I thought my pleading had some merit until she scoffs. “That’s not a very realistic fake marriage if you don’t post about it on Facebook and Instagram. Not in this day and age.”
Damn, I feel like I’m losing her support. Time to find out. “Mom, I’m just being honest with you. I don’t expect you to understand all the details behind why I’m doing this. But I need to know, are you helping me?”
A beat passes, and I hear her blow out a loud exhale through her mouth.
“Well if you’re going to do this crazy thing, you better do it right. If Jennifer’s as much of a bitch as Kenny was a bastard, well, you better break them up. No one should have to go through the pain our Nora has.”
My heart warms. “I love you, Mom.”
“I love you, too. You know I’ll have your back no matter what crazy stuff you do.” She clears her throat. “Wait, so does this mean you and Luke are going to, you know, have sex? I thought he was just a friend or are you elevating this to another level?”
I so do not want to go there with mom because honestly, I don’t know. “Mom, nothing to worry about but I gotta go!” I say. “I’m at his place now and he’s letting me in. We’ll talk later. Bye, love you!”
I hang up and tap on the back door of Luke’s place.
Leave it to my mom to jump right to the questions that even I don’t know the answer to.
Luke opens the door wearing grey baseball sweats and a blue hoodie.
“Well hello, Sky!” he says, a little more loudly and awkwardly than normal. Then he winks and nods. Geez, at least I’ve had real acting roles, this dude is going to need some lessons. Luke is so genuine all of the time, and I never thought that could be a negative trait in a man. But apparently it’s going to be a weakness when it comes to the elaborate lying we’re going to be doing.
He takes my headphones, gloves, and coat when I come in and hangs them up, like maybe a guy who’s dating a girl would do, then nods toward Ryan, who is cooking some rice and whistling in the kitchen.
We make eye contact and grin at each other subtly.
Game on.
Luke hugs me, a little tighter than normal, and his lips come a hair’s breadth away from my ear and he whispers. “I love you for doing this, Cielo. Commence Operation Romper.”
Tingles travel down my spine. I don’t know if it’s because we’re actually doing this crazy ass plan or because—in spite of being just my friend, the way he presses his muscular body up against me and grazes my ear reminds me that Luke is, despite his gentleness with me, one of the most physically imposing and intense men I’ve ever met.
And did he just say he loves me?
I mean I know it’s in a friendly way, but still, I can feel the meaning of those words reverberating in my heart.
I take a big breath, remind myself that this is just goofy Lucas, my study abroad friend who taught his Argentine family to shotgun beers. I plaster on a smile.
Let Operation Romper commence.
“Hello Ryan,” I say. He turns around and I offer him a friendly wave. “Whatcha’ cooking?”
“Hey Sky, good to see you. Oh, this? I’m just cooking up some high protein meals for the week. Jennifer is starting this new workout regimen and she wants to try a diet thing along with it. Hashtag wedding body! How are you?”
I almost want to laugh, but I should realize by now he’s not joking about these sorts of things. Though the one thing that does ring in loud and clear: Ryan needs us. “Well that’s…nice of you,” I say. “I brought you all some wine.”
I hold up the bottle of Malbec I brought with me.
“So you two are hanging out...again?” Ryan says, his tone suggestive.
“Yes, we’re going to mess with the new record player I got today,” Luke cuts in. “Sky’s the only other person I know who enjoys the fine quality sound of vinyl.” He turns to me though still speaking with Ryan. “And I was thinking of us watching that Reprisal series you got me into.”
Ryan looks intrigued and launches into the details about the series—thriller, drama, badass female protagonist out for revenge, a little dark—it actually sounds really good and right up my viewing alley.
“What’s Jennifer up to today?” I ask as I open the bottle while Luke gets the wine glasses from the cupboard.
“She flew back to Florida to spend the weekend with her cousins. Said it was too cold up here. And you know what? I don’t blame her.”
Jesus, is this man a saint, in love, or just whipped so badly he can’t think straight any more? It makes me sad. He’s like the male version of what Nora became: a whipped little housewife who did anything Kenny wanted, and whenever she tried to exercise independence he’d shut her down like a child.
Another loud resounding confirmation that Operation Romper is in need of perfect execution. This idea might be crazy, but I feel good about trying to save his life from the pits of despair in the future.
Luke and I sit on the couch with our wine. “So I’ve got some mahi mahi in the kitchen we could cook up for dinner once Ryan is done in there,” he says.
“Or…” I raise up one finger. “We could order a couple of pizzas.” We couldn’t be more different in our food choices if we’d practiced this…oh yeah, we did.
Luke slaps his heart with a palm. “Pizza? But I thought we talked about mahi mahi.”
“Well pizza would really make me happy.”
“I’ll call and order two right now.”
I glance to see if Ryan reacts to this, something Luke’s said is a constant cave for Ryan when he and Jennifer are ordering a meal. I think he heard us, but Ryan’s not giving anything away. Hopefully he notices.
Luke orders the pizza and then walks over to his new record player, and starts up Weezer’s Blue Album. We’re sitting on different couch cushions the first time Ryan walks in.
“Ah, forgot my beer,” Ryan says, bending over to retrieve it from the coffee table then, moves to walk back to the kitchen.
Just then, Luke pokes me. “It’s go time,” he whispers. “Let’s cuddle.”
I flip on my side to make room for him and lay on the couch. He slides his body behind mine and flings a blanket over us.
We can hear Ryan fiddling with opening another beer in the kitchen.
So before he walks back in I scooch my butt toward Luke so that I won’t fall off the couch, and that we look authentic when something pokes me.
“Hey,” I whisper-yell. “I missed the part of Operation Romper where it includes you poking my ass and copping a feel.”
“Sorry,” he whisper-yells back, and brings his hand outside of the blanket.
I scooch further into him and I still feel whatever’s poking me. “Wait, if that’s not your hand, what is it?” I say, confused.
“My bad,” he says. “I’m trying to stop it. It’s sort of hard to control, though. I swear I’m not trying to do it on purpose.”
A brick forms in my stomach.
Or maybe that’s butterflies. Oh my gosh.
It’s definitely not his hand.
It’s been way too long since I’ve casually cuddled with someone. It wasn’t something Federico and I indulged in, being long distance and all.