Jaye Viner’s Reviews > Elaborate Lives: An Enemies to Lovers Fake Wedding Date Romance > Status Update

It had meant more than she wanted to admit when Quinn had stood in her parents’ driveway and asked if she was going to be okay. Obviously, she wasn’t delusional enough to think he really cared. But he’d asked her a personal question

“If this were really a date, what would we talk about? We should know some things about each other.”
“What’s your favorite color?” he asked.
“Black.”
“Not a color. What music do you like?”
“All music. Look at me like you love me. Why don’t you listen to music?”
Quinn set his eyes at the level of Larisa’s temple, knowing a camera wouldn’t be able to tell he wasn’t gazing into her eyes.
“The ice cream is melting.”

And there, in the pink felt booth closest to the stage that would later host a throwback 1920s jazz band, was Quinn VanderVeer. Of all the gin joints, thought Larisa. Her date was doomed to fail before it even began. There was no way she’d be able to concentrate on her Saudi prince with Quinn across the room.

Submit.
Surrender.
Allow possibilities.

He clung to his resolve to please the Queen no matter what. When they came to a door painted with the yawning, human-sized vagina of a mythical goddess, he relaxed. Of course, the Queen wouldn’t take him to the wrong room.

"What are you feeling right now?”
“Trapped."
“Why?”
“Because the shrink I never wanted is spying on my work.” He glanced at her. She was smiling. “What?”
“I don’t think you’ve ever given me an honest answer until now.”
“I’m not a liar.”
Her smile deepened. “You’re in movies, Quinn. It’s your job to weave deceptions that somehow reveal the truth we hide within ourselves.”

That life stage when you're single and your friends are not.

"They’d been single together since college graduation. Every Valentine’s they’d celebrated together, even when Larisa had been in Minneapolis for medical school and celebrating meant each of them sitting alone in bars with half a country between them while talking on the phone."

“The camera would love you. Come in for a screen test and I’ll give you a job as a Russian stripper.”

Insulting or an invitation?

She went through her usual pre-date mental exercises and reminders.

1. Do not assume it’s going badly until it actually is.
2. Do not mention your intimidating degrees.
3. Smile when he brings up One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, then change the subject.
4. Do not eat too much.
5. Do not make that face when he brings up children.