I was in seventh heaven on my way to practice on Monday. I wasn’t officially engaged to Kyle or anything, but I was in a good enough mood that I could have been. Kyle was willing to help me out with Tyler, to pretend to be my fiancé. I knew it didn’t mean anything for us, didn’t mean that we were together, but he had agreed. He was still the guy that would help me out when I needed him, the way he had been once upon a time. That had to count for something, right?

We’d spent the weekend together and nothing crazy had happened. Either Tyler hadn’t found me yet, or he had been busy. I was too weary to imagine he’d given up on me. He had been obsessed with me for far too long for me to believe it would be over so easily.

After Kyle left for work, I had driven back to the condo to catch Sara before she left for the office, too. I’d told her everything, and she’d been thrilled to hear that Kyle had agreed to pose as my husband-to-be.

“Does this mean you’re together?” Sara had asked.

I had shaken my head. “No, it means I’m getting away from Tyler while we figure out how to deal with him.”

Sara had been a little deflated at the news, but when I’d asked her about the police investigation, she told me they were supposed to get back to her. They hadn’t yet.

“I don’t think they’re going to do anything.” The police didn’t seem to care about my stalker, the fact that I felt harassed, or that my personal space had been invaded. But with Kyle at my side, maybe I could take care of it on my own.

I glanced down at the diamond ring twinkling on my finger. What was an engagement without a ring, Sara had asked? And she had been right. I had never worn rings, they’d always gotten in the way of the sports I played, but Sara had more jewelry than the Queen of Sheba. She had offered to let me use a diamond ring. When I had protested, saying that I could never take something that cost so much, she had waved it off.

“I don’t even remember where I got this,” she said.

So, I wore the diamond ring on my left ring finger, a sure sign that I was engaged. We were going all the way with this, which meant telling friends and colleagues when they asked. I had no idea how Tyler got his information, but he had to be listening or speaking to someone. Hopefully, this would throw him off.

When I arrived at training, I slipped the ring off my finger and put it away in my bag. I didn’t want to lose it, no matter how little Sara cared about it.

“What’s that?” Samantha asked, suspicious. She came closer, her eyes trained on the bag I was zipping up.

“A ring,” I said, blushing. At least I looked the part, with my cheeks flushing for no good reason.

“An engagement ring?” Samantha asked. This was where it started, I thought.

I nodded.

Samantha squealed. The other cheerleaders stopped chatting and looked in our direction. “I didn’t know you were even dating,” Samantha said. “Congratulations!” She gave me a hug.

The other girls stepped closer, curious.

“We were keeping our relationship a secret,” I said. “It’s complicated.” What an understatement.”

“You have to show us,” one of the other cheerleaders said. I blushed again but nodded, taking the ring out of the bag again. I slid it back onto my finger and held out my hand for the girls to fuss about. They took turns taking my hand and studying the ring.

“It’s beautiful,” Samantha said. “What’s his name?”

“Kyle,” I said.

Dina joined us. “What’s going on, ladies? Why aren’t we warming up yet?”

“Maya got engaged,” Samantha said, holding my hand up so Dina could see the ring. Dina’s eyes widened and she smiled, congratulating me as well.

“Is it the mystery man you said hi to last week?” Dina asked.

I nodded.

“I didn’t realize you were so close.”

I thought fast, “We had broken up the week before. He’d found me to win me back.” I held out my hand, looking at the ring again. “I guess it worked.” I grinned broadly. The girls erupted into chatter again until Dina called everyone to silence.

“As exciting as this is, ladies, we have to start warming up. If any of you tears a hamstring during the lifts, I’m not going to spare one ounce of sympathy.”

I put the ring back in the bag for safekeeping and we walked onto the field. They had bought the fake story. They had believed every word of it, soaking it up as the perfect love story, which it was supposed to be. But it was all a rouse, I reminded myself. Kyle and I were friends. Or something. We had slept together and I still had feelings for him; we had a whole history together. But we weren’t engaged, that was for sure.

