He Said He Only Pretended to Love Me, So I Left Him Chapter 06
I stood up and hugged my mom, resting against her shoulder. “You guys can relax. The photo’s real, but the boyfriend is fake.”
My mom just stared at me, completely lost. I smiled again. “On my way home that day, I ran into this actor, and we took a picture together.”
She still hadn’t caught up. “An actor?”
“Yeah!” I grabbed my phone and searched the celebrity’s name online. “Look, he’s even in that show you love so much.”
My mom took the phone and peered at it closely. “Oh, oh! That’s him!”
Her brow had barely smoothed out before it furrowed right back up. “Then why did you suddenly lie today?”
I lowered my eyes and locked my phone. “Mom, you seriously didn’t pick up on what Diane was hinting at?”
She thought for a second and then asked, testing the waters, “You mean… she was trying to set you and Jace up?”
I nodded. My mom kept going. “But honestly, Jace is a good kid. Haven’t you liked him your whole
life?”
I sighed, keeping it simple. “That was a long time ago. I don’t feel that way about him anymore.”
Everything else, I buried inside. I didn’t say a word of it out loud.
My mom tentatively asked, “Did you and Jace have a fight? Before, if we ever talked about him, you could go on forever.”
A fight? We’d never fought. Not once. Not even that day-we just looked at each other and walked
away. Neither of us said a single extra word.
After a long pause, my mom stroked my hair. “Alright, let’s drop it. If you don’t like him, you don’t like him.”
“You just started college-there’s no rush, and we won’t pressure you.” She smiled. “I am hoping you go for a master’s, maybe even a Ph.D. Then our family would have a real scholar.”
I burst out laughing. “I heard grad students are broke. You’d be stuck supporting me forever.”
She didn’t even hesitate. “Deal. I’ll support you the whole way. You won’t have to worry about cash or part-time jobs-just study, study, study.”
She rubbed her hands together, eyes sparkling. “Just imagine-one day you become an expert iry some field. Wouldn’t I get interviewed? Everyone for miles around would know who I am.”
I was laughing so hard I could barely sit up. “Mom, you’re seriously dreaming big. I’m only a freshman and you’ve already planned that far ahead.”
The next morning, my mom had something come up and asked me to mind the store. I stepped
outside and immediately ran into Jace, who was leaving at the exact same time.
