Best Friends Don't Kiss

She narrows her eyes. “Okay, so when my aunt Poppy asks you how we started dating, what are you going to say?”

“I don’t know.” I shrug. “It just sort of happened.”

She barks out a laugh. “That’s a shit answer! It doesn’t even make it sound like you want to be in a relationship with me. It’s more, like,” she continues on, dropping her voice a few octaves to mimic mine, “Oh, I don’t know. One day Ava said she was my girlfriend, and I figured I’d just roll with it.”

My lips quirk up in amusement.

“This isn’t as simple as a trip to Vermont and telling my family we’re dating now, Luke. We have to have a plan.”

I sigh and drop my shoulders. “And I take it we’re figuring out that plan tonight?”

“Time is a ticking, buddy.” She taps her wrist with two fingers. “And at this point, we barely have a month to get our shit together,” she retorts, picking up a yellow highlighter and begins swiping it over notes she’s apparently already taken in one of the notebooks.

This is going to be a long night.

I rub a hand down my face and pick up my cell phone off the kitchen island.

“What are you doing?”

“Ordering some dinner,” I respond and pull up UberEats to order a pizza from the joint up the street. “I’m starving, and I have a feeling you’ve been too busy mapping out our fake relationship plan to eat dinner.”

She grins at that. “No sausage on the pizza this time.”

“How’d you know I was ordering pizza?”

She flashes a look my way. “Because it’s your go-to.”

“See?” I retort. “This is exactly what I’m talking about. If you know me so well that you know what I’m going to order for dinner, then I think we can wing the whole fake-relationship thing.”

She snorts. “You know, the sooner you order the pizza, the sooner we can get this all figured out…”

“Christ,” I mutter and submit my order on the online app.

Instantly, I receive a notification that my order is in process and will be delivered in thirty-five to forty minutes.

Once I grab two bottles of water from the fridge, I slip off my blazer and shoes and head over to sit down by the Detail Queen.

And it’s no surprise she wastes no time diving in.

“Okay, first things first, the Best Friends Don’t List.”

“The what?”

“This.” She taps her highlighter on the notebook page. “Read through it, and see if there’s anything else you want to add.”

And, sure enough, there is actually a fucking list.The Best Friends Don’t List

1. Kiss.

2. See each other naked.

3. Have sex.

4. Catch feelings.“If our friendship is going to come out of this pretend relationship unscathed, we have to have some rules,” she adds just as I finish reading through it. “Obviously, this is just a start, and we’ll have to add more—”

“Nope.” I laugh my refusal. “This is ridiculous.”

“What?” Her eyes go wide. “Why?”

“We don’t need a list of rules, Ace,” I retort on another laugh. “I’m pretty sure we both know the boundaries.”

“Luke, we need a list.”

“Ava, we don’t need a list.”

“Yes. We. Do.”

“Are you planning on trying to have sex with me?”

Her eyes turn wide and shocked. “Of course not.”

“Then we don’t need a fucking list that says not to.”

“Luke—”

“Look, I offered to go to Vermont with you and be your fake boyfriend for the holidays. And trust me, I’ll play that part well. I’ll hold your hand, do cutesy shit for you in front of your family, but I’m not going to sit back and let you write a million fucking rules that I’m supposed to remember.”

“I wasn’t going to write that many. There are four so far.”

“Ava, c’mon,” I say through a laugh. “When you’re in crazy detail mode like this, your to-do lists have to-do lists. You become the queen of neurotically plotting out every single damn detail. And I know this list will be no different. Four items is just the beginning. Trust me, I’m saving us both a lot of headaches.”

She stares down at the page.

“You already have another thing you want to add to that damn list, don’t you?”

“Of course not.” She shakes her head and digs her teeth into her bottom lip.

I grin. “Liar.”

“I can’t help it! When I’m stressed out like this, planning everything out makes me feel calm!”

“There’s no need to stress, okay?” I wrap my arm around her shoulder and tuck her close to my side. “This trip is going to be a good trip. We’re going to have fun together, and we’re going to make everyone think we’re in a relationship while we’re doing it. We can even map out a basic plan if it makes you feel better.”

“How basic?”

I sit up, snag the pen from behind her ear, and write it down.Go to Vermont.