Practicing

As Tess smiled slyly at Decker, he suddenly reached into his pocket and pulled out a small, leather-bound book. He handed it to Tess, who took it with a raised eyebrow. "What's this?" she asked, flipping through the pages of the book. "Pretend t's my phone," Decker said, his eyes serious. "I want you to practice using it like a girlfriend would. I know it sounds weird, but just go through the motions, okay? Look at the screen, swipe through your 'messages', check your 'notifications'...just pretend we're texting each other." Tess looked taken aback by Decker's request, but she played along. She began to flip through the pages of the book, pretending to scroll through her phone. "Okay, what do you want me to say first?" she asked, looking up at Decker with a smile. Decker thought for a moment before responding. "Just give me something casual. You know, like 'Hey, how's it going?' or 'What's up?' Something like that." Tess nodded and began to improvise, reading from the book in a fake tone. "Hey, what's up?" she said, looking up at Decker with a bright smile. Decker smiled back at her, his eyes crinkling at the corners. "Not much, just getting ready for tonight," he replied. "You?" Tess continued to read from the book, asking Decker fake questions and responding to is responses. It was all so ridiculous, but she couldn't help but laugh as she played along. As they practiced, Tess began to feel a strange sense of connection to Decker. She could see him laughing at her jokes, smiling at her silly questions...and it made her wonder if maybe, just maybe, this fake romance thing was going to be more real than she thought. Decker says, "I have one more thing." He reaches into his pocket. Tess felt dread. How many hands does he thinks she has? She already has coffee, his notebook and her notebook. A girl has a rated load capacity, she thought.

Takes the object

Tess goes to get ready