The corner of my lips tilts up, and I nod. “Okay. Thank you, Hunter.” I feel like I’m constantly thanking him lately.
I reposition myself on the couch until I’m practically on his lap. We’ve been quizzing each other all week long, sharing as many details about our childhood and pasts as possible. It’s definitely made us closer, knowing more about him and what his family life entailed. So even if all of this goes wrong and my parents don’t buy it, at least one good thing came out of it, and that’d be the growth and strength of our friendship.
I raise my phone once again, then I bring my lips to his cheek and click the button. As I pull back, Hunter laughs. “I think I blinked.”
That makes me chuckle. “It shouldn’t be this hard to get a picture.” I press my photos app and look. “Oh my God, Hunter!” I nudge him with my shoulder.
He’s full-on sticking out his tongue and crossing his eyes, sabotaging the shot on purpose. I can’t stop laughing, though, because it’s Hunter in true fashion. Always messing with me.
“That’ll have to do for now. Actually, I kinda like it.” I shrug, putting a filter on it, then uploading it to my fake account. But first I need a super cheesy caption.
Speaking out loud as I type, I say, “Every day is filled with love and laughs with this guy! Two red hearts. Hashtag newlyweds, hashtag love of my life, hashtag married life.” Then I click post, and it uploads.
Once it’s on the feed, I turn my phone toward Hunter and show him. “Whatcha think? Are we the cutest fake couple ever or what?” I snicker, thinking about the ridiculousness of this all. He has no idea how intense things will get when we arrive. Considering my sisters won’t be there, all of the attention will be on me. Fucking joy.
Hunter narrows his eyes at it and scrolls through the dozens of pictures I’ve posted. Everything from our morning coffees to “breakfast in bed” and movie nights. Some are just pictures of our legs as we lounge on the couch, but I know we’re gonna have to keep it up even after we’re back home. My mom will probably have the entire congregation follow me for updates on us and the baby.
“The Mrs. Manning,” he reads my handle aloud. My profile picture is of the two of us with my ‘married’ name beneath as “Lennon Manning.”
“Yeah.” I shrug. “I thought it was cute. And cheesy.” Chuckling, I study him and watch as his breath hitches and jaw tightens. I’m not sure what kind of response I was expecting, but he actually looks affected. Maybe the reality of what we’re doing is settling in. Maybe he thinks he’s betraying Brandon, or hell, maybe he realizes his life will never be the same once we do this.
I know those thoughts have crossed my mind. But I’m the one with no options. He can still back out.
“Yeah, looks nice. I’m sure they’ll buy it.” He nods, handing my phone back.
I grab my notebook from the coffee table and check off where I wrote “Daily Instagram post” under the Friday column. Ever since we decided to do this, I started making a daily to-do list, so I don’t forget anything. Getting our stories straight, learning everything we can about each other, and taking pictures and posting them on social media are a few tasks I have listed. If we’re going to pull this off, we have to do whatever it takes.
Speaking of which…
“I have a weird request,” I start, then pull in my bottom lip and wait for his response. Hunter went to grab a beer for himself and a bottle of water for me. He thinks I need to be hydrated 24/7 and forgets as soon as I drink it, I have to rush to the bathroom so I don’t pee myself. I’ve been getting up at least three times at night, which is really annoying when I’m actually warm and comfortable in bed for once.
“Any weirder than faking a marriage?” he mocks, taking a sip of his beer and setting my water down on the coffee table. Hunter plops downs on the couch, leaving space between us.
I decide to let it go, figuring Hunter’s in a weird mood tonight. Since we’ve been sharing more details about each other, I think it’s made him more vulnerable than usual, and I don’t want to push it.
Getting up, I ignore his comment and go to the kitchen table where I had set out a few items that I still need to pack in my suitcase. There’s a stack of notecards with random things about ourselves written on them as well as some with our “couple” information. I know the name of his first pet was Reagan, after the president. His first kiss was with a girl named Brittany in second grade. His brother’s name is Hayden, and he lives in New York with his girlfriend, Savannah. Hunter’s middle name is John after his great-grandfather on his mother’s side. His birthday is November 23rd and lands on Thanksgiving every six years. His favorite holiday is Christmas because growing up, it was the one day of the year his family was “normal,” and his dad didn’t make work a priority. He told me funny stories of his uncle dressing up as Santa and how he found out the truth one year when he discovered a bag of presents in the laundry room.