Page 55 of My Fake Relationship With the Popular Boy
“Okay,” I said, trying to suppress my grin. “Um, thanks. I’ll be down in a minute. Do you want me to bring you a towel or anything?”
“Nah, I think it will be fine,” Jaxon said. He ran a hand through his wet hair. “I’m already drying off.”
“Well, if you change your mind, there’s extra towels in the main floor bathroom,” I said. He nodded. I squeezed his hand quickly then sprinted upstairs. I got changed quickly, not wanting to leave Jaxon with my dad for too long. God only knew what they might talk about. But despite my rush, I took my time leaving the jacket spread out on the back of the chair so it could dry nicely. I bit my lip and pressed my mouth to my hand as I looked at it sitting there. Jaxon was a surprisingly good boyfriend. I wondered whether he ever gave his other girlfriends his favourite clothes or if he saved that just for me.
Not that I was his girlfriend — that was like the fifth time in the last 24 hours that I had to remind myself of that. Of course, he was giving me his clothes. He wanted everyone else to see how much he “loved” me, wanted everyone to talk about it. He didn’t have feelings for me and I wasn’t supposed to be thinking about him like this.
When I got back downstairs, Jaxon was sitting at the table and seemed to be in the midst of a jovial conversation with my dad. I couldn’t quite understand the context of the conversation, having arrived halfway through, but it was clear that they were getting along really well. I was a little taken aback at how quickly that happened. I knew my dad liked Jaxon’s parents but that didn’t really guarantee anything.
I stayed mostly silent while I ate, just listening to them converse. The topic of conversation soon turned to university — where Jaxon was going, what he was majoring in, did he think he was going to keep running for all four years… It was like my dad was trying to subtly figure out if he thought Jaxon was good enough for me. Based on the way he was smiling, I would say yes.
Just as we were finishing eating, Jaxon’s phone dinged loudly.
“Sorry,” he said. He turned the ringer off as he glanced at the text message he’d received.
“Everything okay?” I asked.
“Yeah, it’s just Eli asking if I want to come over now,” Jaxon said. He glanced outside. “Huh, I guess the rain really is over already. He wants to go in the hot tub.”
“Hot tub?” I asked. “That’s fun.”
Eli had just gotten the hot tub a couple of months ago and he was still really excited about it. For the first three weeks that he’s had it, I’d gone over every day to go in it. It got to the point that I just left a bathing suit at his house for whenever I came over.
“Do you want to come?” Jaxon asked.
“Oh, I don’t want to intrude,” I said.
“It wouldn’t be intruding at all. It would be fun,” Jaxon said. He looked to my dad. “That is, as long as you didn’t have any plans with Violet today, sir. I know she just got back from the trip so you probably want to spend time with her.”
Dad smiled kindly and shook his head. “No, that’s okay. I’m sure we’ll spend plenty of time together this week.”
“Are you sure?” I asked. We had gone out for dinner the night before but I didn’t know if he had anything planned for today and I didn’t want him to feel like I was just abandoning him to go out with my friends.
“I’m sure,” he said. “Go have fun with them. I’ll just do some work around the house today.”
He seemed really sincere so I nodded and stood up.
“Okay,” I said. “I’ll be back in a few hours.”
“Thank you for breakfast, sir,” Jaxon said, standing as well. He shook Dad’s hand.
“My pleasure,” Dad said. “I hope to see you again soon.”
Jaxon smiled at me then looked to him again. “Oh, I’m sure I’ll be around quite a bit.”
I assumed we were just going to walk to Eli’s place since he lived so close, but when we got outside, Jaxon walked over to our covered driveway. I hadn’t noticed before, but he’d brought his bicycle with him.
“Did you bike over here to go for a run?” I asked.
“What else was I going to do?” Jaxon asked as he unlocked.
“I don’t know,” I said. “Maybe drive? Like a normal person?”
Jaxon grinned and walked the bike over to me.
“I needed the exercise,” he said.
“That’s what the run was for.”
