Page 15 of My Fake Date With My Childhood Friend (Port Lane Romances #3)

ten

Music was playing at the top volume from my speaker.

I danced in place and hummed under my breath as I put my earrings in.

I spun around and looked at myself in my full-length mirror.

I was wearing jeans and a dark red top my mom had recently bought for me.

I think she originally meant for me to wear it to the Christmas Eve party, but I didn't have time to go shopping before this party, so I was making do.

I pulled my hair up into a high ponytail and added some sparkly earrings to match my dress.

My makeup was light but pretty, accentuating my hazel eyes and giving me a natural look.

I smiled at myself and put on some lip gloss.

I couldn't help but feel a little bit excited about going to this party, even though I was a little nervous.

This would be the first time I was spending time with Alexander's friends outside of school, and even though this relationship wasn't real, I wanted to impress them.

It was so nice to have friends again, and I didn't want them all to decide that they didn't like me or that I wasn't good enough for Alexander.

“You look so pretty!” Flo said. I looked over to my doorway, where she was standing.

She was holding a tattered copy of The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe, probably planning to ask my dad to read a few chapters to her.

At eight years old, she was capable of reading chapter books, but she often preferred getting our parents to read them to her.

“Thanks, sweetie,” I said. “Do you want me to put some makeup on you?”

“No, I'm good,” she said. “I just wanted to come to say hi.”

She skipped off. I smiled to myself and shook my head.

I turned back to my mirror and took a deep breath.

I could feel the excitement coursing through me, and it was contagious.

I started to dance again, moving my hips to the beat of the music.

The music went quiet for a second as my phone dinged with a text before changing back to full volume again.

I spared a look at it and saw the text was from Liv:

When are you coming?

The party’s boring without you :(

I grinned. It was weird to be wanted places again.

Liv was great about always telling me about her plans and inviting me along, as she always wanted me around.

She actually reminded me of Nikki in many ways.

I wished I could have been friends with her before everything awful went down because I think they would have gotten along great.

The three of us could have been best friends.

“I like that shirt,” Charlie said behind me.

I froze. I hadn’t heard him take Florence’s place in the doorway.

In fact, I didn’t even know he was in the house.

He’d made some comment about going out with friends tonight, and I was happy about it because it meant it would be that much easier to avoid him, but I guess that hadn’t worked out.

He and I hadn't spoken since our argument the other day, and I wasn't ready to forgive him yet.

“Thanks,” I said flatly.

“When are you leaving?” He asked.

“Um...” I glanced at the time on my phone. It was 6:55. Alexander wasn't supposed to be here for another five minutes, but it was close enough that it wouldn't be strange for me to go downstairs and get my shoes on. “Now.”

I threw everything I needed into my purse, grabbed my jacket, and brushed past Charlie.

“Penny...” he said in a frustrated tone.

“I don't have time to talk right now,” I said. I pulled my jacket on as I went downstairs and put my shoes on right away. I could hear Charlie following me, so I moved faster. I wasn't ready to hear yet another lecture about how I wasn't over Joseph.

“Are you leaving now, Penny?” Mom called from the kitchen.

“Yeah,” I called back.

“Okay, sweetie, have fun! And be back by midnight!”

“Midnight?” Charlie asked me.

“Yeah,” I said coldly. I finished lacing up my boot. “My curfew.”

“Lucky,” Charlie said. He crossed his arms. “I was only allowed out until eleven when I was your age.”

“Oh.” I shrugged. “Too bad.”

Charlie frowned. He was clearly annoyed with all my one-syllable answers, but if he thought the way to get me talking to him again was to complain about his old curfew, he had another thing coming.

“I'll see you later, then,” Charlie said.

“Bye,” I said tersely.

I turned and walked out the door, not giving him a chance to say anything else. I didn't have time for his crap tonight.

Alexander's car was pulling into my driveway.

He got out and came to meet me at the bottom of my porch stairs.

He looked so handsome in his tight jeans and dark shirt.

His eyes met mine, and for a moment, all I could do was stare at him.

It felt like everything inside of me just started spinning, and I couldn't believe how lucky I was to have a guy this great, even as a fake boyfriend.

“Ready to go?” He asked.

“Yes,” I said breathlessly.

