Total pages in book: 91
Estimated words: 86068 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 430(@200wpm)___ 344(@250wpm)___ 287(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 86068 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 430(@200wpm)___ 344(@250wpm)___ 287(@300wpm)
“The first date, what was it?”
I bite another chip, my mood turning reflective. “How about it was raining heavily, I saw you jump into the river to save a drowning cat.”
He stops mid-stride. “What? No. No one is going to believe that nonsense. It’ll be easier to pull off if we stick to the truth where we can.”
“Fine,” I concede moodily. “Drinks. We met over drinks.”
“And the first kiss?”
“First kiss? George isn’t going to ask about that.”
“Yeah, I know. But it’ll feel more real if we have a more hypothetical history. For the timeline.”
I roll my eyes, but I play along, tucking a stray curl behind my ear. “Well, if we’re going by the almost truth method, we haven’t had one yet. But that’s just a detail. George doesn’t need details. Let’s just pretend you walked me home after our first date and kissed me goodnight at my door.”
“That sounds like something I might have enjoyed.”
I hit his forearm with the back of my hand, and Rhett grins at me. I can’t help but return the grin. “What about today’s date? That counts too, right? We can say I made you laugh until soda came out of your nose.”
“Or we could steer well clear of that image,” he says dryly, “and just call it the day we laughed so hard it hurt our ribs.”
I pause dramatically. “Or we could say it happened this afternoon during the London Eye at the very top. You were being ridiculous, and I couldn’t help it.”
“I’ll take that as a compliment,” he says, bowing slightly. “Ridiculous can be charming, you know.”
I laugh, shaking my head. “You’re quite mad, aren’t you?”
We continue walking along the river, our fish and chips gradually disappearing. We have grease on our fingers, and Rhett has a dot of tartar sauce smudged across his gorgeous chin. Weird, but I want to lick it off.
I catch him staring at me once, his head tilted a little bit to one side, a sexy smile tugging at his lips, and I have to remind myself that this is all fake, it’s just for George. It’s nothing serious. Except it feels so easy, so natural. I can’t imagine George and I ever doing this. He would complain that his fingers are greasy and mutter about the lack of wet wipes. The wind would annoy him. Worse, he doesn’t like walking and eating together. He thinks it is uncivilized not to sit at a table to eat. People are not horses, he would say. I frown. What the hell am I doing? Moaning about George. I love him. Still, if that’s my only complaint, then surely, it is right to want back what we had.
“So,” Rhett says suddenly, stopping my thoughts, as he leans closer so that I can hear him over the faint roar of traffic and the occasional call of the river boats. “Where did we first meet again?”
“You know very well where. The bar, Mason’s, you know, the one where I asked you out. You said yes. Then you pretended to be Roger, and we arranged to meet.”
“Oh, yes,” he says, pseudo-nostalgia in his voice. “Jessica Rabbit herself asked me out on a date. How could I forget?”
“Right,” I say, shaking my head. “That’s our official how we met. We can’t really lie about that because George might have seen the video online.”
“Video?” Rhett echoes.
“Oh God, you haven’t seen it? Someone videoed me in that awful Jessica Rabbit dress and put it online,” I mutter crossly.
“I saw,” he admits.
I dig him in the ribs with my elbow.
He laughs. “And for the record, that dress is lots of things, but awful isn’t one of them.”
“Easy for you to say. You didn’t have to wear it.”
“But look what it led to. Here we are,” he adds, smiling. “Eating fish and chips on the Thames, pretending to be an actual couple.”
I grin. “Quite frankly, I feel like Alice in Wonderland. This whole episode is quite bizarre.”
“Are you sure about that?” he asks, leaning in again. “Personally, I think it’s going shockingly well. I mean, we’re laughing, eating greasy food, trading details of our lives, and making history up as we go along. I’d say we make a good team.”
“Flattery will get you everywhere, Rhett.”
He laughs. “Good to know. I’ll keep that in mind for future reference.”
By the time we’ve polished off the last of the fish and chips and deposited the papers in a trash can that we passed by, I notice that the sky has deepened to a dusky orange color, and the city lights are starting to flicker on along the riverside. I pull out my cell phone, realizing that I need to give him my address so that he can pick me up tomorrow for the opera.
“Right,” I say, leaning against the railing behind me while I quickly type out my address and text it to him. “Here’s the plan for tomorrow night. I’ve just texted you my address so you can pick me up at seven o’clock. That will give us enough time to get there early.”