Just Go With It

Chapter 2

I bit the inside of my lip as I stared out at the living room. This wasn't the first time Nat and my mom had dangled Elijah's successful friends in front of me like a piece of cheese in front of a chunky mouse on a treadmill. It should've been a perk of my sister marrying a doctor, right? But it no longer seemed like it.

I don't know what was different about that night. I was used to the questions and the matchmaking attempts, from my mom and from my sisters, and even from my extended family. I couldn't tell you how many times I'd been roped into going on a blind date that turned out to be an ode to the disaster that was my love life.

There was the guy with the foot fetish, the one with the creepy doll collection, the artist who asked to "paint me like one of his French girls" five minutes into the date (he even brought an easel)... the list went on.

This topic of conversation was nothing new, but all of a sudden, I decided I'd had enough. But instead of letting out all of my pent up frustration and asking them to give me space to figure out my love life on my own—what I probably should have done—I went a different route.

I lied. I lied my ass off.

"I wasn't going to say anything because it's still so new, but... I'm actually seeing someone," I finally said, trying to keep my voice steady and believable.

That made Gabby pop up from her nook in the living room, her eyes lighting up with curiosity. "Wait, what? You are not. You would've told us already."

"I'm telling you now, aren't I?"

"Shut up," she said, throwing her tablet aside and rushing over to the island in the kitchen, where my mom and I were sitting. "You're lying."

"Is it that hard to believe I could be seeing someone?"

"Yes. No. I don't know. I just thought you told us everything."

"Well, I said it's new," I said, trying to keep my voice gentle. I wasn't sure how she'd managed to make me feel bad about not telling her about my fictitious boyfriend earlier, when he hadn't even existed a minute ago, but she had. "I just didn't want to say anything in case it didn't work out."

Gabby chewed on her lip, staring up at me with sparkling brown eyes. "So who is he? What's his name? Is he cute?" she asked, cutting my mom off from the question she was about to ask, no doubt along the same lines.

I hoped the panic I felt wasn't evident on my face. What was I doing? This was insane. I couldn't keep up a ruse like this. What was I supposed to do when they asked to see a picture of him, or meet him? I could only put that off for so long. Plus, they were my family. Why was I lying to them? Surely it would've been easier to just ask them to back off a little.

My mouth didn't seem to care about the torrent of concerns crashing around in my head. "His name is Logan," I said, as if I hadn't just decided this was a terrible idea, one I should immediately reconsider and rectify. "Logan West."

It was the first name that popped into my head, although I couldn't tell you why. The only Logan I knew was the one from 'Gilmore Girls.' I guess the two had a lot in common, namely that neither of them was real. As for where the West part came from, I had no idea. It just came to me.

"He sounds cute," my mom said, appearing intrigued and, dare I say it, impressed. Don't get me wrong; lying about my love life wasn't the only way to get her to look at me like that. Her main hobby was bragging about her three daughters: the nurse, the journalist, and the child prodigy. Meddling in my love life came second to that pride. "What does he look like? What does he do?"

"He's in business, and he's kind of... ridiculously good-looking," I said. If I was going to lie, might as well go big or go home, right? "Honestly, he's way out of my league and will probably come to his senses one of these days, but I'm enjoying the ride until then." Oh, God, that sounded dirty. Did it come across as dirty? Had I just sullied my child sister's ears?