by Clara Reese
But how can I help it, when she looks the way that she does? She’s absolutely drop-dead gorgeous and I can’t keep my eyes off of her. I’m not the only one either; practically the whole dining room has been eyeing her up whenever she walks through, and I can’t help but feel a smug sense of pride to be the one on her arm. Even if we’re just faking it. Sort of.
Over the course of the evening—and after more than a few drinks—I can feel myself relaxing more and feeling more comfortable about my attraction to her, and it would seem that the effect is passed on to everyone else as well. It’s clear that they all bought our ‘act’ and there isn’t a single doubter in the dining room by the time we leave, triumphant and successful in our endeavor.
All of her tiny touches and caresses not only helped convince everyone that we can’t seem to keep our hands off of each other, but it also served to drive me absolutely wild, so by the end of the night she’s all I can think about. It’s late by the time we get out and we get a car, and give the driver directions for how to take us back home.
“Oh my God, Dawn,” Gina exclaims, grinning ear to ear. “We did it! They all bought it and now the rumors will spread like wildfire.”
“Exactly. And that kiss, am I right?” I ask with a smirk, blushing. “I don’t think there was a single person in the room who didn’t feel it after that.”
Myself included.
“Right? Not a bad kisser, if I do say so myself.”
She winks at me and I giggle, unable to stop the blush from spreading in my cheeks as I lock eyes with her across the seat. She really is stunning and I’d be lying if I said that I wasn’t looking forward to the next time we had to ‘fake’ a kiss.
“Yeah, you won’t hear any complaints from me, that’s for sure.”
“Oh really?” She teases, biting her lip at me and leaning in. “I can’t help but notice that ever since, you’ve been staring at my lips every chance you get.”
I smirk at her and shrug my shoulders casually, chuckling as I fidget my hands in my lap and lean in closer as well.
“Can you blame me?”
“Not really. Plus, when you’re staring at my lips and distracted, it gives me a good opportunity to eye you up without you seeing.”
I roll my eyes and laugh, shaking my head as she chuckles and gently lays her hand over my thigh. I look down at it and bite my lip, the car coming to a stop as the driver announces the fact that we’re at my apartment.
“You know,” I say quietly, smirking, “Why don’t you come up for a bit? We can share a drink and…go over the details of the next month.”
She raises her brows, smiles, and chuckles, looking me up and down.
“Go over the details?”
“Yeah...you know. Plans, appearances, events. That sort of thing.”
She bites her lip with a sigh, and I can tell that she’s considering it, my heart thudding in my chest. I’m not really sure exactly what I’m hoping for, but all I know is that I don’t really think I want our night to end just yet.
“Dawn,” She says softly, and this time it’s her eyeing my lips, “I don’t think that’s the best idea. As much as I’d like to come upstairs…I should probably get back to my place.”
I’ll be honest, I’m disappointed. But I’m also not bitter about it.
She reaches over and squeezes my hand gently, smiling.
“I’ll be back tomorrow though, and we can talk over coffee once we’ve sobered up. Deal?”
She’s right, and of course I nod in agreement, squeezing her hand back with a smirk.
“You’re definitely right. Tomorrow then.”
She nods and leans in to give me a quick kiss on the cheek, and then chuckles as she leans over further and opens my door for me.
“Right. Tomorrow. Goodnight, Dawn.”
“Goodnight, Gina.”
I get out of the car and make my way upstairs to my apartment, a big smile on my face the whole way up. I’m pretty sure the doorman thought that I was high or something, which I suppose wasn’t far from the truth. I feel like I’m on cloud nine, the evening having gone so much better than expected. And, even though I invited Gina upstairs and she refused, I couldn’t be happier. I really appreciate the fact that she took the time to consider the bigger picture, and was thoughtful enough to want to make things clear, to do things right.
