He fidgeted with his shirt. The flowers he’d ordered would be here soon. He’d made sure to time his confession at the height of the dinner, when there would be the most people around. Marco might have done that to make sure his dad saw it, so that Abby could see whatever lies she’d told Felipe had no effect on Marco.
“May I get a refill?” someone asked Marco. He kept his head down as he walked over to the man. It was the same business partner from Thanksgiving dinner last night. The man gave him a curious look. “You’re working the event?”
Marco didn’t feel as bad as about this as he’d thought. Mostly, because Lucas had worked at the Melo’s in the San Mateo district most of his summers in high school. Now he interned at the cooperate offices doing something bushiness related, but even then, seeing his brother having donned a uniform made Marco feel a bit more at ease. He just hated that it had to be at this event, where, like Elena had said, he should have been a guest.
“Yes,” Marco said simply. He took the man’s glass. It looked like water, but according to the few minutes of training some rushed member of the catering company had given him, Marco had to confirm. “Water?” he asked.
The man nodded. He held a hand out. “It’s good to see a hardworking young man. I worked for my dad’s construction company for years before he even let me into the office building. Good for you.”
Marco nodded, hoping that would be enough to keep the man from continuing in his story. Thankfully, he didn’t. He actually seemed to find something humorous.
“I’ll get you that water,” Marco said. He did something like a half-bow, already regretting the gesture as he turned to get back to the kitchen. He nearly ran into Elena as he stepped into the kitchen. She managed to grab the empty glass as it fell from his hands.
“Watch out,” Elena said. She didn’t seem focused on him, though. Her eyes traveled around the room.
“Looking for someone?” Marco asked. He took the glass back from her. He’d have to get his dad’s business partner a new one, now that this one had his fingerprints all over it.
Elena nodded. “Have you seen Will?” When he didn’t answer right away she said, “The guy you thought was my boyfriend.”
“Is he working this event?” For a minute Marco was hopeful. Maybe that meant he could stop working and start preparing for his confession for Cecilia.
“He’s a guest,” Elena said. Which hadn’t been one of the answers in Marco’s mind.
“Is he on a scholarship?” Marco asked.
“No,” Elena said. She was still looking around. Then she waved at someone, completely unaware of Marco now. “He’s here with his date.”
Marco turned, curious to see which girl Will had used to get him into the dinner. Then he froze.
As Will waved at Elena across the room, the date next to him waved at Marco.
Cecilia had a huge smile on her face. She had an arm tucked into Will’s; her dark blue dress matched the blue handkerchief in Will’s pocket.
Elena started to walk over to the couple. Marco’s mind stopped functioning all together. He couldn’t process it; Cecilia was dating Will. They hadn’t been flirting yesterday, well, they had, but not because Will was two-timing anyone, but because they were together. He repeated the thought. He came to the same conclusion. Cecilia, the girl he wanted to confess his feelings to, was dating Will, the guy Elena was in love with.
As the realization circled through Marco’s head, someone tapped his shoulder.
“Did you order flowers?” It was the girl who’d trained him for five minutes before the dinner started. She pointed to someone behind her. “This guy says your ordered these roses. That’s super unprofessional if you did.” When Marco didn’t answer, she shrugged and walked off, leaving Marco facing some confused-looking kid holding a huge vases of roses.
“Are you Marco Silva?” the kid asked. “I’m here from Everyday Flowers. You ordered these for-” Marco snatched the vase from the kid, before he could finish reading the card.
People were looking in his direction. He hadn’t realized how far away from the kitchen he’d stepped. Elena turned, watching him. She gave him a confused look, and then her eyes traveled from Marco to Cecilia and Will.
When she looked at him, she shook her head.
Marco looked around the room. His mind raced. This wasn’t what he’d planned. Cecilia was supposed to be sitting, and he would be changed out of this stupid uniform. Then he’d walk to her table, lean down and ask for her attention. He’d give her the flowers, saying how much he cherished their friendship-
People were definitely staring now.
Cecilia had a date. If he confessed anything it would be humiliating and would mean an automatic rejection. Marco’s heart raced. The room spun. Then his eyes focused on the one person who he realized knew what was going on. He breathed in, his hands shaking under the weight of the vase.
Chapter 9
Marco Silva was walking right up to her, holding the flowers Elena now knew had been meant for Cecilia.
Oh no. Why did he have that look on his face? She took a step back, but didn’t make it any further before he was in front of her, holding the vase of roses out to her. Elena looked around the room. No one was eating anymore. Heads in the room continued to turn in her direction, guests and staff alike. Elena looked at Marco, who was only a vase of flowers away from her.
“What are you doing?” she whispered.
“Play along,” Marco said. His caramel-colored eyes were wide, desperate. “Please. For now, go along with this.”
Elena watched as his hands shook. Without thinking, she took the vase of flowers, her fingers brushing over Marco’s as she did. Someone ‘ahhed’ in the background. Was that a camera flash?
Marco looked somewhat relieved, but he tucked his shaking hands to his sides.
