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Anya arches her brow and doesn’t say a word.
It doesn’t take long before my paper-thin resolve gives way. I sag in defeat. “We had an engagement announcement interview this morning. I’ll be shocked if the reporter doesn’t also announce our imminent divorce at the end.”
She winces. “That bad?”
“Worse. He barely spoke to me all morning, which is fine. I get it. It’s not like we’re really… I mean, this isn’t real.” I’m not sure if I’m reminding myself or Anya. “Ivan doesn’t owe me anything. But it almost felt like he was sabotaging his own plan. All we had to do was hold hands and smile and tell a few pretty lies, but he hung me out to dry. I just don’t know what I’m supposed to do with that.”
Anya reclines back in her chair and slides her sunglasses back down on her nose. “Oh, my brother. He’s a funny one.”
“‘Funny’ is not the word I’d use to describe Ivan.”
“Unique, then,” Anya amends with a smirk. “He can be hard to pin down if you don’t know him very well.”
I’m not sure if she means it as a jab or not. Either way, she’s right. I don’t know Ivan very well. At all.
“Does that mean you can pin him down? Because I would love some tips. One minute, he’s this smooth, effortless man who can charm the panties off of—” Anya gives me a look and I clear my throat. “He’s charming, is what I’m trying to say. Then the next, he’s a block of ice. When we had to hold hands for a photo op, I thought I was going to lose my fingers to frostbite.”
Lies.Despite how terrible the interview had gone, heat had still pulsed through me.
That's the real trouble with Ivan. If anyone else treated me like he does, I’d run as fast and as far as possible in the other direction. But even when he tries to push me away, my body draws closer.
“I guess…” I take a deep breath. “So much of what we’re doing is pretend. So I guess I just don’t know which side of him is real.”
“They both are.”
I frown. “I don’t see how that’s possible.”
“He has a lot on his plate. He’s responsible for everything.” Anya sits up and folds her hands in her lap. “Part of it is my fault. Things were different before I got married. Ivan had the freedom to—” Her eyes cut to me and she shakes her head and lets the sentence linger unfinished. “Things changed after that.”
I know her father doesn’t approve of her husband. She told me as much. Their father also made it clear he would never approve of me, either.
“Just a waitress”echoes through my head. It’s not the kind of thing you forget easily.
Anya reaches over and pats my knee. “He just needs time to adjust.”
“I don’t know how much longer I can put up with this. The hot and cold moods are a lot to navigate.”
Especially when the hot is so obscenely hot. It would almost be easier if he was always the sexy, flirty Ivan I met that night at the party. I can prepare for that. But when he goes from one extreme to the other, I just get lost in the mix.
Anya frowns at me, her full mouth reminding me far too much of her brother for my liking. Then, suddenly, she jolts upright. “I know exactly what you need.”
“A mood ring?”
She smiles. “Even better. You need a date night.”
I can’t help but snort. “I think it would be easier to get Ivan into a mood ring wedding band than it would be to get him to agree to a date night with me.”
“Yeah, right,” she dismisses. “Have you seen yourself? Unique my brother may be, but underneath it all, men are the same. The promise of you in a little black dress will be all the encouragement he needs.”
“You do remember this is a fake relationship, right?”
“Oh, I remember. Believe me. But the attraction is real. I know my brother well enough to know that you are every bit his type.”
I tell myself I don’t care if I’m his type. It doesn’t matter. It certainly doesn’t change anything.
We’re still not getting married.
We’re still not having sex.
