Fake Dates & Ice Skates: (The North University Series Book 1)

“Are you nervous?”

I run my hands from her shoulders down to her waist as I stand behind her in the mirror, losing my mind over how good she looks in her dress. I’m sure we’re breaking every wedding ritual right now, but I can’t bring myself to care. I know Kennedy would have my head if she saw that I was with Wren in her dress already. I rest my chin on her shoulder and she beams in the mirror.

“No, I’m just excited. One, I’ve never been here before and two, I’ve never been a maid of honour before,” Wren says.

We’ve been in Jamaica for the last few days, trying to catch up on sleep as well as helping Wren do her bridal duties to her sister. Austin and Zion wanted to get married as soon as possible but they also wanted to do it somewhere hot. I don’t think I could deal with another wedding in Salt Lake after going to hundreds of my cousin’s weddings. It made the most sense to come to Zion’s hometown to have his wedding where his family are.

As soon as we came off the plane, the humidity hit us worse than it was in Palm Springs. We were greeted by Zion’s large family and Austin and Marley who flew out a week before. Mrs Hacks is still not open to the idea of Austin’s new life, but their dad has shown up. We spent the first day after we got on our feet with Wren’s dad in the bar below the hotel we’re staying at. Every time we meet with him, he’s got a new story to tell us about baby Wren and it makes me heart implode.

“I’m mostly excited for the food,” I sigh. Wren turns around, her light green eyes boring into mine. “Do you know how long the service is going to take?”

“I hope you’re joking. This is a very special and romantic day,” she protests.

“I know but can’t it be special and romantic and short?”

*

The ceremony is special and it’s overly romantic, but it is not short. Wren had to stand in her light blue maid of honour dress at the front of the wedding isle in the patch of green grass at the wedding venue. I had to sit in the line of chairs in the blistering sunlight as we waited for more guests to arrive.

We exchanged private moments between us as we couldn’t speak while Wren and the other bridesmaids waited for the ceremony to begin. Even when Austin came down the aisle in a luminous white wedding dress, all I could focus on was Wren, beaming, with fresh happy tears welling up in her eyes. Even when Marley started crying on Zion’s mom’s knee, I still couldn’t tear my eyes away from her. Being here in the sun, her freckles have appeared on her face and down her arms. It felt like we were out there for hours as the wedding ceremony moved on around us, our eyes locked most of the time.

When we finally get out of the heat, we’re entered into a large room with the AC on – thank God – where all the food and drinks are served. Jamaican food is absolutely insane. I could live here for the rest of my life.

I follow Wren around like a lost puppy, holding her bag as she greets all of Zion’s family and some of her family too. She gives an emotional and funny maid of honour speech which has almost the entire room in tears. I keep my hands on her most of the night. When Zion and Austin have their first dance to ‘Is This Love’ by Bob Marley, we dance from a distance, her head resting on my shoulder as I rest my hand on her hip, swaying us to the music.

“They look so happy,” Wren whispers into me. I brush her shoulder with my hand reassuringly before she starts to cry for the hundredth time today.

“They do. But for the love of God, stop crying.’

‘I can’t help it,’ she sobs into me. This woman. I rub circles on her back and change the subject.

“I like that they have a song just for them. Do we have one?”

She looks up at me as if I offended her. I can’t help but laugh at her sudden change of expression from sadness to near anger as she sniffles.

“Of course, we have a song, Miles, and you know which one it is,” she says matter-of-factly. I shrug, trying to rack my brain for an answer. “Do you think I’d be still dating you if we didn’t have a song?”

“I’ll try not to  take that personally,” I murmur, and she pushes me in the shoulder.

“Come on.”

She pulls at my arm as she starts to walk through the crowds of people in the room and leads us through the door. She drags us down the corridor of this fancy hotel until we get to a dark corridor, where the lights only turn on the further, we walk down. She looks into some of the rooms as if she knows her way around perfectly. When we get to the end of the corridor, she jingles the door handle to the right and opens the door which lead to a flight of stairs.

“Where are we going?” I ask as she starts to sprint up the stairs.

“I know a shortcut,” she pants, her ass swaying in my face.

“How? We’ve literally been here a week.” She ignores this with a laugh until we reach the top of the first flight of stairs to another door which she opens with ease. We’re in darkness for a few beats before a light turns on and we’re somehow back into our suite.

“How?” I ask breathlessly as I cross the bedroom into the open living room and kitchen area, looking back to the door where we came out of.

“I have my ways,” she shrugs, looking through her bag from under the couch. She pulls out her speaker and holds down the button to connect it to her phone.

“You’re insane,” I say, walking over to her. Her blonde hair that she curled especially for today falls down across her face and I brush out a strand from her eyes before pulling her further into me. She blinks up at me smiling as if we’re the only people in the world.

“I know,” she says cheerfully as she sets the speaker on the kitchen island. “Come and help me move this out of the way.”

We take a while to move the couch out of the way along with the few chairs that scatter the room and the coffee table until there’s a large space in the middle only holding the carpet. Now we’re both sweatier than ever in the heat as I huff and stare at her. She has a daring look on her face as she grabs her phone from the kitchen before returning to stand in front of me.

“You can have one guess to what our song is,” she demands, her green eyes staring up at me, as she tugs on my tie and pulls me into her.

“I’m guessing it’s a Taylor Swift song based on your excitement.” She nods waving her phone between us suggestively. “I don’t know, Wren. I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be sorry. Just be grateful you have a super cool girlfriend with impeccable music taste,” she says with a flourish, as she hits play to the song she’s chosen. My heart expands as soon as the instrumental begins and the moment that she played this to me for the first time hits me. “See.”

