‘Was that a hug?’ he asked.
‘Yes,’ I confirmed.
His lips curled into that smile again. ‘Okay. Bye, Pippa.’ He turned and walked away.
When I arrived back in Johannesburg two hours later and walked through the very familiar airport – the one I’d walked through so many times before – it looked and felt different. I couldn’t put my finger on what made it feel different; all I knew was that it wasn’t the same as it had been two days ago, when I’d taken off for Cape Town.
When I finally climbed into my car, I pulled my phone out. My finger hovered over Jennifer’s name in my WhatsApp. I didn’t quite know what to say to her. How on earth did I go about explaining all that had happened this weekend? All she knew was that I was going to the reunion, not that I was going with a fake boyfriend – nah, fiancé (apparently). I started typing up my explanation, but it was far too long, so I deleted it.
Keep it short and snappy.
‘Right!’ I said out loud, psyching myself up.
Pippa:I went to the reunion. Wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be. They were all strangely nice to me. But I think that had less to do with me and more to do with my hot fake boyfriend. I have a fake boyfriend now. Well, actually, fiancé, sort of. It’s a long story, too long for WhatsApp. I’ll tell you all about it when we chat. But . . .
I paused and bit my lip.
Pippa:Thanks. For talking me into going. It was fun. Which I never thought I would say.
CHAPTER16
The phone call sent me flying out of bed. I looked at the time. It was two thirty in the morning, and there was only one person I knew who called at such an odd time.
‘Jennifer.’ I picked the phone up without even looking at the screen.
‘I literally have five minutes before my rotation starts. Fake boyfriend, or fiancé, or something . . . go!’
‘I’m barely awake.’
‘Four minutes thirty seconds.’
‘Okay, okay!’ I sat up quickly, hoping it would wake me up. ‘I met this guy – well, I know him, he’s a pilot. And he and I started talking and we discovered we have the same problem.’
‘That you’re both absolutely nuts?’
‘This story has nothing to do with nuts! Rather the fact that we’re both under pressure from friends and family to get a boyfriend, or girlfriend. Especially for events, like birthdays, weddings and school reunions.’
‘Aaah, so you guys decided to be each other’s fake date.’
‘Exactly. Perfectly logical.’
‘Perfectly mad!’
‘Well, it worked,’ I said.
‘I know, I had the only two other people I’m still in contact with from school tell me what an amazing FIANCÉ you have. I had to pretend that I knew what they were talking about.’
‘It wasn’t meant to go that far. He was just supposed to be someone to have on my arm so I didn’t have to field all those questions about why I’m not married and why I don’t have a date.’
‘Apparently, your fake fiancé is quite the catch. What did Cheryl say? It was something crass, like “He gave me a girl boner.” ’
‘That’s revolting,’ I said.
‘Does he give you a girl boner?’
‘Stop saying “girl boner”!’
‘Look, I don’t blame you if you did. The picture of the two of you kissing is totally hot.’
