Page 28 of My Fake Relationship With the Popular Boy (Port Lane Romances #1)

“When I first started drinking coffee, my parents wouldn’t let me unless it was black,” he explained. “They’re fine with me putting milk and sugar in it now but I already learned to love it that way.”

I shuddered at the thought. “I could never.”

“Well, I could never drink…” He eyed my cup for a second before looking back at the road. “Whatever that monstrosity is.”

“It’s a pink drink,” I said, “and it’s the best thing on earth.”

“If you say so,” he said in a tone that made it very clear he didn’t believe me. He glanced at me again. “Eat the muffin.”

My stomach growled yet again at the thought of the stupid muffin. It was sitting on the console between us, just begging to be eaten.

“I’m not going to take your muffin,” I said.

If I was lucky, my dad might have baked something in honour of me returning.

If he didn’t, I could probably convince him to pretty easily.

All it took was me reminding him that I was going off to university in a couple of months and he did anything I wanted.

I tried not to use the excuse too much because I felt bad, but in this instance, I was willing.

“I bought it for you,” he said.

“What?” I asked. “But I didn’t ask for one.”

“I know.” If I didn’t know better, I would say he was blushing. “But I thought you might want it. And blueberry’s your favourite, right?”

“Right…” I said slowly. I scratched my head. “Um, how exactly do you know all my favourite foods? Not that I don’t appreciate it but I don’t remember mentioning it at any point.”

“Come on, Evers,” he said. “I can’t reveal all my secrets.”

That just made me even more curious but I guessed it wasn’t a very interesting story. He probably just asked Eli or something.

“Well, either way,” I said, “I’m not going to take your muffin.”

“It’s not my muffin, I bought it for you,” he said. “And besides, I can tell you’re hungry.”

As if on cue, my stomach growled again. I self-consciously wrapped my arms around myself.

“I’m not that hungry,” I said pitifully.

He huffed. “Don’t lie to me, Evers.”

I sighed. This argument wasn’t worth it. I wanted the muffin and he clearly really meant it when he said he bought it for me, so why not take it?

“Fine,” I said. Jaxon smiled triumphantly. “ But I’m buying lunch next time we go out.”

“We’ll see,” Jaxon said. He made a left turn onto my street and slowed down. “Which house is yours?”

I’d almost forgotten that he didn’t know where I lived. This relationship was starting to feel so real that I felt like he should actually know everything about me.

“Number 74,” I said. “It’s about halfway down the street, on your left.”

I loved how easy it was to talk to Jaxon like this. It was so different than the past couple of years with Lewis, where I struggled to keep a conversation going for more than five minutes. If it ever came down to really choosing one of them to be my boyfriend, Jaxon would have won easily.

“Thanks for the ride,” I said. I unbuckled my seatbelt and put my hand on the door handle but paused before opening the door. I didn’t want to get out yet. I didn’t want this ride to end.

“Are you all right?” Jaxon asked. He jokingly added, “Need help getting out again? Wouldn’t want you breaking your legs on the jump down.”

“No, it’s not that…” I murmured. I glanced back at him and bit my lip. I couldn’t tell him that I didn’t want him to leave. He would probably think I was crazy if I did. What was the point of us spending time together like a couple if nobody was there to see it?

Jaxon’s smile faltered the longer I looked at him.

“You didn’t forget anything at the school, did you?” he asked. “Because there’s no way I’m driving back there.”

“Um…” I desperately tried to think of something to say but I couldn’t think of anything.

“Seriously, Violet, are you okay?” he asked. “It’s really okay if you did forget something at the school, I was just joking about not driving back. If we go now, we can probably get there before the bus leaves or?—”

I cut him off by leaning across the car and kissing him. I could tell he was taken aback by the action and even when I pulled back, he stared at me slack-jawed.

“Sorry,” I said. I couldn’t tell if he was happy about what I’d done or not, so I blurted out the first excuse I could think of: “I thought I saw Lewis. He lives up the road.”

“Oh… Right. Right.” He closed his eyes and shook his head, probably trying to shake off his surprise at my actions. “I, uh… I think you’re getting a little too good at pretending, Evers.”

He probably meant it as a joke, but I looked at him seriously. He was right. I was getting a little too into this, a little too happy to be faking it. Kissing Jaxon Andrews had been a ludicrous idea two weeks ago and now I was doing it happily.

“I think you’re right,” I whispered.

He clearly wasn’t expecting such a serious response and he looked a little shocked again. I needed to be careful before he realized what all of this meant. The only thing worse than genuinely enjoying kissing Jaxon would be him knowing that I did.

“Uh, anyway.” I broke away from our strange staring contest and grabbed my things, then jumped out of the car. “Thanks again for the ride. And for the food.”

“Of course,” Jaxon said. He got out of the car as well and circled around to the back. This time, I didn’t protest that I could deal with my suitcase myself. He put it on the ground and rolled it towards me. “I’ll see you at school.”

“Yeah,” I said. I ran my tongue over my lips. “I look forward to it.”

I quickly went inside. The house was empty and cold when I walked in.

It felt strange to come home after every vacation, even one as short as this.

It felt wrong. I dumped my bags by the bottom of the stairs then watched out the window of the front door as Jaxon pulled away.

There was a lump in my throat as I watched him leave, even though I knew I was going to see him again soon.

It was like I didn’t want to be away from him for any length of time.

Ignoring my bags and everything else I needed to do for the time being, I ran upstairs to my room. It felt just as weird as the rest of the house did but I didn’t pay it any mind as I dove face first onto my bed and screamed into my pillow.

It was time for me to face the facts: I didn’t kiss Jaxon because I thought Lewis saw us.

I kissed him because I wanted to test my feelings.

The answer I got was the one I was the most scared of: I was in love with Jaxon Andrews.

And for the first time in four years, I knew for certain that he didn’t like me back.