by Nana Malone
“Finish the whole book?” Gage asked. “But we're not finishing it in class for another two weeks. The party is in one week,” he objected.
Becker smiled. “I know. But if this approach works, I want you to go back and re-read the other books you covered this semester. You're going to have a cumulative final, so you might as well start reviewing now. Plus, you're going to need to pick one of the books to focus on for your final essay. If you finish this book early, it'll give you more time to work on the others.” When she finished, she tilted her head playfully to one side, leveling the challenge.
Gage narrowed his eyes at her, but couldn't help smiling back. She wasn't going to let him forget about his classwork, even if their counterfeit relationship called for putting on a show.
“Fine,” he said. “But we're upping the ante to two kisses, and it's a deal. Will it be a written quiz, or administered orally?” he asked with a wink, enjoying the way her eyes widened at his teasing.
“I haven't decided yet.”
“If you want, we can practice right now. I'm down for an oral exam.” He grinned.
But Becker only rolled her eyes. “If I were you, I'd start listening to that book instead of worrying about oral.”
Gage blinked at her, the image of her with her beautiful, full lips wrapped around his dick etching into his fantasy banks. Oh, fuck.
It was at that same time she realized what she'd said, and flushed. “Oh, for the love of God. That is not what I meant.”
The laugh bubbled out of Gage. He was going to enjoy this. She was way too easy to fluster. “Hey, I'm down for an oral exam any time, any place. Who knows, you might just enjoy it, too.”
“I swear to God, you are impossible.”
Gage chuckled. “You're not the first person to ever tell me that.”
Eight
When they met up the afternoon before the party, Gage was waiting for Becker at their usual table in the library. He'd already aced two pop quizzes for English that week, and spoke up once or twice in class. So he was helping his participation grade, too.
Becker started when she saw he'd claimed their seats, and he grinned at her obvious surprise.
“I take it you've finished the book?” she asked.
“Twice,” he said happily. “The audio book moves pretty quickly, and now I actually have time to read/listen. It took a little getting used to, listening and paying attention to the audio book instead of just throwing on my music, but it has made reading the book itself easier and faster, especially when I read along.”
“Good. That's the point. But it'll get trickier if you start trying to read, listen, and take notes,” she said, as she began pulling her notebooks and things from her bag and spreading them on the tabletop. “But I know you'll figure it out. Now…are you ready for your quiz?” She retrieved two or three pages of questions from a stack, and held them aloft for him to see.
He was a little disappointed she'd passed on the idea of an oral exam. “That’s longer than my exams,” he complained.
“They're all short-answer questions, just for me to be sure you did the reading and retained it,” she said, brushing off his objection. “There are sixty questions. Each correct answer buys you five minutes of party time. I have to draw the line somewhere, and five hours is it, no matter how impressive it is you've finished the book so early. I'm leaving the quiz untimed, though, so take as long as you need.”
She slid the pages over to him and took custody of his copy of the book, as well as his phone.
While he worked his way through her quiz, Becker pulled out her own textbooks and sat reading and taking notes. Since he could take as much time as he needed, he let himself spend some of the time watching her. Well, he was a guy, and she fascinated him. The cardigan was back, as was the plain T-shirt. Today though, she wore a jean skirt, and he could see her legs. He couldn't help but wonder how soft her skin might be.
She had a slew of highlighters out, and as she moved through the text, she would pause, copy or write something from the text, then highlight it in one of the various colors. Coding its importance, perhaps? Or maybe it had to do with the nature of the note she made? Whatever her methods, they appeared at first glance to be more complex than anything he'd ever be able to adopt into his own study habits.
But he was mesmerized by more than just the deft way she handled the multitude of markers, barely pausing as she moved through the paragraphs of text. He noticed that she liked to press her thumb to the rear end of the pen or marker she held, like she was clicking a retractable pen, even though none of them appeared to be of that style. There was one dark curl that came loose and hung down her nose in the space between her eyes, swaying as she moved her attention from the textbook page to her notebook. She never bothered to move it or brush it away.
“Are you finished?” she asked, one of the times she caught him watching her.
He glanced down at the pages to double-check that he had put answers down to all of her questions before sliding the pages back over to her. He knew he’d missed a couple of them but the ease with which he’d flown through the majority of her questions left him feeling confident as he watched her take one of her multitude of highlighters and go through marking his answers.
“Fifty-five,” she told him a few minutes later.
“What?”
“I said you got fifty-five of them correct. Out of sixty questions, that translates to…an A-minus,” she quickly calculated.
“And in terms of the party?” he pressed.
She rolled her eyes, then said, “Just over four hours.” She sighed. “It's going to be a long night.”
“I promise you, it won't be as bad as you think,” Gage assured her. “I kept up my end of the bargain. Now you just have to keep up yours.”
“Oh yeah, what's that?”
“You have to promise to have some fun.”
“Fine.” She forced a smile. “This is my fun face.”
Gage laughed. “It looks more like a grimace. But don't worry. I'll help you fix that.”