“Elena,” he said, too loudly for it to be meant only for her ears. “I’ve really enjoyed getting to know you these past few days. I know this is quick, but I really like you. Would you go on a date with me?”
Elena wanted to press a hand to his mouth, but couldn’t because she was currently using both hands to hold a huge vase.
“What are you doing?” Elena whispered again, even though she knew perfectly well what he was doing. He should have walked off with the flowers. Now he’d cornered her, and she had no way of getting out of it. Elena looked up to see Will staring at them. Cecilia looked just as confused, but she handled it with more composure.
“Please answer,” Marco said.
Elena looked around the room again. There were definitely phones out now, filming this whole thing. She looked at Will one last time, his arm tucked around Cecilia’s. He wore a suit Elena didn’t remember him owning, the handkerchief in his pocket matching Cecilia’s dress.
The thought forced the words out of her mouth.
She used every ounce of energy she had to place a smile on her face. Then she pretended it was Will standing in front of her.
“Okay,” she said. Marco’s hands stopped shaking. He looked like he couldn’t believe she was agreeing to this either. “I’ll go out with you.”
Someone in the crowd clapped.
“What’d she say?” someone asked.
“Louder,” another voice suggested.
Elena swallowed. She couldn’t carry this lie and the vase of flowers at the same time. She breathed out and then carefully set the vase on the floor beside her.
“I’ll go out with you,” Elena said, louder this time, so that Will could hear. She wanted him to hear.
When Marco didn’t react she leaned in. “Say something,” she whispered.
Marco seemed to return to his senses. He gave her a frazzled look and then, before Elena could stop him, he had his hands around Elena’s. They were freezing and his grasp was tight, as though if he let go he might fall over.
“Thank you for giving me a chance,” Marco said. He looked right into her eyes, and for a moment Elena almost believed his words.
“Kiss,” another person said.
Someone else joined the chant. Elena swore another camera flash went off.
She took a half step back, but Marco had his arms around her before she could finish. His arms eased around her shoulders, forcing Elena to rest her head over his shoulder. She caught Will’s gaze. His mouth was literally open. Cecilia had an encouraging smile on her face.
“Don’t worry, I won’t kiss you,” Marco said. There was no please this time. “Let’s get out of here, and we can figure this out.”
The words tickled Elena’s ear.
“You can stop hugging me,” she said.
“Not until you agree that you’ll leave with me so we can figure this out. You saw those cameras go off.” Elena didn’t like this. What would she tell her dad if he saw some video on the internet of her? What was she supposed to tell Will?
“Fine,” Elena said. “I’ll go with you. Now let go.”
Marco kept his word. He released her and soon the room filled with claps and ‘ahhs’ and every sort of sound that might be heard as a crowd reacted to a proposal, not someone asking someone else out. Elena and Marco stepped away from each other. The girl who Elena had seen train Marco approached them. She had an annoyed look on her face.
“You two should just go on your date; I think we have enough staff to cover things around here. The event’s almost done anyways.”
“Great,” Marco said. Another camera flash went off. Elena watched as Will started to walk over to them, but Cecilia grabbed onto him, whispered something, and he stopped.
Marco took Elena’s hand and somehow he maneuvered their way out of the banquet hall, through the kitchens. Elena followed, not knowing what else to do. If she turned back, Will would be there, and he would have questions, too many for Elena to make up answers to. And she didn’t want to lie to him, not about this.
When she felt chilled air around her, Elena realized they were outside, in the area behind the kitchen, where the dumpsters were.
She held a hand to her nose. “No one will find us here,” she said. Then she pulled her hand out of Marco’s. “What was that about? You didn’t tell me you were confessing your feelings to Cecilia.”
“You didn’t tell me Will was dating her,” Marco said. He paced around, leaving Elena to take in the dumpster smells. He stopped in front of her. “Everyone in there just saw me ask you out.” He shook his head. “What did I do?”
“I’m wondering the same thing,” Elena said. She was also wondering why she’d played along. She could have pulled away, rejected the invitation and flowers, walked over to Will like she didn’t know Marco liked her. Then she realized this was the first time a guy had asked her out. She hadn’t known how to react. Sure, she’d had guys like her in high school, but they always thought she was with Will.
Marco looked at her. “I panicked,” he said. “I saw you realize the same thing I did, that I was about to confess to a girl with her date right beside her, in front of her whole family and most of my dad’s business partners. I couldn’t think of anything else. I saw you and I thought, why not? It was that or stand there like a moron.” He shook his head. “People were filming us. How the hell am I supposed to get out of this?”
Elena stopped feeling sorry for Marco. “Just you? You dragged me into this too.”
“You could’ve said no,” he said. “I saw you look at Will, you said yes right after.”
She sighed. “Now what, then? We can’t stay here. If we do, Will and Cecilia are going to have questions, about how this started, where our date is. And then after that, what do we do? We can’t keep this going.”
Marco nodded .”Obviously we say we went on a date and it didn’t work out. The attention will die down. It wasn’t that big of a crowd, and my family’s private. My dad will have his lawyers on the story to keep it from spreading. For now, let’s just get out of here.”
