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When Pete walked into the Blue Bar, he could tell right away that something was up.
The usual patrons were gathered there for their revelry and didn’t seem to notice anything, but Pete could practically see the dark cloud that hung over Muffy’s head as she bustled up and down the bar serving drinks. He briefly entertained the idea of turning right back around and going home but she caught his eye from across the room and gestured for him to take a seat. Thus caught, he could do nothing but acquiesce.
As soon as he slid into his seat on the barstool, Muffy was there in an instant.
“What can I get for you tonight?” she asked.
She appeared to be trying to put on a smile that didn’t quite reach her eyes.
“Uh… just a ranch water, please,” Pete said with an awkward cough.
That managed to coax a bit of brightness back into Muffy’s smile.
“How typical for a farmer,” she giggled before flouncing off to relay the order to Griffin.
From where he sat, Pete watched Griffin prepare the drink with expert skill. A glass of ice filled with sparkling water, then a splash of tequila and lime juice, and finally topped off with a final lime wedge for garnish. Muffy quickly returned to the drink and slid it across the bar to Pete, who sipped it gratefully.
He watched her for a moment before he was finally compelled to speak.
“Alright, spill,” he said, rapping his knuckles on the bar top. “You’ve got something on your mind. You aren’t your usual cheery self.”
“Oh, am I that obvious?” Muffy lamented, dragging her hands down her face. Pete merely arched a single eyebrow expectantly. Muffy sighed. “Well, the issue is that I got a call from my parents the other day.”
“Is that a bad thing?” Pete asked carefully.
Muffy shook her head, her golden curls bouncing around her ears.
“No, not at all! I love my parents, but they can be a bit… much.”
“How so?”
“They’re meddlers,” Griffin interjected from the end of the bar.
Muffy shot him a glare and he returned to rinsing some used glasses, chuckling as he did.
“They mean well,” Muffy began, turning back to Pete. “But yes, they do have a bit of a habit of sticking their nose into my business. They’re just worried about me is all.”
“What about?” asked Pete as he took another sip of his drink.
“They’re worried that I haven’t found anybody special.” Muffy dragged her fingertip through the ring of condensation left on the bar from Pete’s drink. “They don’t like the idea of me living all by myself.”
“But you’re not alone!” Pete protested. He gestured with his glass at the surrounding bar patrons. “Everyone here loves you!”
“Here here!” cheered Kassey from somewhere nearby.
Muffy giggled and fluffed her hair at Pete’s compliment. A light blush had risen to her cheeks and Pete couldn’t help but think how lovely it made her look in the warm light of the bar. Perhaps the tequila was making him a bit sentimental.
“Yes, and I love everyone here as well,” Muffy replied. “But you know how parents can worry. Especially when their only daughter is a pretty, single thing like me living all by her lonesome.”
She leaned a bit over the bar and gave Pete a flirtatious wink who merely rolled his eyes affectionately in response.
“Alright, so they’re meddlers,” he said around a laugh. “What does them calling you have to do with that?”
“It’s embarrassing, but they’re coming next week to meet my boyfriend.”
“Oh? You have a boyfriend?”
Muffy chewed her bottom lip and twirled a lock of hair around her finger.
“Er, that is… no. No I don’t. But I… may have told them I did. Just do they would stop worrying,” he mumbled.
Her cheeks had gone as red as her dress and Pete had to quickly swallow his drink to keep from spitting it out in surprise. He could see Griffin smirking out of the corner of his eye.
“Yeah that’s… that’s a problem,” Pete replied and wiped his mouth on the back of his hand.
“So now I’m in a right pickle. They’re expecting me to have a handsome beau to introduce them to this Saturday!”
“Yeah. That’s a tough one.” Pete hopped off his stool. “Oh, look at the time! I’d better put my chickens away before the wolves get them and—”
“Oh no you don’t, mister!”
He yelped as Muffy reached over the bar to seize him by the back of his shirt and drag him bodily back onto the stool. He wheezed and rubbed at his neck. For a woman on the more petite side, Muffy was certainly a lot stronger than she looked.
“Geez, what do you want from me!” he griped.
“I need you to pretend to be my boyfriend. Just for the weekend,” Muffy said.
“What?! Why me?!”
“Because…” She wrung her hands. “I may have already said that my boyfriend lived in town with me…”
Pete groaned.
“…and he owned a farm…”
He groaned louder.
“…and that his name was Pete.”
He thunked his head on the bar and tried to ignore Griffin’s wheezing laughter. He lifted his head to glare daggers at the woman in front of him.
“Okay. Assuming I agree to this little scheme of yours, what do I get in return?” he asked.
“A kiss?” Muffy simpered with a flutter of her eyelashes.
“No. Try again.”
Muffy huffed and crossed her arms over her chest.
“Fine. If you help me, I suppose I could foot the bill on your drinks for the rest of the week,” she grumbled.
Pete practically cackled as he held his hand out for a shake.
