupted sharply.
“Ok,” he said, throwing up his hand. “Spending time with him, whatever. It might not be the worst thing. I mean after Eric and all…”
He let his words trail off, and I was grateful to him for that. No way did I want to delve into the whole Eric thing, especially not with all that had happened over the past few days. I had enough stress and anxiety already, thank you very much.
“Anyway, good luck tomorrow,” he said, giving me a sideways hug.
“Thanks,” I said as we parted. “I’ll need it.”
That was for sure. Lying to my parents and a whole church full of people with a guy who acted like he ran the world. Ugh. What had I gone and done?
But I’d made my tremulous bed, now it was my turn to lie on it. So, when I got home, I fixed myself a nice big bag of popcorn. I plopped in front of the TV and, just as I was about to power on Netflix, I called up Xander.
“Hey,” I said when he picked up. “I need a favor for tomorrow.”
“Yeah?” he said.
“There’s this bazaar my parents’ church is having at six.”
“You want me to go to a bazaar with you,” he said, with as much skepticism I guess my random request warranted. “At your parents’ church? I thought you didn’t want anyone else knowing about us.”
“It’s not by choice, really,” I explained. “My parents have been trying to set me up with this guy for a little while now. They invited him over for family dinner and tried to corner me into going with him. I was trying to get out of it, so I just ended up blurting out that I had a new boyfriend. I mean, you can see the parallels in our situations here yes?”
