Page 53 of Fake it 'Til Christmas
“I ...I call him Chad sometimes,” I lie, and I’m not sure if I should write that one down or just keep going before I stutter.“He looks exactly as I describe him, Mom.”
“I just don’t understand why you’d date a Thorn.”
“In Colorado, there’s no Thorns and Wolfcrafts, Mother.There’s just people,” I say, as if that makes all the sense in the world—it doesn’t.
“But you’re with a Thorn?After everything?”
It’s not a question.It’s a disapproval so thick you could frost a cake with it.
I take a breath, and as I’m about to say something, she adds, “And you’re pregnant.Do you understand the damage you’re doing to this family?You’re making us ...we can’t stand them.”
I stare at the floor.All that comes back is the memory of Soren’s hand on my waist, the slow burn of a kiss that felt too real to undo.I’m not even sure where he’s at.He should be here trying to problem solve our current issue—our families are in a feud, and they think we’re together.
You know what would make this a lot less stressing?A kiss.
What am I thinking?No, I don’t need a kiss from him, but actually I do.
I’m fucked.
“There’s no pregnancy, Mom.”I groan because I can’t with this delusion.“I made a joke about naming our firstborn after you, and his cousin Helena—I don’t even know where she came from—just spread gossip.”
“That Helena is something.She married the family from ...I can’t remember whose side.Ever since she moved to Winterberry, the gossip is unreliable.”
I gawk at my phone because, really, Helena made the gossip unreliable.This is one of the reasons I would never move back home.Good luck to everyone who does indeed live there.Helena seems to be the downfall of a dynasty of good gossip.
“Well,” she says, softer now.“I suppose if you’re going to burn your life to the ground, at you’re least do it with someone handsome.”
I blink.“What?”
“I saw the photos.And the kiss.That was some kiss—I’d say even better than those you watch in movies and gossip sites.”
“Yeah, we kissed,” I confirm, touching my lips.
“Fred.Freddy ...I don’t know if I can handle you being a Thorn.”She sounds resigned.“I’ll work through this, but promise me something.”
She sounds so serene ...no, suspiciously compliant.I have to tread carefully before she traps me.“Yeah?”
“You’ll spend Christmas with us.I’ll actually put you at the top of The Wolfcraft Howler.”
Did she just mention The Wolfcraft Howler?
I ...I’m almost speechless because that’s what I’ve been working toward the entire year, right?Being there, not just there, winning it—winning Christmas.
I would finally win it, win everything.
“You send it before Christmas, and you don’t have pictures of us.”
“Details, Freddy,” my mother says like she’s the casting director of my fake relationship, and we’re behind on production.“Just have your lovely boyfriend hire a professional photographer.Get me good shots.Shots that say ‘Fred is in love and he’s rich.’”
Lovely boyfriend?Rich?I’m suspicious about her motives, but this is my chance to win.Decisions, decisions.
“His family is rich,” I clarify, immediately regretting it.
She tsks into the phone, already over the nuance.“He has that business in Colorado,” she declares like she’s reading off an imaginary topMillionaires Magazinelist.“I heard it’s worth a lot.Even has a plane.I did my research, sweetie.I bet he lives in a mansion.”
A mansion?
I blink, caught between correcting her and wondering if maybe I’m the one who’s wrong.Should I tell her the truth?That Soren lives next door and probably pays less rent than I do?That his idea of extravagance is upgrading his cold brew to nitro on the days he remembers to head to the coffee shop instead of making breakfast?
