Page 13 of My Fake Relationship With the Popular Boy (Port Lane Romances #1)

eight

By the time we sorted out who was sharing a room with who and actually got upstairs, we had almost no time to settle in.

Jaxon barely even stepped foot in our room, instead choosing to just dump his bags on the floor and leave immediately.

I, on the other hand, took a couple of minutes to freshen up and get changed.

I wasn’t inclined to spend the whole day in the same clothes I had worn for a six-hour bus ride.

Just as I finished pulling on my new shirt, revelling a little in the fact that I didn’t have to wear my uniform now that the trip had started, somebody knocked on my door.

I had to jump a little to see through the peephole since it was obnoxiously high on the door — probably perfect for somebody Jaxon’s height — but I got enough of a good view through it to see Madison standing on the other side.

I threw the door open with a wide smile. “Hello.”

“Well, don’t you look dashing?” she said. She was one to talk. Somehow in the few minutes we’d been apart, she’d managed to do a full face of makeup, put her hair in a nice style that probably would have taken an hour for me to figure out, and had gotten changed into a summer dress and sandals.

I quickly slipped on my shoes and slung the strap of my purse over my shoulder.

“Ready to go to the lobby?” I asked.

“Yeah.” Madison took a couple steps back so I could leave the room. As I shut the heavy door behind me, she peered over my shoulder. “Where’s Jaxon?”

“Don’t know,” I said. I tested the door handle to make sure it was locked before I turned back to her. “He just dropped his bags off and left. Probably went to see Eli and Sabrina.”

“And didn’t even tell you where he was going?” Madison’s eyebrows knit together in concern. “That’s a little rude.”

“Why should I care?” I shrugged and headed for the end of the hall. “Anyway, elevator or stairs?”

“Elevator,” Madison said immediately. She fanned herself with her hands. “It’s too hot to take the stairs.”

I rolled my eyes. “It’s like twenty degrees out. I’m pretty sure it was warmer at home than here.”

“Still, my point stands,” Madison said. She flipped her blonde hair over her shoulder then pressed the button for the elevator.

“So, I ran into Mr. Smith on my way to your room and he told me that we can do whatever we want for the rest of the day. We just have to be back at the hotel for five o’clock so we can go to dinner as a class. ”

“Okay,” I said. I glanced at my watch. That gave us a little under five hours of free time. “What do you want to start with?”

“Lunch?” she suggested. “I’m sure there’s some good restaurants around here.”

“Yeah, sounds good,” I said. The elevator doors finally opened and we stepped on.

“Hold the elevator!” somebody called a moment later. Madison’s hand shot out to press the open door button and Eli, Sabrina, and Jaxon came running on, all of them laughing happily.

“Hey guys,” Sabrina giggled.

“Thanks for holding the door,” Eli said.

“No problem,” Madison replied. She pulled her hand away from the button, letting the doors close.

Jaxon slipped between Eli and Sabrina to stand next to me and slipped his arm around me. His hand was barely even touching my back, but I was sure nobody else could tell that.

“How’s it going?” he asked.

“Pretty good,” I said. “You?”

“Same,” he said. “Sorry I didn’t stick around in the room with you. I was trying to catch Eli and Sabrina.”

“No worries,” I said. My eyes shifted around the elevator. Would a real girlfriend care more about that? I didn’t know how to fake that sort of jealousy.

“Hey, do you guys want to get lunch with us?” Eli asked. “We were thinking of going to a ramen place down the street.”

Before I could even consider the offer, Madison said, “Yeah, that sounds great!”

It was just as well that she said yes. It wasn’t like I was really against going out with them.

I was hoping to have a small break from hanging around Jaxon since I had already spent more time with him this week than I had in the past year, but it would also be nice to spend some time with all of them.

The elevator doors re-opened and we walked out into the spacious lobby.

To the left, six armchairs were filled with some of our classmates who were joking around.

The air conditioning was blasting so much that goosebumps raised on my arms as we walked through.

On the bright side, it meant that the outside air felt even warmer when we headed out.

Madison frequently complained about the humidity in our city, but I was happy to have the heat of any sort.

The only thing that got me was the sun — being a redhead in any place with even mild sun was hell for me.

The sidewalk was only big enough for three people to walk in a row. Jaxon, Eli and Sabrina immediately moved into a line in front, while Madison and I fell behind them. Madison linked her arm through mine and matched my steps exactly.

