Pretend for Me (5 page)

“Are we on for next weekend? The football and picking
up some women later on?” Travis asked. “All of the guys are in.”

“I can’t,” he said. Andy groaned thinking about the
stick he was going to get for agreeing to be Sara’s fake boyfriend.

“Can’t come? You never miss a match or the chance to
pick up a woman for the night.”

That wasn’t true. He hadn’t slept with a girl in over
a year. Not since his attraction for Sara refused to go away. “I’ve sort of
promised Sara I’d do something for her that weekend.”

“What could be more important? Explain to me how
you’re going to pass up a chance with your friends for this girl?” Travis
sounded shocked. Every one of his friends refused to settle down. They were not
the marrying kind of men. Each woman who looked to be getting closer to them,
they kicked to the curb. They didn’t do love or commitment. In their own way
they were protecting the women from a lifetime of misery.

“It’s private,” Andy said. He could just see them
laughing the moment he told them what he agreed to do for her.

“No, you’re not getting out of this one. You tell me
what is more important than spending time with your
male
friends.”

Andy set up the coffee machine and then padded back to
his room. “I’m playing Sara’s fake boyfriend that weekend.”

Silence met his answer.

“You’ve agreed to be a fake boyfriend? Like on that
movie with the escort etcetera?”

He let out another groan. “Kind of but I’m no escort.
We’re two friends going to her parents’ place for a wedding or something. I’m a
little vague on the details right now.”

“I’m sure.” Silence fell down the line, and then it
was interrupted by the sound of laughter. He heard Travis laughing and the rest
of his friends.

“You’ve got the rest of the guys there?”

Wade, Lenny, and Austin were rather vocal in their
laughter.
 

“You’re totally whipped. There’s no way you’re coming
away from this. She’s got you good,” Wade said.

Andy sat there and took the laughter.

“I think he’s going to be married by the end of the
year.” That statement came from Lenny.

“Are you quite finished? It’s not like that between
Sara and me. We’re friends, and nothing else is going to happen.” He actually
hated the thought of nothing happening between them. Sara played a large part in
his life. Andy had spent the last few years keeping her a secret from his
friends. They had seen her, and now knew why he had to fight every second he
was with her.

“You want her though. I saw it last night. You were
like a dog after a bone. She’s going to be dangling in front of you all
weekend.”

She’s dangling in front of me every single day and I still haven’t taken
a bite.

He listened to their mocking laughter for several more
minutes before he hung up. They wished him good luck in keeping his bachelor
status. His bachelor status was not in question.

The sound of his door opening let him know Sara had
made her way into his apartment. He glanced down at the boxer shorts he wore
and wondered how she would react to his semi-naked state. Usually, the time he
spent with her he was fully clothed. Throwing caution to the wind he stepped
out of his bedroom.

“I went out shopping and bought a few essentials. I’m
going to be forced to attend a bridesmaid fitting. Bethany always promised I’d
be one of her bridesmaids when we were younger.”

Her back was to him, and she hadn’t looked at him.

“I was expecting a wake-up call from you,” he said.
“We usually go out shopping together.”

She flicked her hand his way. “Don’t worry about it. I
figure I’m putting you out next weekend, and I’m making up for it.”

With her back to him Andy got to admire the full
length of her backside. She had a lovely rounded butt, and in the tight jeans
she wore, she made him ache. Every glorious inch of her ass was on display for
his viewing pleasure.

Finally, she turned around and stopped. “What are you
doing?”

“You caught me at a bad moment. Besides, being
boyfriend and girlfriend you’re supposed to see me in fewer clothes and we’re
supposed to be more intimate.”

He walked around the counter and then wrapped his arms
around her. She was tense in his arms. When she didn’t relax, he pulled away to
check what she’d bought from her shopping trip. There would come a time when
Sara was comfortable in his arms.

“What are we going to do about Champion?” he asked.

She glanced at his dog, which was sitting watching
cartoons on the television. “There’s an old basket near the kitchen door. We
used to have a dog, and Mom got the basket and cushions cleaned but never
actually got rid of it. He can stay there, and obviously he’s free to move
around.”

Andy turned away from her when she started to nibble
her bottom lip. Every move she made affected him.

Looking down he saw he was going to make a complete
fool of himself. “I’m going to go and get dressed.” His cock thickened inside
his boxer briefs, and he couldn’t stop it with Sara close by.

****

What had she ever done to expect such torture? The man
was a babe magnet, and right now he was reeling her in. How could she have gotten
him to agree to be her boyfriend? The coming weekend was going to be a
nightmare. She had phoned her mother the instant she woke that morning.
Apparently her brothers were looking forward to meeting the man who was taking
care of her in the big bad city.

“How did I get myself into this mess?”

Champion stared at her without saying a word. She
heard Andy in the bathroom, and she used the time to quickly check her
appearance in the mirror he kept in the hallway. In all the time they’d known
each other she’d never worn makeup. Running her fingers through her hair she
tried to put some order to her wild red curls.

No matter how many times she tried to straighten the
damn thing, her hair always did what it wanted.

She quickly moved back to the kitchen to finish
putting away the rest of the shopping. While Sara had been out shopping, she’d
found the time to reflect on what was going to happen when they visited her
family. Andy walked through carrying the photograph albums as she poured them a
coffee.

