I should feel a little better than I do, but I feel…empty. I’m not combative unless I'm on the field, and then I’m getting paid to be. But me, in life, I like rolling with things and getting along with people. I like singing Broadway tunes and talking about art. I love impressionists. If I had to pick between a guy’s night and an art gallery opening, I’d choose the gallery.
But me and Lorna, I don’t know. Getting along may be pushing things.
“Well, my first job as your fiancée. How did I do?” Georgie asks, pulling herself away from me. She’s only stepped about a foot away and I already miss her being in my space.
What is happening to me?
“If I had to give you a grade, A+ all the way. But,” I point to the sauce all down the front of me, then to where it’s on her now, too. “Sorry. Looks like I transferred some of my mess to you.”
Her eyes dart Lorna’s way before she brings them back to me. “Yes, you have, but that’s okay. You know, ‘cause we’re engaged.” She waves her hand in front of me, in a circle, a half-smile playing on her lips. “Let’s get you back to the apartment so we can do something about this.”
As she hobbles around the car, I can only think one thing.
I’d follow her anywhere.
TWELVE
Georgie
Ikissed him. I kissed Levi. And instead of reveling in it, I’m gonna ignore it.
For now.
Instead, I’m choosing to distract myself with other things, like our engagement. Ahem, I mean our fake engagement…hmm, that sounds proletarian. Faux engagement.
Better. Whatever it takes so I DO NOT THINK ABOUT HOW SOFT THAT MAN’S LIPS ARE.
I grab my laptop out of its bag and toss it onto the ridiculously nice couch Levi bought for this place. It smells good, like ginger and peach, which I recognize. Mr. Altman traded me a few of those candles for some books recently. Of course Levi’s couch smells freaking amazing. Like him.
My mind starts to wander back to those lips, but no. I need to find out how I’m supposed to act now that I’m engaged…kind of.
It’s not like there’s a manual for this or like I’ve been to any fake engagement parties over the years. I was play engaged to Tommy Woodson in the third grade, and had a wedding to one of my stuffed dollswhen I was little. Does that count?
These are all questions I ask myself as I curl up on the couch with my laptop. A bang from the bathroom down the hallway causes Toto to sit up out of his afternoon slumber, eyeing me and then casting a glance in the way of the noise.
“It’s Levi,” I remind him. “Friend.”
Toto puts his head back down as I hit return on my Google search,I’m fake engaged now what, while in the distance Levi sings the first few lines of “Texas Hold ’Em.” I can only say, the man does not sound like Beyoncé. Judging by the way Toto’s ears go flat against his skull, I don’t think Levi’s going to win any awards anytime soon for his voice, but we won’t tell him that.
Beyoncé. Rhymes with fiancé. Where was I?
Ah yes, the internet. Leave it to Google, I find a million answers to my question. From articles about how to use being fake engaged to get discounts—which I never thought of!—to creating a gift list so people could buy your wedding gifts and stock your house…smart. Some people have faked their engagement for social media as an experiment, which sounds really funny and also awful to me, while some have done it in order to stop the other sex from hitting on them all the time.
While the latter two don’t appeal, the discounts…now there’s something I hadn’t thought of.
I’m super curious about being marriage-adjacent, and I’d love to know what discounts are offered for brides. The last I heard, places usually hike their prices up if they find out you’re getting married. Venues, cakes, catering. The cost goes up by almost twenty-five percent in some areas, and can even go up more once you say you’re a bride and you’re planning your wedding.
I tap on a link and get pulled down a rabbit hole of ideas: from gym memberships to trialing deejays or having bands try out for your reception. As I click and search, and read and learn the ways, Toto wanders the room, smelling all the things.I keep one eye on him as he does, knowing he’s just getting used to our temporary home.
Temporary. Everything is temporary, isn’t it? Or maybe it’s me. Maybe because of my childhood, I’m attracted to the temporary. My stay here, my time with Levi, the fact that I’m not really engaged to him, our time on Earth…
I shake my head. “No need to get existential,” I say out loud as Toto grunts. I cast a glance in his direction to see what’s interested him so much in the corner, and it’s the pile of clothes Levi brought in from his truck. What are the chances he had an old bag of things he was supposed to take months ago to Goodwill still in his SUV? Chances were good, I found out, and he got lucky in finding an old pair of sweats with the Carolina Cardinals logo emblazoned across the legs and one of his mom’s old sweaters.
“Georgie?” Levi calls from the shower.
“Coming!” I hop up, my original task on pause. I was supposed to bring Levi’s clothes to him and throw them in the bathroom, but…sidetracked. This whole kiss thing has me spinning out. Like seeing a sparkly butterfly in the middle of a rainstorm while hanging out with Chris Martin bareback on a horse wearing a sombrero. You’d turn your head, too.
“Stay put, discount websites, I’m coming back for you,” I whisper, tapping the computer and standing, my foot not hurting so much at the moment but still tender.
