Fake Marriage Box Set

“You’re at the beach?” I whined. “I would do anything to be at the beach!”

“Then move!” she cried. “Come here. You belong here, I swear it.”

“I know I do,” I said. “It’s just not possible right now. Maybe in a few months, though.”

“A few months?” she asked. “Not a lot changes in a few months.” She had no idea how wrong she was, but I couldn’t tell her that.

“You’re right; I meant a few years. I’m going to start auditioning for more commercials, and I’ll make my way out there soon,” I said.

“Good luck,” she said. Someone called her name from afar. “I have to go, but I’ll call you when I get the chance, okay?”

“Okay,” I said. We exchanged goodbyes, and I hung up. In six months, I could leave my lonely life here, and start a new one beneath the sunny skies of Hollywood. Until then, I would just have to pretend to love Gavin, fake marry him, and sit on my couch waiting for his phone call.

I knew I couldn’t just spend an entire Sunday sitting on my couch, especially when he wasn’t going to call me, so I texted my mom and asked if they had plans for dinner.

An hour later, I was on my way toward my parent's house.

My dad greeted me first with a giant lopsided grin.

“Someone’s excited,” I said and pulled away from our hug.

“Someone just got a brand spanking new television!” he said and gestured at a giant flat screen TV hooked on their wall. It was a huge improvement over their last TV, and as far as I could tell from the soap opera they had been watching, there weren’t any dead pixels.

“This looks expensive,” I said and greeted my mom. “Can you guys afford it?”

“My new credit card can,” Mom said. I groaned and asked how much credit she was approved for. “What does it matter?”

“Because it’s another credit card that I’ll most likely be paying off for you guys,” I said. Mom shrugged and walked away from me.

“It’s not eating away at our money,” she said. “And it makes your dad happy. When’s the last time you remember us buying anything new for the house?”

I glanced at the house. She had a point, I supposed. They almost always refused to spend more than required on anything, so it was nice to finally see them splurging a little on themselves. Kind of.

“So, it’s for Dad then?” I asked.

“Early birthday present and late anniversary gift,” he said and hugged my mom. “Thank you, honey.”

“You’re welcome,” she said and kissed him.

I groaned and sat in front of the TV.

“Anything new with you?” Mom asked as she started on an early dinner.

“Actually,” I started and turned around on the couch. “I do sort of have an announcement.” They were going to find out soon enough anyways. I had posted the photo of Gavin with a caption thanking him for the past three lovely dates, and I knew Ron’s mom was going to have a field day with my mom eventually. I could tell them about us dating, but maybe there was a way to keep the fake marriage thing to myself.

“Oh?” Mom peeked from around the corner as Dad on the other end of the couch.

“I’ve actually been seeing Gavin for a week now. Last night we agreed to be official,” I said.

Mom gasped, and Dad chuckled at the same time.

“Gavin Hayward?” Mom asked. “For a week? Why did you wait so long to tell us?”

“And when exactly are we going to have dinner with this young man?” Dad asked. I bit my tongue to stop myself from saying he’s not that young.

“We both wanted to wait to tell anyone,” I said. “And I don’t know, Dad. Hopefully soon.” I wondered if the agreement included having dinner with my parents as well, just to make it look as real as possible.

“Well, I’m happy for you,” Mom said. “Really, I can’t believe it. We were just talking about how great of a guy he was a week ago.”