Chapter 33: Charade

< Shirley >
"You guys aren't putting on a show, are you?" Dina crossed her arms and observed us from head to toe.
"Do you think so little of me, Dina?" Dylan feigned innocence. "Shirley is really my girlfriend. You can ask around and see how many times she comes here." He leaned closer to Dina and whispered discreetly, "She even stayed over last night."
What a liar. What a freaking liar Dylan was.
He twisted such an innocent and kind incident into such a dirty interpretation. I still tried to smile like I was blushing. However, I was furious at him. I wanted to break his arm that was holding my waist for using me.
Consequently, Dina was raging even more than me. Her nose was red with anger, and she seemed like she had been betrayed by her most trusted person. I felt bad for her. She sucked in a sharp breath and said, "Even though you say she is your girlfriend, she doesn't seem like it."
"That's because she is mad at me right now," Dylan replied naturally as if it were true. Hats off to him for already cooking up a story. "Dina, if you can excuse us for a moment, I was in the middle of melting her anger." With that, he took me to his bedroom and closed the door.
He instantly let go of my waist as if his hands were allergic to me, offending and angering me even more.
"What were you thinking?" I let out in a hushed voice. "You can't just go off telling people that I'm your girlfriend."
Dylan huffed. "Do you think I want to do this? I just want to get rid of that annoying dinosaur out of my life," he admitted.
"Then do it on your own. Why drag me?" I raised my voice.
"For two months, I have been trying my best to get that leach out of my life. I can't even kill her because I don't want to risk making enmity with her father's gang. My life has been hell since then. To add fuel to the fire, she came along as well. Just how annoying can my shitty life get?" Dylan spat out in frustration.
I heaved a sigh. He really seemed stressed about it. If her father was in the Mafia, she could actually force Dylan to marry her. I wouldn't want such an annoying wife for my mentor, so I said, "Would pretending to be your girlfriend help your situation?"
Dylan nodded.
"What will you give me in return?"
"Would money work, rich girl?" I shook my head with a glaring smile. "I will give you fewer tasks tomorrow," he stated blankly.
"Perfect. From now till the end of the day, I'm your girlfriend," I declared.
"Thanks," he said and took a step towards me. "We need to make our act believable. Let's start with your lipstick."
"Wha—" I paused when his thumb grazed my lips. My breath got caught in my throat. His thumb rubbed my bottom lip, his eyes focused on them intently. "Wh-what are you do-doing?"
"Smudging your lipstick," he responded. Once he was done, he ruffled my hair a bit and stepped back. He rubbed his thumb that now was cherry due to my lipstick on his own lips, making it seem like we just shared a passionate kiss. He went to stand in front of his dressing table and let out, "Perfect."
I touched my own lips, still feeling the touch of his thumb on it. He had no idea what his meaningless actions were doing to me.
"Let's go now." Dylan opened the door of his room and walked out.
I ran after him and clutched his hands. "Let's try to act a bit romantic."
He eyed our entwined hands before pulling away from his hand and raised an eyebrow. "And this is supposed to be romantic?"
"Holding hands is a sign of a happy couple," I tried to explain. "It's not like I'm dying to hold your hand," I added with an eye roll.
"But I think," he said and placed his hand on my waist, pulling me closer, "This is more intimate."
Even though a shiver ran down my spine, I slapped away his hand. "You do know you are sexually harassing me right now, right?"
"Oops, sorry," he let out and grabbed my hand abruptly. "Let's go with holding hands then." I was startled for a few seconds as I stared at our adjoined hands. However, I got a warm feeling when he interlocked our fingers as well. "This should look more convincing," he said, and I nodded shyly.
Our hands fitted with each other's so perfectly, as if they were made for each other. They said me and him were a perfect match. But I knew it in my heart that we weren't meant to be. Dylan and I could never be a perfect match because we both were so full of flaws.
But for now, I was just liking the feeling of this. However, something was missing. There was a big flaw in our show. I was scrutinizing him while making our way down.
"Your smile!" I exclaimed once I realized what was missing.
"What?" He looked at me with a bored look.
"You need to smile and look happy," I said.
"I will do that in front of Dina." He frowned.
"No, I want a genuine smile," I demanded. I didn't want him to put up a fake smile for the whole day. I wanted a real, beautiful one.
"Now how do you smile a genuine smile?" He scowled at me. I slapped my hand on my forehead.
"Try thinking of something in your life that makes you happy," I told him.
Dylan made a thoughtful face before sighing in disappointment. "There's nothing happy in my life."
"What? No way," I let out in disbelief. How could a person not have anything good in his life? "Okay, then think of something that could make you happy in the future. Think of it as accomplished already."
Dylan thought for a while. "I guess there's something that would make me happy. If I can kill y—" he brushed off whatever he was about to say, "Just someone particular."
"Then imagine that person is dead for today," I beamed at him.
He pursed his lips, his eyes blinking rapidly in doubt. After a moment, a smile curved on his lips. "It does feel nice to have that person dead."
I couldn't help but feel ecstatic as I managed to give him a fleeting moment of happiness. A genuine smile.
After that we went down, smiling. However, that didn't last long as we reached downstairs and Dina separated us by pulling Dylan to her, not before snorting at our hands.
