Page 40 of The 21-Day Boyfriend
“Granny decided that we’ll be celebrating Christmas at hers this year, and she invited him along.”
Jake puts down his pint, his full concentration on me.
“And he politely refused, right?”
“He was very vague with his answer.”
“The kind of vague that means you could easily get out of this? Or…?”
“Yeah. I could get out of this fairly easily.”
“Well, that’s good.”
“If I hadn’t asked him to keep this façade up until after Christmas.”
“You did what?” Jake asks, raising his voice.
“It just slipped out!”
“It slipped out wrong.”
“I don’t know what came over me. It was a really weird night. Granny admitted that she’s been having an affair with Larry.”
“Your grandmother and Larry the butler?” Jake asks. I nod. “Why am I never around for the interesting stuff? I should have been your date.”
“And he was there, and…”
“You could’ve handled this better.”
“I didn’t really think about it.”
“Come on. You took him to your Granny’s house; you should’ve known it would end like this. You know your grandmother.”
“I didn’t think she’d bring up Christmas.”
“She won’t give in until she’s got what she wants,” my friend comments.
I bow my head, guilty. “I know.”
“You shouldn’t have pushed yourself so much. It was only supposed to be for one evening, one favour.”
“I know that, too. Why don’t you tell me something helpful instead?”
“What does he say about all this?”
“He says he doesn’t feel comfortable pretending.”
“So he said no?”
“Not really… He didn’t exactly refuse, but let’s just say it wasn’t an enthusiastic ‘yes’, either.”
“And we’re here talking about it because you want me to do something, right? You want me to lay the groundwork?”
To be honest, I don’t know why we’re here. I only know that I felt weird, worn out, confused, guilty. I needed to talk to someone. Jake is my best friend – who better than him to listen and help me out?
“It was… Nice.”
“Mmm?”
