The Pretend Marriage: A Werewolf Romance by Dawn Steele Page B

       What does your partner like to eat for breakfast?
    4.       Does your partner drink coffee in the morning?
    5.        When is your partner’s birthday?
    6.        What did the two of you do during last Christmas?
    7.        How often does your partner like to shift in a week?
     
    “Grandma!” yells Mika. “How the hell would I know what Aunt Ethel did last Christmas?”
    “Silly girl, of course you do. This is a little quiz to gauge just how much you know about each other. And that goes for you too, Mika. Ethel’s family after all.”
    “What is this? The Green Card interview?” Mika grumbles.
    This is not, not good, Terry thinks as she starts to scribble furiously beside the first question. She catches sight of Jake, who is trying to frantically meet her eyes.
    “No cheating now,” Martha admonishes gaily as she strides in between the lines like a principal. “No texting each other on the phone to check your answers.”
    Damn.
    Terry doesn’t know Jake’s favorite color from Methuselah’s. She casts her mind to what he usually likes to wear but can’t pinpoint any particular preference. But he looks good in black, and so she desperately scribbles:
     
    BLACK.
     
    2. Favorite movie:
     
    Hell, she doesn’t even know if he likes to watch movies. He has certainly never mentioned any, and what does she know about him anyway? Does he even watch movies at all? Does he ever find the time to?
    This i s going downhill all the way.
    “You have two minutes,” Martha warns, making an about turn to go up the lines instead.
    Terry settles for ‘THE MATRIX’, because she knows a lot of guys who like the movie.
     
    3.        Favorite breakfast food:
     
    Uh, uh, uh. Duh.
     
    CEREAL.
     
    4.       Coffee?
     
    YES.
    Who the hell doesn’t drink coffee?
     
    5.        Birthday?
     
    Oh shit and double shit. There are three hundred and sixty five days to choose from. She has never seen Jake’s ID before, nor remembered any birthday celebration he could possibly have. They have certainly never mentioned birthdays to each other because they were barely speaking before this, and she isn’t even his Friend on Facebook.
    She raises her eyes. Jake is busy scribbling something down. Now she wishes she has ESP so she can connect with him. Give me a sign, Jake! He finally looks up and furrows his brow. It would not do to mouth anything to him like ‘Birthday?’ because Martha is on the prowl. Honestly, that woman would make a good Mother Superior.
     
    6.        Last Xmas?
     
    She frowns as she tries to think of what she did last Christmas. Oh yeah, she hadn’t even moved into Jake’s apartment block yet. How the hell would she know what he did last Christmas? Visited his mother’s? Most people do.
    She writes down:
    VISITED HOME.
    Ah, vague and ambiguous. Whose home? His parents or her parents?
     
    7.        Shifting Frequency
     
    She is stumped. How often does Jake shift? She has never seen him shift before up till today. They live in an apartment block which hosts both humans and shifters, and there are rules about not shifting in the corridors and stairs – which is standard city ordinance for shifters as part of them living amid the general public.
    Duh.
    She has never seen him shift before this. Honestly.
    So she puts down:
     
    ONCE A MONTH.
     
    Her palms are sweaty. This is worse than the SATs.
    “Time’s up,” Martha says crisply as though it is the end of an examination. “Don’t forget to write your names down now so we can compare notes.”
    Terry passes up her sheet of paper with nail-biting apprehension. She glimpses Jeff eyeing her smugly, as if he knows what she doesn’t know.
    I’ll catch you both out yet , he seems to be saying.
    When Peter and Martha have collected all the papers, the two groups merge once again.
    “Oh my God,” Terry whispers.
    “Ssssh,” Jake murmurs. “Hug me.”
    “Huh?”
    He embraces her. “You can