Callie
What does a person wear to her fake boyfriend’s football game?
“Does it really matter?” Alex asks as she sifts through the discarded pile of clothes on my bed, which unfortunately is my entire closet. Why don’t I have any clothes?
“You know you can always borrow mine,” Lizzie offers. “But I have the fashion sense of a dog.”
“Better than mine,” Emily says with a laugh. “All I wear are baggy T-shirts with jeans. Well, when I’m not at work.”
With a heavy sigh, I hold up a pretty white top with a black skirt. “Is it too late to go shopping? Ugh, this is too fancy for a game.” I toss them aside.
I don’t know why I’m freaking out like this. Lincoln is my fake boyfriend. He won’t give a darn what I wear. But he and I are always in the spotlight now and I don’t want to make him look bad. Many people online have already commented on my lack of fashion sense.
Spencer never said anything negative about my clothes, but he hadn’t complimented me either. Now that I think about it, did he ever call me beautiful? Maybe he did in the beginning when he was trying to impress me. But I can’t recall him complimenting me in the last few weeks.
I shove thoughts of the jerk out of my head. He doesn’t matter to me anymore.
“What about this?” Lizzie holds up a pink shirt with a floral design. “Pairing it with your jeans will make it look casual but still pretty.”
Glancing at the time, I see it’s starting to get late. “Whatever. I don’t have time for this. Lincoln has no choice but to accept his girlfriend as she is. Bad fashion sense and all.” I yank off my shirt and tug the pink one over my head.
“You look so pretty!” Lizzie says. “I always tell you that you look great in pink.”
“Thanks.” After dressing into my jeans, I stand before my vanity mirror. “Now I need to figure out what to do with my hair and we’re good to go.”
My friends have agreed to accompany me to Lincoln’s game. I can’t imagine going all by myself and not knowing a soul. Not to mention there will definitely be reporters and regular people snapping photos of me. I’m so thankful for my friends. None of us have been to a football game since high school, so this could be a fun experience.
My phone rings with a video call from my mom.
“My mom’s calling,” I tell my friends, glancing at the time. I love my mom, but she really has rotten timing.
“We’ll give you some privacy,” Emily says, and the three of them walk out.
After I accept the call, the faces of both my mom and my dad appear on the screen. “Mom and Dad!” I say. “Hi. I wasn’t expecting you, Dad.”
Most people claim I look similar to my mom, but I have always felt like I look like both. Mom has the same color hair and eyes as me, but Dad is a brunette with blue eyes. Well, both of their hair is graying now. In terms of personality, I tend to be more similar to my mom.
“It’s been a while, sweetheart,” Dad says. “You act like you live across the country and not twenty minutes away.”
I try not to let the guilt eat me up. My parents are constantly asking me to visit, but I always seem to be so busy. But I guess now that I don’t have to spend so much time with Spencer, I’ll have more time to hang out with them.
“Sorry,” I say. “I’ve been so swamped with work.”
Mom playfully slaps Dad’s chest. “He still can’t accept that you’re a grown woman and have your own life to live. Your dad misses his little girl.”
“You should have had more kids,” I joke as I sit down at my vanity and start styling my hair. Again, how does a person wear her hair to her fake boyfriend’s football game?
“You were trouble enough,” Mom says with a chuckle. “You shaved off five years of our lives.”
“Oh come on. I wasn’t that bad.”
“No, you weren’t,” Dad admits.
“Thanks. So how are you, Mom and Dad?”
“Upset with you,” Mom says.
I drop my hands from my hair and stare at my phone. “What?”
“Why is it that I find out from Jenna Diaz that my own daughter is dating a famous football player? She said she saw a video of the two of you together on one of those social media programs.”
“I believe they’re called ‘apps,’” Dad corrects.
“Right, about that…” I say. “It was hard for me after Spencer and I broke up, but I realized he kind of did me a favor. Now I can move on to someone better.”
“Like a devilishly handsome football player?” Mom asks.
Um, my mom referring to my fake boyfriend and old crush as “devilishly handsome” sounds so wrong.
“Mom,” I say.
“What? He is.”
Dad playfully frowns at her. “Do I have to worry about this?”
With a chuckle, she presses a sweet kiss on his cheek. “You will always be the only man in my heart.”
“Mom, Dad, I’d love to chat more, but I’m going to be late.”
“Where are you going?” Dad asks.
