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“Let me get this straight – you want me to be your girlfriend?” Nie Huaisang grumbles as she perches herself on the kitchen counter.
“Yep,” Jiang Cheng replies, having at least the decency to look embarrassed about her request.
“But it won’t be legit?” A can of hard cider hisses as Nie Huaisang opens it. When she let Jiang Cheng into her apartment in the middle of the day, she was hoping for some quality time with one of her oldest friend’s. Not…whatever this is.
“Yeah. We can pretend to break up in a few months, too.” Jiang Cheng leans against the refrigerator, looking stupidly sexy. Nie Huaisang chugs some of the cider.
“And you want to do this so your parents will stop setting you up with men?”
“Please?” Jiang Cheng pleads. She tries to put on puppy eyes but utterly fails at looking cute or sad. She must be desperate, though, if she’ll stoop to puppy eyes.
“Why me?” Nie Huaisang asks. She ignores the rumbling in her stomach that may be from the sudden influx of alcohol or, god forbid, that her long-time crush is asking her out for something entirely fake. She does her best to hide her disappointment as she explains, “We have plenty of wlw friends. It doesn’t have to be me.”
Jiang Cheng digs her hands into the pockets of her purple jeans. “I know. But you’re the most flirty. I think you’d be the most convincing.”
Nie Huaisang isn’t sure if she wants to slap Jiang Cheng or cry. She’d been dropping hints for years and outright flirting for the past few months. The fact that Jiang Cheng hasn’t picked up on it is… “Fine. But I have rules. One, I get to hold and touch as much as I want. If you get uncomfortable, tap my wrist. Two, no kissing besides the hand. I reserve the face for actual significant others. Three, our friends get to know the truth. I’m not dealing with the shovel talk for something that’s not real.”
Jiang Cheng frowns. But she nods. “Sounds good. The next family dinner is in two nights. I’ll pick you up at six.”
The alcohol gurgles in her empty stomach. The sickness shoots up to her head, but still she says, with a smile, “See you then, darling.”
~~~
For the dinner, Nie Huaisang has to make sure to dress appropriately in the most modest outfit she owns—a long black skirt with slits up to the knees on both sides, beige turtleneck sweater, black ankle boots, and simple gold triple chain necklace. All of her tattoos are covered, most of her piercings are taken out, and she puts on an all-natural makeup look. She hasn’t felt so out of place since high school. But, well, she found out a long time ago that she’d do just about anything for Jiang Cheng.
“You’re fucking hopeless,” she says into the mirror. Just a minute later, her phone pings. Her not-girlfriend is here.
Jiang Cheng, damn her, is as hot as ever. Black skinny jeans paired with a purple satin button-down. And perhaps because she’s finally learning some rebellion in her twenties, she’s wearing smoky black eyeshadow and a mulberry colored lipstick. Nie Huaisang, in all her desperate pining, does her best not to jump to conclusions about that lipstick—the sang in her name means mulberry, but that doesn’t mean Jiang Cheng chose it on purpose!
“Ready?” Jiang Cheng asks.
“Aren’t you going to tell me I look good?” Nie Huaisang teases.
A faint red dusts Jiang Cheng’s cheeks. “Y-yeah… You look beautiful.”
“…Thanks,” Nie Huaisang whispers. She takes Jiang Cheng’s hand and hurries down the steps to Jiang Cheng’s car. It’s weird, seeing her crush blush because of her. She’s not sure how to process it.
~~~
The dinner is fine. Jiang Fengmian sighed as soon as he saw his daughter holding hands with Nie Huaisang, but that’s okay. He’s in his fifties, he should know how to handle disappointment.
Of course, as the dinner progresses, there are a few pointed questions, mainly from Yu Ziyuan. Wei Wuxian, the gremlin, asks a few of her own, even though she already knows this is fake. Thankfully, Nie Huaisang is prepared for everything.
