Chapter 9

Cami

I’d just made a deal with the devil. Before things went too far, I needed to let my friends know what was going on. Eventually, one of them would hear about the XanandCam Hashtag. We should have talked about how to tell our friends before I left Xander’s place. There was a lot we still hadn’t discussed. A thought occurred to me. I needed to clarify that it wasn’t okay for him to fool around. Fake relationship or not, I didn’t want to be cheated on.

Cami: You can’t sleep with groupies while you’re pretending to be my boyfriend.

Cami: Sorry, that came out sounding kind of bitchy. Mitch will never leave me alone if he thinks you’re cheating on me.

Xander: Don’t worry. I’m not going to mess around with any groupies. I’m going to be the perfect boyfriend. So perfect, you’ll wonder how you ever lived without me.

Cami: And since we’re only pretending, I don’t have to be the perfect girlfriend.

Xander: Nope. Be yourself, babe. I like you just the way you are.

Cami: I’m going to call Bentley to tell her what’s going on. How should we tell everyone else? Should we divide up our list?

Xander: I already sent a group text, but you should still call Bentley. I’m heading to practice now, snookums.

Cami: Snookums? That is a definite no.

Xander: Fine, I’ll come up with something better.

It seemed Xander had thought about the need to let our friends in on our plan before I had. That made it easier for me, even though I was sure Bentley would be annoyed that she hadn’t heard it from me first.

Bentley answered on the second ring. “What the hell, Cami?”

“How much did Xander tell you?” I figured it would be easier to find out what she already knew before I started my explanation.

“Xander sent us a group text that reads, I’m pretending to be Cami’s guy. Don’t fuck with her about it. I was going to give you another five minutes to call me with an explanation before I called you.”

“That’s not much of an explanation,” I replied. “I guess it included the most important detail.”

“Why are you and Xander pretending you’re dating?” she asked. “Whose idea was it?”

I gave her a brief rundown of my morning and the events that led to me asking Xander to act as my boyfriend. “This may be the most juvenile thing I’ve ever done.”

“I can see why you feel like you have no choice,” Bentley assured me. “Are you sure Mitch isn’t dangerous? Normal people don’t act this way.”

“Mitch is definitely acting weird, but I don’t think he’s dangerous. I think he’s figured out how little I like confrontation, and he thinks he can use that against me.”

“What a jerk,” she muttered. “Back to Xander. What’s going through your mind?”

“I am worried dating Xander will be a problem with some families at my practice,” I admitted. There had already been rumors about us, and everyone seemed fine with them. Of course, that was when I’d been able to assure the families there was no substance to the rumors. “What have I done?”

“There’s still time to put a stop to all of this,” Bentley pointed out.

“I’m sure Xander’s already commented about it online,” I replied. “Besides, this also gives me the chance to live out my fantasy of being a rock star’s girlfriend. I’ve always felt a little like you were living my fantasy. I’m the one who dreamed of dating a member of Reckless Release, and you ended up engaged to Gage.”

“You could still date Xander for real,” she told me.

I laughed at her suggestion. “Despite what you seem to think, I don’t see Xan that way.”

“Are you honestly going to tell me you don’t find Xander attractive?” she asked.

“Of course, I think he’s hot,” I admitted. “All the guys in Reckless Release are hot, but that doesn’t mean I want to date them. You know I’m just friends with Xander.”

There was a pause on the other end of the line before Bentley responded. “I think there’s more between you and Xander than either of you are willing to admit to, but I also think it’s best if you just stay friends, for now at least.”

I decided to avoid arguing more about my feelings for Xander. “Do you think I’m crazy for doing this?”

“A little,” she replied. “At the same time, I understand why you’re doing it. Just don’t hurt Xander.”

She’d surprised me. “Why are you worried I’m going to hurt Xander? The worst part for him will be staying away from groupies while we pretend we’re dating.”

She said nothing, just waited.

Finally, I gave in and admitted the thing I tried so hard to deny. “Fine, I know he likes me as more than a friend, but it’s mostly because I’m a challenge. That and he gets more opportunities to flirt with me. Xander is going to see I’m not the right woman for him. I’m going to be myself since this isn’t a real relationship.”

“Crocs and all?” she asked.

“I do not wear Crocs,” I argued. “There was that one time, but you promised never to bring that up again.”

“One time?” A snort of laughter accompanied her question. “You wore them for several months in college.”

“I was young,” I argued. “You can’t hold every dumb thing I did in college against me.”

In my defense, a boyfriend had bought me the Crocs because his sister was a nurse who swore by them. I’d started wearing them to make him happy, not willing to tell him I didn’t like them.

“Thank God, you’re over that phase,” she replied. “I’d better let you go so I can handle some paperwork and call Madi to discuss your fake relationship with Xander.”

“How do you think she’ll react?” I was a little nervous about her reaction. Madi was the business manager for Reckless Release, and she didn’t like surprises. She was fond of the members. Bentley worked with Madi, handling several details, mostly related to scheduling. Madi could be a little scary when things didn’t go her way. Granted, I’d only met her three times, but on all three occasions, she’d been irritated about some detail relating to the band.

“She’ll be fine with it,” Bentley assured me. She might have been lying, but I wasn’t going to push her. “I’ll talk to you later. Are you going to waffle night later since you’re Xander’s girlfriend now?”

“There will be no more waffle nights,” I announced. “That’s the best part of this deal. I’m going to teach Xander how to make waffles.”

“Then I’m completely in favor of this deal,” Bentley told me. “I’ve put on ten pounds from eating out so often.”

“I think everyone will be happy about the end of waffle days,” I said with a laugh.