“You’ve got yourself a deal, missy!”
As he and Muffy shook, he pointedly ignored Griffin’s jab that what they were doing was a bad idea.
After a week of perfecting their cover-story, Pete and Muffy stood arm-in-arm at the mountain path leading out of Forget-Me-Not-Valley. It had taken a bit of convincing to wrangle Pete into something nicer than his usual overalls and muddy boots, but Muffy felt it had been well worth the effort with how dashing a figure he cut in a slightly nicer pair of overalls and only somewhat muddy boots.
“When do you think they’ll be here?” Pete asked. He lifted his hand to shield his eyes from the sun (since Muffy had insisted he at least get rid of the hat for the time being).
“They should be… there they are!”
Muffy slapped his bicep and excitedly pointed toward the mouth of the valley where a horse-drawn cart could be seen ambling down the rocky path. At this distance, Pete couldn’t make out the faces of the couple seated in the back, but he could hear the male half of the pair well enough.
“Good Lord, man! Slow this cart down before you kill us all!”
Pete huffed out a sigh. That must be Muffy’s father. She’d warned him about his fussiness.
“Oh! That’s daddy!” Muffy said excitedly and Pete sucked his lips behind his teeth, displeased to have been right.
The cart ambled closer, swaying side-to-side and Pete could finally make out the two people seated in the back.
Muffy’s mother – Pete had been told her name was Rosie – slumped a little in her seat with a paper bag held over her mouth. Evidently the bumpy ride hadn’t agreed with her stomach. She was blonde, like her daughter, with her hair pulled back in a blue bow and clad in a matching summer dress.
The man beside her, her husband Richard, was rubbing her shoulders in a comforting gesture between shouts at the driver to slow down. The driver in question, Pete’s old friend Takakura, merely grunted in reply and kept up the sedate pace of the wagon.
“Oh, darling, I think I’m going to faint…” Rose moaned around a gag.
“We’re here,” Takakura rumbled, not giving Richard a chance to launch into another tirade.
He gestured to where Pete and Muffy were standing.
“Momma, daddy!” Muffy cried with delight.
At the sight of their daughter, Richard and Rose’s faces broke into matching smiles (at least, Pete assumed Rose was smiling from the bag) and helped each other out of the cart.
“There’s our sweet Muffy!” Richard crowed.
Rose hiccupped once and then tossed the bag back into the cart, much to Takakura’s chagrin. He didn’t bother sticking around any longer and spurred the horse forward back to the mountain path, kicking up dust as he went.
“And who’s this handsome man?” Rose tittered.
“Momma, this is my boyfriend, Pete. The one I spoke about.”
“Ah, yes! Young Peter! A fine young man indeed,” Richard chortled, clapping Pete on the back.
Despite the older man looking like he’d just come back from a business meeting, his hand was surprisingly strong. Pete felt the wind knocked out of his chest. He could see now where Muffy got it from.
“Th- thank you, sir,” he wheezed.
“So, where’s this farm you mentioned?” Rose asked, looking around excitedly. She pointed at where Vesta, Marlin, and Celia were working in their fields. “Is that is? Are those people your workers?”
“N-no. That’s not it,” Muffy answered quickly. “That’s Vesta’s farm. Pete’s is just a bit further down the road. We can walk it.”
“Just so long as we don’t have to ride that dreadful cart again,” Richard muttered as he stroked his beard thoughtfully. “That Takokaro fellow darn near gave me a heart attack.”
“Takakura,” Pete corrected him.
“Come along, sweetie!” Muffy exclaimed, clearly eager to get this visit out of the way. “Let’s go show momma and daddy your lovely farm.” She tugged Pete into a walk and glanced over her shoulder at her parents bringing up the rear of their impromptu procession. “I think you two will be quite impressed.”
“I’m sure we will!” Rose said excitedly.
“We’d better be if you hope to have any hope of getting our blessing to marry our perfect princess,” Richard declared with great solemnity.
At the mention of marriage, Pete stumbled a step but quickly re-oriented himself. He swallowed down a mortified groan threatening to bubble up. Perhaps Griffin had been right all along…
The visit went about as well as it could. Richard and Rose had been delighted to explore his farm. And while they had a few comments here and there about the size of his fields relative to Vesta’s, his animals more than made up for it. Richard had whooped with excitement when Pete’s horse, Cocoa, had gone galloping across the field to greet them. Rose had been enamored with the little ducks in the pond that happily splashed about in the warm sunshine. Even Pete had to admit that, for all their quirks, Muffy’s parents were okay people. Still, he couldn’t wait until they were gone and he could have his farm back to himself.
“This is going perfectly!” Muffy whispered to him as they both watched her parents feed a cow some fresh-cut grass by hand.
Pete linked their arms together so he could lean closer to remain unheard.
“I agree, but how much longer do I have to keep up this charade?”
“Just until they’re gone, which shouldn’t be too long now. Then I can write a letter to them saying we had a nasty breakup and that’s the end of that.”
