Chapter 4 The Rules of Pretending #2
"I looked because you were speaking."
"You were judging me."
"I wasn't."
"You were."
Fluke quietly smiled.
P'Cherry whispered,
"Rule Four is going to be interesting."
Khun Dew gave her a look.
P'Cherry lowered her eyes.
"Sorry."
?
Then Orm reached the fifth rule.
She read it twice.
Silence.
Orm slowly looked up.
Ling was staring at the page.
Fluke had stopped smiling.
Even P'Cherry seemed to realise that the joke had suddenly become less funny.
Orm cleared her throat.
"That's..."
She didn't finish.
Ling finally looked up.
"It's necessary."
Orm nodded.
"Right."
Khun Dew spoke calmly.
"The arrangement is temporary. Both of you need to remember that."
Orm nodded.
"We will."
Ling said nothing.
P'Cherry looked between them.
Then she added,
"And before anyone laughs, yes, we've included it deliberately."
Orm gave a small smile.
"Nobody was laughing."
Fluke raised a hand.
"I was thinking about it."
"Don't."
He lowered it.
"Understood."
Orm looked down again.
No kissing.
No sleeping together.
No unnecessary touching.
No jealousy.
No falling in love.
It sounded simple.
Almost reassuring.
Rules were good.
Rules meant boundaries.
Rules meant she could do this without losing control.
She took a pen.
"Fine."
Ling looked at her.
"Fine."
They both signed beside the first five rules.
Orm felt slightly better.
Then she remembered something.
She lifted her pen.
"I want to add one."
P'Cherry smiled.
"Go ahead."
Orm looked directly at Ling.
Ling blinked.
"Like what?"
Orm opened her mouth but nothing came out. Because the problem was that she didn't actually know how to describe it.
Ling had a particular look.
It wasn't exactly a smile.
It wasn't exactly curiosity.
It was something quieter.
Something that made Orm suddenly feel as though Ling was paying more attention to her than she should.
It had happened during the interview.
During the campaign presentation.
At the company ball.
And just now.
Orm hated it.
She didn't know why.
"Like..." she began.
Ling waited.
Orm frowned.
"Just don't."
P'Cherry pressed her lips together.
Fluke looked down at the table, clearly trying not to laugh.
Khun Dew watched them with an expression that suggested she was already regretting the decision to put them in the same room.
Ling tilted her head.
"That's not a very specific rule."
"It's specific enough."
"It isn't."
"Then just understand it."
Ling's mouth curved slightly.
"How?"
Orm stared at her.
"I don't know."
Ling leaned back.
"Then how will I know when I'm breaking it?"
"You'll know."
"How?"
"Because I'll tell you."
"That sounds subjective."
Orm's eyes narrowed.
"You are deliberately making this difficult."
"I'm asking for clarification."
"You don't need clarification."
"I do."
"Why?"
"Because you haven't told me what the look is."
Orm opened her mouth.
Closed it.
Opened it again.
Nothing.
P'Cherry finally laughed.
"I'm sorry."
Orm looked at her.
P'Cherry raised both hands.
"But that rule is impossible."
"Why?"
"Because you're asking someone not to make a facial expression."
Orm frowned.
"She knows what I mean."
Ling looked at P'Cherry.
"I don't."
Fluke finally lost the battle and laughed.
Ling looked at him.
"What's funny?"
"You."
"I'm glad."
Fluke smiled.
"You two have been pretending for approximately twenty minutes and you're already arguing over eye contact."
Orm pointed at him.
"That's not what we're doing."
"Of course."
"It isn't."
"Of course."
Orm turned back to Ling.
"This rule stays."
Ling looked at the document.
Then at Orm.
"Fine."
Orm relaxed.
"Good."
Ling picked up the pen.
"But I'm adding a clarification."
Orm frowned.
"What?"
Ling wrote beneath the rule.
Both parties agree to notify the other when the rule is violated.
Orm read it.
"That's fine."
Ling put the pen down.
"Good."
Orm nodded.
Then she noticed the way Ling was looking at her again.
She immediately looked away.
P'Cherry saw it.
So did Fluke.
Neither said anything.
?
Once the basic rules were established, P'Cherry moved on to practical behaviour.
