Page 43 of Fake It For Love (Faux Love)
CLAIRE
Ididn’t remember it being this easy to talk to him. Maybe because I never let myself talk to him. There hadn’t ever been anything to talk about. Or maybe there had been, and I just never gave it a chance. Looking at him now, I was kind of pissed at myself for never getting to know him. I now understood what Norah saw in him back when we were just kids. This was a good man.
He had ordered us another round of drinks. I sipped mine, certain there was no alcohol in it, and took another big drink. “We should probably talk about this engagement,” I said. “People are going to have questions. Tony is going to be peppering Norah with questions. I need to be able to tell her what to tell him.”
“Man, where does one start?” he said and blew out a breath. “Seriously, I don’t know how two people even get to the engaged part of things.”
I laughed at his sudden concern. “I think we start with how this relationship came to be. I would advise keeping it simple, stupid.”
He frowned at me. “Did you just call me stupid?”
I giggled again. Maybe there was alcohol in the glass. “No. It’s a phrase. You’ve never heard it? It’s basically about keeping it simple and easy. We need to stick to the truth as much as possible. Too many lies will make it difficult to remember our story.”
“Good point,” he said.
“How much of your social life has been in the media?” she asked.
“None that I know of,” he said. “I don’t do interviews. I don’t go out. I’m a pretty boring guy.”
“Good, then that will make this all much easier.”
He laughed and took a bite of his dinner. “I knew there was a reason I was a recluse. It’s finally going to pay off.”
“Let’s say we met up about six months ago,” I suggested. “We remembered each other from school.”
He nodded. “Okay.”
“What about the engagement?” I said. “What should we say about that?”
He looked like he was in pain. “I don’t know. No clue.”
I rolled my eyes. “Okay, fine. We’ll say you popped the question last week. That way we can say we haven’t made any concrete plans about a date or anything like that. If someone asks you when we’re getting married, just tell them we’re going to have a long engagement.”
“I can remember that,” he said. “We’ve been together six months. Engaged a week. No plans for a date.”
“Exactly,” I said. “Simple and stupid.”
“Works for me. Why are we staying in different rooms?”
I raised an eyebrow. “I’m saving myself for marriage.”
“Really?” He looked shocked.
My cheeks were suddenly burning. I was not talking about sex with him. That was too weird. It was definitely not part of our arrangement. “I was joking,” I finally said.
I didn’t miss the heat in his eyes. “Huh,” he said.
Before I could ask him what he meant, Norah appeared at our table. “There you guys are!”
The expression on his face likely mimicked mine. “Norah,” I choked. “What are you doing here?”
Why did I feel guilty? We weren’t doing anything wrong. But it felt like she caught us.
“We’re going to a club,” she said with a bright smile. “Come with us. We’re all going.”
“We?” Ryan questioned.
Tony and crew made their presence known with raucous laughter. Some of the women Norah was friends with, but I wasn’t necessarily tight with, were hanging out with the guys. “A bunch of people from our class are going,” Norah said. “We ran into them at the bar and we’re going dancing! The two of you have to come!”