Once I get into my apartment and kick off my shoes, I flop down onto the couch with a happy sigh, and kick my feet up onto the arm. I’m actually really looking forward to tomorrow morning, despite the fact that I might have a little bit of a hangover by then; spending it with Gina will definitely be worth it.
I check my phone and see that there’s an email from my lawyer, so I open it up, and I frown when I read it, sighing. Much to my dismay, the stipulation put on the will does seem to be legal and on the up and up. I’m definitely going to have to not only get married, but to rush it, which isn’t ideal in any circumstance.
It will all be worth it though, I’m sure. Not only am I going to be using the chalet for an amazing purpose and helping hundreds of women, but I’ll be doing it with Gina by my side. It’s a cause that I know my Uncle Arthur would be proud of, and there’s no one better that I can think of to help me achieve that dream than Gina. I’m going to protect the chalet at all costs, and having Gina at my side will make it that much better.
And hey, if my fake wife ends up becoming my real wife, then that wouldn’t be so bad either. I could definitely do worse.
14
Gina
I look up at the front of Dawn’s apartment building and take a breath. I regretted not going up to her place with her last night as soon as I declined her offer, but the fact is if this is going to be a business arrangement then we have to act professional about it. It’d be a lot easier to refuse her if she wasn’t so hot, though.
I enter the elevator with the pastries I picked up from my favourite bakery this morning. My head is aching slightly with the aftereffects of last night. The Advil I took before leaving this morning clearly haven’t taken effect yet. I wonder how Dawn is doing. After all, she was quite a bit worse off than me at the end of the night.
I barely knocked on the sleek door of her apartment before it opens to reveal Dawn, yawning and mussing up her hair in the most adorable way. My breath hitches slightly. God she’s hot.
“I brought pastries.” I wave the bag under her nose and am glad when she perks up with excitement. I don’t know what she likes, so I brought a whole selection, the irony of not knowing my “fiancée’s” breakfast of choice not lost on me.
“Gina! Come in, glad you’re here.” She waves me inside, giving me a light, one-armed hug as I enter. “I’ll make us some coffee, shall I?”
I nod and place the bag down on her breakfast bar. Dawn reaches a plate down from a high shelf and slides it across the surface to me. I arrange our breakfast as artistically as I can, and select a cinnamon bun to start with as Dawn places my coffee in front of me and takes a seat across the bar.
“So. We need a plan,” she announces, grabbing a croissant and taking a big bite. I nod thoughtfully.
“Well,” I begin, “for this to work we need it to look as real as possible. 100% legit. No chinks in the armour anywhere. We need to spend as much time as possible together, take photos of happy memories and events in our lives, and we need to know more about each other.”
Dawn swallows and nods her head vigorously. “I agree, we need to do things that we can then tell people about, go on dates and things. Do you think it’s worth maybe tipping the gossip sites off about it? It’ll be all around the city in no time, and that’ll make it look credible.”
I think about it for a moment. “No,” I say slowly. “No, not too soon. The problem is that we need to do this quickly, but if we do it too quickly then they’ll start speculating about us and whether it’s all a sham. That’s the last thing we need.”
We sit in silence for a while, each trying to come up with some kind of g
ame plan. It’s nice to be in Dawn’s company. She’s an intelligent and incredibly impressive woman, but in all the time I’ve known her she’s never made me feel inferior like so many high flying CEOs like to do to their underlings. It’s something I admire greatly about her.
Our musings are interrupted when Dawn’s phone beeps loudly several times. She glances at the screen, and then puts it down again.
“Just my sisters,” she offers by way of explanation. “I’ll see what’s happening later, it won’t be important.”
I smile. “You have sisters?” I say, happy to be getting to know her better. “I have five brothers. I know what you mean, they act like everything’s an emergency, but they never have anything actually important to say.”
Dawn laughs but her reply is cut short by more beeping. She admits defeat and opens her group chat, and I duck my head to hide my smile. I look up again when I hear her groan in outrage.
