Chapter 8 #3
She swatted his shoulder with her notepad to deflect. “That’s not what I’m suggesting. Again, if you don’t stop interrupting me while I’m explaining everything, we won’t get anywhere!”
When he made a zipper motion across his lips, she continued. “I’m still ironing out all the minute details, but all of that was to say that I think I have a plot line that will work, and I’ve narrowed down a few activities we can do that will help me.”
Charlie made an un-zipping motion. “Sounds great, but what does that mean for us fake-dating? And do you want to be around me all the time like your couple? How exactly do we work forced proximity into something like this?”
Sam rolled her eyes. “Well, obviously we can’t do that, but we can do other stuff together that a normal couple might do.”
“Gotcha,” Charlie said, nodding. “I can work with that.”
This next part was what Sam was least looking forward to out of fear that this alone would cause him to immediately back out. Not that she’d blame him. “The other part, and this is the part we need to establish right off the bat, is some of the physical stuff.”
Charlie quirked an eyebrow up at her. “The physical stuff?”
“Yes,” she said as she sat forward more and lowered her volume a bit.
“If we are, in fact, fake dating right now, we need to establish what boundaries we have. This whole thing is to help me get an idea of how romance is, which is obviously going to involve that kind of stuff, so I need to know what both of our boundaries are. And you have to be completely and one hundred percent honest.”
Folding his arms across his chest, Charlie nodded. “Alright, that’s fair. You first. You’re the lead in this. What are you comfortable with?”
Though she knew how Charlie was, she was a bit surprised he was so relaxed about the whole thing.
While she had been flustered about this part of the conversation most of the night, and while she had babbled on so much about the plot of the book, he seemed very cavalier about the prospect.
She wasn’t sure if that made her feel more relaxed, as well, or more nervous.
“So, I think things like hugs and regular touching aren’t outside the bounds of how we usually are…”
“Right,” he agreed.
“…But I think some of the more romantic kinds of physical touch, such as cuddling and kissing, are things I’m open to,” she said, keeping her eyes on him for any hint of discomfort.
“Okay. I’m open to those as well.”
The relief she felt was temporary as she continued, blurting everything out as fast as she could to alleviate the nerves swirling in her gut.
“Good. But as I am writing a smutty romance novel, eventually I will have to get to the sex scenes for that. I think drawing a hard line at sex itself is where I’m at, but I might be open to other, more…
sexual things… as we get further into fake-dating each other.
However, I want to discuss that more once we get more comfortable with this. ”
God, she wished she could just drop dead from the embarrassment that flooded her veins. In addition to everything else she’d worked on that night, building the courage for this exact moment had been what she was preparing for.
She knew that she had to have faith that Charlie would tell her if he genuinely didn’t feel comfortable with any of this, even if it meant calling off this whole thing. She trusted him that much at least.
Charlie shifted in his seat, and for a split second she was terrified she had indeed made him uncomfortable. Immediately preparing to apologize, she ran through the hundreds of things she could say to let him know that backing out now was completely okay and she would figure something else out.
Instead, he surprised her when he smiled and nodded. “I’m open to that as well. You just have to promise that you’ll be honest with me, as well, alright? Nothing happens if you don’t want it to, regardless of your book stuff. Deal?”
When he extended a hand toward her for a shake, she let out an anxiety-filled laugh, relief wafting out of her in droves.
It was almost embarrassing for her to realize that there was little Charlie could do to her that she’d say no to, but instead she breathed out a sigh of relief and shook his hand.
“Deal.” She adjusted herself to alleviate whatever tingling was happening in her body. “Alright. Now one other detail.”
“I’m enraptured to hear it.”
“Well, I was thinking it would be kind of awkward if we kept talking about this little experiment of ours. I want it to be as organic as possible, so it doesn’t feel forced, you know what I mean?”
Charlie nodded slowly. “I think, but please elaborate.”
“I think we should operate under fight club rules for it.”
Charlie raised an eyebrow and laughed. “Fight club rules? I didn’t know violence was involved in this.”
“I more so meant that we don’t talk about fight club mentality.
I think a similar idea would work here. The more we talk about it, the more ‘in our heads’ we’ll be about it.
So, as long as we make sure we’re not making the other uncomfortable, we just act as organically as a couple as we can. Think you could handle that?”
He shrugged. “Doesn’t sound like a bad idea. Alright, fight club rules.”
“Perfect. I was also thinking that it might also be a good idea if we make a trip to the bookstore together after we get done with work today.”
He cocked his head to the side with a grin. “The bookstore?”
“Yeah, that way I can pick up a few books with some similar tropes and such that I might want to include. For research.”
He laughed, the deep timbre of his voice resonating warmly in the air. “Is this just an excuse to get more books?”
It hadn’t been that long, maybe just over a month, since they’d last ventured over to the bookstore. As often as the two of them ran through books, it was a relatively frequent occurrence.
“Would you complain either way?” She laughed.
“Not in the least,” he said, folding his arms across his chest and relaxing back into the couch.
“I just finished off the book we got the last time we were there. Could always do with more. Besides, if I’m going to be a good fake boyfriend, who am I to turn down a book date with my fake girlfriend? ”
Despite the way her stomach flipped at the way he’d said that, she smiled. “You can’t; it’s mandatory now.”
He chuckled. “Fair enough. In the meantime, I think we should plan something else, our first official fake-date so to speak. Do you have plans for Saturday night?”
She thought for a moment before shaking her head. “Not that I know of.”
“Perfect. You want to get dinner?”
She pursed her lips. “What’d you have in mind?”
“That little Italian place over in Morrisville? It’s a bit on the nicer side without requiring either of us to dress up too much. Figured it’d be a nice spot for a date,” he replied.
“That sounds great!”
He grinned, the edges of his mouth crinkling into his dimples. “Cool. Say I pick you up at seven?”
Sam laughed. “Charlie, we live in the same building. How would you be picking me up?”
“Okay, by picking you up, I meant more that I’ll come by your apartment, so we can walk to my car together. Jeez, spoilsport.”