𝒹𝓇ℯ𝒶𝓂𝒾𝓃𝑔 ⁱⁿ 𝐣𝐮𝐥𝐲

𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐏𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝟏𝟒

By the next day, Eleanor was already regretting everything.

It started small, which somehow made it worse. Chris was annoyingly good at this "fake dating" thing—too good. The first hint came in his Instagram story: a blurry photo of Eleanor sitting on the kitchen counter, eating ice cream straight from the tub. She didn't even notice him taking it until her phone buzzed with Angel's text.

𝐀𝐧𝐠𝐞𝐥: "You're soft-launching now? Is that what we're doing?"

Eleanor squinted at her phone, confused. Then she opened Instagram.

Chris's story read: "Some people take dessert seriously. I respect it."

Eleanor nearly dropped her phone.

She stomped into the living room where Chris, Nick, and Matt were lounging on the couch, arguing over which movie to watch. "Chris!"

Chris looked up at her with the most innocent expression she'd ever seen. "Yeah?"

"What is this?" Eleanor shoved her phone in his face.

He squinted at the screen, clearly amused. "Oh, that? It's just a cute photo. Calm down."

"Cute?!"

Nick snorted from the couch. "You two are ridiculous."

Before Eleanor could retaliate, Chris's phone buzzed, and his grin widened. "Look. People love it."

He tilted the screen toward her, showing the flood of DMs and story reactions he was already getting. Fans were eating it up—heart emojis, "Are you two dating??" questions, and one person who had simply written "ENDGAME."

"This wasn't part of the deal," Eleanor hissed.

Chris shrugged. "You said you wanted subtle. This is subtle."

"You're insufferable," Eleanor muttered, though she didn't deny how natural it all felt. That's what made it dangerous.

From there, it only escalated. Chris never did anything outright obvious, but his "soft launch" tactics were infuriatingly effective.

He started tagging her in random TikToks—ones about chaotic friendships or subtle couple humor. One of them was a sound bite that went, "We're not dating, but if we were... we'd be the best couple ever."

Eleanor had almost thrown her phone at the wall.

"Chris!" she groaned, storming into the backyard where he was lounging in the sun with Matt. "Why are you like this?"

Chris raised his sunglasses just enough to look at her. "Like what?"

"Do you have to tag me in everything?"

Matt smirked from the hammock. "You mean the one where you're basically a couple?"

"It's a joke, Matt," Eleanor snapped, glaring at both of them.

Chris shrugged, unbothered. "It's a funny sound. I thought it fit us."

"It doesn't!" Eleanor shot back, but her voice faltered, and Chris's grin grew.

"Maybe the fans are onto something," Matt teased.

Eleanor's face heated. "You're both the worst," she muttered, stomping back into the house.

But her phone wouldn't stop buzzing. The TikTok had already racked up views, the comments overflowing with speculation.

— "OK BUT THEY'RE SO CUTE??? I CAN'T."
— "The way Chris looks at her in the videos 🥹."
— "Friends-to-lovers pipeline, I'm calling it now."