“Lincoln invited me to his football game.”
“Callie, you still didn’t tell us how you got together with the hunk.”
“Hunk? Oh gosh, Mom.”
“I need details!”
I hate lying to my parents, but I can’t risk the truth coming out. My mom isn’t a blabbermouth, but she is prone to accidentally spilling the truth sometimes. She’s an even worse liar than me. There’s no way she would be able to keep the truth from her friends. Besides, Lincoln and I will be through with each other after a month, so there’s no point making a big issue out of this.
Like Lincoln and I discussed at the diner yesterday, I tell my parents how we met: We bumped into each other at a former classmate’s party a few weeks ago and he asked me out. Not the most romantic story on the planet, but we figured the public has enough to talk about with us being tangled in each other’s arms at the café.
Mom practically dances in her chair. “I’m so excited for you, sweetie! I thought Spencer was the right man for you, but I see now how wrong I was. Are you serious with Lincoln?”
“No,” Dad says. “She won’t be serious about any man until she’s thirty.”
“Dad.” I playfully roll my eyes. Then I glance at the time again. “I really need to go. Lincoln’s game will start soon and I don’t want to be late.”
“Oh, all right,” Mom says with a frown. “We’ll let you go. But I want more details later. Maybe I’ll ask Jenna to set up social media on my phone.”
“Uh, you don’t have to do that,” I quickly say. “I’ll give you any detail you want.” The last thing I need is for my mom to see every detail of my fake relationship with Lincoln.
Just as I’m about to end the call, Mom says, “Have him come over for dinner with us.”
I freeze for a second before glancing at the screen. “What?”
“You and Lincoln are invited to dinner at our house,” Mom says. “Your dad and I would love to meet your hunky boyfriend.”
“Um…” Couldn’t she have invited us next month, after Lincoln and I broke up? “I don’t know. Lincoln is so busy with his career and everything…”
“So busy that he can’t make time to meet his special girl’s parents?” Dad asks.
Special girl? Oh, gosh. My parents are blowing things way out of proportion.
“And we can see he’s special to you as well, since you keep blushing.”
Oh. My. Gosh.
“We want to meet the young man who’s making our daughter happy,” Mom continues. “If you’re too embarrassed to ask him to join us for dinner, I’ll contact him myself. What’s his number?”
“What?”
“You do have your boyfriend’s cell number, don’t you?”
“We’ll come,” I blurt. “You don’t have to call him.”
“Wonderful. We’ll see you next week.”
I slowly drop my phone on my bed. How the heck did my parents convince me to agree to have dinner at their house with my fake boyfriend? Ugh, this wasn’t part of our arrangement. I’m sure the last thing Lincoln wants is to meet the parents of his one-month fake girlfriend. But I can’t cancel. Mom will acquire his number somehow and ask her himself. And he’s too much of a nice guy to decline.
“Why can’t anything just go smoothly for a change?” I cry as I face-plant into my pillow.
“Callie?” Emily asks as she walks into my room. “You okay?”
“We really need to get going,” Lizzie says. “You shouldn’t be late to your boyfriend’s game.”
“Fake boyfriend,” Alex corrects.
“Same difference.”
As we head to Lizzie’s car, I inform them that Lincoln and I have been invited to dinner at my parents’ next week.
“This is supposed to be a small lie,” I say as we buckle up. “A small lie that would be gone in a month. But it seems to be growing bigger and bigger by the day. Even a fake relationship is too stressful for me.”
“It’ll be fine,” Lizzie assures me. “Your parents are so sweet and kind. I know Lincoln will love them.”
“The problem is that they might love him back,” I mutter. “I just can’t wait until all this is over and I can go back to my normal life.”
The football stadium is in Atlanta, and it takes us about an hour to get there. The place is already filled with excited spectators. Since I’m Lincoln’s girlfriend, he has secured seats for my friends and me in the front.
“This is exciting,” Lizzie says as she looks around. “I’ve never been to a football stadium before.”
“You’ll need to tell me the rules, Callie,” Emily says. “Because I’m clueless about football.”
“I’m clueless, too,” I tell her.
“What? But you were obsessed with Lincoln in high school.”
I raise my shoulders. “So? All my focus was on the star football player. You think I paid attention to the actual game?”
That has the four of us giggling.
