CHAPTER SIX
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"You want us to pretend to be Jake's kids?"
The dinner with Sophia had gone fairly well. Aside from teasing each other, Jake and Amy managed to keep up with the lies they told, and Sophia didn't suspect anything. The only problem were now the children, who would hopefully understand the situation. It was a weird conversation to have.
"It would only be for one afternoon," Jake explained to Alex and Ben, who were sitting in front of Jake and Amy, wearing matching confused expressions.
"Like when you used to play pretend," Amy said, shrugging. "But instead of being pirates or ninjas, you would be Jake's kids."
"That's lame," Alex grumbled, and sank on the couch with her arms crossed over her chest.
"Seriously," Jake whispered to Amy, "why does she hate me so much?"
Amy rolled her eyes. "That's just how she is."
"But why do we have to do that?" Ben asked, frowning.
"No reason," said Jake.
"Well, kids," Amy said with a smile, "because Jake here can be a little irresponsible sometimes and he needs to get out of something with our help."
Jake clenched his jaw. "See this is why she hates me so much."
"I don't get it," Alex said. "Are we gonna get paid?"
Amy looked at Jake, who shook his head firmly. "But," he said, "I could take you out to lunch sometime."
Alex scrunched up her nose. "That sounds like a nightmare. I want money."
Jake exhaled sharply, burying his face in his hands. "Fine," he said. After all, he'd been the one who'd accidentally mentioned the kids, and Amy was already being too nice by helping him. "I won't give you money, but I'll see what I can do if you guys behave."
"You're not my dad," Alex spat.
"Alex," Amy reprehended her daughter, who rolled her eyes and looked away. Amy turned to Jake hesitantly. "I think that means she'll do it."
——
Sophia would meet Alex and Ben the following afternoon. It took Jake a lot of patience to go through the day. It started with a very slow morning briefing, which must've taken around ten minutes, but to him it felt like hours. Amy had to prevent him from dozing off once, even. When it ended, he thought he could go back to his desk, but Holt stopped him before he could walk out.
"Is there a problem, sir?" Jake asked the captain.
"No, but I have an update on that case you have been working on with Boyle," Holt replied, putting on his glasses. "Boyle is investigating the subject, Mark Wallace. That means you have to do the paperwork."
Jake knew that if he complained it would have been unprofessional, so he held back the longest groan in history and grabbed the files Holt was handing him before dragging himself to his desk and throwing his body onto the chair tiredly. Amy glanced at him, and he started working on his paperwork.
He learned nothing about Mark Wallace, except that the guy was a suspect for a case he was supposed to be working on with Boyle. Jake felt a little guilty because he wasn't really present at work, but too many things occupied his head. First, there was Sophia. Second, there were all the bumps that were interrupting his relationship with her. He felt like it wouldn't be real until she finally believed that he was divorced.
Lunch time arrived and Jake shamelessly cheered, making Amy playfully punch him on the shoulder.
"Can't I be excited?" he said, smiling. "After this one lunch, I get to be with Sophia without having to lie, you know? Also, it's lunch time. I'm starving."
"You always are."
"That's accurate."
They picked up the kids from school, which usually was the babysitter's job, but they already had their plan. Alex called shotgun and Jake had to sit in the back with Ben, which Amy mocked him about for the entire ride. Children.
This time Jake agreed to meet with Sophia at this pizza place near the Law Office where she worked. When they arrived, she was already there again, and it almost seemed to piss off Amy how punctual she was.
The four of them made their way to the table, and Ben even let Jake hold his hand to make it more credible that they were father and son.
"Heyyy," Jake said happily, sliding on the seat next to Sophia and surprising her.
"Hi!" she said, her eyes immediately going to the kids. "You two must be Alex and Ben," she smiled, and Jake felt himself automatically smiling as well. It was just the effect her smile had on him, apparently.
"Hi," Ben said shyly, and Alex only stared at Sophia until Amy told her to say hi too.
"How are you guys?" Sophia asked them.
"I've been better," Alex said, sitting on a chair moodily.
"I'm good!" replied Ben, smiling with all his teeth. "My daddy says you are a lawyer! I want to be a lawyer too!"
Amy and Jake exchanged looks at the news, and Jake almost cackled imagining how awful it was to Amy, a cop, to hear those words. But he would save it for teasing material later. Right now, they had to focus as to not screwing up again.
"That's really interesting!" said Sophia. "And it's good that you are telling me because if you ever wanted to learn anything, I'm sure they would let me have you at my office sometime, so you could see how I work."
"Awesome," Ben chuckled.
"I want to be a cop like my dad," Alex intervened loudly. "My mom says cops and lawyers are enemies."
Amy went red, and Jake's eyes went wide to see she wasn't acting like an overconfident person anymore. Fortunately, Sophia just laughed, shrugging. "She has a point."
"So then why are you with him?" Alex asked, pointing to Jake.
"Alex," Amy warned her daughter.
Sophia shook her head. "It's fine," she told Amy, and then smiled to Alex. "Your daddy and I won't let that get in the way. We are happy anyway."
"I'm happy you're happy," Ben said.
Jake chuckled, ruffling Ben's hair. "I love you, bud."
"I love you too!"
"You two are adorable," Sophia said, lacing her hand with Jake's under the table. Jake saw Amy smiling from the corner of his eye, and knew it would go well.
After chatting a while and eating pizza, Jake and Amy had to go back to work, and so did Sophia, so before Jake knew it, they were done. And Sophia didn't supect anything at all. Jake would probably have to borrow Amy's kids sometimes, to pretend he wanted to spend time with them. But he was willing to do that, for the sake of his relationship with Sophia. Maybe at some point they would be at such good terms that Jake could tell her the truth, and hopefully it wouldn't ruin anything.
But he better didn't get ahead of himself.
"Hey, sweetie," Amy told Ben as they drove the kids to Amy's house.
"What?"
"Was the laywer thing you said true or were you lying?"
"I was playing pretend."
Amy sighed in relief. "Oh, thank god."
Jake chuckled.
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a/n: i'm feeling very insecure about these chapters so please let me know what you think, feedback is very appreciated! i'm enjoying writing this story a lot. i hope you are enjoying it as well and thank you so much for reading <3