He opened the door for me, and I got in, then he closed the door and got in on the other side. We drove away from my house, and all I could think about was how great it felt to be away from there, with Alexander by my side.

“I told you that I'd bring some drinks, but I didn't get the chance to swing by the grocery store yet,” Alexander said. “Mind coming with me? It'll only be a few minutes. Otherwise, I'll drop you off at the party first.”

“No problem,” I said. I definitely wasn't going to that party without him.

We drove to the grocery store and quickly headed inside. I was impressed by how quickly Alexander found the aisle we were looking for and grabbed everything we needed.

“Do you want anything while we're in here?” He asked. I shook my head.

“I'm good, thanks.”

“Oh, before we go!” Alexander said, holding a hand up. I looked at him in confusion, waiting for him to finish his sentence. With his free hand, he pulled out his phone. “We should take some pictures together.”

I laughed. “Why?”

“Because we're a couple, and we need couple photos,” he said like it was obvious.

“Yeah, I know that,” I said, rolling my eyes. “But why in a grocery store?”

“We've been slacking on this,” he explained. “We should take them in different places to make it seem like we've been hanging out more than we have.”

“Alexander, we've seen each other every day this week.”

“But we didn't take any photos! And besides, most of those were at school, and that doesn't count.”

I sighed, resigned. He was right that an important part of our fake relationship was posting on social media, and we needed photos for that.

“Fine,” I said, smoothing down my hair. “But we're going to be wearing the same clothes in every single one.”

“Take off your jacket and put it in the cart,” he said. “When we take photos outside, we'll wear them. Boom, different outfits.”

I did as he said but said, “I'll have the same hair and makeup in all of them too.”

“Stop overthinking this.”

“Says the guy making me take a selfie in the grocery store.”

“You can put your hood up in the other ones to hide your hair! And nobody will notice if your makeup is the same.”

“Fine,” I said again. Somebody probably would notice, but it wasn't worth the argument. I moved to stand right next to Alexander. He raised the phone and got it at the right angle where both of us were visible, which was a little difficult since he was more than half a foot taller than me.

“Smile,” he said.

I did, even though it felt weird. I couldn't help but notice how handsome he looked in the light and how my heart started racing when our eyes met. He snapped the photo, and I could feel a lump in my throat.

“We should do the one where I’m kissing your cheek,” he said.

My heart raced. I tried to ignore the feeling.

“Okay, that’s fine,” I replied awkwardly. I didn't like a couple of photos like that, but it was true that most other people posted them, so I should too. Even if I had Joseph and Nikki blocked, someone was bound to show them these photos, and that made it worth it. Anything to make them angry.

He moved closer and hesitated for a second before sighing.

“All right, let’s get this over with.”

He kissed my cheeks and raised the phone for a selfie, then clicked the button to take the photo.

I definitely felt butterflies in my stomach when he pecked my cheek, but I was trying hard to push them away.

I shouldn’t have been enjoying this. Alexander kissed my cheek every year at New Year’s Eve and it was never a big deal.

My brain was just confused because we had to pretend to date.

That was it, yeah. It was all in my head. It was fake, and I had to remember it.

We took a few more photos like that before I finally called it.

“We have a party to get to,” I reminded him.

“Just a couple more photos,” he asked.

“We need to go!” I insisted. I started walking backwards in the direction of the checkout aisle, keeping my eyes on him.

“Let me just get some shots like this!” He said.

While pushing the cart forward at a snail's pace, he started taking some more photos of me.

I tried to smile naturally and not look like I was using up all my energy to avoid anything.

Maybe I should have been more focused, though, because Alexander's face suddenly morphed into one of concern, and he opened his mouth to warn me about something behind me, but it was too late — I spun around to see what it was and ran straight into Nikki.

“Oh my gosh!” I exclaimed in surprise. I put a hand to my rapidly beating chest. “Nikki! What are you doing here?”

Nikki's eyes were just as wide with surprise, and she looked from me to Alexander and back again.

“I didn't see you there,” she said. She pointed behind her. “I just came around the corner. I mean, I didn't—” She cleared her throat and looked away uncomfortably.

“Yeah, I didn't see you either,” I said flatly.

An uncomfortable silence hung in the air.