"Dylie baby, you have got dirt on your lips," Dina exclaimed and took out a tissue from her purse to wipe the lipstick that he worked so hard to make. At least she saw it and did get jealous.
Even so, did this woman realize that she was touching his lips in front of his girlfriend? Yes, I was pretending to be his girlfriend. But from her perspective, I was still his girlfriend. How shameless.
Since I was acting, I might as well give it my all, so I said, "Please can you not get so close to my boyfriend?"
"What is this bitch saying?" Dina spat out.
"I would have you mind your language when you speak to Shirley," Dylan warned alarmingly, which made Dina step away from him.
"You have really changed," she mumbled and turned her gaze at me, her eyes brimming with tears. "She can't be your girlfriend. I'm sure of it."
"How can you say so?" Dylan inquired and scooted closer to me.
"Just my gut feelings," Dina responded. "I would like to test you two to convince myself. Or else, I won't be able to move on."
"How will you test us?" I questioned.
Dina clicked her lips and let out, "I would like to listen to your love story. How did you guys fall in love?"
I looked at Dylan, and he looked at me. Both of our eyes were screaming, 'We are doomed!'. It seemed there was more than one flaw in our plan to get rid of her.
"Ah, I just remembered. I need to make an important call," Dylan let out. My eyes widened due to his betrayal. I stomped his foot, which went unnoticed by Dina, still, he said, "I will be in my study with Riley." With that, he escaped the scene with Riley.
That fucking snitch.
"Shilly, is it?" Dina purposely said.
"Shirley." I flashed her a tight-lipped smile and sat on the couch with her.
"I don't care either way. Just tell me about you and Dylan's love story." She crossed her legs and looked at me with a sharp look, ready to detect any lies through my face.
This was going to be an annoying chat.
I told Dina everything from the start. Just fabricating our arguments into romantic moments. Turning our mutual hatred for each other into mutual love. From being at each other's throats to in each other's arms.
"That is all," I concluded my fake love story with Dylan.
"I still don't get it. Why did Dylie baby even like you in the first place?" Dina put her index finger on her cheek and started thinking. She believed almost everything I said, she just couldn't fathom her Dylie baby falling for me.
"That's not my place to answer. You would have to ask him yourself." She hummed. Dina wasn't that bad of a person, except when she is around Dylan. She listened to my made-up story with interest, as if she was a lie detector.
"Why don't you call him?" She asked.
As if he would ever receive my phone call.
"Sure." There was no harm in trying though. I picked up my cell phone from the coffee table and dialed his number.
It felt forever till his voice rang out from the other side.
"What?" Dylan sounded busy as he was skimming through some papers.
"Baby, are you done with the important call?" I sweetened my voice as much as it would let me.
"Please never talk to me in that voice when we are done with this charade," he replied, trying to hold back his urge to laugh. Damn, I wanted to see him right now.
"Great then. Come down soon, okay?" I said as Dina was watching me like a hawk.
"But babe, I have so much work to do," he whined in the same sweet tone as me.
I ended up snorting at his attempt, earning a suspicious look from Dina. Maintaining a smile on my face, I lowered my voice, "You come down right now, or I will kiss you right in front of Dina."
The sound of the flipping papers stopped for a brief moment until his late reply came, "I, uh, I'm never going down then."
"Oh, great, come down soon. I'm waiting." With that, I hung up on him. Now he had to come one way or the other. "He's so stubborn," I said to Dina in a teasing tone.
"Yes, of course." Dina flashed me a tight-lipped smile and sipped her chocolate shake.
Within a minute, Dylan came here and plopped down beside me, snatching the piece of popcorn from my hand. "Why did you call me?" he asked, chewing on the popcorn he took from me.
I threw him a scornful look and ate the new piece of popcorn that he took from the bowl directly from his hand.
"How petty," he murmured, giving me a sideways glare.
I was about to retort but stopped when Dina cleared her throat to grab our attention. "Dylie baby, I called you here to ask something." Dylan nodded his head, motioning her to continue. "What do you like about Shirley?"
Dylan stopped chewing on the popcorn and gulped it. He let out a nervous chuckle. "I, uh, I like everything about her," he said, and I resisted my urge to roll my eyes.
"Be more specific," Dina urged.
Dylan scanned me from head to toe, trying to find something likable. "She has really pretty eyes. She has a beautiful face. She has a great fashion sense. She…" he trailed off as he had run out of all my noteworthy physical features that he liked. I would be lying if I said that his words didn't sting me. Those weren't the things one should like about their girlfriend. "Ah, right, she is good in bed."
I elbowed him on the abdomen and let out a series of hushed curses.
"What did I say so wrong?" Dylan scoffed.
"You don't say such things in front of other people." I refrained from saying 'people who like you' in front of Dina. "Be more considerate," I rebuked.
"I'm half-convinced, you guys," Dina spoke up and we turned our attention to her. "However, I can't stop getting the vibe that you guys are putting on a charade."
I and Dylan tried not to let out any reaction to that.
"Why don't you two go on a date? I will observe you then." With that, she finally dropped the bomb.
A date? Between me and Dylan? It would be like world war three. Not to mention it would totally not look romantic to anyone.