“What are you talking about?” I set my keys, phone, wallet, and duffel on the kitchen island, and Ava plops down on my sofa and sets her three notebooks out across the coffee table.
Flashbacks of college hit me right in the face.
This is work-mode Ava. Which, during events like college finals, is a meticulous, not-messy-at-all, very organized version of herself.
Truthfully, it’s a rare occurrence. Most of the time, my best friend has her head in the proverbial clouds, leaves piles of dishes in her kitchen sink, and lets her laundry go until she’s completely out of clothes. It’s not unusual for me to sneak over to her place and run the fucking dishwasher and water Teddy 12—the small plant in her living room that’s sole reason for staying alive for the past two years is all thanks to me.
“Have you forgotten that you offered to be my fake boyfriend for the holidays?” She rolls her eyes and blows out a breath. “We literally just had the conversation this morning.”
“I remember the conversation, but that doesn’t explain why you’re in my apartment, acting like we have a deadline on an econ project.” I nod toward the notebooks and highlighters she’s organized in record time.
“Luke, we have to go into this with a plan, or else it will end in disaster when my family starts asking us all sorts of questions about our relationship.”
“What kind of plan are you talking about?” I question with a tilt of my head. “We’ve known each other for fifteen years. You live across the fucking hall from me, and I see you every day. I feel like we’ll be able to handle any questions your family or old high school classmates throws at us.”
She narrows her eyes. “Okay, so when my aunt Poppy asks you how we started dating, what are you going to say?”
“I don’t know.” I shrug. “It just sort of happened.”
She barks out a laugh. “That’s a shit answer! It doesn’t even make it sound like you want to be in a relationship with me. It’s more, like,” she continues on, dropping her voice a few octaves to mimic mine, “Oh, I don’t know. One day Ava said she was my girlfriend, and I figured I’d just roll with it.”
My lips quirk up in amusement.
“This isn’t as simple as a trip to Vermont and telling my family we’re dating now, Luke. We have to have a plan.”
I sigh and drop my shoulders. “And I take it we’re figuring out that plan tonight?”
“Time is a ticking, buddy.” She taps her wrist with two fingers. “And at this point, we barely have a month to get our shit together,” she retorts, picking up a yellow highlighter and begins swiping it over notes she’s apparently already taken in one of the notebooks.
This is going to be a long night.
I rub a hand down my face and pick up my cell phone off the kitchen island.
“What are you doing?”
“Ordering some dinner,” I respond and pull up UberEats to order a pizza from the joint up the street. “I’m starving, and I have a feeling you’ve been too busy mapping out our fake relationship plan to eat dinner.”
She grins at that. “No sausage on the pizza this time.”
“How’d you know I was ordering pizza?”
She flashes a look my way. “Because it’s your go-to.”
“See?” I retort. “This is exactly what I’m talking about. If you know me so well that you know what I’m going to order for dinner, then I think we can wing the whole fake-relationship thing.”
She snorts. “You know, the sooner you order the pizza, the sooner we can get this all figured out…”
“Christ,” I mutter and submit my order on the online app.
Instantly, I receive a notification that my order is in process and will be delivered in thirty-five to forty minutes.
Once I grab two bottles of water from the fridge, I slip off my blazer and shoes and head over to sit down by the Detail Queen.
And it’s no surprise she wastes no time diving in.
“Okay, first things first, the Best Friends Don’t List.”
“The what?”
“This.” She taps her highlighter on the notebook page. “Read through it, and see if there’s anything else you want to add.”
And, sure enough, there is actually a fucking list.
The Best Friends Don’t List
1. Kiss.
2. See each other naked.
3. Have sex.
4. Catch feelings.
“If our friendship is going to come out of this pretend relationship unscathed, we have to have some rules,” she adds just as I finish reading through it.