I lean back in the booth, arms crossed. “I’m not sure I believe that. I think I might need to take matters into my own hands.”
“What do you mean?” Now he’s officially suspicious.
“I mean, if the PVF can have even one fraction of the fans the NFL has, we’d be set.”
“And how do you plan on doing that?” I look pointedly at him until he gets the hint. “Oh, you want me and the other players to be the draw.”
“Actually, what do you think about being my boyfriend,” I say, and he immediately chokes on his drink. He coughs, bumping his chest, trying to dispel the liquid. “Myfakeboyfriend,” I quickly clarify as he takes a gasping breath. Wow, I didn’t realize the mere thought of being with me was enough to end a man’s life by choking to death.
“Jesus.”
When the teenage employee steps up to our booth holding our food, we both jump like kids caught with their hands in the cookie jar.
“Thank you,” we mutter, not making eye contact.
Once she’s gone and our burgers are unwrapped, I decide it’s time to get back to the topic at hand. “So, will you do it?”
“What makes you think we can fool everybody?”
“Please,” I scoff, “Everything a girlfriend would know about you, I already know.” I mean, yes, I was just doubting our ability to pull this off about three seconds ago, but he doesn’t need to know that.
A grin splits his lips. “True.”
I take a huge bite of my burger as we just stare at each other. Game days always leave me starving.
“What would the rules be?”
“What do you mean?”
“In the movies there are always rules for this sort of thing.” He points his fry at me. “Like no kissing. At the very least, an end date when we call it off.”
“The end of volleyball season?”
“That’s only a few months away. How much could we accomplish by May?” He chews for a second while he thinks. “What about July? After my brother’s wedding? You could be my plus one.” Why are the tips of his ears pink right now? Is he embarrassed to be talking about this? Or is there something else going on?
“I’d love to visit your family, but how is that going to help my team?”
“We could each get two events. Like I could pick Henry’s wedding and one other thing, and you could make both of your choices volleyball things.”
I chew slowly and nod. Then quirk my brow, confused. “What’s in it for you?”
“I may have already told Ma that you were my date.” He fiddles with the lone fry in his hand.
“Wyatt!” I can’t believe he would do that! But wait…aren’t I pitching to him basically the same thing right now?
“She called me before the game and told me that she was going to set me up with someone and I panicked. I can’t go tomy own brother’s wedding with a blind date. I didn’t think you’d say no anyway. And it will help get my parents off my back. They won’t worry about me so much if they think I have a girlfriend. You’ll be saving me, really. Plus, if you’re there, they won’t want to talk so much about my leaving Green Bay.”
“Remind me, why won’t you tell them you punched Jared Clark?” Seems like a lot of this worrying could be fixed if he was honest with them.
He holds up his hands. “Whoa. There were no punches thrown. He pushed me and it immediately got broken up.”
“Even better then. That just makes him look like more of an ass.”
He shakes his head in disappointment. “You’ve been gone from Wisco too long if you don’t know why. As long as he’s the starting quarterback of the Green Bay Butchers, my lips are sealed.”
I eye him curiously, not completely believing him. He waits me out.
“Okay. It’s a deal. We’ll start right now. Tomorrow, if anyone asks—we’re dating. It’s new, but obviously we’ve known each other a long time.” Like this is going to be so easy.