Nine
Becker hadn't spent so much time getting ready for a party since her senior prom. Avery had gone into total girly overload. Becker felt a little ridiculous to obsess so much over what she was wearing and how she looked, when it wasn't even a real date, and most of the people in attendance would probably be too drunk to care.
And she hated that she wanted to make a good impression on Gage. Which was a complication she wasn't looking for. This was supposed to be a way of getting her dad off her back and Daniel out of her hair. But she'd started to like him. For starters, she'd had him wrong.
And then, amidst all that, he was studying. Hard. He wasn't just some jock who wanted the gravy train ride. He was smart and funny, and knew how to make her laugh. He'd honestly just needed a little help. And he'd done everything she asked. He'd gone above and beyond, actually.
He didn't think she could let loose and have a good time? Well it was time to let fun Becker out to play. Okay, yeah, fun Becker needed work. But she was willing to try.
The first thing Avery had done was put her in heels. Not just any heels, but sleek, black stilettos so she wouldn't look so tiny next to Gage. When they were sitting, the difference in their heights wasn't as noticeable as it was when they stood side by side. Since they were going to be in couple mode tonight, she felt the need to compensate, so he wouldn't be constantly stooping. The fact that the shoes did that thing that made her ass look amazing was just an added bonus.
The skinny jeans Avery had picked required two people to get on. The inventor should be shot. But again, amazing-looking ass, so she wasn't going to complain. Who cared if she had zero circulation in her legs? The top had been her pick. It was her favorite color, and red looked great on her. The soft, jersey fabric clung nicely without being too obvious, and the off-the-shoulder style flattered her figure.
She'd eaten dinner, because the way she figured, it was a college party, so the only thing on the pr
emises to ingest would be alcohol.
“You look amazing, Becker. He's gonna drool.”
“I didn't do this to make him drool. I'm doing this to make Daniel back off.”
Her bestie grinned. “You keep telling yourself that. Either way, you look smoking hot. And I'm glad you decided to wear your hair down.”
Becker self-consciously played with the ends. Avery had managed to give her beach waves, or whatever the hell they were called. “Uh, thanks.” When she turned to look in the mirror, she didn't even recognize herself. “Seriously, I don't even know who this person is.”
“She's you. Just with a hint of sexy. Think about it. You own that top. And you're just in jeans, which you wear every day. The only thing that isn't you are the shoes, and that's only because homeboy is like a giant. A big, sexy giant.”
“I know. I just feel more comfortable when—”
Avery cocked her head, and Becker met her friend's green eyes in the mirror. “When you're hiding?”
Becker licked her lips. “Yeah. I guess I'm so used to trying not to be like her.”
“Well, your dad's not around. You have carte blanche to look just like your mom. And it's not fair for him to ask you to deny that part of yourself just because he can't deal.”
Becker blinked back tears. “Thanks, Avery.”
“What are best friends for? Now, listen. As much as I wish I was going tonight, I have to work. So please have all the fun for me, and make a new friend, okay? I need to go change and get ready for work. You look amazing.”
Becker gave her a tight hug, unwilling to let her go. Avery was her lifeline. How was she going to navigate a social situation without her? “Thanks for today.”
“Anytime, babes.”
When Avery left, Becker had to fight the urge to chase after her. But when she closed the door, there was an almost-immediate knock, and she breathed a sigh of relief. Thank God, Avery had decided to skip work and come, after all. She dragged open the door with a relieved smile.
“You won't regret—” But it wasn't Avery on the other side of her door. It was Gage.
At first, his gaze flickered over her, as if he didn't recognize her, and was looking for someone else. But then he refocused, and his eyes went wide, his nostrils gently flaring. “Holy fuck, Becker?”
She inhaled deeply. “Yep. That's me.” He only continued to stare. “Everything okay?”
He blinked once, then twice. “Yeah, you just look so different.”
Self-consciously, she shifted in her heels. “It's too much, isn't it? I'll change and grab a cardigan.”
Before she could turn, his large hand snapped out and gently caught her wrist. “No, you don't need to change. Not at all. Sorry, you caught me off guard. You look great.”
Becker flushed under his attention. “Thanks. So do you.” And he did. Dark jeans, graphic tee, Converse on his feet. Different ones than she'd seen him in the other day. That meant he officially had more pairs of shoes than she did. He topped it all off with a beanie cap. And, holy hell, did he smell good. “Any chance you're going to let me bow out gracefully?”
He grinned, and she may or may not have forgotten to breathe. “Not a chance. Besides, you look amazing. You didn't get all dressed up like that to sit at home with a movie.”
“You want to watch a movie, instead? We can totally chill and Netflix.”
Gage's lips quirked into another lopsided smile. “Uh, I think you mean Netflix and chill. And I don't think that's what you really mean.”
She frowned. “Watching movies, right?”
Gage shook his head. “There may or may not be a movie on, but clothes definitely wouldn't be.”
Her mouth fell open. “Oh.”
“Exactly. So,” He shoved his hands in his pockets, and rocked back on his heels. You ready to go play the part of fake girlfriend and boyfriend?”
“Even though this is what I asked for, why do I feel like I'm about to face a firing squad?”
