Golden Hearts | Rafe Cameron [1]

10

10

The lunch continues. We're mostly quiet except when Rafe makes stupid comments that just irritate me more than I already am. But for the most part, I try to ignore him. I try to pretend I'm sitting with someone else. That it's not Rafe Cameron sitting in the chair across from me, eating his food.

When I finish eating, I place the cutlery on the plate in front of me as my mom taught me and take the last sip from my wine. I'm starting to feel tired of being here and I just want to go home and relax, or maybe hang out with Sarah.

"Are you aware that Rose will be picking us up soon so you can try on dresses for midsummer?" Rafe says, raising one eyebrow. "It must be awful to be with someone like me."

"Believe me, it is awful," I say, sighing. "But you must think it's awful too."

"Believe me, I do," says Rafe with that creepy smile again that he always does. "But at least I get paid for it," he says before getting up from the chair but pausing.

"What?" I ask still mad.

"Aren't you coming?" he asks.

"Why would I?"

"Because we have to go out together. What do you think people will think otherwise?" Rafe says, a little more angrily this time. I sigh loudly and get up. He shouldn't be able to control me, but I know he's right, so I follow Rafe outside. Even this time, I feel eyes on us as we leave the restaurant, but I try my best to ignore it.

When we get outside, I see that our dads' cars are gone, but this time Rose is parked with her car outside the restaurant so I follow Rafe to the car. Rose opens the car door when she sees us and greets us with a warm smile.

"How did it go?" Rose asks, but Rafe just ignores her and sits in the front seat, slamming the car door shut.

"Fine," I say, not wanting to be rude to Rose. She's always so nice, so I don't understand how Rafe can behave so badly towards her without feeling guilty.

"I really hope you two can get along better soon. It actually hurts to see you like this," says Rose, about to open the car door again but looking a little cautiously at Rafe inside the car and then turning to me again.

"But believe me, everything will work out. I know this isn't easy for either of you," she says, smiling sadly at me before opening the car door and sitting down. I do the same and sit in the back seat.

"We're going to a store that has really nice dresses. You need to have the same color and match so that people see that you belong together," Rose says as she starts the engine and backs the car out of the parking lot.

The whole way to the store is quiet. None of us say anything, and the only sound that can be heard is the faint music from the radio. I look out the window and see tourists taking over the beaches, because I know that Kooks usually aren't very interested in swimming. At least not many.

While it's quiet in the car, my thoughts are racing in my head. The idea that Rafe and I have to go around telling people that we're dating is completely insane. Also, that we agreed to this, even though I know we didn't have any other choice. They probably would have locked us in a room until we stopped hating each other, but I find it hard to believe that we'll ever stop hating each other. No matter how much we'll have to spend time together this summer, I don't believe we'll change, which might sound terrible, but it's true.

Rose stopping the car brings me out of my thoughts, and I see that we're in front of a very nice store, which also looks expensive. There are many flower decorations on the outside, and the store doesn't seem to be big, but it looks expensive and luxurious.I