“So…” she said, dragging out the word.

“So…” I echoed back, unsure of what she was trying to say.

“I saw you and Jaxon cuddling on the bus,” Madison said with a wink. My face flushed red.

“We weren’t cuddling ,” I argued, even though that was exactly what it was.

“Yeah, sure you weren’t.” Madison smirked. She tilted her head and studied me in an oddly disarming way. “It seems like you really like him.”

To be honest, I was surprised that we managed to convince Madison that our relationship was real so quickly.

I had expected her to be more dubious about the relationship or think that it was a bad idea, but she seemed really happy about it.

In fact, she acted as if she had expected it — which shocked me more than anything.

The more she seemed happy about the relationship, the guiltier I felt.

I hated lying to her and I hated that she was probably going to be heartbroken when Jaxon and I ‘broke up’.

I wasn’t sure how I was going to fake those feelings.

I tried to stay in the moment, though, and focus on why I was doing this.

I smiled widely at Madison. “I really do.”

“Here we are,” Eli said. We stopped in front of a narrow, dark building.

Eli held the door open for all of us to go inside.

I followed Madison and Sabrina in, with the boys bringing up the rear.

Just as we entered the building and stopped by the hostess stand, all the staff yelled something in unison.

Although I should have expected it since that was common practice in restaurants like this, I just about jumped out of my skin.

Jaxon laughed. “Take you by surprise, Evers?”

I hit his arm. “You should be nicer to your girlfriend, you know.”

He kept laughing but he wrapped his arm around my shoulders like he’d done that morning.

“Sorry, dear,” he said. I rolled my eyes at the pet name.

“You really like to hug, huh?” I said, eyeing the hand that was casually hanging in front of my chest.

“Yeah…” he said. “You know, a couple years ago, Sabrina and Eli made me do one of those ‘what’s your love language’ tests and it said it was physical touch, so I guess it makes sense.”

“That would explain it.” I tried to nod my head but his arm was holding my hair down so I could barely move an inch.

“Why?” Jaxon asked. “Do you not like it?”

He started pulling his hand away. Without thinking, I grabbed his hand and pulled his arm back into the place it had been a minute ago.

“No!” I said. I blushed a little at my quick response and dropped my hand again. “I mean… it’s nice. I like it.”

My words clearly took him by surprise and, honestly, they took me by surprise a little too.

I didn’t know why but I actually found his arm slung over my shoulder like that really comforting.

I probably shouldn’t have sounded so sincere, though; I couldn’t risk Jaxon thinking that I actually liked him or something stupid like that.

The hostess walked up to the stand. “Table for five?”

“Yes,” Eli said.

She nodded and grabbed some menus from the stack. “Follow me.”

She led us to the back corner of the restaurant.

The table had a bench on one side with three chairs opposite it and a chair at each end of the table.

Madison took the chair at the head of the table, leaving each side of the table for a couple.

Jaxon pulled out the middle chair for me.

I would have preferred to sit next to Madison but I didn’t complain as I sat down in the offered chair.

Jaxon sat down on the chair on the side further away from Madison, so I could at least talk to her easily.

Jaxon’s chair was about two feet from mine but he immediately moved it closer to me, until our legs were actually touching, and rested his arm on the back of my chair.

Madison leaned her chin on her hand, staring at Jaxon, and sighed.

“What a gentleman,” she said dreamily.

“Is he my boyfriend or yours?” I asked. She just flipped a middle finger at me, though she laughed a little too. This whole fake boyfriend thing was actually becoming pretty fun for me.

“What are you going to get?” Jaxon asked me.

“Slow down, I haven’t even looked at the menu yet,” I said. I tucked my hair behind my ears and picked up the menu.

“What are you going to get?” Jaxon repeated jokingly as soon as I opened it. I grinned at him.

“Are you ever going to stop?” I knew him well enough to know the answer, but it was worth asking regardless.

“When you give me an answer.”

I shook my head and laughed. “I’m not sure what I’m going to get.”

“That’s not a good answer.”

“Okay, hot shot, what are you going to get?”

“I asked you first.”

“You’re ridiculous.”

“That’s why you love me.”

I ignored the love comment. “I think I want something spicy,” I said. “But I’m also very weak when it comes to spice so that might not be a good idea.”