Even if it’s Just Pretend


You smile as you watch your friends from college talk to each other like they hadn’t seen each other in ages, which you hadn’t. It’s been almost two years since you last saw each other and was just catching up now because the school reunion’s coming up. None of you wanted to share each other with other people from your old school. You all wanted to get the juicy details of each other’s lives before anyone else got the scoop.

Suddenly, the attention shifts towards you. They’re all expectantly looking at you, waiting for an answer.

“What was the question?” you ask, chuckling sheepishly.

They all chuckle, all not surprised that you weren’t paying attention. They were talking about relationships, about their boyfriends, whom they’re so in love with.

“Of course you still don’t have a boyfriend,” one of your friends says. The rest of your friends agree.

“What makes you say that?” you ask defensively.

“Because you’re you,” your other friend says this time. “You reject every guy that comes along. You’ve never even gone on dates.”

“I’ve gone on dates,” you say at once. And before you thought about what you were going to say, you blurt out, “And I have a boyfriend.”

This definitely got their attention. After a lot of prodding and pushing, you finally agree to bring him to the reunion.

There’s one tiny problem, though.

You don’t really have a boyfriend.

.:::.

“You want me to what?!”

He stops what he was doing and turns to face you, a bemused expression on his face.

“It’s just for the reunion,” you plea.

“You want me to pretend,” he repeats, blinking. “To be your boyfriend.”

You turn your face away and look everywhere but at him. All of a sudden you feel embarrassed for asking him. You really don’t know what came over you, but he was the first person that came to mind when you thought of asking someone to pretend. It wasn’t just because he was your best friend. It was also because you know that he’s the kind of guy you would want to be with.

He has every quality in your “perfect guy” list. He’s funny. Humor tops your list because you can’t stand people who don’t have a sense of humor and you hate guys who are boring. He’s understanding and patient. He isn’t the type to fly off the handle about anything you did wrong. He’s caring and is someone you could depend on. If you paid him for all the times he was there for you when something bad happened, he’d have a fortune by now. He’s romantic and incredibly loyal. You’ve witnessed that from his past relationships. To add to that, he’s incredibly handsome. It isn’t just the fact that he had the best facial structure or that his smile blows you away. It’s everything about him. It’s the way he carried himself, the way he treated people, the way he treated you. He’s the guy you would trust your whole life with because you know he can make you happy.

He’s just perfect. And those are precisely the reasons why he would never be with you. You’ve known him forever and he’s never asked you out. Not once.

“I knew I shouldn’t have come to you,” you say, standing up from the couch you were on and turning to leave.

“Hey.” He grabs your hand, making you stop from leaving. “So who would you ask instead? I didn’t know you had options.”

You look at him, surprised and irritated at this. Untangling your hand from his, you retort, “Of course I have options. You’re not the only guy in my life, you know.”

“The other one’s your dad. I would think it disturbing if you asked him to pose as your boyfriend,” he dryly comments.

“You’re disgusting,” you shoot back, childishly poking your tongue out at him. “I do have other options. If you must know, there’s this really hot guy at the office.” It was true that there was a hot guy. It’s just that he’s never even given you a second glance.

Your best friend seems to know this because he laughs. “And when do you think he’ll ask you out?”

“Hmph,” you pout. With a sigh, you sit back down on the sofa. “I knew this was a bad idea. I should just cancel going to the reunion. Pretend I’m sick or something.”

He sits down beside you and takes your hand in his. Your breath hitches. “Don’t do that. It would be weird if I went by myself.”

“Yeah, that would—what?” You look at him with wide eyes.

He smiles at you, making your heart flutter. Suddenly, he goes down on one knee, still holding your hand. “Will you be my girlfriend?”

A thousand thoughts go through in your mind in that second. Your heart practically explodes. But you act cool and smile back at him. “I’d love to be your girlfriend.” Even if it’s just pretend.

.:::.

On the day of the reunion, he picks you up from home so you could go shopping for your outfit. The amount of work in your office hadn’t allowed you to do some shopping and so you were cramming.

You walk into a store filled with lovely dresses. As you go through the different clothes in the various racks, he also went around the store, looking for a dress that he thinks would suit you. After a while, he walks over to you, carrying a simple, black, mini dress.

“I can’t wear this,” you tell him, rolling your eyes. You think that it was so him to pick such a dress. He’s always thought girls wearing dresses were cute.

“Yes you can,” he insists. “You’d look good in it.”

And just because you wanted to end the discussion, you agree to try it on.

When you were done, you step out of the dressing room and show him what you look like. After a couple of seconds of not saying anything, you say, “I told you I can’t wear things like this.”

You face the mirror, studying your reflection. Still not saying anything, he stands behind you and gently holds your arms.

“You look beautiful.”

That seals the deal. The next thing you know you were on your way out of the shop, the dress purchased with matching black heels.

“So what do you want to do now?” he asks, carrying the paper bag with your dress and shoes in it. He’s really a gentleman.

You shrug. “Go home? I’ve bought all I need. Is there anything you want to do?”

“Is this all you’re going to do with your boyfriend?” he asks, smirking. “Ask him to go shopping and discard him when you’re done?”

