A phone ringing stirred me out of a deep enough sleep that I immediately felt the ache in my neck and the line of drool on my chin. Quickly wiping it away with my hand, I sat up and groaned at the sharp jolt of pain my readjustment caused.

Jade was watching the road, holding his hand out toward me with my ringing phone in it.

"Thanks," I mumbled, surprised he hadn't just answered it. The caller ID made me sink into the seat.

Howie.

"Hello?"  My gaze darted toward Jade who had a pinched brow. He must have seen who was ringing.

"Dahlia, hey. How are you?"

I almost wanted to laugh at the casual tone in his greeting. He'd always been like this. Detached. Speaking as if we were associates and I hadn't turned down the chance to spend the rest of my life with him. It made it easier, that was for sure.

"I'm. . . fine. You?"

"Good. Yeah," he inhaled a breath, gearing up to get to the point. "Look, I'm just calling because your mother has reached out and asked me to attend her Christmas Eve party. I heard through the grapevine that you'd be in town for Christmas this year so I wanted to run it past you first. Would you mind if I attended?"

I wished I could slap my mother and not feel like it was a form of elderly abuse.

"Oh, you know what, you go ahead and attend, because I will in fact, not be there," I could practically hear the steam coming out of my own ears.

"Really?"

"Oh yeah," I dragged out the words. "Have a great time. Please. I insist."

I could see Jade peering over at me as I gripped the seat beside my leg.

"I am somewhat familiar with your sarcasm, Dahlia," Howie had the audacity to sound bored. "I get the impression you'd rather I didn't go."

"Honestly, I don't actually care."

I hung up the phone, dropped it into my lap and buried my face in my hands.

"You good?"

"No," I groaned, I was doing a lot of that. I tipped my head back against the seat and felt the irrational onslaught of tears. "She has no boundaries."

Jade didn't say anything.

"I mean, I actually don't care if he's there," I explained, filling in the silence and forcing the angry shake in my voice to be still. "We ended amicably, his presence genuinely wouldn't bother me. It's her. It's the fact that she has no respect for the fact that I don't want to do whatever she wants me to."

"She attempting to push you back together?"

"I assume so."

"You really don't want to go anymore?"

I peered over at Jade who was splitting his attention between me and the road. I had a feeling he'd turn us around right now if I asked him to.

"I'm not going to that party," I decided. "But I want to see Ivan. I also want to take a boyfriend home with me."

Jade recoiled, his brows raised. "What?"

"I've literally just decided that would be the perfect form of rebellion," I explained excitedly. "Take home some random dishevelled dude that she would never approve of and tell her I'm in love just to ruin her entire Christmas. It concerns me at how appealing that actually sounds."

"You're resorting to fake dating?"

"Yes," I slapped my leg and pointed at him. "A good, classic, cheesy rom com fake dating scenario. Minus the part where I actually end up falling in love with a total stranger."

"I'll do it."

I blinked at Jade. "Do what?"

"Be the boyfriend."

"Ew," I lied.

Jade reached across and lightly hit me on the leg. "Come on. I'm right here. We're already going home together. We already know everything about each other. Your mom would lose her shit."

"No she wouldn't," I scoffed. "She loves you. And I do not know everything about you. I don't even know what you do for a job."

"I'm comic relief because she doesn't have a vested interest in my future," he said, telling me what I already knew and ignoring my attempt to find out what he does for work. "And I'm not dating her only daughter and ruining her chance at marrying into some billionaire empire."

"Your parents are loaded," I tilted my head at him, not willing to admit that faking a relationship with him had me a little excited.

"My folks do well and I'll get a decent inheritance but I'm not set to take over a business or anything like that. We're investment rich, doll. It's not quite the vision they have for you."

He was probably right. I think if mom and dad thought we were together, it'd send them off the deep end. Right now, I wanted to give them a giant shove.

"Hmm," I narrowed my eyes at him. "You'd fake it with me?"

His lips tipped up. "Oh I wouldn't have to fake much with you, doll."

"Gross," I swatted his arm. "There will be no. . . intimacy."

"You can say sex."

"Or kissing."

He leaned over the console and picked up my hand, intertwining our fingers. "What about this?"

My heart was pattering a little too hard. "Yeah, that's fine," I shook my hand out of his grip. "When it's necessary. Which, it's not right now."

"You don't wanna practice? I mean we have to act like we don't hate each other."

"I don't hate you," I gasped. "Do you hate me?"

His lips pursed as if he were fighting a smile. "Wish I did."

I sighed. "I don't know what that means and I don't care. When we get to Whistler, you may hold my hand, put your arm around me and. . . I don't know, give me a little kiss on the head. That will suffice."

"Yes ma'am," Jade lightly laughed. "I like it when you say suffice. Say it again."

"You're so weird."

