Thanks so much for the reviews and follows. I love you guys and the insight you provide! I love writing dialogue and really have to force myself to write more straight narrative so bear with me if some of the next chapter feels a little strange. I do apologize if the chapters feel a bit short-I'm more used to writing short pieces, but I promise some juicy chapters will be coming your way soon, and hopefully, it will be worth it... Anyway, please continue to give me your feedback or even your favorites and follows if you enjoy reading the story.

Many thanks to Rob Thomas for his inspiring characters!

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Chapter 4

Dick lived up to his promise the next day and handed Mac her first payment, delivered with only a slight smirk and what Mac guessed was his attempt at a somewhat less-'Dick-ish' attitude. They had agreed to stage a few 'dates' before Dick would 'present' Mac (and her condition) to Dick's father, just to get their stories straight and get more comfortable around each other, plus Dick figured if his dad got really suspicious and sent a PI or lawyer to investigate, they would have a bit of cover with people seeing them together at the typical Neptune dating spots.

Mentally accepting that she was Dick's fake girlfriend/baby-mama was one thing (made easier by her soon to be fat back account), but living it was something entirely different she was finding. She learned she was going to have to get comfortable with things like hand-holding, little touches, and (shudder) the occasional peck, for everything to go according to Dick's plan.

Not realizing that Dick wanted to start the faked PDA as soon as possible, she was startled when he reached out and grabbed her hand as they were walking back to their respective cars.

"Hey, what are you doing?" Mac stopped walking and yelped, jerking her hand out of his grasp.

"Appearances, babe. We've got to keep them up, like I said," Dick mumbled as he reached for her hand again, non-plussed by her reaction and continued walking towards where they had parked their cars.

"You're a hand-holder, Dick? I'm sort of surprised. Didn't think you were into that sort of thing." Mac tried to dead-pan, hoping the blank expression on her face was hiding the whirl of emotions, and the betraying tingle somewhere in her not-so-dead-as-she thought lower regions that she was experiencing from the feeling of Dick's warm hand engulfing her own.

"There's a lot you don't know about me Ghostworld." Dick waggled his eyebrows and tugged on her hand to get her to start walking again.

"Sure. Still waters and all that," Mac mumbled under her own breath, and quickened her pace to keep up with Dick's long legs.

Once they got to her car, there was an awkward silence and a panic-inducing thought crossed Mac's mind. 'Oh god, he isn't going to kiss me goodbye, is he?'

"So, uh, is this your car?" Dick looked down doubtfully at her pride and joy, the little green bug she had paid for with her misbegotten gains from her Neptune High classmates.

"Yeah, Dick. So um, I gotta go." Mac tugged at Dick's hand for him to release hers.

"Sure, sure. Ghost world…?" Dick hesitated, rubbing his neck and running a hand through his hair.

Mac stared at Dick, wide-eyed, and all she could think was that if he tried to kiss her, she might have to demand more of his trust-fund money if he thought this was going to go beyond hand-holding right at this moment. She had figured the agree to PDA was only for dire circumstances only, not a regular occurence. "Uh, huh?"

"Are you free tomorrow?"

"It's Saturday, Dick. I don't have to work…" Mac hesitated. "Do you need me on girlfriend duty already?"

"Nah, not yet, but I've got like this thing I've got to do, and I was thinking you would be a good person to have around."

Mac couldn't hide her confusion. "Aren't you paying me already to help you out?"

"Nah, this is different…." Dick was the one hesitating this time. "I'm actually thinking about moving out of the Grand, and I'm meeting with a real-estate agent to look at houses, and I need like a non-interested perspective from someone." Mac just stared at him, prompting him with her silence. "Uh, usually I'd ask Logan, but he's…well, he's not much help right now, and I figured you could do it. You'd be helping me out as like a friend or something, which I feel like we are officially right now." Dick smiled at the last sentence, and gave her his best puppy-dog eyes.

Mac had decided she had officially entered the twilight zone—Dick had held her hand in public, he was actually being sort of nice, and he had just called her his friend. Still too stunned by the idea that Dick could be semi-human, she was unable to think of a good argument against going and nodded her agreement.

"Awesome, Mackie! You're like, a life-saver. I'll pick you up at 10 tomorrow morning, ok?"

Wide-eyed and grim faced, Mac just shook her head in agreement hesitantly, "um, ok," she mumbled and got into her car, waving a hesitant goodbye to him as he headed to his own car. As she drove to her parents house for the weekly Mackenzie-Family Friday Night Dinner, she wondered how in the span of a few days she had gone from a mostly normal life to this.

'Who are you kidding, Mackenzie? Since the day you were born your life has been pretty far from normal.' Mac muttered to herself and sighed, realizing that for better who worse (probably worse) she was going to have to live with the idea that it would be impossible to escape her connection to the Casablancas boys. Maybe it would be best not to analyze any of this situation too deeply?

Mac sighed again as these thoughts raced through her head, and tried to tamp down one more thought—that maybe, just maybe, for like a split-second, she was disappointed that Dick hadn't tried to to kiss her goodbye?Thankfully just as that stunning thought tripped through her head, she pulled into her parents's driveway. At least she wouldn't have to spend time mulling over that thought. Pizza with the parents was calling her and she just hoped her mom had remembered to order her a vegan pie…yeah, it was definitely best not to analyze the situation with Dick too closely.

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