Page 20

Jake

Instead, she just looks at me like I’m crazy, and laughs. “He’s kidding?—”

I wrap my arm around her waist and bring her closer to me. The sudden movement, paired with the touching, shocked her enough to cut her off. “Oh babe, you don’t have to be shy. I know you wanted to keep this lowkey, but it seems like the universe had different plans for us.”

“I—uh, what?” Eliana keeps looking between me and my mom as if she’s slowly starting to notice the family resemblance.

Shit. Shit. Shit. “Honestly, this is all my fault. Ellie and I started dating a few weeks ago, and we’ve been so focused on getting to know each other that neither of us have really talked about family stuff yet.

I never got around to telling her that my mom was a psychology researcher.

In hindsight I probably should have assumed your paths would cross one day, given you both work in the same field. ”

“Oh sweetie, is this the girl you were telling us about during family dinner?” Mom smiles.

Eliana’s eyes widen even more, and I need to get her alone before she finally breaks out of her state of shock and blows my cover.

Thankfully another Westchester professor swoops in to ask my mom some questions about her talk, giving me the perfect opportunity to pull Eliana into the corner of the room so my mom can’t hear us.

“I promise I can explain.”

“Well you better get started because I’ve spent the last five minutes pinching myself to wake up from the nightmare that is you telling one of my idols and new boss , who happens to be your mom , that we’re dating.”

“This is definitely real life.”

“I just don’t get it. Why did you say I’m your girlfriend? Also why didn’t you tell me your mom is Katherine freaking Fisher?!”

“Saying you’re my girlfriend just came out of my mouth before I could even stop it, so I just rolled with it.

She doesn’t know I’m struggling in psych, or that I was looking for a tutor.

And honestly? I completely spaced how small academia can be.

It never once crossed my mind that you two would run into each other.

” Which, in hindsight, was pretty short-sighted of me.

“We’re past running into each other. I’m going to work for her this summer! She can’t think that we’re dating. That has to be against some code of ethics or something. I can’t lose this internship, Jake.” She runs her hands through her loose curls while gnawing on her lip.

Ugh. I had really managed to fuck this up. “You won’t lose it. My mom had no idea we had any relationship — fake or otherwise — when she selected you. HR departments manage conflicts of interest all the time.”

“Okay, okay. That’s good. I still don’t get why you couldn’t just tell her I’m helping you with a class?”

I fidget with the hem of my hoodie and my throat tightens.

Eliana’s voice is extremely soft as it hits my ears, like she’s talking to a wild animal that’s been wounded. “I’m not going to judge you. I’m just trying to understand.”

“My mom is Katherine Fisher.” That’s all that needed to be said.

Eliana crosses her arms and gestures for me to continue. “Yeah, I gathered as much.”

“She’s literally one of the most famous researchers in her field.

My older sister chose to follow in her footsteps.

Younger sister is also probably going to end up doing the same in a couple of years.

Meanwhile, I just…play hockey. And I love it.

It's the one thing that’s always been mine.

The one thing that I always excelled at and loved doing.

But when I sit down in a room with my family, I end up feeling so…

small. Like I don’t even exist sometimes.

Like I don’t even matter. That’s why I chose to take PSYCH101. ”

“So you could prove to them that there’s more to you than just hockey?” She guesses.

“Sort of. There was definitely a small part of me that wanted to prove I could also use my brains if I wanted to. But I think a bigger part of me just wanted to feel like I fit in with my family. Since research is basically the family business it's often all that gets talked about. And I wanted to be able to contribute to dinner conversations. Or at the very least, be able to keep up.” A self-deprecating laugh slips out. “I probably should’ve known better. I still know next to nothing about psychology, but now it might also cost me hockey.”

“I won’t let it come to that. I promise.” She sounds so sure.

“I hope you’re right.” I shove my hands into my pockets. “So, are we okay?”

She takes a moment to think to herself. “Honestly, I don’t know.

I don’t like the idea of lying to your mom, and while I appreciate you trying to comfort me about not losing my internship, I don’t want people to think the only reason I got this job was because I’m dating you.

Especially when we’re not even dating. I’ve worked way too hard to get to where I am today, for all of my accomplishments to be written off as favoritism. ”

“You’re right. It was really unfair to put you in this position. I honestly wasn’t thinking at all and just hit the panic button. I’ll tell her the truth soon. I promise. But maybe we can wait until after my next exam so I can at least tell her I’m not at risk of being benched anymore?”

It was a selfish ask, but in my head, telling my mom I had a friend/tutor who was helping me stay on track was an easier blow to my ego than telling her I was failing and about to lose hockey.

“I don’t know…” Eliana nods her head to the left, signaling my mom approaching.

“I just called the restaurant to add an extra person to our reservation. Eliana, can you join us for dinner?” My mom gives us a big smile.

Eliana sends me a look that screams, This is really bad ! “Oh I really don’t want to impose?—”

“It’s not an imposition at all. In fact, I insist. I would love to get to know more about the incredible researcher who will be joining my lab soon. I’m just going to clean up my things, and we can head out?” Katherine walks away before either of us can respond.

“This is bad. This is very bad.” Eliana starts biting her nails. “I can’t go to dinner with Katherine Fisher. Especially when she thinks I’m dating her son.”

“You saw the look on her face. She’s not taking no for an answer.” I try my best to come off as calm and collected, but I couldn’t deny I was also freaking out a little. I know very little about my supposed girlfriend.

“Fine. One night. What’s our game plan?”

“I’ll say you were tutoring Ollie, which is how we connected. She knows we only recently started dating so it makes sense there’s still a lot we don’t know about each other. Would you feel comfortable with holding my hand?”

“Whoa there, buddy. Maybe buy me a drink first.” Eliana snorts, her tone laced with sarcasm.

I chuckle, then drape my arm across her shoulder and hold her hand from that position. Tucked at my side I can’t help but notice that the top of her head is at the perfect height for me to rest my chin on. Huh. This actually feels pretty nice.

“Alright, you kids ready?” My mom’s voice snaps me back into reality.

Or at least the very fake reality in which Eliana and I are pretending to date. “Ready.”