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We both put the forks into our mouths at the same time and I nearly died on the spot.
With my mouth totally full of cheesecake, I said in a muffled voice. “Oh my gosh…so good.”
Wes looked like he was about to melt into a happy puddle. “Best cheesecake ever.”
There was nothing better than fried chicken and the best cheesecake in Boston. And it was all ours.
“You know,” Wes said as he swallowed another bite of cheesecake. “Maybe we should tell my mom we’re dating.”
The drumstick froze midway to my mouth. “I’m sorry?”
He wiped his mouth with a paper towel before diving back into the chicken. “Yeah, if we’re going to do this dating thing, why not make the most of it?”
“The most of it?” I asked, setting my chicken down on the plate.
“It’s pretty damn clear my mom is not going to give up on trying to get me to go out with one of her friends’ daughters, or a friend of a friend’s daughter. If we say we’re dating, then she’ll get off my back about dating someone.”
I shook my head. “I don’t know, Wes,” I replied, frowning at the idea of lying to friends and family. “Rory is going to know it’s not true, then Finn will put two and two together and we’ll end up making things more complicated than they need to be.”
He leaned back. “How so? And why do you think Finn and Rory would question it? They both know we’ve been spending more time together. Wouldn’t it just be natural to explore something more?”
I shook my head. “Why can’t we just tell the truth from the get-go then? Why pretend? Just tell Rory and Finn we’re pretend dating so that you can win your ex-girlfriend back?”
Something moved across his face, and for a hot second I thought it was regret. Was he regretting the plan, that it wasn’t working fast enough? I wanted to ask him, but I pressed my mouth into a tight line instead.
“You want me to tell my family I talked you into helping me make Mandy jealous by pretending that we’re together? My mother would kill me, my brothers would never let me live it down, and who the hell knows what Angie would do. How hard could it be to convince everyone we’re dating?”
“It doesn’t feel right lying to them.”
“And pretending we’re only ‘dating’ to get Mandy back does?”
“That’s different,” I said with an uncomfortable laugh. It wasn’t different, and I knew it as well as Wes knew. The whole pretending to be with Wes to make his ex jealous was something I was only going along with because it allowed us to spend time together. I was having fun hanging out with him, and a part of me didn’t want to lose that. Did it make it right what we were doing? Not at all. The bottom line was we were lying, and the outcome of that lie would be to break up a couple.
Wes stared at me for a few moments. As if able to read my mind, he said, “What if we weren’t pretending to date.”
The invisible weight that had been sitting on my chest lifted slightly.
“What do you mean?”
Wes rubbed at the back of his neck before he looked at me. “We date for real.”
My heart started to pound in my chest, and before I could ask about Mandy and the plan, he spoke first.
“I mean, I enjoy spending time with you, I think you enjoy spending time with me. So if that makes Mandy jealous, then that’s all the better.”
I opened my mouth, then snapped it shut.
“And if she leaves Ron?” I finally asked.
Wes looked everywhere but at me.
When he didn’t say anything, I stood. “We should probably clean up this mess before they send someone to find us.”
He let out a tired-sounding laugh. Was he regretting this whole thing? What had he been thinking about dating for real. What would that even mean? Would we kiss? Would we have sex? My lower stomach pulled with desire, and I quickly pushed those thoughts away.
Wes cleared his voice. “Yeah, I think I ate too much of the cheesecake, I feel sick.”
Laughing, I pointed to the half-eaten cheesecake. “You ate nearly half of it.”
