Someone Like You

“So we pretend to fall in love,” Adam said.

“What?”

“It’s not so strange.”

“Pretend lovers. Those plots don’t work in books, let alone with two people who don’t know each other.”

“That’s what makes it perfect. We can spend the time getting to know each other. At least, that’s what we’ll tell them.”

“And how do we get out of this, when my mother starts making appointments for the church, the cake and asking me for the wedding gown design?”

“It won’t go that far. We’ll keep it up until Christmas. Then we’ll tell them it didn’t work out and we’ll be free of each other.”

Teddy stared at him. “Free of each other,” she repeated.

“I didn’t mean that the way it sounded. We’ll have satisfied our parents for the time being. Mine will usually not bother me for a year after a breakup.”

“And with the new year,” Teddy said. “They’ll be too busy to bother us for several more months. By then, maybe we can convince them that their meddling produced disastrous results and we’re in command of our own love lives.”

“Giving each of us time to find our own partners, if that’s our intention.”

Teddy shook her head, indicating that was not her intention.

“We’ll call it the Marriage Pact,” Adam suggested.

Teddy glanced up at him skeptically. “You know, you’re way too into this.”

He smiled, showing his even, white teeth.

“Shouldn’t it be the Pretend We’re Falling in Love Pact? After all there will be no wedding planning.”

“Too many words.” He frowned as if he was seriously considering it. “Are you in?”

“I’m not sure...” She hesitated. “I hate to deceive my mother.” She paused a moment. “Although...”

“Although what?”

“Although she’d deceived me a number of times.” Teddy remembered when her mother threatened to send out wedding invitations with “Groom: TBA” on them if Teddy didn’t find her own date.

“Well?” he prompted.

“I think we should think this through more. For example, we don’t know much about each other.”

“We’ll go on a few dates and come up with our story.”

“How are we going to handle the holidays? You said this would be over by Christmas. A lot of planning goes into the family holidays.”

“We’ll have everything in order,” he told her.

“All right,” she said on a sigh. “Conditions.” Teddy wasn’t convinced this would work, but she’d give it a try if it had the possibility of giving her a few free months from her mother’s relentless pestering.

“What conditions?”

“We go on these dates and we talk about the implications of this approach. We think this through.”

“Agreed,” he said.

Teddy believed he wasn’t really thinking it through. “I mean, with the same consideration you give to your investments, you give to this plan.”

He took a moment to consider it. Then he nodded and said, “Will do.”

“Here it is,” Mr. Restonson said.

Teddy turned. The gallery owner was a few feet behind her. She’d nearly forgotten about him in light of Adam’s plan. She wondered if he’d heard them.

Moving across the floor, Teddy met him in the middle of the room. “It’s huge,” she said when she saw him carrying a package longer than her arms. The painting had been wrapped and she couldn’t tell what the picture was, but she could see its size. No way could she take that on the train back to Princeton.

And her mother knew it.

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