I couldn’t help but look at Chris then. Judging by the pink flush rising up her cheeks, she was having the same flashbacks as I was. I wouldn’t mind having more of that fun, but then again, spending more time with Chris would be a terrible idea.
The last thing I needed was to fall for someone who was so different than me. Someone who didn’t even seem to like me that much. It was a recipe for disaster and there was no way I was going to allow myself to be that pathetic.
We walked out of the office, then paused awkwardly in the hallway. Chris gave me a searching look but didn’t say anything.
“Well, I guess I’ll see you around,” I finally spoke. “Thanks for working with me on the project.”
When she still didn’t say anything, I turned on my heel and walked away. I got about five steps before Chris called out to me.
“Hey, hold up!”
I stopped and waited for her to catch up to me.
“What about our fake relationship?” she asked.
I looked around, worried that someone would hear her. If there was one thing my coworkers loved, it was gossip. I gestured for her to follow me, walking into the first empty room I found and closing the door behind us.
She raised her eyebrows, waiting for me to respond to her earlier question, and I had the strongest urge to either yell at her or kiss her, I wasn’t sure which.
“How do you think we should play this?” I finally asked. “Should we tell our moms that we broke up already? I don’t think they’d be surprised.”
She shook her head. “No way, if we break up so soon after getting together they’ll be all over us. We need to fake date long enoughthat when we fake break up we can milk the mourning period for a good long while.”
“Milk the recovery period?” I asked in confusion. “What do you mean?”
“If we break up now, they won’t believe that we’re that upset about it. The mourning time is generally proportional to the amount of time a couple was together. If we date for a little while, say a couple of months, and then we break up, we can both pretend to be heartbroken for at least a few months. Then we’ll get some more of a reprieve before they restart their matchmaking efforts.”
“That’s actually a good idea,” I said, impressed with her deviousness.
“I know.”
I rolled my eyes. “I guess we’ll need to keep in touch then, let each other know what we say or hear from our parents. They’ll probably be comparing notes about what we tell them.”
“Yeah.”
“I can’t believe we’re doing this,” I said ruefully. “It’s such ridiculous romcom shit. If I saw this in a movie I’d say it was too unbelievable.”
“Your mother brought a strange woman to your birthday dinner,” she reminded me. “And if she hadn’t found us in bed together, I’ll bet cash there was another poor sucker waiting for you at brunch.”
“Oh I know. I’m surprised I haven’t come home and found some woman naked in my bed waiting for me.”
There was only one woman I wanted to find naked in my bed, but I wasn’t going to mention that right now.
“Meanwhile my own mother hasn’t bitched at me about when am I going to get a grown up relationship and make her a grandmother in over a week. It’s been heaven. She’s thrilled that we’re together.”
“Those two are like two peas on a pod,” I said.
“Peasina pod.”
“What?”
“It’s peasina pod,” Chris said with exaggerated patience.
“Yeah, that’s what I said.”
“No you said peasona pod. You find peas inside the pod, not on top of it. They’d fall off if they were just sitting there on the pod.”
“Do you pick a lot of peas?” I asked snidely.
