A Little Bit Older

I had never been a good liar. One of two things always happened before I could successfully conduct a lie: I got caught or I felt so guilty that I confessed. The worst part about being caught in the lie is mostly the humiliation and the inevitable guilt than subsequently follows. Turns out though that confessing to a lie is not only more humiliating but also a bit heart-wrenching. I had told Meghan everything from start to finish. There had been tears, there had been apologies, and more than anything else there had been a lot of guilt. In short, the moral was that I had conscious that was too heavy for me to ever believe I could’ve effectively held a fake relationship.

Finally, Meghan had convinced me that we needed to get the other girls in on the story as well. The best way to go about fixing the problem – in her opinion – was to make it so that there wasn’t anything fake about our relationship. If the relationship yielded itself into a real relationship than there would be no need to worry about anything. The problem with that though was convincing Matt that a real relationship was a good idea and convincing myself that I was ready for a real relationship.

“Well, Ruby already gets along well with the kids, so that’s a plus.” Val murmured as she and Michelle went over various pros and cons of me and Matt dating. The idea being that if there were no cons, then Matt would naturally see our relationship as being real without any effort.

“Con: being in a relationship.” I piped from my seat on the floor.

“You can’t keep saying that over and over again.” Michelle retorted and I shrugged. I had probably repeated that point at least eight times in the past twenty minutes.

“But she’s right. That’s the biggest thing working against her.” Lacey added walking back into the living room from the kitchen carrying a tray of drinks.

The five of us had gathered at my house because we figured it’d be the only place we could all plot without any of the guys catching on. It had been unanimously agreed upon that they weren’t allowed to have any idea what we were up to because they would tell Matt and that would ruin all our progress.

“So we need to convince Matt that he wants to be in a relationship.” Meghan responded with a noncommittal shrug. She made it sound so easy. I rolled my eyes and tried not to look too doubtful.

“How?” I tossed out and the question lingered in the air for a few minutes as we all contemplated it. That was the biggest question of this whole affair. If we could convince Matt that he was ready to date again – and he basically was given that he and I were already dating, for lack of better term – then, the result would be super easy to achieve.

“Hook him up with another girl who’s super gross?” Lacey suggested.

“Have Ruby date another guy?” Michelle tossed this idea out.

“Take Ruby away from him?” This time it was Val.

“If he’s not ready to date, he won’t go for another girl. Ruby is literally the worst at dating. And what do you mean take her away?” Meghan responded to all of them quickly and I picked at my nails trying to think of something.

“I mean, think about it, they’re basically already dating.” Val started before glancing at me for affirmation. I nodded with a slight shrug. “So basically, you need to make him reliant on you. Have him expect to have you around and then take it away.”

“But where do I go?” I asked somewhat confused.

“Not like physically away, but like not always available. That’s the thing about Matt,” she started to explain, “He loves having someone around. If he starts to rely on you to be that person and then you’re not there, he’ll start to miss you and then he’ll pursue you more.”

“Why do I feel like you’ve done this before?” Meghan asked cocking her head slightly and giving Val a coy smile.

“He’s predictable.” Val shrugged and I smiled at the idea.

“But!” Michelle added abruptly, “You need to make him like you more than as a friend. Like he need to remember that you’re dead sexy.”

“And more than just a pretty face. You need to be desirable.” This time Lacey added her two cents.

“So I need to be beautiful and alluring and unobtainable.” I summarized and mentally scowled all their advice. It was literally like I was straight out of a bad rom com.

“Basically.” Meghan responded with a small shrug.

“I don’t have the time or energy to dedicate to this. You guys, this is hopeless.” I let my body fall backwards so that I was just lying on the floor.

“Unobtainable. Check.” Valary joked nudging my stomach with her foot.

“It’s not even that. I just literally have so much work. I can’t wrap my whole life around this. I have a career, you guys do remember that, right?”

“Desirable. Check.” Lacey said following Val’s lead and smirking at me from across the room. I raised my eyebrow at her questioningly. “Career woman are sexy,” she explained simply.

“See so now all you need to do is up your sex appeal.” Meghan laughed and smiled at me.

“And honestly, that’s the easiest part.” Michelle added. “Halloween is also like the easiest time to make guys drool over you.”

“What are you guys going as anyways?” Meghan asked.

“Jessica and Roger Rabbit.” I answered and Michelle cheered happily.

“That’ll make your life literally so easy!” She exclaimed with a joyous smile. “We can go shopping and get you all sexy and he won’t be able to keep his hands off you.”

“Except he’ll have the boys after the Halloween party.” Val added and Michelle glared slightly at her sister.

“Such a cockblock.”

“I’m not trying to get laid you guys. I’m trying to get a boyfriend.”

“Getting laid is the first step.” Michelle shrugged.

“She’s got a point.” Meghan added and I ran my hands over my face. “When was the last time you had sex?”

“We’re not having this conversation.” I answered and I felt my ears start to heat up. All the girls laughed and I realized I was kind of pitiful.

“It’ll be fine. You’ll be super sexy. The boys’ll be around so he’ll have to keep his distance. You two will be dating before you know it. Building anticipation.” Val said trying to calm my nerves about the whole arrangement.

“You’ve got all of us on your side, this’ll happen.” Lacey assured me.
I wasn’t quite sure what I’d signed up for but I was nervous about the whole situation. Dating was not my forte and I wasn’t sure if I was ready for this kind of commitment for something that might not even come to fruition.