I awoke to the sound of Chris cooking in the kitchen. Looking at the alarm clock on my nightstand, I could see that it was only 8:00 in the morning. I knew that he was a morning person, but I didn’t actually expect him to be cooking all of our meals. I had no problem ordering something and having it delivered. But I wasn’t going to lie to myself and say that I didn’t like the fact that he was here cooking for me. Getting up, I take a look outside as I walk over to my closet to pick out an outfit for the day. Snow is falling pretty hard outside, so it doesn’t look like we are going anywhere anytime soon. Choosing a warm pair of sweatpants and a matching hoodie, I quickly go to the bathroom to brush my teeth and freshen up before walking to the kitchen. 

As I enter the kitchen, he cheerfully says, “Good morning, I made some coffee and I’m just finishing up the french toast.”

“I didn’t think I had anything in here for french toast,” I said as I sat down at the kitchen island. 

“You didn't," he replied. “I woke up early to workout and stopped by the grocery store on the way back because it was calling for a blizzard. I didn’t grab much, since I was walking home, but I grabbed some stuff for today and probably tomorrow as well, if we get creative with your ingredients.”

“Thank you,” I said with a grateful smile. “But honestly, how early do you wake up?” I ask with curiosity.

“Normally I like to get up around 5 AM but today I didn’t get up until closer to 6, so I only had time for a short workout, which is why I walked everywhere,” he replies as he fills two plates with french toast. 

“That is impressive, you went to bed late last night too. How are you not tired right now?” I ask. 

As he brings the french toast over, he says, “I had a lot of coffee this morning and my workouts usually get my day started so it wakes me up pretty well.”

“Thank you for the food, I’m sure it's going to be delicious. “ And as usual, the food he made was incredible. As we finished up breakfast, I realized that we would not be able to go out and do any of the stuff that I had planned. In this weather, there was no way that we would be able to go get a tree. And there is no point in getting the rest of the decorations out if I don’t have a tree. 

With this new realization, I asked him, “What do you want to do today? We can’t really go out Christmas shopping like I’d planned, and by the look of the snow falling outside, we’re going to be stuck inside all day.”

With a smirk, he replies, “I could think of worse places and people to be stuck inside with all day. Besides, I’m sure I could find it fun to just do simple house chores with you. We could do some laundry and maybe you’ll help me cook lunch and dinner, if you want.” Despite beginning with a teasing tone, his voice gradually grew serious as if he seriously looked forward to us doing house chores together. 

I couldn’t help but blush at his words as I picked up our plates from breakfast. Before I could make it to the sink, he immediately said, “I’ll get them for you, I made the mess, I can wash the dishes.”

“I let you wash them by yourself last night, if you really want, you can help me.” I replied. Although I would’ve typically insisted that I do them alone, I couldn’t help but be curious as to how it would feel to do normal house chores with him. At this rate, I knew it wouldn’t be long before I gave in and admitted my feelings to him. 

We managed to finish the dishes quickly with a surprisingly small amount of distractions. Despite his constant teasing, we worked well together. After putting everything away, he said, “Do you have anything else that needs to be done? Maybe some laundry or I could vacuum for you.” 

Without a single thought, I immediately refused, “Of course not, I don’t actually plan to use you as some sort of house maid. I appreciate the cooking that you have been doing, but I don’t expect you to take care of the house on your own.”

“And I don’t expect you to do everything on your own either. I am here using just as much stuff as you are.” he responded. 

As I walk towards the sofa, I say, “Well, I don’t feel like doing a ton of house chores today, and I did a ton of cleaning before I went to go get you, so it should be fine to wait to do the laundry. Besides, all we need to wash is just our towels and clothes from yesterday. That wouldn’t even make a full load. And the vacuum will still be here tonight.”

Sitting down next to me, he asks, “What did you have in mind then? I could think of plenty of ways that we could find to keep ourselves entertained.”

Immediately a blush covered my face and he chuckled before saying, “What are you thinking about over there? I was thinking we could watch a movie or maybe play some sort of board game or video games. I can see you have a console and an extra controller.”