“How?” Elena asked. “I didn’t drive here. Will dropped me off earlier. Did you bring your car?”
Marco shook his head. “My driver is currently indisposed. Lucas dropped me off.”
“Can your brother take us somewhere?”
“No. No way. He’ll ask questions too. Why don’t we hide out somewhere in the country club? I think I’ll throw up if we stay here any longer.”
Elena didn’t argue.
“The music rooms,” she said. “Come on.”
Marco hesitated, but he followed her lead, and soon they were back in the room with the piano. At least they wouldn’t freeze to death here, and no one had seen them come upstairs. Elena’s phone buzzed.
Will: Everything okay? Did you guys leave? What’s going on?
“Let me guess,” Marco said. “Your crush checking in?”
Elena ignored Marco and sent a quick text back.
I’m good, will explain everything later. Going for some coffee with Marco and headed back home after.
Then she set her phone to silent.
“So,” Elena said. “Now what?”
Marco was pacing again, except now he had his phone out and was scrolling though it like crazy.
“Shit,” he said. “No. No. Why is this getting so many likes?”
Elena shot up from her seat. She walked over to him. He had some social media feed open. A video of Marco hugging her played on a loop. The caption read Real Life Cinderella Moment.
“Does that have five thousand views?” Elena tilted her head “Are they calling me Cinderella?” She didn’t know if she should be offended or worried. Five thousand views and growing. It had been less than half an hour since they’d left the banquet hall. How was that possible?
“It’s going viral, “Marco said. “Of course it is.” He pointed to another caption with a different part of his confession to Elena playing out.
Heir to Silva Fortune asks out a Melo’s Employee
“They’re going to spin it in some sort of love story,” Elena said. Was this real life? “I thought you said your family’s lawyers wouldn’t let this get far.”
“I don’t think they’ve had a chance to catch up to it,” Marco said. He leaned his head back and then took a seat on the piano bench. “This is insane. My dad’s going to be pissed. And Cecilia will never give me a chance now. She’ll think I’m in love with you.” He turned his phone over on the top of the piano.
“We can’t actually go along with this,” she said. “You said we’d call it a failed date and move on.”
“That was before we were a headline,” Marco said. “We’ll have to keep up the fake dating for a while, until the attention dies down. Or else it’ll make it look like I did something, trust me. You’ll be the victim in this whole scenario.”
“I don’t want to be a part of anything in this scenario. I’m not going to lie. After tonight, this is over. I just, I was helping you out. But a fake relationship with this sort of attention? No way.”
Elena would figure out a way to explain this to Will. She’d think of something, say she was caught by surprise, but that she didn’t really like Marco. Will would believe her.
“Wait,” Marco said.
“What?”
“I’ll pay you,” Marco said.
“Excuse me?”
“Your book shop owes back rent. I’ll pay it, one month of rent for one month of your time.”
“Are you kidding?” Elena asked. Was he really proposing to pay her to fake date him? “That’s insane.”
“It’s not. It’s business,” Marco said. “Look, it wouldn’t be that big of a deal. We’d go on a few dates, let the holidays pass, and then say we were better off as friends.”
“You’re crazy,” Elena said.
“It’s a good opportunity,” Marco said. “Think about it. You know I don’t like you. We wouldn’t risk developing any feelings for each other. And we wouldn’t have to watch your crush date my crush from the sidelines. And on top of that you don’t have to worry about a late rent payment. What
do you have to lose?”
Elena glared at him. “It would change everything,” Elena said. She’d lose her peaceful existence overnight. And there was the fact she’d be getting paid to fake date someone. Her dad would kill her if he found out.
“It’s already changed everything,” Marco said. “You’re in that video going around. Soon, people will know your name and they’ll still ask questions. Why not get something out of it?”
What if he was right? What if everything was already changing? Elena regretted having helped him. She also couldn’t stop thinking about how much money he was offering her right now.
“I won’t do it,” she said.
“Please,” Marco said. “Look, if you date me for a month, that should be fine.”
“You don’t even have money right now,” Elena said.
Marco pressed a hand to his forehead. “I’ll find it. Leave the money part to me.”
“I can’t-”
“There’s nothing wrong with a trade-off. And please don’t think it’s like you’re selling yourself-”
Elena rolled her eyes. “I didn’t say it was like that.” She hadn’t even thought about it that way. “There’s no guarantee any of this will work.”
“There’s no guarantee it won’t. Please.”
Elena opened her mouth, ready to reject the idea, but she was already up here with him; Will thought she was on a date with Marco.
“I can stop this at any time, before you pay me.”
What she was doing?
Marco nodded. “Of course. Yes. Totally.”
“Just a month?”
“One month.”
“Do you even know how much my rent is?
“$4500,” Marco said.
Elena couldn’t believe she was considering this. They’d make rent if she went along with this. There was a video of her accepting Marco’s invitation. There was also a part of her that didn’t want Will to suspect anything.
“Okay. I’ll date you for a month.”
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