Page 17 of My Fake Date With My Childhood Friend (Port Lane Romances #3)
“I know, right?” Liv said. “Wendy made it, and she used up most of the batter in the cake, but she had too much, so she said I could eat the rest.”
“Remind me to thank her later.”
“I will,” she laughed. She looked around. “Where's Alexander? Did you come with him?”
“Yeah, he was just saying hi to Kyle,” I said.
As if he heard us talking, Alexander walked over right then, looking amused. He glanced at the batter in my hand and raised an eyebrow. I shrugged and grinned at him.
“Having a good time?” He asked. I nodded happily and took another lick of the spatula.
“Oh, Penn, come be on my team!” Liv said. She dropped the bowl and spatula on the counter, grabbed my hand, and pulled me forward. “You too, Alexander!”
“Your team?” I asked. I swerved to avoid walking straight into the counter. “For what?”
“Gingerbread house decorating, silly!”
“Naturally,” I said in confusion. Liv pulled me through a doorway to a fancy dining room. A long oak table was covered in a plastic sheet that did not match the decor of the rest of the house at all, with five boxes of unassembled gingerbread houses sitting in the middle of it.
“We agreed to start the competition at eight,” Liv said. I checked my watch. It was about five to eight.
“You know, Liv, I’m not huge on Christmas?—”
“We’ve talked about this!” Alexander interrupted, pointing a finger at me. “You are not giving up on Christmas just because of Joseph!”
“He’s right,” Liv said. “Have some fun.”
“Everyone, split into teams and grab a box!” Wendy instructed. Liv grabbed a box for us and pulled me to the head of the table. I sat down with her, even though I wasn’t totally sold on doing something so Christmas-y.
“Now, this is how it works,” Wendy said. “Each team will build a house and decorate it. In the end, the team with the best-decorated house will be the winner. The prize is a gift card for Tim Hortons. Everyone ready?”
“Ready!” We all responded.
“All right.” Wendy started a thirty-minute timer. “Go!”
Everyone started ripping open their boxes.
“Where do we start?” Alexander asked.
“Start with anything,” Liv said. She was already putting frosting along the edges of two walls and sticking them together. Alexander and I glanced at each other. Liv was clearly much more into this — and better at it — than us.
“I guess I'll start with the roof,” I said. I started frosting the top of the roof while Alexander put frosting on the sides Liv wasn't already done with. It only took a few minutes for us to finish assembling the house, and then we were ready to decorate.
I looked around at my friend and 'boyfriend.
' They both seemed so excited. Liv was sticking the gummy candies to the house while Alexander was trying to make a gingerbread man stand in front of the house.
They both had big smiles on their faces, and it looked like we were having the time of our lives.
“I love decorating gingerbread houses,” Alexander said. He nudged me with his elbow. “Remember how we used to have the competitions when we were kids?”
“Me and you versus Elliot and Charlie,” I said.
“Wow, so you two have been friends for a long time, huh?” One of the girls on the other team said. I was pretty sure her name was Sophie, but I wasn't positive. While I'd seen her around school, we had never actually talked to each other.
“Our moms have been best friends since college,” Alexander explained to her. “We basically grew up together.”
“And now you're in love!” Sophie squealed.
My hand involuntarily squeezed tightly around the icing bag I was holding, squirting icing all over the tablecloth.
I knew everyone thought Alexander, and I were dating, but who said anything about love?
I refused to say I was in love with anyone after Joseph, even if it was fake.
Saying I was in love meant opening my heart up to be broken like Joseph had done to me.
“We sure are,” Alexander said. He smiled at me. “Trust me, our parents are thrilled.”
“Of course, they are!” Sophie said giddily. “You two must have so many fun Christmas traditions!”
“A few,” Alexander said. He started telling Sophie about the things we did every year — the Christmas Eve party, the wishes on the tree, playing White Elephant, and everything else.
I smiled as I listened to him. I hadn’t noticed how much of my Christmas season was based on spending time with Alexander.
No wonder Sophie thought it was the cutest thing ever that we were ‘dating’ now.
Mine clenched with guilt yet again. Everyone was rooting so much for this relationship, and it wasn’t even real.
It never could be real, even if I wanted it to be.
I wouldn’t let somebody hurt me the way Joseph had.
As I watched Alexander, though, I started to question that feeling. Alexander would never hurt me the way Joseph had. I was sure of that. I dropped the icing bag, completely entranced by Alexander’s words.
Maybe I shouldn’t have been so hasty in swearing off boys after all.