Novel & Cerita Let's Play Pretend

The invitation arrives in an envelope thick enough to pay rent. Gilded letters spell out: The Harrington Foundation Charity Gala. I stare at it on the kitchen table while Maya twirls the envelope like it’s a wand. “A gala,” she says reverently. “That’s code for free champagne and judgmental rich people.” “It’s code for humiliation,” I mutter. “I don’t belong in rooms like that.” “Correction,” Maya says, pointing with the envelope. “You pretend to belong. That’s the deal, right? Fake it till you make it.”

Now pretending to be lovers. How bad could a week really be?

I take a deep breath and walk in front of him, making him lock eyes with me. “Not today”, I whisper, and his eyes move from mine to Paul. I can see his brows furrow. And I can almost tell what he is thinking. I pull Alec to our table, and his parents join us to celebrate our fake wedding day. I could almost swear that he was real to him. I wish it were, and I hope he would think like that at least, because I feel myself falling head over heels for him. I think my heart is being shattered every time he says this is fake, that he only wants my body.

Let’s play then. SHING!

“How to play pretend.” Rayana’s eyes dim, and for a moment she looks like the girl I knew before she was a model and I was a king and the world got its claws into both of us. She nods slowly. “The first step is always to close your eyes and imagine yourself in a better time. The bang on the door is not a monster—” “It’s the heartbeat of the house,” I finish, and the words come from somewhere so deep and so old that they taste like childhood. “The pounding means it wants to play hide and seek.”

He lifted out the paddle with metal studs. I said, “I’m a little worried about the pain factor.” “How about this?” He put the toy down. “Let’s try a little scene tonight. I’m going to surprise you with a few ideas but remember that you only have to say the safeword, and I will stop.” “What’s a scene?” “It’s pretend play. Have you ever fantasized about being arrested, for example?” “No!” I hadn’t. My dad was a police officer; there was something incestuous about that scenario.

he murmured. “I’ll be asleep,” I teased. “We’ll see.”

Sophie bent down to Chloe’s level, her voice light and playful. Chloe giggled. “We’re having tea, but it’s not real tea. It's pretend tea with pretend cookies!” “That’s even better!” Sophie joined the tea party without a second thought, sitting cross-legged on the floor and pretending to sip from an imaginary cup. Leo, meanwhile, had already made his way over to Aiden, who had just dropped a few of his toys and was muttering under his breath about wanting to play with his blocks. “Need a hand?” Leo asked, crouching beside him.

nott since the whole world stopped hunting us. But tonight the air was thick with it again that old electricity that dirty, forbidden spark we’d burned everything down to keep. I pushed up, swung a leg over, straddled him. My dress rode straight up. No panties I never bothered with them at home anymore. “Pretend,” I whispered against his ear. “Just tonight. Pretend I’m still her pretend you’re still him. Pretend the house is wired and Mom could walk in any second… but you can’t stop.”

Perfect. It seems there are other guys that share my idea because by the time we get to the make-believe court, there are people there. They're already playing a game. "Hey, can we join in? I've got a ball." I'm spinning Archer's super expensive and signed ball in the air. It beats the rubber whatever they were using. They agree, and after splitting teams, we're playing. It's not the traditional way because there are roughly 15 of us on one team.