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I blinked at him. This was not happening. There was no way this was going to last beyond that one night. No way. Nuh-uh. It wasn’t happening.
“I don’t understand what you’re getting at here. I agreed to the reunion because I kind of got myself into that situation.”
“I know.” Mason rubbed the back of his neck with a grimace.
“Mason, if you’re suggesting that I actually pretend to be your fake girlfriend for longer than one night, I think you’re out of your goddamn mind.”
“I tried to get out of this, I swear.”
“Then try harder!” My voice was getting shrill. “Oh, my God. This situation is not normal. You have to see that.”
“I see it. I do.” He held up his hands. “And I know it’s insane. You just have to say that you’re working all weekend and you can’t attend either, then we can quietly break up, and nobody will know any better.”
“Oh, is that it?” I folded my arms across my chest. “It was supposed to be one night only! And even then it was a joke!”
“I know. I don’t like this, either. Just tell me you’re working all weekend and it’s a problem solved.”
I pressed my lips together. “I can’t do that.”
“Why not?”
“Because I’m not scheduled to work this weekend.”
“Are you kidding?”
“Hey, you’re the one who walked into here and threw this shit out at me. I’m sorry my schedule doesn’t line up with the acting career you want me to take up.”
He sighed, pressing his fingers against his temples. “You’re off all weekend?”
“Yep. I finish at five on Friday, and that’s it until Monday lunchtime. My boss is training a new girl, so I got time off because I’ve worked a lot.”
“Fuck me dead.”
That wouldn’t be so bad…
I darted away to serve a group of customers before coming back. “Look, Mason, we don’t know each other.”
“I know.”
“This is insanity. You have to see that.” I flattened my hands on the bar and leaned forward. “It was one thing for one night, for like an hour, to get under the skin of your ex-girlfriend. You’re essentially asking me to be your girlfriend for a weekend to impress your mother.”
He grimaced. “It does sound insane when you lay it out like that.”
“Really? It didn’t sound insane before?”
“Yeah.” He rubbed his hand down his mouth, hiding a smile. Then, he laughed. “Come on. It’s crazy. I don’t like this either, but I don’t think I can get out of this. She’s pretty adamant that you come to one or the other.”
“And you can’t tell your mom no?”
“You haven’t met my mom.”
“If you can’t tell, I’m trying to keep it that way.”
Mason buried his face in his hands and laughed. “It’ll be fun?”
I raised my eyebrows. “You don’t sound so sure about that. Do you need a minute to decide?”
“I need a minute to think about why I’m here, talking to you,” he replied dryly. “Has anyone ever told you that you’re hard work?”
“On a daily basis,” I said brightly. “That’s why I’m single. Nobody wants to come home from work and have to deal with another full-time job in the shape of me.”
He glanced down my body. “Then you’ve got the perfect excuse for us to break up. Come with me, pretend to date me, and be a diva.”
I flicked my attention to the person waiting for me to serve them. “Yeah, right. I’ve met your ex. You could take a cockroach as your date, and they’d accept it as an upgrade.”
He laughed into his hand as I skirted up the bar to serve the guy waiting. He took his tray of G&Ts back to his table, leaving me to go back to Mason once again.
What he was proposing was completely and utterly ridiculous. There was no way I was going to do this.
Was there?
No. Why was I even considering it? This was insane. He was insane. Being a pretend date for a stranger for one night was fun, but pretending to be his girlfriend? I got nothing out of this. It wasn’t even like I’d gotten myself into this. No, it was his sister. She was the culprit for all of this, and I didn’t need to quiz Mason further to know that he wasn’t interested in doing this either.
“Why don’t you just tell your mom the truth?” I asked, cocking my hip and leaning against the bar, running the cloth between my fingers. “Tell her we went on one date, but your sister lied about the relationship.”
“I tried doing that this morning. You have to understand that my sister is her little darling; she can’t comprehend a world where she lies.”
Ugh. I felt that. “So she misunderstood. There are so many ways you can play this other than having me pretend to be your girlfriend.”
“You think I don’t know that?” He sank the rest of his beer and slammed the bottle against the bar. “Lauren, I’m stuck between a rock and a hard place. I don’t know what to do—my mom is like a dog with a bone when she sinks her teeth into something.”