Trying to hide my embarrassment over the fact I misunderstood what he was saying I reply, “We can play some video games if you like. I don’t know if you’d like any of the games I have though. I don’t really play any violent games.”

As I finish my sentence, he walks over to my game collection and says, “You have quite a few good games. Honestly, I’d play any of them with you. So, do you have a favorite that you want to play together.”

“Sure,” I say as I walk over to him. Taking one of the games out of his hand, I put it in the console and turned the TV on. Grabbing our controllers I said, “Come on, let's play.” Before I knew it, we had been playing for four hours. I probably would have played for longer but he asked me, “Aren’t you getting hungry yet? It is lunchtime.” Timed perfectly with him asking this question, I could hear his stomach growling in protest. 

Pausing the game, I realized that I was a little hungry. “I could definitely eat, let’s get to work on lunch then. Did you have something specific in mind?”

With a smile, he gets up and starts pulling ingredients out. “Since it is so cold outside, I was thinking that we could make some soup and grilled cheese.”

“Sounds good,” I replied as I followed him into the kitchen. “What do you want me to start with?”

Grabbing some vegetables, he handed them over to me saying, “Start by chopping these up. I’m going to cut up the chicken and get it in the pot.” 

I couldn’t help but watch how quickly and naturally he chopped up the chicken. In just a few minutes, the chicken was in the pan as he waited for the water to start boiling. Before he noticed that I had been watching him, I quickly returned to the task at hand, and began to chop the carrots, celery and onion to go into the soup. As I finished up the vegetables, I looked to find him standing next to me and watching me. “I’ll put them in the soup,” he says as he takes the vegetables. 

“The soup is going to need a bit longer to cook, so we’ll wait to start the grilled cheese. If you want, I did get some fruit we could cut up and snack on while we wait.”, he says. 

Moving towards the refrigerator, I begin to take out the fruit he bought. Strawberries, grapes, cherries, blueberries and raspberries. “These all look really good, I say as I place them on the counter.”

When he realized that I was getting the fruit out, he had already grabbed another chopping board and knife and as I washed the fruit in the sink, he had already grabbed a plate to put the cut up fruit on. Within a few minutes we had a selection of fruit washed and cut. We snacked on the fruit while we waited for the soup to finish cooking.

We then quickly made some grilled cheese to go with the soup and as soon as they were finished we both got our soup and sandwich and sat down to eat. Tasting the soup, I already knew it would be delicious, but once again, I was blown away by how good he is at cooking. As usual, I made sure to compliment him on his cooking… well technically  our cooking this time. 

After we finished eating, we quickly washed the dishes and put away the leftovers for dinner. Heading back to the sofa, I asked, “Do you want to continue playing this game, or would you like to do something else?”

I wasn’t expecting his enthusiasm as he replied, “I’ve got the finish decorating the building I made. It looks ugly right now, but I know I can make it look better.” As we pick up our controllers we both get back into the game. Once again we play for a few hours, this time stopping for snacks in the middle. We ate some of the fruit we cut up earlier as well as some chips and candy I had in the cabinets. 

We stopped playing to eat dinner and decided to save our game and come back to it tomorrow. As we sat on the couch, I asked, “What do you want to do next? Do you want to watch a movie?”

“Sure,” he responded as he grabbed the remote. “Do you want to pick one?”

“No, you can pick something.” I replied. I know that I typically don’t really like to watch movies, so I don’t want to pick something that we wouldn’t like. 

“How about this one?” he says, scrolling over a movie. “It got some pretty good reviews, and it looks interesting.”

Surprisingly, I actually enjoyed the movie. It was a little stereotypical in that it was a horror movie that involved some teens that don’t pay attention to their surroundings well enough, but the characters were well-developed and there were some things that were different enough that the movie still felt original. 

Talking about the movie afterwards, he asked, ”Have you ever played truth or dare?”

“Not in a long time,” I reply. “But out of everything that happened in the movie, you focus on the time they played truth or dare for like 2 minutes out of the entire movie.” I said with a laugh. 