"Now," she said, "we need to talk about what pretending actually looks like."
Orm straightened.
P'Cherry brought up a presentation.
"You're not going to behave like a couple every second of the day. That would look unnatural."
Orm nodded.
"Good."
"People don't constantly touch each other."
"Exactly."
"Sometimes they're separate."
Orm nodded.
"Good."
P'Cherry smiled.
"But when you're together publicly, there needs to be consistency."
She displayed several examples.
Walking together.
Sitting beside each other.
Small touches.
Shared jokes.
Eye contact.
Remembering small details.
Natural familiarity.
Orm studied the list.
"This sounds difficult."
"It isn't if you stop thinking about it."
"How?"
"Because real couples don't usually calculate every movement."
Orm looked at Ling.
"That's the problem."
Ling raised an eyebrow.
"What?"
"We're not a real couple."
"I know."
"So we're going to have to calculate."
P'Cherry nodded.
"Fair point."
Fluke leaned forward.
"You could practice."
Orm immediately shook her head.
"No."
Ling looked at her.
"Why not?"
"Because that's embarrassing."
"We're going to have to do it eventually."
Orm stared at her.
"You're enjoying this."
"I'm not."
"You are."
"I'm being practical."
"You're enjoying being practical."
Ling smiled faintly.
"Perhaps."
Orm groaned.
P'Cherry clapped her hands once.
"Excellent."
Orm looked at her.
"What?"
"You're already bickering naturally."
"That's not romantic."
P'Cherry smiled.
"People online will decide that."
Orm wasn't reassured.
?
They practiced walking first.
It should have been easy.
It wasn't.
P'Cherry stood several feet away with her phone, observing them.
"Walk together."
Orm and Ling started walking.
"Closer."
They moved closer.
"Closer."
Orm looked at P'Cherry.
"We're already close."
"You look like coworkers."
"We are coworkers."
"Not for the next few weeks."
Orm sighed and moved slightly closer to Ling.
Their arms brushed.
She immediately became aware of it.
Ling looked down at her.
Orm looked up.
For one brief second, they simply stared at each other.
P'Cherry lowered her phone.
"That."
Orm frowned.
"What?"
"Do that again."
"Do what?"
"Look at each other like that."
Orm's face warmed.
"No."
P'Cherry laughed.
"That's exactly what I'm talking about."
Ling seemed amused.
Orm pointed at her.
"Don't."
Ling smiled.
"I didn't say anything."
"Your face did."
Fluke laughed from his chair.
"You're going to need a bigger rulebook."
?
They tried again. This time, Orm concentrated on walking naturally. She ignored Ling. She ignored the cameras. She ignored the fact that their shoulders were almost touching.
It worked.
Until P'Cherry said,
"Now hold hands."
Orm stopped.
"No."
P'Cherry blinked.
"Why?"
"We haven't agreed to that."
Ling looked at her.
"We did."
"When?"
"Earlier."
Orm remembered.
She had agreed to public hand-holding.
Technically.
She sighed.
"Fine."
Ling extended her hand.
Orm stared at it.
She had held hands with people before.
Friends.
Family.
Colleagues during silly games.
It shouldn't have felt strange.
But this was different.
Because Ling wasn't simply offering her hand.
She was waiting.
Orm slowly placed her hand in Ling's.
Their fingers touched.
Then Ling gently closed her hand around hers.
Orm's stomach gave an inexplicable little twist.
She immediately blamed the coffee.
Too much caffeine.
Definitely.
P'Cherry watched them.
"Good."
Fluke looked up.
"That was fast."
Orm pulled her hand away.
"Done."
P'Cherry laughed.
"You lasted three seconds."
"That's enough."
Ling looked amused.
"Are you nervous?"
"No."
"You pulled away."
"Because the exercise was finished."
"It wasn't."
"It was for me."
Ling shook her head.
Orm glared.
P'Cherry smiled.
"Let's try again."
Orm groaned.
"This is torture."
?
They eventually worked through the basics.
How to sit beside each other without looking like strangers.
How to walk together. How to react when someone asked about the other.
How to remember small details. How to answer questions without contradicting one another.
What information they were allowed to share. What they weren't.
No family.
No private addresses.
No personal history.
No past relationships.
No fabricated stories that could later become complicated.