“How long have you been dating?” Two months. “Who confessed first?” Nie Huaisang, of course. She’s had feelings for Jiang Cheng for so long and decided to take her shot! “Is marriage in the future?” That’s up to Jiang Cheng, but hopefully! “What about children?” That’s so far in the future, but Nie Huaisang has always wanted a kid. “What about sex? Who tops?” Ah, Wei Wuxian, are you so curious because you need ideas?
“Why isn’t A-Cheng answering any questions?”
Nie Huaisang wasn’t prepared for that, but she’s good at improvising. She takes Jiang Cheng’s hand and brings the knuckles up to her lips. She looks up at her not-girlfriend, puts on her best besotted face, and kisses those knuckles. “My A-Cheng is just nervous, right?” She takes Jiang Cheng’s arm and presses it against her chest. “It’s okay, darling. Take your time.”
Jiang Cheng sputters. Wei Wuxian snickers. Jiang Yanli and Jiang Fengmian sigh in tandem but with completely different meanings. Yu Ziyuan stares at the not-couple with an intense gaze.
“I like her, A-Cheng,” Yu Ziyuan suddenly says before taking a sip of wine. “She’s a good fit for you.”
Heat rushes to Nie Huaisang’s ears. “D-do you really mean it, ma’am?”
Something akin to a smile slides onto Yu Ziyuan’s face. “I do. My daughter’s so relaxed.”
Nie Huaisang looks back at her not-girlfriend. She certainly doesn’t seem relaxed. But then Jiang Cheng meets her eyes, mouth agape, before abruptly hugging Nie Huaisang.
“And you say I have no propriety,” Wei Wuxian snarks before yelping in pain, most likely thanks to Jiang Yanli.
Nie Huaisang breaks the hug first. Looking at her oldest friend, her long-time crush, her sadly-not-girlfriend, Jiang Cheng does seem much calmer. But she won’t look at Nie Huaisang. Her face is redder than it’s ever been.
Interesting. Nie Huaisang goes back to eating dinner.
~~~
Hours later, the two are walking up the stairs to Nie Huaisang’s apartment. The silence picks at every open pore on Nie Huaisang’s skin, but she cannot find it in her to break it. When she hears Jiang Cheng open her mouth to speak, relief floods through her.
“Can I break one of our rules?”
Nie Huaisang raises an eyebrow at her. “Which one?”
“The kissing one.”
The relief turns to nervous excitement. “Y-you want to kiss me?”
The two of them reach Nie Huaisang’s apartment. Jiang Cheng clears her throat and turns to face her whole body at Nie Huaisang. “Yes. I do… My mom made, um, think. About why I hated every guy my parents set me up with. So…so I want to try.”
“…Okay,” Nie Huaisang whispers into the cold night. “Kiss me, then.” Then she closes her eyes, because Nie Huaisang knows she’s a coward. If she opened her eyes and saw Jiang Cheng leaning in, she’d likely lose her nerve.
Cold lips meet her own. It’s for only a moment, but it’s enough for her heart to erupt. In the cacophony of heartbeats, Nie Huaisang grabs Jiang Cheng by the back of the neck and brings her in for another kiss. She pours gallons of frustration into every movement of her lips, in the aggressive way she silently tells Jiang Cheng everything she can’t say aloud. Jiang Cheng responds in kind, gripping on Nie Huaisang’s hips as she moans to a bite on her lower lip. In the cold winter night, the two find an unmatchable heat against each other.
When they break apart, it’s to warm breaths intermingling and loosening grips on each other.
“Girlfriends?” Jiang Cheng asks. “Can we be, uh, real? Girlfriends real? Ah, shit!”
Nie Huaisang laughs. “Yes, A-Cheng, we can be real girlfriends.”
“Hell yeah.” Jiang Cheng kisses her again. “I’ll call you when I get home. Goodnight, A-Sang.”
Nie Huaisang is giggling as she says, “Goodnight, A-Cheng.”