Page 10 of Not Your Valentine
And I’ve completely sworn off romance, even if that’s a secret I’m keeping to myself.
“Look,” I say, “I know this is a strange idea and—”
“No, it’s fine. I’m happy to be your fake boyfriend, Helen.”
I exhale in relief.
“I’ve never been anyone’s fake boyfriend before,” he says. “Could be fun.”
“I hope you’re not expecting anything too exciting. This is hardly going to be a life-changing experience.”
He hesitates. “So, why me?”
“You may not have noticed, but I don’t have a huge number of friends, so I didn’t have a ton of people I could ask, especially since some of the people I want to fool are friends.” But I don’t want to make it sound like I asked him only because I had no one else. “And you were kind last year, after everything went down. Plus, I thought you’d be good at it.”
“Yeah? Why’s that?”
“Because you have lots of relationship experience, and you seem to like being in a relationship.”
Something passes over his face, but it’s gone in a second. Or maybe I imagined it?
Probably the latter.
I test my noodles again. They’re a safe temperature to eat now, thankfully.
“Also,” I say, “you like soup.”
“Who doesn’t like soup? I mean, if you don’t like certain types of soup, that’s fine, everyone has preferences, but not liking any soup?”
“Exactly! But I can’t date someone who doesn’t like soup again, even if it’s fake dating.”
“‘Again’?”
“Charlie didn’t like soup and didn’t enjoy my mother’s wonton soup. It was a whole thing. Not that I expect you to meet my parents, but still.”
“How long do you want this to last?” he asks.
“Until Valentine’s Day. Well, no. We can’t break up on Valentine’s Day. I want everyone to see that I’m in a happy relationship on Valentine’s Day, and we can break up later in February—but no drama. I’ll just tell people it didn’t work out.”
He nods, as if this is all very reasonable, and I appreciate that he isn’t trying to discourage me from this ridiculous plan.
“The break-up affected me more than I’d like,” I admit. The fact that he’s not pushing for more somehow makes me want to talk about it. “We’d been together for over a year, and in addition to the regular heartbreak…” It feels weird to acknowledge that I ever feel heartbreak, even though it’s something many people experience. “There was the whole going viral thing, having the video seen and picked apart by so many strangers. It was completely overwhelming. I’m not the sort of person who dreams of going viral, and who wants to go viral for a thing like that anyway?”
Taylor nods again. “I wouldn’t deal with that well, either.”
“Charlie never apologized for the public nature of our break-up.”
“He sucks.”
“I know.” Still, it’s good to hear Taylor say that.
“I want to promise you something.” He leans forward, and for some reason, my heart rate kicks up a notch. “I have absolutely no interest in a break-up spectacle.”
“Well, then. I think you’ll make the perfect fake boyfriend.”
I actually feel pretty good about this plan. I’ll spend a little extra time with Taylor, which is no hardship, and I have faith that he’ll be great at this role. It’s not as if I’d date him for real, but as my pretend boyfriend?
Yep, Taylor is perfect.
