Page 16 of My Fake Date With My Childhood Friend (Port Lane Romances #3)

“We were just getting some drinks for a Christmas party,” Alexander said, holding up a couple of bottles of pop.

“Fun,” Nikki said, eyeing them carefully.

A second later, Joseph came around the corner, eyes trained on the label of a cookie box.

“Hey, babe, do you think...” He trailed off as he looked up and saw the situation before him. “Oh, hey, Penny. Alexander.”

My stomach turned, and I started to feel sick. Why was Joseph everywhere I went?

Alexander dropped the bottles back into the cart and wrapped an arm around my waist.

“I was just telling Nikki here that Penny and I are off to a Christmas party,” Alexander said. He leaned his chin against it. “We're just so excited for this first Christmas as a couple, you know?”

“I see,” Joseph said. His eyes darkened and I could feel the anger radiating off of him. I guess our plan was working.

“Yeah, it's going to be the best Christmas ever,” I said. I grabbed Alexander's spare hand and gave it a squeeze. “He just gets me, you know? It's nice to spend the holidays with a boyfriend I love.”

“You loved me,” Joseph growled.

“I thought I did,” I sighed. “But then I started dating Alexander and realized what love actually feels like.”

Joseph's anger was palpable, like a storm gathering power. His breathing was heavy and fast, his face was red, and his fists were clenching and unclenching at his sides. I was a little worried about his possibly punching one of us.

“Good for you,” Nikki said sarcastically. She tapped at Joseph’s arm insistently. “Can we go now?”

Joseph looked at her with what I thought was supposed to be a glare, but Nikki seemed unfazed.

She just raised her eyebrows at him. Joseph turned to us again.

Joseph's eyes met mine, and for a second, I thought I saw something change in them.

But then it was gone, and he nodded stiffly before pushing past Alexander and leading Nikki down the aisle we were just leaving.

Alexander quickly grabbed our cart, and we walked away as fast as we could without actually running. The silence between us was still heavy. We went through the self-checkout at lightning speed and headed out into the cold night.

“I’m sorry about that,” Alexander said as we walked to the car.

“It’s not your fault we saw them,” I said. “We live in a pretty small town. It’s bound to happen.”

We loaded the groceries into the car quickly and pulled away.

Luckily, the grocery store was between my and Kyle’s houses, so it wasn’t too far of a drive to the party.

Most of the street was pretty parked out, but we found a spot a little up the road.

Alexander opened my door for me, and I got out.

“Hey, can I see your phone for a sec?” He asked.

“Sure,” I said with a shrug. I unlocked it and handed it over. I didn’t have much on my phone, so I wasn’t too worried about what he might stumble across, especially when I was standing right in front of him.

“You should change the lock screen to one of the photos we took today.”That seemed a little excessive. Granted, my old lock screen photo had been of Joseph and me, but that was just because it was cute, not because I felt like I had to have a photo of him.

“Why? It’s not like anyone looks at my phone.”

“Someone might peek and expect to see a photo of both of us as your phone background,” he said. “Trust me, if one of the girls gets ahold of your phone and the photo isn’t something to do with us, then they’ll have a lot of questions.”

“If you say so,” I sighed. I took my phone back. “Can you send me the photos?”

“I tried to when I first took them.” He frowned and pulled his own phone out.

I glanced at it quickly as he unlocked it.

He had already changed the lock screen to be one of the photos of me walking backwards.

Wow, he was fast. I wasn’t sure whether I should be scared or impressed that he was this good at faking a relationship.

“They didn’t send,” I said.

“Weird. It’s having trouble now too.” He sighed in frustration. “Do you have any other photos of us?”

“Uh…” I scrolled through my camera roll quickly, even though I was sure the answer was no.

To my surprise, there was one photo, though.

It was an old photo my mom sent me a couple of weeks ago because she thought it was cute.

It was a photo of Alexander and me when we were six, standing in front of the enormous Christmas tree at the mall, holding tiny folded pieces of paper.

The tree was known for granting Christmas wishes, so we wrote a wish on a piece of paper every year and placed it in the branches.

We’d gone after our school holiday recital, so he was dressed up in a tiny suit, and I was in a burgundy velvet dress.

I loved that dress so much that I cried when I realized it didn’t fit me the next Christmas.