Pete hummed noncommittally. His brow furrowed a little. Something about that didn’t sit right with him. He couldn’t put his finger on the reason why, but the way Muffy had been so blasé about their fake breakup had his chest wrenching uncomfortably. Maybe it was heartburn. Too much curry.
He was snapped out of his thoughts when Richard and Rose stepped up to him.
“Muffy, darling, this was a lovely visit,” Rose sighed happily.
“As much as we hate to leave, it’s about time we did. Don’t want to be still on the road once it gets dark,” Richard concurred with another stroke of his beard.
“Don’t worry about the trip back,” Pete chuckled. “I’ll tell Takakura to be extra gentle with you two.”
“My appreciated, my boy.”
Richard extended his hand for a shake, which Pete returned before offering the same to Rose.
“How about a kiss for the road?” Rose tittered.
Pete blinked in confusion and stooped down a little towards her.
“Yes. A kiss for my parents. That you give me,” Muffy said between gritted teeth as she lightly jabbed Pete in the ribs with her elbow.
“R-right! Right.”
Pete took a step closer to Muffy until they were practically chest-to-chest. She smiled softly up at him through her lashes and Pete swallowed around a suddenly dry throat. He lifted a shaky hand to her face and ran his calloused thumb over her cheek. Her skin felt so soft!
“That boy of yours seems a bit shy,” Richard teased.
Pete opened his mouth to defend himself – after all, what kind of weirdos asked to watch their daughter kiss her boyfriend?! – but Muffy beat him to it. She gave a little “tsk”, reached with her perfectly-manicured hands, placed them on either side of his face, then tugged him down into a kiss.
Pete had thought he was prepared for this. One of the things he and Muffy had discussed prior to her parents’ visit was whether or not kissing was something they could do to keep up the lie. Muffy was in favor of it, and Pete had agreed on the grounds that a kiss what just a kiss; no need to get so worked up about it.
But there, stooped a little at the waist with the taste of Muffy’s strawberry-flavored lip gloss on his tongue, Pete was getting very worked up about it. His face bloomed as red as the aforementioned fruit and it took him a second or two to return the gesture. His hands flew to her hips and pulled her flush against him as he angled his head to deepen the kiss. His eyes fluttered shut.
Right as he felt her lips part and the barest teasing hint of tongue press against his mouth, someone nearby loudly cleared their throat. Pete lurched away with a choked off sound.
“Don’t get carried away, you two,” Rose said with a hint of a knowing smile. “We’re not ready for grandchildren just yet.”
Pete was thankful that Muffy was better at words than he was. He felt himself quite robbed of them. From there, the rest of the goodbyes passed in a blur. There had been something about stopping by for the Starry Night festival, statements about how lovely that would be, and then a final promise to keep in contact via letters and calls.
Pete had to practically force his arm back down when he realized he was still waving long after Takakura’s cart was out of sight.
And then it was just him.
Him and Muffy.
Alone.
He licked at his chapped lips, still slightly sweet with strawberries.
“So, um… I guess we gotta talk about that,” he mumbled.
“Talk about what?”
Pete glanced out of the corner of his eye at Muffy. She was idly twirling a strand of hair around her finger and still watching the road. She didn’t seem to really be paying attention to him, but then she glanced at him from under her lashes and averted her gaze quickly. “If you’re talking about the kiss, I don’t see what all the fuss is about. A kiss is just a kiss, like you said.”
“And… and what if I didn’t want it to be ‘just’ anything?”
Muffy’s hair-twirling stilled, yet she still didn’t look at him.
“Hm?”
Pete brushed her cheek with the tips of his fingers to gently turn her face up and towards him.
“I… I’m saying that- that maybe- maybe, um…”
“Pete?”
Muffy was looking at him completely. How had he not noticed until then that her eyes weren’t simply green, but the color of dark sea glass? “Are you alright? You look scared.”
Pete sighed and let some of the tension bleed from his shoulders.
“I’m fine. Just thinking.”
“Thinking about what?”
“That… maybe we don’t have to tell your parents we ‘broke up’.”
He held his breath as he waited for what he was saying to dawn on Muffy. She was a clever woman, and it didn’t take her long. Her eyes lit up as though something bright was shining within and she clasped her hands together, practically bouncing on the tips of her toes.
“Oh- oh really? You’d want to be with—”
“Only if you want—”
“Of course I do!”
“Th-then can I kiss you again?”
“Please do!”
Pete slid his hands around her lower back and laced his fingers together to pull her close. Her own hands drifted up to the nape of his neck to fiddle with his hair. She seemed to play with hair whenever excited or anxious, and Pete was delighted to have learned this new tidbit about her. He couldn’t wait to learn more in the coming months.
He took a moment to simply drink in the sight of her, plump lips parted slightly in an inadvertent temptation, then finally descended for their first real kiss.
And another.
And then another.
And one more for good measure. Just so she knew how much he loved her.
The End