The Photoshoot

Chapter 30: Practice

"What do you say when you first greet my parents?" I ask, as I hang upside down on his bed. With his back laid against the wall across the room, he contemplates long and hard on my question

I've been spending the last past days tutoring him on what to say exactly to my parents. What to wear. What to not say. How to achieve perfection in their eyes.

"Good evening, Mr. Esalva, then I shake his hand," Nash practices by extending his hand and shaking the air as if a ghost was right in front of him.

"Then I turn to your mom and say how lovely she looks that you inherited her good looks." he stops and takes a moment to realize how he aced that question.

"Good job babe," I grin. "Do I get a kiss in return?" he smirks and raises his eyebrows. "Nope," I return with a shake of my head.

"What do you talk about over dinner?" I ask. "Um.. I don't know?" he scrunches his lips together and flits his eyes around the room. "Make a joke, talk about your family. Embarrass yourself but don't make it look like you're too weird because my parents- oh," I sigh. I sound so idiotic.

"I'm sorry for all this pressure and annoying stuff," I burry my face in my hands. Why do parents always have to be so hard? Why can't they approve of Nash? He's an amazing guy. Its not like I'm dating a druggie. I'm pushing so much pressure onto him, and I actually like him. My family will scare him away.

"Hey... Hey babe, its okay," he stands up and plumps onto his bed. With my face still buried in my hands, I giggle at his little remark. I just think he's so adorable.

"What why-" he questions with a confused tone in his voice. But then he tickles me, and we burst out laughing.

You see this is what I love. No I don't "love" Nash, since it's too early to even say anything. But, a boyfriend who's, kindhearted, playful, fun, knows how to treat girl and impress her, is my ideal image.

Yeah sure, we might come from two different cultures, but he treats me all too nice.

After minutes of horseplay, we finally get back to tutoring. Five minutes later, we ditch the tutoring session and jam out to remixes of popular songs.

Listening to music leads to eating ice cream together, which then leads to watching movies and cuddling.

"You're cute," he grins, and taps my nose. Automatically I feel my face flush bright pink. "You're cute," I giggle.

Then I feel a lump in my throat, a multitude of butterflies dance in my stomach, and now I feel like I'm the cheesiest girlfriend ever.

Oh gosh. Don't get attached. Don't get comfortable. Don't. don't. I repeat. don't. don't. don't.

Lisa. Lisa. Stop

I cringe as he unexpectedly kisses my cheek, but I play it off. I pretend to fake sneeze. "Oh, sorry!' I exclaim and Nash's facial expression translates utter confusion. I turn away.

I don't know if I should let my guard down. I shouldn't. Not until 3 months. 3 months. Its already been 1 month. 2 more months and I'll let my guard down.

What am I kidding is  3 months long enough?

That's the unwritten rule, right? Or is it 5 months?  Whenever I feel it. No, I can't because you can never know trust a girl's "feelings".

I could be blinded by pure bliss, and not even be aware. I could be overthinking everything. I could be wrong.

I snap back into reality, to realize I had such a deep thinking session about Nash.