In the photo, Alexander was smiling at the camera, but I seemed to have been distracted by something he said because I was looking at him.

I smiled to myself as I looked at the photo.

It was adorable. I was surprised my mom hadn’t printed it out yet.

I was sure she was already planning to show it at our wedding.

Guilt gnawed at my heart at the thought of that.

I thought pretending to date Alexander would be a victimless lie — but my mom was going to be crushed when she found out that we weren’t together anymore.

“Penny?” Alexander asked. My head shot up in surprise. I’d forgotten where I was for a minute there.

“Oh, sorry,” I said. I shook my head and held my phone out to him. “Uh, I think this is the only photo I have of us.”

Alexander smiled widely. “Hey, I remember that! It was our first-grade holiday recital, right?”

“My mom took us out for ice cream afterward,” I said. “And your mom took Elliot and Charlie… somewhere. I don’t remember.”

This was back in the day when there were only three kids in my family. Honestly, as much as I loved Carter, Florence, and Benjamin, sometimes I missed those days. Having a big family was fun, but it was easy to get lost in the shuffle sometimes.

“Eh, who cares where they were, right?” Alexander laughed.

“Do you remember why I was looking at you?” I asked. “Usually, I was pretty good at looking at the camera.”

Alexander’s eyebrows pulled together in deep concentration as he studied the photo.

“I must have said something to make you laugh,” he said. “I think it was something about the wish I made.”

“Right…” I said. The memories started coming back in bits and pieces. “You told me you couldn’t tell me your wish because then it wouldn’t come true. But I snuck a look at your paper just before Mom took the photo and saw that you wished that we would be friends forever.”

“Well, I guess we’d better hope that you are reading my wish was some loophole,” Alexander said. “Because you best believe I’m not giving up on our friendship so soon.”

I stared at him for a second, his words rattling around in my brain.

“Do you mean that?” I asked. I hated how insecure I sounded and how desperate I was for a positive answer.

But I couldn’t hold it back. I’d always wanted to be better friends with Alexander.

Sure, I had a mild crush on him as well, but I really wanted to be his friend, and the only reason I hadn’t tried harder was that I thought he didn’t want the same.

“Of course,” he said. “Friends forever.”

“Forever,” I repeated softly.

He grabbed my phone from me and set the photo as my lock screen.

“The photo’s perfect,” he said. Then he winked at me. “As is the story that goes along with it.”

I flushed red and took my phone back. He was right, of course.

But I wasn’t sure if he realized quite what that moment had meant to me — the beginning of a crush that lingered to this day.

I’d probably never tell him, honestly. But regardless, I was happy that my mom happened to have sent me that photo so recently.

In fact, I was willing to believe that it was a little piece of Christmas magic.

Kyle’s house was more decorated for Christmas than any house I’d ever seen. There were Christmas lights draped around every window and door, an inflatable Santa on the lawn, a set of reindeer and Santa on the ceiling, and a wreath on the door.

“His family’s pretty intense about Christmas,” Alexander told me.

“You don’t say,” I replied.

As we walked up the steps to the front door, it was clear the party was already in full swing.

I could hear music and laughter through the wall.

It was even louder when we walked inside.

It seemed even bigger on the inside than the outside, with high ceilings, giant windows, and an open floor plan.

Christmas lights were strung along the walls, and soft festive music was playing through the house, intermingled with people's voices and laughter.

I stuck to Alexander's side as we made our way into the kitchen. Looking around at the frenetic energy of the people, I couldn't help but feel out of my depth. I wasn't sure how I was supposed to fit in. Suddenly, I wasn’t so sure about whether I should have come with him.

The kitchen was large and cavernous and smelled of cooked food and spices. The smells mingled together in a warm, inviting aroma.

“Penn!” Liv called. I immediately felt more comfortable seeing her there. She was sitting on the counter with a metal mixing bowl in her lap and a spatula in her hand. She was licking what looked like brownie batter.

“Hey, Liv!” I said. I moved to stand with her while Alexander hung back and talked to one of his friends. I sat on the counter with her. “How's it going?”

“So good,” she said. She grabbed an extra spatula from the counter and handed it to me. “Here, have some cake batter. It's chocolate gingerbread.”

“That sounds so good!” I dipped the spatula into the batter and licked it. It was sweet and rich with a gingerbread kick. “It's even better than I thought!”