“You’re paying me for this?” Jason asked. 

“Depends on how well you act,” Robin replied. 

“Oh, my acting’s great, but your money has to be watery,” the young man said with a grin.

“Listen, man, have you gone over the script? Is this something you can do?” Robin asked, exhausted. 

“First of all, for this to work you actually have to call me sweeter names for a start or they’d see right through our pretext, darling,” Jason said and gave Robin a light tap. 

“This is ridiculous, I’ll just call grams and tell her I can’t make it back this Christmas,” Robin responded and made a move to get his phone. 

“Oh, no, you don’t,” Jason said and quickly grabbed the phone from Robin. “We’re doing this,” he affirmed. “You said yourself that they’ve been on your neck for years and you accidentally mentioned it, now the family’s gathering to see your date, which voila is standing right here,” Jason said and circled like a little girl. “We’re doing this.”

“Shit, you’re right, we are doing this,” Robin said with fear as he travelled down memory lane, thinking of the decisions that led him to this moment; his fifth Christmas without a boyfriend since Jamie—the love of his life, ended things with him. 

 

“Jamie, you can’t do this, I love you,” Robin had said with a broken heart when his high school sweetheart, Jamie, the man he had just proposed to in front of his whole family came back one day telling him it was over and that he had met someone else. 

“That’s just the thing, baby, I don’t love you anymore,” Jamie had replied.

“How can you say that with no emotion at all,” Robin asked. 

“Because I’ve fallen out of love with you a long time ago. I only stuck around because I felt bad for you and I know how hard it was for you to come out to your family. 

Now, you proposed to me in front of them? I had to stick around for a while because I knew it’d suck if I’d left sooner.” 

“It sucks even more now, James. Why’d you take the ring if forever wasn’t your thing?” Robin asked. 

“Don’t get it twisted darling, forever’s my thing, just not with you,” Jamie said and walked away, leaving Robin in a world of misery. 

Five years later, he still hasn’t been able to pull himself together and get back into the dating pool. 

***

Robin came from a big family, everyone was always present. They were black Americans, so they had cousins, aunties, uncles, parents, grandparents, siblings, even inlaws. His family was enormous and after he announced that Jamie wouldn’t be joining him for their next family dinner, everyone in the family took it upon themselves to hook him up with the next gay man they saw. At least gram’s hook-up last year was more decent than any other hookup he had been set up with. 

Robin loved his family, and by God; they did too. Usually in African history, it was rare to come out as a gay man in or outside America and have the family support you still. But with Robin, the day he mustered courage at one of their dinners and came out, the family all clapped saying they had been waiting for this day to come. Apparently, they already knew and still adored him. 

Life for Robin became easier after that, except for when Jamie broke his heart and left him with the pieces. 

Robin was tired of the constant hookups from his parents and on the phone call with his elder sister some weeks ago he accidentally mentioned that he was coming back home for Christmas with his new lover.

“New lover?” his grandmother asked when Esther his sister told her. 

“Yes, grams,” Esther replied. 

“Robin has a lover?” his father, Daniel asked in shock. 

“Apparently so,” Esther replied. 

“And he’s coming home for Christmas with this new man?” his mother Kimberly asked. 

“That’s what he said, mom,” Esther replied. 

“I never imagined the day would come,” his grandmother said dreamily. 

 

Robin had created a mess and now he was looking for ways to fix it, so he posted an ad for someone to play the role of a fake boyfriend for a week in exchange for decent pay. 

***

Robin was exhausted from interviewing potential actors all day and was about to head out when he collided with this fair tall man, landing them both on the floor. 

“I’m sorry, my bad,” the young man said and stretched out his arm to assist Robin up. 

“It’s my bad, I didn’t see you coming,” Robin replied while accepting his help. 

“It’s all good,” the man chuckled. “I actually could use your help with something,” he added. 

“Yeah?” Robin asked. 

“I got this ad, I’m an actor, I’m here to play the role of a fake boyfriend, but I seem to have lost my way,” he said. 

“Apparently, you haven’t,” Robin had replied and giggled when he saw the guy stare in confusion. “I’m Robin, I’m the owner of the ad,” he concluded and stretched out his arm.

“Great, I’m Jason,” he said and shook Robin. “You were headed out?” he asked. 

“Yes, I was. I’d realized my ambition was stupid,” Robin said with a heaved sigh. 

“Reckless, not stupid,” Jason corrected. “Run it by me,” he added and Robin explained everything. 

“You’re paying me for this?” Jason asked and the rest was history. 

***

For the few days left until they had to go back to Robin’s hometown, Jason and Robin spent it getting acquainted with each other. They needed to know little things about each other to make their story sound real. Robin also explained the situation of things and set boundaries. In general, everything went according to plan. 

But plans as we know it doesn’t fall in place when reality checks in. 

Soon, it was the day Robin had to make an appearance at the family dinner. And goodness—was he dreading it. 