“Would you like to play truth or dare?” he asks. “Three rounds, and if you can't answer the question or complete the dare, you have to do whatever the other person wants for 4 hours.”

Realizing that he was completely serious and has already thought this through I asked, “What does “whatever the other person wants” include? I want to be making an informed choice before I agree to this.”

“We can change it to within reason. I would hope we wouldn’t pick anything too extreme for each other.” he says with a smile. 

“Okay then, your turn first since you suggested this. Truth or dare?” I ask. 

“Dare” he says as a confident grin makes its way onto his face.

“Okay, I dare you to do thirty push ups.” I respond. I knew that this dare would be easy for him to complete, since he had told me a bit about his exercise routine. 

“Are you sure you don't want to pick something else for a dare? You don't really get anything out of this, unless you just wanted to see me exercise.” As he began his push-ups, he continued, “If that's the case, I don't mind bringing you along for my workouts.” As he easily finished the rest of his push-ups, he maintained eye contact with me as he counted out all 30. 

As he gets up, he says, “Your turn now, truth or dare.”

“Truth,” I immediately reply.

“Okay, I want you to honestly tell me how you feel about me.”

“Wow, you couldn't even have the courtesy to give me an easy question. We're starting off with this right off the bat.” I complained. As I thought about the questions, I realized that he probably asked me this so that I had to do what he wanted for four hours. Judging by the look on his face, he was counting on me refusing. “Well, I might as well be honest. I like you, but I'm afraid of what that could mean since we don't know each other well. I also don't have much relationship experience and the thought of dating someone still makes me a little anxious. Especially due to the real reason we met being to find a fake relationship, I'm worried that things are going to feel forced or artificial.”

Watching his expression change from shock to hopefulness to an expression I couldn't read yet, I asked him, “Your turn, truth or dare.”

This time, he decided to pick truth and I already had a question ready. “Since you seemed so sure that I would be giving up on the last question, what did you have in mind for the four hour prize?”

With a sigh, he replies, “I was hoping to take you on a date, although considering your reservations about us, I don't think that's the best idea at the moment. Truth or dare?”

“Truth”, I responded.

“Is it true I have no chance of getting you to go out with me?”, he replies with a dejected look on his face.

Realizing that denying my feelings will only hurt the both of us, I decided to be completely honest with him. “No, I like you and would like to go out with you. The idea of dating someone I barely know is the only thing that is really holding me back at the moment. Although I don’t suppose we’ll have any problem fixing that being as though we are essentially stuck together at least until Christmas is over. And just so you know, I think that a date sounds fantastic.” I reply with a genuine smile. 

As the smile returned to his face, he said, “I pick dare for mine.”

“Choosing before I could even ask you,” I said with a teasing tone before thinking about what I would dare him to do. This is the last one for him so I decided to go easy on him. “I dare you to go outside and make a snowman with me tomorrow.”

“What kind of dare is that? Seems more like a reward to me,” he says. “Alright then, it's your turn, Truth or Dare?”

“Dare,” I answer. 

“I dare you to give me a hug,” he says.

I quickly moved closer and wrapped my arms around him. He immediately wraps his arms around me as well as he pulls me closer to him. “How long were we supposed to hug for?” I ask after I realize we had been holding each other for a few minutes. 

“However long you like, it is your dare and I didn’t specify,” he replied as he loosened his grip on me to give me room to pull away if I’d like. 

“Let’s stay like this for a few more minutes before we head to bed.” I reply. 

After a few more minutes of enjoying each other’s warmth we pull away from each other and say our goodnight before heading into our respective rooms. 

Immediately after closing the door, I sank to the floor in shock that I had both confessed my feelings to him and hugged him for probably 10 minutes in the same night. I couldn’t deny that we had gotten much closer and I looked forward to building a snowman with him tomorrow. I decided to try to sleep, as I was tired and planned to get up earlier tomorrow and try to make him breakfast for a change. Lying down in bed, I found myself struggling to sleep as my mind replayed every moment that we had spent together today. Eventually, I was able to fall asleep.