As expected, the pictures from your date were circling through the tabloids again. They even managed to take some photos of the two of you inside the restaurant. But the picture you liked the most was of you looking at Tom with the biggest smile and him returning one just as big, your hands intertwined. You couldn't deny it, you guys looked cute together. You saved the picture to your phone, edited it a bit (just a little colour correction) and set it as your lock screen. That's what real couples do, right?
You and Tom were going to your parent's house for dinner tonight and you'd rather be safe than sorry.
It had been relatively easy to find a date where everyone was available to have dinner. Secretly, you had hoped that it wouldn't work out. But apparently Tom wasn't as busy as usual this week and your parents always made an effort to have dinner together anyway. Kate and her fiancé Daniel would be there, too. So you had to play your part well.
You were picking up Tom this time, you didn't want him to be the one driving you around the whole time. You couldn't sit around in your flat any longer so you drove to Tom's place earlier than you needed. So now you were standing in front of Tom's flat waiting for him to open the door. When he did, you were immediately greeted by Tessa, Tom's staffy.
"Can I pet her?" You asked Tom crouching down before looking up at him. He seemed to be freshly showered, his hair still wet, a few strands falling in his face. He was wearing a black shirt and black jeans, as usual. His arm was leaning against the doorframe. He looked so good you had to tear your eyes away from him, looking back at the dog in front of you.
"Of course, just let her smell your hand first." You do as Tom told you and then petted her head making her walk towards you, her head rubbing against your thigh. "She likes you." Tom smiles "You wanna come in?"
You took a moment to answer still caressing Tessa's fur. "Yeah, sure." You stood up from your crouched position on the floor and entered Tom's flat. The living room was spacious and he didn't seem to care much about decorating. The only thing hanging on the wall beside a tv was an Avengers poster. You sat down on the sofa and Tessa immediately joined you making Tom let out a laugh.
"Well, seems like she likes you more than me now." Tom sits down next to you, his arm on the back of the sofa, and suddenly you were very aware of his presence.
You took your phone out of your pocket to show Tom your lock screen. "I saw the pictures today and since we don't have any cute couple selfies I figured I'd use one of those." You laugh while Tom looks at your phone screen.
"Why don't we take some selfies now?" He proposes and moves a little closer to you.
"Only if Tessa's in the picture as well." You try to hide the blush on your checks as you pet the staffy again. Tom laughs and pats the spot between you and him so Tessa hops over your lap.
"I wouldn't have it any other way." He smiles at you and you hand him your phone because his arms were longer and you didn't want to sport a double chin on a selfie with Tom. While Tom was holding your phone with his right hand, his left arm pulled you closer, resting around your waist his hand on your hip. You leaned your body against him while Tessa looked between the two of you. Tom took some selfies where you were just smiling at the camera before moving his face closer to yours, placing a kiss on your cheek. You were surprised but your smile only widened. When you moved your face to look at him, his face was still so close your nose was almost touching his.
If this had been just a normal date or if Tom had been just a normal guy you would've kissed him. But this was fake. You were taking these picture to convince your parents that you were dating when in reality you weren't. He didn't give you that kiss on the cheek because he likes you, he did it for the photo.
You were so consumed with your thoughts that you hadn't even noticed that Tom's eyes were flickering between your eyes and your lips. His arms had been lowered after taking one last picture of the two of you staring at each other. You cleared your throat and moved away a bit your eyes finding Tessa again. "Any good ones?" You asked nodding towards your phone in Tom's hand.
"Uh, yeah... Of course, Tessa is in them." He chuckled and flicked through the photos. "Is it okay if I send them to myself?" You told him that it's fine so he went to your messaging app and sent himself all of the pictures he had just taken. As he handed the phone back to you the sound of the front door opening caught your attention. A blond guy entered the flat and Tom sat up a bit.
"Haz, mate, you're home early." Tom almost sounded accusing and you had to suppress a smile.
"I didn't know you had a visitor." Harrison smirked at Tom with a raised eyebrow.
"Yeah... this is Y/N." Tom introduced you and at the mention of your name Harrison's eyes widened.
"Oh, hi Y/N. I've heard a lot about you." He shook your hand and you didn't know how to react. Did he know that you and Tom were just faking it or did you have to pretend in front of him as well?
"He knows." Tom mentions as if he had read your mind. Relieved, you let out a breath.
"Thank god!" You laughed. You were not ready to start acting right now. You knew you had to eventually, but you still had a bit of time to prepare.
"Nervous? Tom told me he's meeting your parents today." Harrison asked and you nodded.
"Yeah, unlike other people," you looked at Tom "I'm not a professional actor, so I'm afraid I'll blow it the second I enter my parent's house." You shrugged your shoulders and Tom rubbed your back in reassurance.
"Don't worry, as you said when we first met, just pretend you're into me." Tom smirked and you rolled your eyes. That would be easy, not a lot of pretending necessary.
Half an hour later you and Tom were waiting for your parents to open the door. Tom held your hand in his and gave it a reassuring squeeze. You sent him a smile and when the door opened, your mum's eyes were practically sparkling she was so excited.