She throws her phone on the couch as she snakes her hands around my neck as the first verse to ‘You Are in Love’ by Taylor Swift plays over the speakers. I wrap my arms around her waist as she brings her body closer to mine and we fit together perfectly.

“Do you remember what happened when I played this for you?” she asks as she sinks into my chest, her arms falling loose around my neck.

“I was driving us back from the gym and you insisted on putting a song on. You put this on, and I said it was good, but it felt like you were trying to subconsciously convince me to fall in love with you. Like you were trying to manifest it or something. You then told me that that’s never going to happen, but you thought it was one of the best love songs,” I explain, as we sway back and forth to the music.

“And then what happened?” She starts to laugh into me, knowing what I’m going to say. I press a kiss to her head, and I chuckle into her.

“Then you fell in love with me.”

“I did,” she laughs softly before breaking away from me to look up at me. “I really did and hard too.”

We stay close to each other as the song plays on a loop, letting the words settle around us. You can hear it in the silence. You can feel  it on the way home. You can see it with the lights out. You are in love. True love.

That’s exactly what it feels like being so desperately in love with Wren. I can feel her everywhere. It feels like no matter where I go, where we are, there’s always something tying us together. There’s always that true, consuming kind of love that lingers between us whenever we’re around each other. If a pink heart was a person, it would be Wren. She makes me so happy that it almost makes me queasy when I think about it too much.

I don’t get time to think before her phone starts to ring through the speakers. She groans into my chest as we waddle towards the phone, her arms tightly around my waist, not baring to look at it.

“It’s Scarlett,” I say when I catch a glimpse of her phone. She groans even louder. “Maybe something’s wrong. You should answer it.”

“Fine,” she moans pulling out of my grasp to answer the FaceTime. She falls into the couch which is now at the far end of our suite, and I sit next to her, sweeping her into my lap.

The phone lights up with a puffy faced Scarlett as her phone balances on the kitchen island of their apartment while she stands across from it, leaning against the sink with her arms crossed.

“Hi, Scar, what’s up?” Wren asks, smiling into the camera. I lean my face into the frame and wave. Scarlett rolls her eyes at me. We’ve developed a very strong love-hate relationship which I don’t mind. Wren has been trying to convince me that she doesn’t actually hate me but it’s hard to know sometimes.

“Hi,” she says sharply. “I have a question to ask.”

“Shoot,” Wren replies, pushing her hair out of her face.

I notice her necklace in the camera screen and the clasp has fallen to the front. I move my hands gently over her and pull it around the right way. She presses a kiss to my cheek as a thank you before turning her attention to Scarlett.

“You guys are disgusting,” Scarlett huffs. “Anyway, have you seen The Whiteboard anywhere? I don’t know how I can’t find it. I only have the one that I use for school not our one.”

“How could you lose The Whiteboard? It’s huge,” Wren replies, and Scarlett shakes her head with a short laugh. “I haven’t seen it in a while. Our lives have been pretty put together recently so we haven’t needed it.”

She’s right. Since we finished our exams, we settled into a comfortable rhythm with our friends where we can actually get work done as well as hanging out. Kennedy is always working on a new project for class and giving us free drinks from Florentino’s. Xavier and I have been training like crazy and going on double dates with Michelle and Wren. Evan and Scarlett are still constantly arguing about whatever assignments they need to do for business class, finding new ways to insult each other. Wren is working the hardest out of all of us; still working on her writing and skating while trying to juggle the relationship with her mom.

“Huh,” Scarlett says disbelievingly. “What about you, Miles? Have you seen it? At your house, perhaps.”

“Uh, no… Why would it be at my house?” I ask with a sceptical look. Wren looks up at me and widens her eyes and I realise what she meant. She probably thinks Evan has taken it. Typical. “Have you asked, Ken?”

“No, Miles, I haven’t asked the one person currently living with me right now,” she retorts sarcastically. “I have a feeling someone has taken it, but they won’t own up to it.”

Something catches her eye above the screen as she glares as if she’s talking to someone indirectly. Wren and I give each other a suspicious look before we turn back to Scarlett whose face has suddenly turned a deep red colour. I can’t tell if she’s blushing or if she’s pissed.

“What? Do you think Evan took it?” Wren asks. Scarlett waits a beat before turning her attention back to the screen.

“I know he took it,” she bites out.

“Scar…” Wren says slowly. “Please don’t tell me he’s with you right now and you’re holding him hostage.”

“I’m not holding him hostage,” Scarlett says rolling her eyes. “I asked him to come over and he was stupid enough to agree.”

She slowly pans the camera around to face the other way and that’s when we both see him. Evan is sat in a dark blue suit in their apartment with his arms crossed against his chest. He doesn’t look like he’s being held hostage. He looks too comfortable. Like he’s enjoying it. He smiles at the camera before blowing air up to push his blonde hair out of his face.

“Hey, guys. I hope you’re having a good time,” Evan begins with a smile. “Jamaica is beautiful. I’ve been a few times-”

“Shut up,” Scarlett demands, pulling the phone around to face her again but this time she holds it closer to her face.

“Scarlett, you’re insane,” Wren says, laughing. I can’t help but laugh too at the fact that she seems so used to this. As if this is a completely normal Scarlett thing to do.

“Whatever. I need to get it back, like, now.” She pulls the phone closer to her face so we can straight into her green eyes as she lowers her voice. “I’m having a crisis, Wren.”

“I’m sorry, Scar. I’m sure Kennedy can help you out. I’m coming home in a few days; can you hang on until then?” Wren asks, scrunching her nose up. Scarlett opens her mouth about to speak but Evan butts in.

“What’s the crisis?” Evan asks loudly. “I’ll help.”

“I would rather gauge my eyes out than ask you for help,” Scarlett replies with a disgusted glare, shuddering, before ending the call.