 

“I don’t want to go in,” Robin said while they were in a cab parked out front. 

“Honey, these are your family, not strangers, you don’t have to lie to them if you don’t want to. And if you have decided to do so, you have to walk in there or they would become suspicious,” Jason said to the man beside him. 

“If you don’t wanna go through with this I’d completely understand and even pay you for the time you’ve spent,” Robin said. 

“Sweetheart, nothing in hell or heaven is stopping me from walking through those doors, unless of course you break up with me right before the dinner and we both go our separate ways,” Jason said with a smirk.

“That would be reckless,” Robin replied. 

“Well, you’re not exactly known for playing carefully,” Jason added. “Let’s just get through this dinner and we can decide tomorrow, alright?” Jason suggested. 

“It’s pleasing how comfortably you’re settling into the role,” Robin said in admiration. 

“Well the money is a great motivator,” Jason replied and stepped out of the car to assist his fake boyfriend out. 

 

The pair walked into the house and the whole family turned their heads, this was real, and goodness, those two looked adorable together. 

Everyone stood up to give Robin a hug and a few kisses while some extended their hands to Jason. 

“So, hello everyone, this is my new man, Jason. Jason, this is everyone,” Robin introduced. 

“Babe, what sort of introduction is that? Come on, you can do better than that,” Jason said, eyeing his man. 

“Whew, I’m hungry babe, but fine. This is grams, this is dad, mom, Esther, Ik, Cory,” he went on introducing until he was finally done and Jason said hello to everyone pleasantly before settling into his chair. 

“My, what manners he has, eh?” Grams whispered to Esther. 

“And he’s soooo cute,” Esther said back and they giggled. 

“What’s so funny, mama,” Kim asked. 

“Nothing, we were just wondering how you two met,” Esther said. 

“Well it’s a funny story, alright,” Robin said and looked at Jason. 

“Hey, babe, why don’t you let me tell it?” Jason suggested. Robin obliged with a nod. 

“It is quite funny like he said folks,” Jason warned. 

“Well go on then,” grams eagerly replied and everyone laughed. 

“So I was rushing for an interview I had and I was absolutely late. Coupled with that, I had lost my way. My phone was dead and I had no idea who I was going to meet,” Jason started. 

“Aw, what poor lad,” Mrs. Kim said. 

“Not poor, lucky… Because at the moment I had made my mind to leave, I roughly collided into Robin here and we both fell hard to the ground. Since then, we fell for each other,” Jason said in a breath and looked at Robin romantically. “He saved me that day from losing the biggest gig of my life, and he’s been saving me ever since,” Jason concluded and the air was filled with suspense. 

“Ohhh I think they’re gonna kiss now,” grams whispered again. 

“Hush, mama, let’s not make them shy,” Kim cautioned. 

“Ahem,” Robin said and called everyone’s attention back. “What he said,” he added and everyone laughed. 

 

Grams insisted that Jason and Robin leave the hotel they were lodged in and come over to the family house, which they did, and they were assigned Robin’s old room. 

Jason kept teasing Robin about how fat and big headed he looked in all of his old family photos and Robin rushed to get rid of them. 

***

When the family went out for ice skating or hiking, the ladies always wanted to walk with Jason and ask him a million questions about what his intentions were with their boy. He would gracefully answer that all he planned to do was love Robin until the day he couldn’t anymore. 

This answer assured everyone else but grams and she strongly warned Jason not to break Robin’s heart the way Jamie did or she would bite his ears off. Although everyone else laughed at this statement, Jason looked in Robin’s direction and replied, “I was never planning on, ma’am”. This finally assured grandma, because perhaps she was the only one that saw what others didn’t. She saw that Jason was completely in love with Robin and this laid her old fragile heart—to rest. 

Finally, the day was over and the boys retired back to their room. 

 

Initially, the agreement was that Jason would make an appearance, stay a few days and then suddenly leave, claiming to have gotten an emergency back home and was unable to spend Christmas with Robin. He would fly back out, get his pay and disappear, a few months later, Robin would call the family and announce his breakup with Jason. 

This plan was superb, they had even taken a couple of pictures to keep posting in the long run, but there was a factor they both had not seen coming; the love factor, and it was too late now because both boys were helplessly in love with each other. 

 

“I leave tomorrow,” Jason said. 

“You say that like it’s a bad thing,” Robin replied. 

“Well from your countenance, I’m not the only one feeling this way,” Jason said. 

“Would it be reckless if I said I wanted you to stay and see where this thing goes?” Robin asked with a silent prayer. 

“I’d say we’ve moved past reckless a long time ago,” Jason replied and grabbed Robin’s face. “I promise, I will never break your heart,” he added and reached for Robin’s hands. “Can I kiss you now?” Jason asked with the cutest smile he could afford. 

“I thought you’d never ask,” Robin replied and leaned in for an affectionate kiss.

This was the beginning of a beautiful, beautiful romance.

 

         Written By:

               Typical Angel