                        Jade and I decided to stop for lunch at around one. He suggested drive thru but I needed to stretch my legs and get out of the car for a little while. There was a Tim Hortons just off the freeway and that would have to do. Neither of us could be bothered venturing too far off course in search of something better.

After Jade parked the car, we got out and made our way across the lot. Suddenly, the weight of his arm fell across my shoulders and I peered up at him.

"Just making sure it looks natural before we have to sell it," he said, refusing to look at me with that cheek in his smile.

It wasn't like it was the first time he'd done that today, but it felt a little different this time. I stepped out of his embrace and grabbed the door, swinging it open and welcoming the warm air inside the establishment.

"See, here's the thing," I said, walking backward and giving him a no nonsense look. "I can't be with you until I know what you do for a living. A girl has to have some standards."

He recoiled, giving me a playful scowl. "Some standards? I'm a top tier man."

Putting a hand to his chest, I stopped him in his path. "What is it, Jade? Tell me."

"You know I'm the one doing you a favour, right?"

I glared at him. "I can find a different man."

He looked at me as if I were tiring. "Where?"

I started peering around at the tables and booths. Most were empty. There were a few families, probably doing what we were doing. Heading home for Christmas.

Okay, so I was bluffing and finding a total stranger to join us on this road trip was a diabolical idea but I hated for him to have the upper hand. 

"Quit the drama, doll," he took my hand and dragged me toward the counter. "You don't have to play hard to get. I'll be your man and I promise, I'm all you need."

I rolled my eyes at the back of his head but accepted defeat. Sort of. I wasn't going to give up finding out what he was doing now. We ordered some food and I told Jade, now that he was my boyfriend, he had to pay. He didn't argue.

We slid into a window seat booth, which was draped with tinsel. The windows were covered in fake snow and Christmas shaped decals. We ate quietly for a little while.

"Builder?"

Jade paused with his drink half way to his mouth and raised a brow.

"Are you a builder?"

He shook his head and swallowed down his iced coffee.

"Accountant?"

"No."

"Bar tender."

"No."

"Mail man."

"No."

"Parking warden."

He stared at me. "Remember when I said you'd be proud of my new job?"

"Oh, mhmm. That's right," I pouted, shoulders drooping with defeat. "Just tell me. Please?"

He watched me for a moment, leaning back in his seat. "I'll tell you. But give me something first. A little secret or something. Something no one else knows."

"Jade, that's kind of lame."

"Too bad."

I swallowed my fry and dusted the salt off my fingers. "I'm not much of a secrets girl. I'm kind of an open book. I'll tell anyone anything about me. Unfortunately."

He put his hands behind his head and gestured for me to go ahead and share.

"Ah fine," I relented. It wouldn't be hard to think of something he didn't know about me. "In college, I kind of flew through a lot of my papers because I'm pretty academic—"

"Humble too."

"Well I know where my strengths lay, I'm not going to pretend I don't," I said and Jade shrugged in agreement. "So anyway, in my spare time I wrote Lord of the Rings fanfic."

Jade burst into laughter, which was becoming one of my favourite sounds. I attributed that to something like Stockholm syndrome. It was only because we were stuck together. I'd get over this weird infatuation once I was back at home and in civilisation.

"Don't laugh."

"Of course I'm going to laugh," he sat forward and leaned his elbows on the table top. "What kind of fanfic was it?"

"It was the reader and Legolas. Or Aragorn. Or Eomir. Depended on the book."

"I shouldn't be surprised. You were obsessed with those movies."

That brought me up short. "What?"

He pushed his hand through his waves and gave me an amused smile. "You made Ivan and I sit through the entire three movies during thanksgiving break in high school. Quoted half of the damn dialogue."

I'd forgotten about that but it didn't surprise me he'd remembered.

"You're going to tell me you didn't love those movies?"

"Of course I did," he grinned. "Just not as much as you I guess. You going to let me read this fanfic?"

"When I'm dead. Okay, moving on. Tell me what you're doing for work now. All this suspense, it better be good."

There was an apprehension that I couldn't understand. He looked at his hands, twisting his thick silver band around his middle finger.

"I'm coaching kids hockey," he said, meeting my gaze. "Ten year olds. They're the best of the best, future stars, children of hockey legends. There's a bit of pressure to make sure I don't screw them up."

"You're coaching children?"

His gaze narrowed. "Yeah? You sound like you're appalled."

"No, no," I straightened up and pushed my tray to the side. "I'm just. . . how? I figured considering your history, it would be kind of hard to get a job in hockey. Especially with children."

Jades jaw clenched and then after a beat of silence, he stood up and left the booth, storming straight toward the door and out into the parking lot.

Shit. I hadn't meant to upset him but my questions were genuine. I wanted to understand how he'd made this happen. But perhaps I'd asked the wrong thing. He was obviously nervous to confide in me and I'd no doubt reacted how he'd expected. I exhaled a deep breath and went outside as well.