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“Okay,” I say. “I can understand that,” I add. “I know how it feels to attend big events alone.” Considering my dating life has been in the pits, I’ve gone alone several times.
“There’s one issue though. Well, two. It’s in Chicago, and you’ll need to take off of work to travel there and back. It’s only a few Saturdays away.”
I swallow hard, knowing I can’t afford to take off that long. Tate notices my mood shift.
“I’d pay for your time,” he adds. “I wouldn’t expect you to take off work for nothing.”
I freeze instantly. Does he really believe he has to pay me? It makes me feel cheap thinking about it.
“I don’t know about that,” I try to keep my tone light.
“No, I insist. You work hard at the café. I can tell. I also know that if you went with me to this, you’d be losing hours at work and that would be a blow for you.”
He’s being sincere. There’s a chance I could lose my job since we’re so short-handed and the manager relies on me to be at work every day.
“So when is this event?” I glance at him.
“Soon. Two weeks,” he confirms.
“Well, I don’t know what to say.” I’m speechless.
Tate turns toward me, earnestness in his eyes. “It won’t be much, of course. Just enough to make it worth your time and keep you afloat. What about fifty?”
I feel like I’ve misheard something or that I lost the thread of the conversation.
“Fifty what?” I ask.
“Fifty thousand,” he confirms. “I was considering what amount would make your time worthwhile. I want this to be beneficial for you and you not to have to worry about much when you return.”
I go silent. Clearly, I’m in some kind of dream, or he’s joking. Does Tate seriously want to pay me fifty thousand dollars to go with him to his grandparents’ anniversary? I would go for free. Hell, I’d almost pay him to be his date.
But I don’t tell him that.
“Tate, I don’t think that’s unnecessary. And I’m a woman, not an escort. Plus, I’d have rules.”
“No, no. I’m not actually propositioning you like that. There’d be no physical expectations between us. I mean, I’ll have to hold your hand and kiss your cheek to sell that we’re together, but other than that, we’d keep it strictly business. We’ll sleep in the same room, but I’ll sleep on the floor, and you can have the bed. I’ll take care of the wardrobe for you because it’ll be extensive. And I’ll cover all the travel costs. But what I am going to need from you is a bit of…acting.”
I laugh. “Acting?”
He sucks in a deep breath, and I realize he’s serious. “You’ll have to pretend to be my fiancée.”
I search his face, waiting for him to tell me he’s just joking, but those words don’t come. “Wait, you’re serious?”
“As a heart attack.” He grins. “You can think about it. I know that it seems a bit unconventional, but as I said, I want to make it worth your time. I’ve been thinking about it today, and I realized the only woman I’d want to take with me is you. There’s a connection between us, Brianna. I can feel that, so I think you being my fake fiancée would be halfway believable. I know it’s a crazy idea, but seeing you here tonight is like it was meant to be.”
I look off to the other side of the bar where Callie throws a dart and then jumps up in the air with joy, holding her beer and spilling it on herself. What would she say if she was sitting here with me listening to all of this? She’d probably cheer me on.
Of course, she freaking would.
“I need to think about it,” I finally reply. “It’s not that the offer isn’t appealing, it just seems like…a lot.”
“It is a lot, and I respect your need to think about it. It’s a big deal for me, too. I can’t do it alone,” he admits.
We sit in silence for a few minutes as I think about everything he just said. He’s watching the basketball game and orders another beer. I turn to him. “What do you mean by ‘wardrobe’?”
“Well, there are a few things about my background I haven’t explained.”
“Like?” I want to know everything about him.