"Tom!" she exclaimed "It's so nice to meet you. Come on in. I'm Y/N's mum. You can call me Mum too if you want." and with that, she crushed Tom in a hug. Tom was taken aback at the number of words that left your mother's mouth and her enthusiasm but he smirked amused greeting her as well. You could only roll your eyes at her behaviour.
"Hi, Mum." You gave her a hug and she ushered the two of you inside where your dad was already waiting. He wasn't as thrilled as your mother but he greeted Tom in a friendly manner. As long as his daughters were happy with their partners he was happy as well. No need to be the overprotective father, not yet anyway.
Kate and Daniel were sitting on the couch in the living room as you entered and you could tell that Kate was super excited to meet Tom, she was basically bouncing up and down before she jumped up from the couch with almost as much enthusiasm as your mother when greeting Tom.
"Hi, Tom. I'm Kate Y/N's sister." She shook his hand vigorously. "Such a pleasure to meet you. And I'm not saying that because you're-... well you. But because I'm so excited to meet Y/N boyfriend! Who would've thought." Tom just nodded along. He didn't want to show it but he was a bit overwhelmed by your family. He never would've thought that it would be so nerve-wracking to meet your fakegirlfriend's family. But it sure as hell was. "I'm so excited for you guys to come to our wedding and-" She was interrupted by Daniel.
"Kate, love, why don't you let the two of them sit down." He put his hands on Kate's arms and she stopped talking and took a breath letting go of Tom's hand that she was still shaking. You don't know how he did it but Daniel always managed to calm your sister down.
"Oh, of course. Sorry." She stepped away from Tom a bit, realising how close she had gotten in her excitement.
"I'm Daniel." Daniel reached out his hand for Tom to shake. You smiled at Daniel thankfully as he greeted Tom.
After the initial introductions were over you sat down at the dinner table where your mum had already prepared everything. The dinner itself was pretty relaxed and both your mum and sister managed to keep their questions at a minimum. But you knew that as soon as all the dirty dishes were in the dishwasher the interrogation would begin. It had been the same when Kate brought Daniel home for the first time or any of her previous boyfriends.
Tom had moved his chair back a bit, his right arm placed on the backrest of your chair, the ankle of his right leg casually resting on the knee of his left while his free hand was playing with a napkin on the table.
Your mum was currently questioning him about what it was like to be a celebrity and you weren't sure if you should be embarrassed. You were sure that Tom got these questions all the time he was probably so bored of answering them.
"It's great most of the time. You do get a lot of amazing opportunities and get to see a lot of great places but sometimes it gets a bit much." He looked at you for a moment. "I like to keep my private life just that, private, but as we all have seen I don't succeed all the time." He chuckled lightly. "I really would've liked to keep Y/N out of the tabloids. It's not pretty what happens when they get their hands on someone. Some fans can get a little crazy, too. I don't want that to affect her. Or us." He looked at you with such warmth in his eyes that it took your breath away and you couldn't deny the fluttery feeling in your stomach.
He was good.
Your mum sighed and your sister was holding her hand against her chest. They were both touched by Tom's words. And you would be lying if you said you weren't.
"But we can't change that now, can we?" He shrugged his shoulders.
"No, we can't. And who knows, maybe we wouldn't even know you guys were dating because Y/N didn't tell us anything before we saw those pictures." Kate looked at you accusingly.
"Hey, I told you I was going on a date, didn't I? I was going to ease you into it. You know you would've had a heart attack if I had just shown up with Tom, telling you that he's my boyfriend." You took a deep breath shaking your head, a humourless laugh leaving your lips. "And have you thought about the fact that I maybe wanted to keep him to myself a bit? You two are always all over anybody that just shows the slightest interest in me. Even if it's just a damn stranger on the street!" You were getting agitated and Tom could feel it, hr moved the hand that was resting on your backrest down to hold yours. You calmed down almost immediately. It was similar to the time he held your hand in the restaurant.
"I'm sorry, sweetheart. I didn't know it was bothering you so much." Your mum looked at you with a guilty expression. You took another deep breath.
"It's okay, mum. I'm sorry I snapped like that." Your mum sent you a warm smile and reached for your hand.
"But that's all in the past. You've got Tom now." And just like that, the sparkle was back in your mother's eyes.
You excused yourself to the bathroom just to get a break from the situation. When you got back Tom was in an extensive conversation about golf with your father and Daniel.
You stepped behind Tom's chair resting your hands on his shoulders while he was listening to a story about your dad's last trip to the golf course. Without taking his eyes off your father, Tom reached for your wrists and pulled your hands down so you were now hugging him, your face next to his.
"Are you ready to go?" You whispered not wanting to interrupt your father.
"Yeah, I'll just finish my beer and then we can go." Tom's eyes moved over your face and you realised that he was looking at your mouth before looking back into your eyes questioningly.
"Okay." Your voice was so low that no one could hear you but if they did it sounded like you were answering to Tom's statement. Only a second later his lips were on yours in a simple peck. You didn't even have time to close your eyes fully before the kiss was over. One corner of Tom's mouth lifted into a smile and you gave him another peck before sitting down in your chair again. You tried to blame the feeling you got from that kiss on the fact that you hadn't kissed anyone in a long time, but deep down you knew that it was because of Tom.
You shoved that thought down as far as possible, you couldn't be thinking about Tom in that way.