Page 29 of Bumping into You

“I mean handholding, being close to each other in public, hugs . . .”

“Kissing?” I question, heat pulsing straight through me at the thought of kissing her.

“Umm . . . only if absolutely necessary?”

I nod. “Okay, the final rule, rule number three, is when fake dating, PDA is acceptable but kissing is only allowed if necessary.”

“Right,” she nods.

“Cúla búla.” I stand, reaching my hand out to her. She stands and takes my hand and shakes it to seal the deal.

“I should probably . . .” she looks over to the door connecting our two rooms.

“Yeah, sounds good. See you around, fake girlfriend,” I say, though I don’t let go of our handshake.

“Right. . . .” she says slowly, then, looking down and seeing our hands together, she lets go quickly, grabs the paper with the rules, and turns to walk back to her room. “I’m going to hold onto this. With how messy your room is, I can’t leave it up to you not to misplace it.”

I hear the lock of her door click and chuckle to myself.Well, this afternoon definitely took a turn. This is going to be thecraic.

Chapter 15

Gwen

“Hey, there!” says a female voice I unfortunately recognize all too well now.

Tammy. No. No. No. Tammy and Bradley must be rock climbing too.

Oh shit, I didn’t have time to warn Holly or Greg that Bradley and his fiancée are on this cruise.

I was really hoping I could keep the rest of the wedding party from seeing them so soon. Honestly, I was hoping that the agreement Niall and I made this morning wouldn’t ever come into effect with my friends around.

But I am not that lucky.

Nope.

Not even close. Because as I walk into the rock-climbing area, sure enough, Bradley and Tammy are signing their waivers on the little pads.

My body sputters to a stop. And when I say sputters to a stop, it’s like the comical screeching-of-tires, frozen-in-time, heart-in-my-chest kind of sputter.

It wouldn’t have been so bad, but my untimely stop causes everyone in the group behind me to topple forward in what is probably the most comical slow-motion game of human dominoes ever seen.

Before I can register what’s happening, we are all in a pile on the ground.

“G, what in the—” starts Holly.

“Miles, you’re on my arm,” says Gillian.

“Gwennie, seriously why’d you stop?” asks Greg.

Margot and Trent chime in with their own complaints.

There’s only one person who didn’t need an explanation but instead knew why I’d frozen mid-step. A Mr. McHottie. Niall extracts himself from the pile and easily lifts me to my feet, pulling me close to him in what I hope is both just a friendly way, but also a boyfriend-ish way, considering the two groups.

“You okay?” he asks me, making my heart jump into my throat.

“Oh em gee,” exclaims Tammy in her four-inch wedge heels, showing off her perfectly light-pink toenails, and looking like a barbie in her short shorts and lacy white shirt. “Are you okay? That looked like it hurt.” She makes her way over to our group, who are all still trying to untangle limbs and right themselves.

I groan and lean my head against Niall for a second, trying to gain composure.

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