Page 82 of Faking it For Summer

“Did you want to practice?”

“Practice what?” she asks, blinking rapidly.

“I don’t know … how we sort of fit together. You know, in case we’re around people, and they’re looking and?—”

“I guess we can practice.” She nods. “How?”

“Well, why don’t you lie flat on your back?” I tell her.

“Huh?” She looks at me with a frown. “What do you mean? Explain”

“Lie flat on your back, and I’ll lie flat on my back. It’s a test. I want to see how you curl into me, how I curl into you. It has to be natural, right?” I ask her. “If you’re naturally able to curl into me and touch me without feeling self-conscious, then that’s the first step in making it seem real.”

“Oh, I guess,” she says. “You should do the same thing too.”

“Well, we’ll both practice then. You first.”

She unfolds her legs and lies flat on her back. I lie flat next to her and stretch my arms out.

“Now roll into me like we’re really together.”

“Okay.” She shifts next to me.

She places her hand lightly on my chest and her head in the crook of my arm.

“Really, Mia?”

“What?”

“If I were your boyfriend and we were madly in love, you’d be this far away from me?”

“I’m touching you.”

“Your head is in the crook of my arm, and your hand is on my chest, and that’s it.”

“Yeah, and that’s how we normally snuggle. What’s wrong with that?”

“If you were my girlfriend and we were in love, do you really think that’s how you’d be touching me?”

“I guess not.” She shifts awkwardly. “Well, what should I do?”

“What would you do if I were your boyfriend for real?”

She thinks for a second. My heart flutters while I wait to see what she’ll do next. She shifts over a little closer and lifts her right leg. She places it over mine and moves closer to me. Her head is now on my chest, and her hand is cradling the side of my face. Her breasts are crushed into me, and she looks up at me with a dimple in her smile.

“Is this better?”

“Now this is something I could believe.” I reach down and stroke her leg. She gasps and shivers at my touch. “You see, you can’t act like that. You can’t recoil every time I touch you.”

“I don’t recoil every time you touch me. I just?—”

“It’s not natural yet, right?” I say.

“Yeah, I guess I’m not used to those familiar touches.”

“Well, we’ve got to make sure that you don’t recoil like that every time I touch youintimately.”

“That’s something I guess we need to practice, huh?”