“They coordinated that!” She yells. “Do they have some other group chat that I’m not privy to?! Ugh, they’ll be hearing about this, I swear if this is Gabby’s doing I’ll-”
I cut her rant short by grabbing the phone and looking at what’s happened. Photos of the society pages of newspapers and screenshots of gossip columns and socialite websites fill the chat. All of them include a photo of us kissing at the dinner table last night, along with various headlines proclaiming our engagement. So much for leaking the news gradually.
“Who’s coordinated what?” I ask, oblivious to the source of Dawn’s outrage. She takes the phone back and scrolls down, pointing out her sisters’ messages following the barrage of photos.
Charlotte: “What”
Patricia: “The”
Gabby: “Fuck!”
I stifle a giggle and hand the phone back. “At least it doesn’t look like any of the tabloids are questioning it?” I offer, and Dawn sighs and shakes her head, fighting back a grin.
“Yeah, true. Oh god, they’re going to kill me for not telling them. Look, Charlotte’s typing. I bet she’s going to kill me. You just watch.”
I get up and pour us both more coffee, rolling my eyes at Dawn’s histrionics. It strikes me that this is such a domestic scene right now, and I wonder how long this will last, and whether Dawn’s plan really will succeed. Her voice snaps me back to the moment and I sit down with my fresh cup in front of me.
“They are calling an emergency brunch.” I snort with laughter, but Dawn’s expression tells me this is no joke, and I try to school my face into a more serious expression.
“I see,” I reply. “An emergency brunch? How serious.”
“It IS serious,” Dawn insists. “They’re going to interrogate us about this. They’re going to judge the whole charade. They’re my closest people in the whole world, but we need to be able to fool them if we stand a chance of this succeeding.”
I nod seriously. “Best get going then,” I announce cheerily. “Just going to jump in the shower first though, then we can be on our way. Tell them I look forward to meeting the love of my life’s sisters.”
An hour later, after we’ve both showered and I almost managed to get lost in her rather intimidatingly large apartment, we sit in Dawn’s car on the way to brunch as she teaches me about the girls. I’m not overly surprised to learn that they are not her biological sisters but rather her closest friends. After all, I’ve been working with her for a while and as far as I was aware, she didn’t have sisters.
“Okay, so first up is Charlotte,” Dawn rattles off as she drives. “Char is great, she’s a real Mama bear. Just had a little baby so those instincts are out in even fuller force than usual. She can be kind of stern but she’s always got our best interests at heart and she’s always there protecting us.”
I nod to show I’m listening. “Charlotte. Stern but caring, mother of the group, likes to protect and scold. Got it.”
Dawn smirks at my summary and moves on to the next in the group. “Then there’s Patricia. She’s Charlotte’s actual sister, she’s ever so charismatic. Be careful, you’ll probably fall in love with her before brunch is over. But then she is a notorious playgirl so it wouldn’t last long even if you did.”
I nod again. I’ve seen Patricia splashed across the society pages with different models, actresses and politicians draped over her arm. I vaguely remember hearing her give a speech too, something about the new era of publishing. I can’t remember the content but I remember the effect she had on the crowd, everyone hanging off her every word.
“Who’s the third?” I ask as we round the corner and pull up in front of a sleek restaurant, suddenly very nervous. Dawn is lovely, so it stands to reason that the people she has chosen as her new and improved family must be lovely too. But they all belong in this world of fancy dinners and brunch that costs more than my rent, and I’m suddenly not sure if I can really compete in this playing field after all.
“Gabby, she’s lovely. She’s an absolute genius, an engineer and so tech savvy it’s unreal, but she’s not all that great with people. She finds it hard to bring her brain down to their level. Not in a snobby way or anything, she doesn’t think she’s better than them, she just struggles to communicate in anything that’s not code.”
I laugh, more to hide my nervousness than anything else. I feel Dawn squeeze my hand lightly, and I look up smiling.
