"Okay, I don't even know your name," Caleb said as they walked to his car. The two decided to hatch a plan over some ice cream and Caleb offered to drive.
"Oh," she laughed, "it's Karter."
"Do you realize how weird it is to randomly ask a guy out just to prove a point?"
Caleb threw his bag in the back of his convertible but Karter kept her's up front in the passenger seat.
"Yeeeaaahhh, kinda. But like, life's too short not to take stupid risks just to prove something to your friends. Besides, it got me a ride in this sweet convertible, didn't it?"
Caleb just laughed at the silly girl that sat next to him. During the ride they discussed the simple things that should be known about your partner. Karter discovered that Caleb had a five year old sister and they were the children of two people who were both professors at the nearby university. She learned that his love for basketball overrode his height, and he had been playing since he was 8.
Caleb found out that Karter had an older brother and a younger sister, with a mom who was obsessed with camping and a dad that was obsessed with astronomy: the perfect pair. Karter wasn't part of any sports team, despite her height, but her love for surfing and swimming gave her all the exercise she needed.
"Do you want to know my height?" Caleb asked as they pulled into the ice cream shop.
Karter just shook her head, "I feel like that kind of defeats the purpose, don't ya think? Like, what's the difference if it's a 7 cm or 6 cm gap? I think people who are especially hung up on height scrutinize every millimeter when in reality if the two people look good together, do the actual measurements matter?"
"Wow," Caleb watched in awe as Karter got out of the car, "that's really well put."
With a smile, Karter walked in with him.
The two ordered their ice cream, strawberry swirl for Karter and chocolate cookie dough for Caleb, and then sat at a table outside, under one of the brightly colored umbrellas.
"So how are you thinking we should go about this?" Caleb asked.
"Alright," Karter pulled out her phone and began reading off a list that she had created, "in everyone's mind, we're dating, which means that we'll need to fulfill some of the basic dating requirements: our friends have to know, our family has to know, and we need to go on at least one date. Plus some other random things, like driving to or from school together, me going to at least one of your games, walking to class, you know, 'dating' things."
With a raise of his eyebrows, Caleb ate his ice cream while contemplating this agreement. It was more than he had expected. "Let's cross off the driving to school thing cause I feel like that's a bit of overkill. Also, does our family really have to know? I know my parents will freak out and I'd rather avoid another one of those situations."
"No problem," Karter made adjustments to the list, "although I'm gonna tell my family because I think they would kill me if they found out I was dating someone and they didn't know."
Caleb shrugged, "understood."
"Aaaalsooo, I think to make this believable we're going to have to say that we've been dating for a couple weeks, you know, so it doesn't seem like I'm doing this just because of what Jessica said."
Caleb thought for a moment. He didn't really want to get too deep into the charade. Karter seemed nice and all, maybe a little weird, but he wasn't interested in making it into a large production.
"Okay," he decided, "but if I find someone I actually want to date, then we fake break up then and there."
"Ouch," Karter laughed, "but I understand. Same goes for me."
"So," Caleb held out his hand, "we doing this?"
A large dimpled smile spread on Karter's face and she shook his hand, "let's do it!"
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2/2/18