It takes a while, but finally, finally, the teams run onto the field. I spot Lincoln immediately. Wow, he looks really good in his uniform. I feel like I’m transported to my high school years, when I would sit in the bleachers and stare at Lincoln and no one else. He was super sexy back then, but it doesn’t compare to how he looks now.
“You’re obsessing over him again.” Alex elbows me in the rib.
I blink and turn to her, my cheeks heating up. “No, I’m not.”
“Then why can’t you tear your eyes off of him?”
“Because as an objective person, I can admit that he looks really sexy in his uniform.”
Lizzie chuckles. “He really does, doesn’t he?”
“Oh my gosh, he’s heading this way!” Emily gasps.
When I twist around, I find Lincoln indeed heading toward me. What’s he doing? Isn’t the game about to start?
“Hey, beautiful,” he calls with a wave.
Out of habit, I look behind me to see who he’s talking to, but Alex elbows me again. Of course, he’s talking to his fake girlfriend.
“Hey, back, sexy,” I say. Then I want to smack myself. Did I just call him sexy out loud?
“I was nervous before,” he says. “But now that I’ve seen you, all my nerves have vanished.”
Obviously he’s saying this for show. All around me are flashes from reporters, the camera crew, and many others. For a second, a part of me wonders what it would feel like if he really meant what he said. What would it feel like to mean so much to a person that just my existence alone could bring him such comfort and happiness? I internally shake my head. Maybe I’ll experience it one day. But that day is not right now.
“I’m your good luck charm,” I say with a grin. Then I blow him a kiss. He catches it and tucks it into his chest, near his heart. I can hear some surrounding women swoon.
His coach yells at him to get back on the field, and then the game begins. For the next few hours, my friends and I are shouting and cheering with everyone else. True we don’t understand the game completely, but we at least know that the game is very tight with the other team leading only by a few points.
And then the Atlanta Armadillos score the winning touchdown. The crowd goes wild, with the team cheering and slapping Lincoln’s back and hugging like crazy. Then Lincoln runs over to where I’m sitting, the largest smile I’ve ever seen on his face.
“My good luck charm worked,” he says with an adorable grin. “Thanks so much for coming.”
I stand and move as close to him as I can. “Of course. You know you always have my support.” And I mean it. We may be fake dating, but I’ll always support him. We are friends after all.
With another grin, he stretches to gather me in his arms and plants a kiss on my temple. I can hear the surrounding people clapping for us and I’m sure people are snapping lots of photos.
“I don’t just mean it for show,” he whispers in my ear. “Having someone support me means the world to me. Thanks, Callie.”
“You don’t have your family?” I ask.
“My parents are on a cruise,” he says. “They usually come, but they won’t make it to a few of my games. So I don’t have anyone close to me cheering for me.”
“I’ll cheer for you whenever you need,” I promise. “Even when our arrangement is over.”
He pulls back to look into my eyes. “Really? That’s so kind of you. Thanks.”
“I might not understand exactly what’s going on in terms of football,” I say with a sheepish laugh. “But I’ll always support you.”
With a smile, he bends to press his forehead to mine. “Thanks. You have no idea how much that means to me.” He draws back, that smile still on his face. “My teammates and their girls usually go out to celebrate after a game. Do you want to join us?”
The truth is, I kind of want to be alone with him. I wish I could get to know him better. But I have to remind myself that we’re in a fake relationship, so I say, “Of course. Oh by the way, I haven’t introduced you to my friends.” I gesture to them. “This is Lizzie, Alex, and Emily. Guys, this is Lincoln.”
“Great job out there,” Alex says with a smile. “You guys totally smoked them.”
“Thanks.”
“I didn’t think football could be so exciting,” Lizzie says with bright eyes. “The energy in the stadium was so electric.”
“Same,” Emily says.
“You guys are welcome to come whenever you want. Just let me know and I’ll get you tickets.”
He waves with another smile and walks off.
“Well, you definitely picked the right guy to fake date,” Alex says. “He’s super nice.”
“Totally!” Lizzie agrees.
“Just be careful,” Emily says. “You don’t want to fall for him again. Unless you do want to,” she quickly adds. “I would totally ship you guys. Lincoln seems like a really good guy.”
I shake my head. “We already established that he’d never go for someone like me. We’re better as friends.”
“If you say so.” Emily shrugs.
After the guys shower, Lincoln returns to give me a lift to the bar where we’ll celebrate with his teammates.