“It’ll be fine.” She promises. “They’re great women, genuinely lovely people. And they’ll love you because you’re amazing too.”
I smile wider, meeting her eyes. That spark is between us again. I can feel it. I open my mouth to say something, but stop when I catch sight of three beautiful, glamorous women crossing the street and making a beeline straight for us. I nod in their direction.
“Guess the game begins.”
15
Dawn
I shift awkwardly in my seat as the eyes of my three best friends and honorary sisters bore into me. For all my big talk in the car, I’m more nervous than I would ever let on to Gina. It’s not that I think my friends will be horrible to her or hate her, but I care so much about them that if they didn’t approve it would deeply hurt me.
I cough and try to deflect the attention by turning to Charlotte and asking “How’s poor little Chiara? You said she’s had a bit of a cold since last week? How’s she doing?”
I know my audience well. Charlotte may be the mother of our group but she’s an actual mother too now, and talk about her beloved little girl always wins in her eyes.
“She’s doing okay now, actually,” she begins, sipping a mimosa. “She was sick and clingy all last week and poor Katrina has a huge test coming up so it was so stressful. That’s why I backed out of the charity dinner, I couldn’t just leave them like that.”
“Yes, the charity dinner,” interrupts Patricia, bringing the conversation back to the matter at hand quicker than I was hoping. “The charity dinner where you announced to the whole world that you are now engaged. Engaged to be married. The whole world, I might add, except for your besties over here.”
I wince. I knew this would be the bit they took the hardest. I might not have mentioned Gina before but they know I have a record of being rather impulsive. But I’ve never kept something major from them before.
“Engaged...” hisses Gabby from the other side of the table. “Engaged! Were we ever going to know? Were we even going to be invited to the wedding?”
I have to stifle a laugh at this and, glancing across the table, I see that for all their sternness Patricia and Charlotte are doing the same. I love Gabby with all my heart, but she’s got a horrible habit of being wildly overdramatic at the worst times. I open my mouth to speak but Gina gets there first.
“What do you mean?” she asks earnestly, a look of horror on her face. “Dawn would never get married without you there. She’d rather get married without me there than you, and I’m the other bride!” I hear a snicker across the table as Patricia covers her mouth and turns away.
Gabby sniffs dramatically.
“Well…okay. If you say so.”
I’m astonished that she’s given up the fight so easily. “If you say so?” I repeat. “You wouldn’t have believed me!”
Gabby shakes her head. “That’s because sisters like playing pranks on each other too much for me to take anything any of you say seriously. But I don’t have a sister-in-law, so I can only assume they’re different.”
Gabby’s logic has the whole table laughing now, and I reach under the tablecloth and squeeze Gina’s hand. She smiles at me, and my stomach flip-flops slightly. Charlotte’s voice brings us back to the table.
“So, Gina,” Charlotte straightens her back professionally and I can’t help but smirk as Gina unconsciously mirrors her. “Tell us about yourself. Who is Gina? What is your family like, do you get along with them, are you from the city, what is it you do?”
“Good god, Char, you’re not giving her a job interview!” I protest, but Gina has already launched into a speech about her family and her upbringing in New Jersey. I have to admire how ready she was for the question. Or maybe she just really loves her family and doesn’t mind talking about them at any opportunity?
By the time Gina has finished her life history, our food has arrived, and the interrogation I was expecting is paused while we eat. Gina’s leg brushes against mine under the table and I swallow. This is all supposed to be fake, but the feelings I keep developing for her don’t seem to be going away in a hurry.
As we order another round of drinks, it turns to Patricia’s round of questioning. “So, Gina,” she begins in the same way Charlotte did, albeit with less of an interviewer-interviewee air between them. “Tell us, how did you and our Dawn meet?”
This is it. This is the start of the actual interrogation, and the part we have to make convincing. So far Gina hasn’t had to lie about anything, but this is where we need to start with the anecdotes and finishing each other’s sentences. This is the bit that counts.