He sat down on the sofa. Sara took a seat at the other
end, and Champion sat between them. She stroked the dog’s ears waiting for Andy
to respond.

“I don’t think we should lie about any part of our
life. Lying is where people get caught,” he said.

“We’re posing as boyfriend and girlfriend, Andy. We’re
not robbing a bank.”

“We’re lying about our relationship to your family.
Don’t you think they’ll see through the lies?”

“Okay.” She nodded her head in agreement. “They only
know you as the man who is always conveniently out when they come to call.”

“Your family has tried to meet me? How could I have
been out all that time? We’ve known each other five years, and I’ve never met
them.”

She laughed feeling silly about the answers. “They’ve
always come when you’ve been away or out. I sort of made sure you were out
before I invited them down.”

He frowned at her. “Why?”

“Because they are my family and I know what a pain in
the ass they can be. Trust
me,
I was doing you a
favor.” She ran her fingers through her hair as she took the albums away from
him. Sara placed them on the floor before taking a sip of her steaming coffee.
Her moan of appreciation filled the room.

“We need to get our story straight. I don’t want to
look like a fool.”

“Well, we met on the stairs, and you helped me move
into my apartment. That can stick, but there is no way we’ve been dating for
the past five years and they don’t know,” she said.

They were silent as they contemplated how their
relationship started up.

“Ah.” His hand went up in victory. “I know, the
opening night of Cube. The club with the band and the celebratory night led to
us realizing our feelings for one another.”

“Hey, you could say something about your jealousy over
the lead singer. You knew in that instant you were in love with me and you
couldn’t put it off any longer.” Her imagination ran away with her. Already she
was thinking up a storyline for a new book she was working on.

“You can tell you’re a romance writer,” he said.

“Why?”

“That would never happen. Not in real life.”

She thumped him in the arm. His very words highlighted
the struggle she was facing with her writing. “There could be men out there who
are not completely brain fried to the idea of a little romance.”

“Nothing ever happens like the way they do in the
books. It’s a fact, and that is why they’re fiction.”

Sara growled in annoyance. “Only because men usually have
the emotional capacity of an apple
pip
, but it
doesn’t mean it can’t happen,” she said, arguing her point. For some reason she
felt the need to argue with him about romance.

“An apple
pip
?
Are you sure you’re a
writer? You’ve got a lot of negative energy about the opposite sex.”

“Could we please not talk about sex? Men are the
reason marriages are on the decline.”

“It’s an archaic institution.”

Sara paused and turned to him. “You don’t believe in
marriage?”

He shook his head. “No, I don’t believe that two
people need to pay a large sum of money for a blasted piece of paper to say
they’re married to the eyes of the world.”

“I can’t believe I never knew your views on marriage.”
One day she wanted to get married and be happy like her parents.

“Why do you think I’m not married?” The sarcasm in his
voice couldn’t be mistaken for anything other than that.

She stood up and was angry with his horrid views on
marriage. “I can’t believe I asked you to be my fake boyfriend.”

Andy didn’t even bother to get up. He glanced up at
her, and she felt the heat of his gaze go through her body. She shouldn’t be so
affected by a glance.

“Well, we’ve had a real argument to back up our fake
relationship,” he said, joking.

“You’re a horrible person, and I wish I hadn’t asked
this of you.”

She turned around and stormed out of the apartment.
Sara got as far as the top of the stairs when she realized what she’d just
done.

Laughing at her silliness she walked back to the
apartment. His door was wide open, and Andy stood in his kitchen area pouring
another cup of coffee.

“If we need a reason to break up with each other I
think we just got our reason,” he said without looking up.

Sara couldn’t believe they’d just argued over
marriage. They were not even in a real relationship.

But you want to be.

She closed the door and took the cup he offered.

“Breaking up will give us both an out if this goes too
far,” she agreed.

They sat down on the sofa once again.

“So, we’ve handled how we met, the turning point in
our relationship, and the practiced breakup. What do you think is next?” he
asked.

Sara looked at him and laughed. “This could be fun.”

She sipped her coffee as they worked through the rest
of their plan. By the time they were finished it was late evening. Sara ordered
food and took a quick shower. She used his shower instead of going to hers.

“Do you think we’re ready for next weekend?” she
asked.

Andy finished his stretch and nodded.

The following weekend couldn’t come fast enough.

Chapter Five

The week flew by for Andy. He spent a great deal of
time organizing his clubs so he could have the two weekends off. His friends
were ribbing him every chance they got. For the most part he ignored them. Then
there were the times when he lay in bed at night, alone, and wished Sara was by
his side. He no longer craved just the physical either. Andy wanted her by his
side to cuddle against. He was turning soft in his older years. The nights were
long, and the days felt too short.

Since their agreement he hadn’t seen Sara. She was
working on her next book for her publisher. He’d tried to find out her pen name
only to be shot down at every turn. Andy made a note to ask her family what it
was the first chance he got.

As the days passed he woke up on Friday morning ready
and wired for the coming weekend. He looked forward to having an excuse to
touch her.

He made a pot of coffee and waited for the sound of
Sara’s panicked steps.

Within twenty minutes of him being ready and waiting,
Sara charged through the apartment. “I can’t believe it’s here already. How can
a week fly by so fast? Are you sure we can pull this off? I don’t want my
family to know we’re only friends.”