The Replacement Girlfriend

Chapter 14

Cynically, Chase raised an eyebrow at his remark. “So I kissed her,” he said disdainfully. “What’s so wrong about that?”

Jace smiled patiently at his childhood friend. “Because she’s not your girlfriend Chase. You can’t just kiss a lady without permission.”

“She’s not my girlfriend?” He snorted, his eyes narrowing at Krislynn. “Why? What did she introduce herself as?”

Krislynn bit her lip and prayed she could disappear into thin air. God, today was just not working out for her! “Well your friend, of course!” Jace replied, chuckling softly and a bit nervously to the eccentricity of the question. “Why? You guys are friends, right?”

“Totally,” he said as he grabbed onto the sleeve of Krislynn’s shirt. “And if you’ll excuse us, we need to go to the washroom and tidy up.”

Throughout their walk to the washroom, the two of them managed to remain quiet and civilized, but as soon as the door closed behind them, Chase went ballistic. “Are you fucking serious?” He screamed, annoyed that she had such strong feelings for a man she hadn’t known for longer than an hour. “You told him we were just friends? Whatever happened to ‘hi, my name is Krislynn and I’m Chase’s new girlfriend’?”

Krislynn shrugged nonchalantly. Raise his voice he may, but like hell she would be scared of him. “You did order me not to tell people I’m your girlfriend,” she said resourcefully, “did you not?”

Stumped and unfortunately outwitted, Chase’s jaw hung open for a moment before clamping close. “Okay fine,” he said reluctantly. “But I know you like him. Don’t even try to lie to me.”

“Is it really that obvious?” She moaned.

Chase echoed her in response. “He’s engaged Krislynn! That’s off-limits!”

“That didn’t exactly stop you, now did it?”

“Don’t even go there,” he warned miserably. “I didn’t exactly let you into my life so you can complicate things even more. Just... don’t get too close to him.”

Krislynn smiled brightly up at him which proved at the very least, reassuring. “I won’t,” she said as she put a hand gently on his chest. “I may crush on him big time, but my loyalty is yours. You don’t have to worry about it. I promise.”

Unable to resist the upward tug on the corner of his lips, Chase slowly allowed a grin to spread across his face. “Weirdo,” he muttered as he plugged the sink and threw a hand towel inside. “Come here. Get up.”

A pair of blue eyes stared back at him wide and empty and when he realized Krislynn had no idea what he meant, he walked over, picked her up and hoisted her on top of the bathroom counter. The movement didn’t seem to enlighten her in the least and it was only when he raised a moist towel to her cheeks that she gave a response. “I can do it myself,” she muttered.

Chase looked at her apprehensively, with one eyebrow arched in skepticism, but nonetheless handed the towel to her before getting one for himself. “Are you sure you can do that sport?” He asked. “Don’t want you to hurt yourself.”

Her reply was less than enthusiastic. “Ha-ha,” she grunted before letting a short pause fill in the cracks of her sentence structure. “Hey Chase?” Again she paused, but this time waited for him to hum a quiet murmur of recognition before she continued. “Why did you kiss me earlier?”

His eyes flickered up to meet hers immediately and although his lips parted, nothing came out of his mouth. Krislynn couldn’t help but giggle at his lack of reaction. It was odd seeing him this way, and a part of her---a very small part of her---found it quite charming in a way.

“You know, you keep calling me ugly, but you actually think I’m really cute, don’t you?” Just to tease him, Krislynn puckered up and smacked her lips together. “Can’t resist these lips Chase? You want to kiss me again? Come on! You know you wanna.”

“Where are you getting that mouth from Piglet?” He laughed, playfully splashing a bit of water at her. “Are you getting that from me?”

“Well who the hell else talks like that?” She muttered before splashing him back. “And why do you keep calling me that vile nickname? I don’t like it!”

“I told you why---because you’re a pig.”

Crossing her arms in front of her, Krislynn contemplated this for a moment before she spoke. “Fine,” she agreed. “But then I get to call you whatever I want and I’m calling you Donkey.”

“Actually, I’m a sexy stallion,” he corrected with a lopsided smirk. “But if you must call me that, fine. I guess Eeyore is pretty cute too.”

Krislynn burst into horrific laughter immediately after he finished speaking. Pulling her legs up onto the counter, she rolled herself into a ball and continued cackling until her eyes watered. “What the hell?” He chuckled, softly jabbing her on the side of her ribs. “What’s so funny? Why are you laughing so hard?”

It took her another moment before she calmed down enough to speak, but eventually she let him in on the joke. “When I said donkey, I didn’t mean the one from Winnie the Pooh, Chase!” She giggled. “I meant donkey as in Donkey---the one from Shrek!”

Chase’s heart instantly sunk as he visualized and compared a mental picture of the two animated creatures in his head. There was absolutely no doubt that one was definitely better than the other and he happened not to be the better one. Snapping his mouth open to argue, he stopped before a single syllable slipped out of his mouth.

If he thought it through carefully, being Donkey may not be as bad as it sounds. Sure, Eeyore’s cute factor was definitely higher than Donkey’s, but the opposite should be true in Krislynn standards, right?

Deciding that he should really start worrying when she called him Eeyore instead, Chase shrugged and smiled up at her. “Fine,” he agreed. “You be my Piglet. I’ll be your Donkey.”