Why Does If I Never Met You Make Fake Dating Feel So Believable?

Because Fake Dating is just the engine.

If I Never Met You by Mhairi McFarlane

Themes:

• Fake Dating

• Workplace Romance

• Emotional Healing

• British Romance

In Short: If I Never Met You works because fake dating is only the story engine. Mhairi uses it to create emotional safety, allowing Laurie to rebuild her identity before the romance can become believable.

Fake dating is one of romance's most recognisable tropes. We know what is going to happen before the story begins. Two people are going to agree to pretend to be together, usually for practical reasons, and somewhere along the way the line between performance and reality will blur. We know they are going to end up together.

So, the question is, why do some fake dating romances feel a little unnatural or forced, whilst others you quickly forget the fake dating engine is even a thing?

We've all read the ones where you become so absorbed in the story that the romance just feels…inevitable, and not in a plot way.

This was what I kept returning to whilst reading If I Never Met You. Not how convincing the fake relationship was, but how Mhairi McFarlane made the romance feel so inevitable. It was like a slide, and Laurie and Jamie just slipped straight down it.

The answer, I think, has surprisingly little to do with the fake dating itself. The fake dating story is just the engine. Instead, this is a story about Laurie and Jamie, and how everything around them has an impact of their romance story.

'He doesn't fight her battles for her; he stands right by her side while she grows strong enough to fight them for herself.'

Why Laurie Has to Find Herself First

When we first meet Laurie, she isn't only losing her relationship; she is losing a version of herself that she has been for the last eighteen years. When the relationship ends, she is not only grieving the loss of Dan and the future she thought she and Dan were destined for, but she is also questioning her judgement. This matters because it changes what the story is really about.

Jamie isn't here to rescue the woman who has been unlucky in love. He's entering the life of someone whose sense of identity has, unknowingly, been slowly eroded over many years. Before Laurie can believe someone else might choose her, she has to start believing in herself again.

Yes, If I Never Met You is the story of Laurie and Jamie, but first it's Laurie's story, and Jamie, and all the other secondary characters are part of it, either positively or negatively.

Dan continues to shape Laurie's decisions long after he leaves. Every interaction reminds us how accustomed she has become to doubting herself. Emily and the people who genuinely care about Laurie quietly pull her in the opposite direction, reminding her who she was before that confidence disappeared.

I love the scene where Laurie has to convince Emily that people's perceptions can be wrong, it's a really clever way to get Laurie thinking about her own identity, the one she has accepted for years.

Even the office gossip plays its part, because every whispered conversation and sideways glance reinforces how exposed Laurie feels.

One of the many things I noticed in If I Never Met You is that nothing feels as if it is only happening because the plot needs it to. Laurie's disappearing Dad, the forgotten memory resurfacing, visiting Jamie's Dad, each moment arrives naturally, but naturally giving Laurie another opportunity to understand herself a little better. They don't feel like plot twists; they feel like life just naturally unfolding. Because her healing feels natural, the romance does too.

None of these people exist simply to fill the background. They create the emotional environment in which Laurie either retreats or grows. The romance becomes believable because Jamie's is one voice among many.

Perhaps that's why Jamie feels so different from many romantic heroes. He doesn't spend the novel persuading Laurie to love him. Instead, he gives her space and the support to become someone who can. He doesn't fight her battles for her; he stands right by her side while she grows strong enough to fight them for herself. He doesn't dismantle her fears with grand declarations; instead, he consistently behaves in ways that make trust possible. That consistency matters.

Real trust is rarely built through dramatic gestures. More often, it grows through repeated experiences that gently challenge what we previously believed about ourselves and about other people.

'Laurie and Jamie are strangely free from many of the uncertainties that usually accompany the beginning of a relationship'

Why The Fake Dating Actually Works

Like I said, the fake relationship is simply an engine. It’s there to create opportunities for Laurie and Jamie to talk without expectation. It gives them opportunities to notice one another without the pressure of romance, and it gives them an opportunity to build familiarity before vulnerability becomes unavoidable.

Because everyone already believes they're together, Laurie and Jamie are strangely free from many of the uncertainties that usually accompany the beginning of a relationship. They don't need to wonder whether spending time together might be interpreted as interest. Instead, they can focus on something simpler; they can just get to know each other.

'Laurie begins to experience a relationship that feels fundamentally different from the one she lost'

Why The Community Matters

The setting makes this possible in ways that feel uniquely British. The Manchester legal world isn't simply where Laurie and Jamie happen to work. It's a professional community built on reputation, observation, and appearance. Colleagues notice who arrives together. They speculate over lunches. Careers and personal lives overlap in ways that make privacy almost impossible.

Within that environment, pretending to date feels logical. If Dan worked in a different law firm, the fake dating wouldn't work; it wouldn't be born from the social pressure Laurie feels from the workplace.

The arrangement solves practical problems while creating entirely new emotional ones. Every shared event, every office conversation, and every social gathering asks Laurie and Jamie to perform closeness they haven't yet acknowledged privately. Somewhere along the way, that performance begins to reveal truths neither of them are quite ready to admit.

Mhairi doesn't have Laurie and Jamie simply falling in love because they are faking it. She doesn't force an attraction, that for some reason has never appeared before. She actually makes a point of how little they know of each other, and how much Laurie is immune to him before the start of their 'showmance'.

She also doesn't make Laurie go from an eighteen-year relationship straight into something new. It's chapter 30 before Laurie starts realising she no longer wants Dan's attention on her. This matters because Mhairi refuses to rush Laurie's healing simply to get to the romance. Instead, she allows Laurie time to grieve, and heal, and uncover things about herself and the relationship that she has never acknowledged. Jamie and the supporting cast create an emotionally safe space for Laurie to do this.

Jamie doesn't suddenly become attractive because they're pretending. He becomes attractive because, within the safety of that arrangement, Laurie begins to experience a relationship that feels fundamentally different from the one she lost.

She discovers someone who listens instead of dismissing. Who supports rather than controls. Who encourages rather than diminishes. Each experience quietly challenges the story Laurie has been telling herself about what she deserves.

That's why the emotional progression feels so satisfying. The romance isn't moving because two people gradually admit their feelings. It's moving because one person gradually rediscovers her own worth, while the other patiently proves himself worthy of her trust.

By the time they finally stop pretending, very little actually changes. The relationship has already become real. Perhaps that's why this fake-dating romance feels so believable. Not because the premise is realistic, but because every emotional step inside it is.

The novel reminds us that love rarely arrives in one unforgettable moment. More often, it appears through dozens of small moments that quietly reshape the way we see ourselves and each other.

The Thought That Stayed With Me

The more I think about this story, the more I know it's not about pretending to be in love. It feels like a story about pretending to be someone who was already healed, only to discover that healing often happens because someone gives us enough safety to become ourselves again.

Maybe the most believable romances aren't the ones where two people fall in love. They're the ones where one person finally feels safe enough to believe they deserve to be loved.

One Question To Leave You With

If Fake Dating is your story engine, what emotional safety is it creating for your character?

The stories we love shape the stories we write. I hope this thought stays with you the next time you sit down to write yours.

See you on Skrinkle Lane

Val xx

Literature Graduate.

Developmental Editor.

Completely Obsessed with Great British Romance

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