“It's a college party. They all sort of feel like that.”
“Right.” She wiped her hands on her jeans. “I guess we don't want to be too early, right? We want to be fashionably late. You should come in.”
He followed her in, and somehow, her usually spacious single suddenly seemed too small. “Since the point is that you want people to see us together as a couple, yes. We'll show up after the party's started so that people notice us. And most importantly, so that your Daniel notices us,” Gage confirmed.
“He's not my Daniel,” she muttered. “If he's anyone's Daniel, he's my father's. But yes. We want him to see that we've shown up, as we said we would, and we want him convinced that we're a couple. Are there any things you think we should talk about ahead of time? Information we need to know about each other and our personal lives? The kinds of things that boyfriends and girlfriends know about each other, you know.”
“What are my siblings' names?”
“Uh… B-Bryce… Fox… Dexter?”
“Dax, though when we wanted to get under his skin growing up, we did call him Dexter, or at least Bryce and Echo did. I was too much younger and smaller, and he would've beaten me up if I tried it,” Gage laughed.
“Echo, right. She's the last one. Echo. How'd your parents come up with that? Into Greek mythology, or something?”
Gage shrugged. “Not sure. Now you are an only child… Daughter of Cain Johnson and… What was your mother's name?”
“Gloria,” Becker answered with a gentle smile at the memory of her mother. “You know, I think she would've liked you. She'd have loved hearing your stories about growing up with your brothers and sister. She had two sisters, but one of my aunts died of cancer before I was born, and my other aunt lives in Texas. My dad was an only child, and my grandparents are all gone already, so…I never had that kind of big-family experience.”
“It’s got its ups and downs like any other kind of family, I guess,” Gage shrugged, deftly skirting the deeper emotional waters that Becker had inadvertently steered them towards. “I do have a lot of great stories, but we'll have to save them for another time. We really should get going now, since the party's off campus.”
“Right,” Becker said with final nod. She could do this. She could totally do this. She dug out a pair of flats, hooking her heels onto her purse.
“Uh…” Gage pointed quizzically at the shoes.
“Have you ever tried driving in shoes like that?” she asked with a laugh.
“I don't think I could walk in shoes like that,” Gage admitted, shaking his head, “let alone try to drive. And you plan on dancing in those things?”
Becker locked her dorm room door behind and then moved into the lead, taking Gage along a back way through the building, to the residential parking lot where her car waited.
“Since you insist on the dancing, I guess I'll need to hold onto you. Besides, I'm pretty sure that's why these things were invented.”
“Is that why? And I thought it was to make your ass look great,” he laughed.
“Women are multitaskers, we expect our wardrobe to multitask, too,” she informed him before climbing into the driver's seat. She was just going to tuck away that whole comment about her ass looking great to examine later. Much later. Right now, she had a party to survive.
As expected, the party was in full swing when they arrived. Becker had to lean on Gage while she adjusted to the height of her heels, not to mention the shallow sets of stairs that seemed to lead into and out of every room in the modern and open layout of the host’s house.
There was also lots of low seating, which caused Becker and Gage to look at one another and laugh. They knew that neither of them would be able to get up again if they attempted to sit so low to the floor.
Gage had been to the house before, so he guided Becker around, and introduced her to some of his teammates who had already arrived and appeared to be at the heart of several of the clusters of guests. Gage stopped to play one round of beer pong, and Becker found herself ch
eering him on with greater sincerity than she expected. When he finished, he bent his head towards her and gave her a kiss. She could taste the bitterness of his beer as she licked her lips afterwards.
They'd been at the party for close to an hour when she heard Daniel's voice from a corner of the room. She tensed automatically. Gage must have sensed it, because he took her hand and gave it a squeeze. “Come on. Let's go say hello,” he whispered, then tugged her hand forward. She instinctively leaned into him. That smarter, internal voice tried to warn her. This isn't real. Don't go thinking this is real.
Though most of the guys sitting around him wore T-shirts or pullovers with the sleeves pushed up, Daniel wore a button-up shirt. He was either impervious to the rising heat, or he was desperate to look like young money. From personal experience, Becker was convinced it was the latter.
“Daniel,” Becker said with a smile and a nod, as she and Gage approached the group. Becker's heels brought her almost to eye level with Daniel, and Gage's natural height had him towering.
Becker watched Daniel surreptitiously from beneath her lashes, and saw as Daniel's face froze, when he realized she and Gage were entwined.
“Hey, man,” Gage said, reaching forward with his free hand to shake Daniel's. “See, I managed to drag her out,” Gage joked, turning to Becker and pressing a kiss to the top of her head. Heat rose through her chest and into her face, but she wasn’t embarrassed. Well, okay, maybe a little embarrassed. What if someone could tell she was totally into this?
“What can I say? You're persuasive,” she teased, grinning up at him.
“Well…” Daniel muttered, at an obvious loss for words. The others in the small group he'd been talking with began glancing back and forth between the three of them, clearly picking up on the tension, but unsure of the reasoning behind it. “Have you gotten something to drink yet? I can show you around, if you like,” Daniel offered, his attention directed solely at Becker.