Chapter 5

C H A P T E R  5

Nathan's mom was very happy when he told her he had been accepted as a game developer at Dreamsoft. At the very least, she could finally stop nagging him to get a job and turn it into nagging him to do his job well instead. Thankfully, the job was rather relaxed, allowing him to work remotely and at flexible hours. So she did not need to nag him to wake up early every day.

Friday night, Sarah called with the cover story she made up for him and Daniel. 

"You first met at university, were reacquainted seven months ago, and started dating six months ago. You get it? Don't get the timeline wrong, because Daniel was still in Canada earlier this year. He only got back to the US in late February."

"Yes, I remember. You have repeated this six times." Nathan tried very hard to remain polite. Sarah noisily continued to chatter.

"His mother's name is Marie, his father is Robert, and his sister is Diana. He has a dog named Marshmallow, and she's a white samoyed. He loves Marshall, you can't get her name wrong."

"His dog is named Marshall?"

"No, It's Marshmallow. Marshall is just how we call her."

"I'm so confused," Nathan admitted.

Nearly two hours later, Nathan had finished his crash course on Daniel's entire family tree and history. Out of curiosity, he decided to ask Sarah about Victoria, since Daniel seemed like he didn't really want to talk about her.

"Hey, do you know Victoria?"

Sarah paused. "How did you know Victoria?"

Nathan proceeded to tell her the story of how they met Mia and her boyfriend Richard at the bookstore. Sarah listened attentively and gave a long sigh when Nathan told her about how Daniel had spoken of Victoria.

"They were really good friends. Like, they had been friends practically since they were in freaking diapers. Then Daniel came out to her and she freaked out because she has been in love with him all along," Sarah explained. "When you meet her tomorrow, just leave her alone. Don't try to get along with her, but don't be mean to her either. Daniel still cares about her."

Nathan blinked at the warning. "Oh, that sucks." 

It must have been hard on Daniel, coming out to someone he must have trusted so much, and having her freak out on him. Nathan wouldn't even hope to get along with the girl who had a crush on Daniel, so he just prayed that he would be able to avoid her tomorrow. From the way Mia and Richard had spoken about her, she seemed to be rather aggressive, for lack of better words.

"Daniel seems to like you," Sarah added out of nowhere.

Nathan blinked. "He does?" 

"Yeah, he said you seem okay."

"Is that supposed to be a compliment?"

"It's not about his words, it's the way he said it." By this time, Nathan had known Sarah enough to know she was rolling her eyes on the other side. "Anyway, I'm glad you guys get along swimmingly. It would be a disaster if you don't see eye to eye after I went through all the trouble of recruiting you for him."

"Why does he need me to be his fake boyfriend anyway?" Nathan asked, confused. He had a guess that it would have something to do with Victoria, but with Daniel's looks… he could have just easily gotten himself a real boyfriend instead. 

"You just need to convince his family so they'd stop bothering him about finding a girlfriend. And, convince Victoria to leave him alone. But without talking to her."

Nathan shrugged, though Sarah wouldn't be able to see it. "Alright." He supposed Daniel just had way too much money laying around and decided to do some charity.

"Memorize everything that I have told you. I can't even get Charlotte to write them down for you because everything is supposed to be a secret," Sarah grumbled.

"Who's Charlotte?"

"My personal assistant," Sarah replied. "You'll see her tomorrow. I'm hanging up now."

"Alright."

That night, Nathan had trouble sleeping because he was too excited for the next day. So he played a few rounds of games, fooling himself into thinking it was actually a ‘research’ because he was now a legit game developer. As a result, he woke up late the next day and panicked when he realized he had not prepared anything appropriate to wear to meet Daniel's family.

As he was scrambling to find decent clothes, his phone chirped with a new text message.

'I'm in front of your house.' 

It was a text from Daniel. Nathan cursed. 

'Alright,' he replied and decisively picked out a long sleeved white shirt and black dress pants. He quickly finished dressing up. Then he got to the front door at record speed.

"Good morning," Daniel greeted him with a smile as Nathan entered the car. "You look nice."

"Uh. Morning. Thanks," Nathan's answer came out stilted. He struggled to remember whether he had forgotten anything. Fortunately, he got his phone, wallet, and keys.

The drive was long, and Nathan must have looked sleepy because Daniel told him that he could sleep on the way. Nathan fell asleep quickly and only woke up three hours later after they had arrived.

The mansion was quite big. Nathan had heard from Sarah that the house belonged to Daniel's rich grandmother. Daniel's mother lived with her, despite his father living in an apartment closer to his office. Daniel and his father often stayed in the mansion on weekends.

Daniel went to park his car. As they got out of the door, Nathan suddenly realized he had forgotten his jacket. He was freezing. Daniel walked towards him and draped a coat over his shoulders.

"Oh, thanks," Nathan said as he wrapped the coat closer to his body. He had always been sensitive when it came to temperature and hated both heat and the cold.

"You're welcome. I should have reminded you to bring one, but honestly, I forgot about it too, I just happened to have this one in the car." Daniel huffed. 

They walked across the parking lot to the front door. A maid opened the door and welcomed them. As they entered, an older woman immediately greeted them.

"Daniel, you are here," greeted the woman grinning brightly at them. "Oh, and you brought a friend."

"Aunt Bridget, this is Nathan. Nathan, this is my third aunt, Aunt Bridget."

"Hello, Aunt Bridget," Nathan greeted her with a polite smile. 

Aunt Bridget was a woman in her mid forties with curly, fabulous blonde hair. She was wearing a silver earring with precious stone on each ear however the first thing that came to Nathan’s mind was her dress. The yellow dress reminded Nathan of the sunflower field in one of his video games. Albeit it looked rather simple was no doubt cost more than Nathan’s monthly wage. She had that air around her that screamed wealth and elegance. But when she turned to Nathan, her blue eyes shone kindness and compassion and perhaps a bit of pity. It was almost as if she knew how nervous he was to meet Daniel’s family. 

They talked for a bit with Daniel's aunt, then Daniel asked, "Aunt Bridget, have you seen my parents?"

"Oh yes, sure, I think Marie is still in the kitchen. You should go help her or save her from all of that frosting.” She let out a small giggle before continuing, “As for your dad, I believe he is upstairs talking to your Uncle Tim."

"Thank you. We will go find Mom first." 

They left to find Daniel's mother. Nathan followed him a few steps behind nervously.

"Don't worry so much. I am sure she will like you," Daniel tried to assure Nathan and patted his back. 

Nathan wanted to say, 'It is not a matter of her liking me.' What if he screwed up? What if he misspoke or forgot something important and Daniel's mom figured out that their relationship was fake?

The kitchen was huge, and yet Daniel's mother and the chefs had miraculously covered nearly every surface there with all kinds of little cakes and pastries. Nathan knew from Sarah that Daniel's mom loved baking, but he did not expect her to love it this much. All the food looked very tasty too.

Daniel's mother was a beautiful, tall blonde woman. She was wearing a sky blue dress and white apron, and happily decorating a few cupcakes with frosting and sprinkles.

"Mom," Daniel called her.

"Daniel," she turned around to see him and her smile bloomed. She reached out to him, and as he was still taller than her, he leaned down and let her kiss his cheeks. "Have you seen your father and sister?"

"No, we asked Aunt Bridget where you were and she directed us here," he answered. 

It was like she had just noticed Nathan's presence from hearing Daniel's words. Her attention shifted to him and she smiled at Nathan. "Oh, you brought a friend. Who is this?"

Daniel smiled. "Mom, this is my boyfriend Nathan."