I had to be careful not to get too caught up in the fantasy. Kyle and I were pretending to be engaged. I wore a ring. We were telling people when they asked. But if I fell for him the way I had when we’d been together, back in college, I could really get hurt. Because the chances were it wouldn’t work out. We hadn’t agreed on what we would do when Tyler finally left me alone, how we would deal with our engagement, but it wasn’t hard to guess. Naturally, we would stage a breakup and move on with our lives. What was the alternative? Being engaged for real and getting married?

The chance of that happening was slim. Kyle had broken up with me, after all. In all the years since then he hadn’t once called me to tell me he was sorry. Of course, I hadn’t expected it. When I dumped a guy I hardly phoned them to apologize for it. But it meant that Kyle wasn’t necessarily thinking about getting back together with me.

I had to keep that in mind. I had to keep telling myself that so I didn’t get too wrapped up in the dream.

We started training and Dina focused on fitness. It was hard enough work that I was able to forget about what was happening in my life for a while. It was another reason why I loved being active so much. It was therapeutic. It forced me to focus and let me forget when things were going wrong in my life, or there were questions I couldn’t answer.

Training had saved me when Kyle had first broken up with me. Otherwise, I would have stayed in bed all day, starving myself to death. Instead, it had gotten me out of bed every morning and I had eaten the right foods to stay healthy. I had made it through the breakup without losing too much weight or gaining any at all, without my fitness level dropping. I had thrown myself into my studies as well, and in no time at all, Kyle had become a distant memory.

When anything was hard for me to deal with, I trained it out of my system. That worked for me, and I would do it with this, too. I would train hard, eat right, stay fit and keep active so that if things went south between me and Kyle, I would survive again.

Did it mean I didn’t trust him? Not quite. I trusted that he wanted to look out for me. But he had broken my heart once before, and I wasn’t about to let him have that opportunity again, not if I could help it. Even if that meant I stayed on my guard.

I was the one, after all, that had asked him to be my fake fiancé. If anything went wrong, the heartache was on me, so I had to prevent that from happening.

When practice was over, I showered at the training center. When I left, I drove to the store and shopped for groceries, buying everything from meat and veggies to fruit and cereal. Kyle had a typical bachelor lifestyle. He barely ate at home and he had nothing in his fridge or pantry. I was surprised that he had a second bedroom at all, he seemed isolated. I couldn’t figure out what that was all about. In college he had been so social that I’d had to beg for alone time every now and then. Now, it didn’t seem like he had many friends at all.

And clearly, something had happened between him and Liam. Nothing made sense and he was so guarded it was impossible to ask him about it without feeling like I was prying.

No matter. I was on a mission to stock Kyle’s kitchen and have a home-cooked meal ready for him when he returned from work. I wasn’t trying to play the part of the little wife now that we were pretend-engaged, either. More like trying to do something to earn my keep. When I had offered to help pay the rent, Kyle had refused outright. He had a cleaning service that came in on Saturdays, which was as disruptive as it was convenient, and there was nothing else I could do around the house. I wanted to help somehow, so cooking and grocery shopping seemed like a good way to do it.

When I arrived at Kyle’s place, I unlocked the door with the key he’d had made for me. I hadn’t let having a key go to my head, either. It was for the sake of convenience, nothing more.

I carried the groceries inside, unpacked them and started cooking.

By the time Kyle walked through the door I had steamed vegetables and chicken curry ready with fluffy white rice and a fresh salad.

“What’s this?” Kyle asked, putting his briefcase on the coffee table.

“I made dinner,” I said.

“Wow, this is a surprise.” He looked impressed. “I haven’t come home to a cooked meal since I left for college.”

I smiled, pleased with myself. There was nothing more satisfying than feeding someone who was truly appreciative of it.

“The chicken is almost ready if you want to go change and wash up,” I said.

Kyle nodded, walking around the counter first to give me a kiss. It was a chaste kiss, only a peck on the lips, but my stomach did a little flip just the same. I watched Kyle walk to the bedroom and close the door before I took a deep breath and blew it out, slowly.

We were pretending, I reminded myself. We were only engaged for the sake of getting Tyler off my case. My cooking and Kyle commenting on a home cooked meal was because I lived here for now and I was trying to help. We were playing happy family, but it was all a game.

I only wished it didn’t feel so very real.