Page 579 of Manhattan Bossholes

She’d seen the hype as well.

“Meet me at Juniper’s in 30,” I typed back quickly, mentioning the little coffee shop around the corner.

“I’ll be there in 45.”

I smirked. As always, Felicity was going to do things her way—and on her own schedule.

I got ready for the day in a haze, trying to figure out how we were going to make the mess go away. Because I absolutely couldn’t play along with the fake relationship. Not a chance.

But if I was honest with myself, I was intrigued by the possibility of Felicity playing the role of my adoring girlfriend. I’d experienced a hint of it the night I carried her groceries, and I’d caught myself thinking about that smile of hers more than a few times since.

I wound up waiting for her at the coffee shop, uncharacteristically torn between the two options I was being forced to face. Put a stop to the good press Veritique was currently getting or pretend to be in a relationship with a woman who wasn’t afraid to go toe-to-toe with me.

Neither choice sounded doable.

I scrolled through the various posts using the hashtags while I waited for Felicity to finally arrive. I sighed and glanced toward the door, only to spy two young women trying to pretend they weren’t watching me. They giggled when I looked at them.

I frowned at the thought of being observed and refocused on my phone. The more I scrolled, the more my perspective shifted to a place I didn’t want to be. Numbers didn’t lie, and I couldn’t deny the impact of what I was seeing.

The bell over the door sounded, and I felt like I had to catch my breath when I saw Felicity breeze in. Why did she have to be so insanely attractive? And it was effortless. She’d just twisted her hair up and slipped on a simple dress, but she still wound up looking better than the runway models I’d dated.

She gave me a tight smile when she spotted me.

“Hey,” Felicity dropped into the chair across from me. “So, what’s new with you?”

I laughed despite all the bullshit we were facing. “Not much. You?”

“Oh, you know, just embroiled in a hot love affair with my boss that’s captivated the nation in the past twenty-four hours. No big deal.” She gave me a half-grin.

“Oh, right, that.”

We stared at each other, sharing a moment of commiseration.

“Coffee?” I asked, breaking the spell. “I’m guessing we’re going to need it.”

“Yes please. Ask for a Dutch chocolate mocha. It’s not on the menu, but they make it just for me.”

Of course she’d charmed the local baristas into creating a special drink for her. I wondered when I was ever going to be on the receiving end of that charm.

Coffee in hand, I headed back for our table trying to ignore the fact that I felt like people were watching me the entire time. It wasn’t like my life was exactly low-profile—I’d made the society pages my fair share of times, especially whenever I was dating anyone particularly famous. But the stares had never felt this concentrated before. Was this going to be my new reality?

Felicity took a sip and closed her eyes. “My favorite part of the day.”

I took the few seconds to admire her. Damn it, why did she have to be so fucking gorgeous?

“Anyway,” she continued. “It’s not happening, right? We’re going to clear things up ASAP. Because I’ve got Lucy on speed dial and I can make this all⁠—”

“Hold on now,” I interrupted her. “Not so fast. Have you had a chance to go deep on the coverage?”

She frowned at me. “I took a peek, but I haven’t checked the metrics or anything. I didn’t feel like it was necessary since we both agree the idea is ridiculous. There are good reasons why we blew it off the first time she brought it up to us.”

“Yeah, it’s lowest common denominator marketing. I would never have signed off on this sort of bullshit if the idea had been run past me before it went online, but the fact is, Lucy followed her gut.” I paused. “And it’s working.”

Felicity gave me a blank stare. “So?”

“So…” I began cautiously. “I think we should go with it.”

Her mouth dropped open.