“What? Of course not.” You suddenly go off into dreamland. “If I had a boyfriend, he’d hold my hand the whole time we’re together. It didn’t matter what we did, as long as we’re together. Of course we’d do things I love doing, like eating my favorite foods, watching DVDs at home, that sort of thing. And he’d hug me a lot. You know me, I’m touchy.” You giggle. “Yeah… that would probably sum it up.”

He smiles and shakes his head. You roll your eyes at him. He’s always loved to make fun of you when you talked about these things.

All of a sudden, you feel a warm presence on your hand. You look down and realize that he had taken your hand in his, intertwining them together.

“What are you doing?” you ask, hoping your voice was as casual as you wanted it to be.

“I’m your boyfriend, remember?” he reminds you with a cheeky grin.

This renders you speechless. In fact, everything that he does afterward turns your brain into mush and makes your heart beat abnormally.

He brings you to your favorite restaurant, ordering your favorite things without even asking you. He also orders your favorite dessert after the main course. And the whole time you were at the mall, he never lets go of your hand. Not once.

After lunch, he immediately takes you home so you could get ready for the reunion.

“I’ll be back to pick you up at 6:30,” he informs you as you opened the door to your house.

“Right,” you say, turning to walk inside.

“Hey,” he suddenly calls, making you turn around.

Before you realize what was happening, he gathers you in his arms. This was the third time he’s given you a hug that day. But this one feels different somehow. It just feels… right. You close your eyes as his arms tighten their hold on your waist. Closing your eyes and leaning your head on his chest, you savor the moment. You don’t know when he would hug you like this again.

When he finally let go, you almost whimper at the loss, but manage to keep a straight face. He gives you another one of his dazzling smiles.

“I’ll see you later,” he says. And then he gives you a kiss on the forehead.

You stare after him as he walks towards his car.

.:::.

You nervously play with your bracelet as you enter the ballroom. This was it. It was finally the reunion. It was time to pretend. You suddenly realize that you don’t know how to act as if you two are together. You’ve never had any experience in this area. But before you managed to say so, he turns to you and smiles.

“Don’t be nervous,” he soothingly calms you down. He links your arm with his. “You’ll be fine.”

“But I don’t even know what to do,” you awkwardly admit. All the things boyfriends and girlfriends do, you didn’t know if you could do it with him. You didn’t want to make him feel awkward. You didn’t want to be embarrassed in front of him.

He smiles again. “I’ll handle everything,” he promises. “Just follow my lead. We’re in this together.”

You trust him. You know that he wasn’t going to flake out on you. He never has flaked out on you. Not ever.

“There you are!” one of your friends happily greets you. “You look beautiful!” she adds, eyeing your dress and your shoes. Her eyes shifts towards him. “Is this…?”

You chuckle naturally. “You look good yourself,” you say. “And yes, this is my boyfriend.”

Her eyes widen in surprise and pleasure. Of course she’s surprised. He’s very pleasing to the eyes. “It’s nice to meet you. Finally. A boyfriend,” your friend couldn’t help but remark.

“It’s my pleasure to meet you,” he says, taking her hand and giving it a kiss. Your friend turns to you, grinning like a little girl.

“Such a gentleman,” she cooes.

Your other friends arrive and gather around you. You introduce him to them as your boyfriend all over again and they all become excited. You smile happily and contentedly as they praise him. You know that they’re comfortable around because he’s just so warm and friendly.

After a while of talking and chatting, he interrupts the conversation.

“Do you mind if I ask my girlfriend to dance?” he asks, smiling handsomely. You gape at him.

“Not at all,” your friends chorus, all smiling dreamily.

And so he leads you to the dance floor. You wrap your arms around his neck as he wraps his around your waist. Not wanting things to be awkward, you break the silence.

“My friends think you’re prince charming,” you tell him with a chuckle. “They can’t get over the fact that you’re mine.”

“Well, they’ll just have to get used to it,” he replied, chuckling as well. Leaning closer to you, his cheek on your cheek, he whispered, “Coz I’m not going anywhere.”

Your breathing becomes uneven at this. But before you would let it get to your head, you laugh, leaning away from him and slapping his arm. “You can stop pretending when we’re alone, you know,” you tell him. “It’s not like you’re going to win an award for this performance.”

He doesn’t laugh. In fact, he stops moving at all and just looks at you. As you look back, you feel like he wasn’t just looking at you. It was like he was looking into you. Then very slowly, he leans in.

You watch as his gaze travel from your eyes to your lips. His face moves closer, your breaths mingling together.

But before he got any closer, you lean back. “What are you doing?” you ask ever so softly. This wasn’t part of the plan and you don’t want to get hurt. Nothing was ever worth doing if you were going to lose him.

He doesn’t even falter. But he did say, “Didn’t I tell you to just follow my lead?”

As you ponder the question, he captures your lips with his. One of his hands cups your face, an arm snaking tightly around your waist. He kisses you so intensely and so sincerely that you just give in and kiss him back, your hands clutching the hairs on the back of his head.

And as you kiss, you realize that everything that happened that day was real. None of it was pretend.