forum Pretending Hearts (O/O CLOSED)

Started April 05, 2019 by Deleted user

tune

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Daisy blinked when their eyes met, but she refused to flush. It was just their gaze, nothing special. People made eye contact all the time.

“Really? What’s it like?” she asked, setting a utensil in the pasta to scoop it out.

“It’s a puzzle game,” he explained, his palms resting on the table. “You have to pass levels, but it relies on your knowledge of solving riddles and finding clues.”

“Ah. Sounds stimulating,” Daisy mused, nodding slowly. She sat down and gestured to the chair across from her. “You can sit if you want. Dish some food up for yourself.”

“Right,” Arvil nodded, taking a seat and a plate as he poured some food for himself. “So… I guess we should get straight to the point, huh?”

Daisy paused, her hand halfway to the dish of pasta. She sighed, then began piling some onto her plate.

“Right. I just… wanted to talk about what, exactly, we are doing,” she murmured as she finished. “We’ve discussed boundaries, but not our plan.”

“Well… we’re not going to stay married for long,” he rubbed the back of his neck, the thought dampening his spirits a little. “And people will be expecting children, so we can pretend we’re trying for some. And obviously we’re in love, so we’ll be expecting to spend lots of time together.”

“Right, right. I knew all of that,” Daisy agreed with a slow nod. “We’ll need a house, too. My apartment is too small for the both of us, and… Actually, I’ve never seen your place?”

Arvil rubbed the back of his head, realizing that she really hadn’t.

“It’s… not a place I bring people,” he admitted. “It’s a bit… luxurious. It was a gift from my father to me when I took up the position of CEO and did considerably well.”

“Ah. Well… If you don’t want me to move in there, we should probably go house hunting. And soon,” Daisy mused, twirling pasta around her fork.

“You could check it out,” Arvil shrugged. “Might be better for two people.

Daisy hummed, nodding slowly as she glanced up. “If you’re okay with that… Sure. We should set up a day for me to come over, then.”

“I guess so,” Arvil shrugged. “Also, I don’t really want to ruin the lunch, but…”

He took out his phone, unlocked it and began to type. After a few seconds, he slid the phone to Daisy. There was an article opened with the title, “ARVIL DAVIS & DAISY RILEY: PARENTS?”

There was a picture of Cameron on his shoulders. Arvil had been holding his legs, and while one of Cameron’s hands were in his hair, the other was holding Daisy’s hand. He was laughing and so was Daisy, and Arvil looked content.

Daisy’s jaw dropped at the photo and the headline that went with it. Parents? They really thought they were parents? That she could have a kid as old as Cameron already?

“What the heck is this,” she breathed, staring down at the phone in her hand. “Who wrote this? What incompetent person would think that I could have been pregnant and had a kid and hid it as long as this?”

Arvil rubbed the back of his head with a sigh.

“They think we had a one-night stand,” he explained slowly. “Because they’ve never heard of us before, or about Cam, they think my family hid the truth about you with money and all. And now that Cam’s old enough… you came back.”

“Seriously? Someone would have found out that I was pregnant somehow. It’s kind of hard to hide a large belly. I mean, even celebrities have a hard time with that,” Daisy huffed, tearing her hand through her hair. “We need to contact them and tell them not to print any more of these. And to correct it somehow.”

Arvil rubbed his forehead. “Don’t worry about it. Noah’s already working on it, but truthfully they’ll want us to answer, too.”

Daisy sighed, rubbing her own forehead with her fingertips. “Right… Of course we will. We’ll need to set up a meeting, then. And thank Noah for me, will you?”

“Yeah. I will,” Arvil nodded slowly before a sigh of his own left his lips. “I’m sorry about all of this. The media can be stupid.”

“You don’t have to apologize, Arvil. None of this is your fault, by any means,” Daisy assured him. “We’ll figure something out.”

“Hopefully,” he muttered under his breath. It was clear that he was irritated by this. Not because they thought he and Daisy had a child together, but because of the way they had labelled her in that article. It didn’t matter to him whether they referred to him as a playboy; portraying Daisy like a typical high-school ditz pissed him off. “Don’t get why the paparazzi can’t get a life.”

Daisy snorted and rolled her eyes. “That’s the question of the year, isn’t it? Or the question of the age, I suppose. They’re a pain in the tail to a lot of people,” she muttered.

“Sometimes it’s a pain to be famous,” Arvil admitted, rubbing his forehead. Then a thought came to mind. He lifted his head and looked at her right in the eyes. “I have a favor.”

Daisy hummed her agreement, though she stopped when she heard his last words. She raised her eyebrows curiously, giving him a look.

“And what is that…?” she asked warily.

“Please stop using pet names for me,” he sighed, ducking his head again, though now he was more playful. “It sounds like you’re swallowing needles. It’s awful. Arvil is fine. Nobody’s going to say anything if you just call me by my name.”

Daisy winced. Gosh, that was… completely unexpected. She’d have thought he’d at least suggest something different to call him, but to tell her to just call him by his name… Maybe she did sound as if it pained her.

“Sorry,” she sighed, dropping her attention to her not-quite-half-eaten plate of food. “I’ll remember that.”

“Or… you could give me a nickname,” Arvil suggested, tilting his head to the side. “Something you can call me. It’ll be special that way, much better than a pet name.”

Daisy blinked, raising her eyebrows at his suggestion. “A nickname? Like what?” she asked, already trying to think of one she could give him.

“I don’t know,” Arvil shrugged, taking a bite out of his food. It was so good. “Anything appropriate would do, please.”

A smile — more like a smirk — slowly made its way to Daisy’s lips. She looked up at him, her head cocked to the side.

“What about ‘nerd’?” she half-joked woh a chuckle.

The fork stopped inches away from his lips. Arvil’s eyes flickered over to hers, and he slowly released a breath.

“I’d prefer ‘hot nerd’, actually,” he told her, returning her smirk. “My gorgeous writer.”