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“I don’t know. Kayla said that your mom’s tough and she won’t be fooled easily, and you make me ragey.”
My momwasgoing to be a hard sell. She wasn’t naive, and she paid attention to details that most of us never took the time to see.
“I make you ragey?” I asked, repeating the word I’d never heard until now.
“Yeah. Like stabby,” she said, and I laughed a little, uncomfortable because I thought she meant it.
“We need to date for real,” I blurted out.
Where the hell did that come from?
“We need to what?” Sutton’s voice cracked as she reared her head back.
“Yeah,” I said as I worked through the details in my mind. “We need to go out a few times before Social Month starts. We can’t have our first date be at an event where hundreds of people and press will be watching our every move. Not to mention, my mom. We have to be better than that.”
She leaned forward, her body language relaxing almost instantly, but she kept her mouth shut. Just when I thought she was going to fight me on the suggestion, she said, “That actually makes sense.”
I couldn’t believe that she was being so reasonable.
“Good. I can show you that I’m not the terrible guy you seem to think I am.”
“And I can show you that I’m not an evil troll.” She forced a fake grin and glared at me.
She was clearly still bitter about the night I barely remembered. I had no idea why she felt like she had every right to despise me but not vice versa. She’d been the crazy one, not me! But I decided not to fight with her anymore. I needed her on my side, not against me.
“I know you’re not. You’re sitting here right now. That makes you the opposite of evil.”
“But still a troll, right?” She rolled her eyes, and I shook my head.
“You’re gorgeous, and you know it.”
She didn’t believe me. I could tell she didn’t. And when she glanced down at the watch on her wrist, I knew our time together was over.
“I have to get back to work.”
She pushed to a stand, and for once, I actually felt helpless. I had no control over this woman, and we both knew it.
“I don’t have your number,” I said, sounding desperate, and she gave me a half-grin. It was better than nothing, and I decided I’d take it and consider it progress.
“Get it from Kayla.”
“Don’t think I won’t,” I threatened as she walked away, her ass shaking in a pair of tight white pants.
Fake arrangement or not, I’d be getting into those.
HERE GOES NOTHING
SUTTON
Ihated how attracted I was to that man. But it was hard not to be. He was gorgeous. Confident. And he needed my help. Something about a man genuinely needing you and being aware of it was a jolt of power like nothing else. I had the upper hand in this fake arrangement, and I enjoyed that position.
Even though I’d almost walked out of our quick meeting more than once, I eventually settled down. Seeing him at first had reminded me of how awful he’d been when we met. But it was clear that he had very little memory of that night. If he had remembered it at all, he would have apologized or acted a little differently. That was the only reason I sat back down when he begged me too.
When he’d suggested going out before Social Month even started, I’d wanted to throw something at his face, but the more I thought about it, the more sense it made. The only way we’d be able to sell the idea of us dating would be if we actually started doing just that.
I needed to remember that it was all fake. That I was getting paid to go out with him, no matter what happened or how he acted. My being by his side would be purely for show, for the sake of his mom, and it wouldn’t mean that Joseph Martin really wanted to be with me.
That was going to be the hardest part. Not because I planned on falling for the guy or anything, but because I was a female, and even though I had professional goals and aspirations that were my priority, I was still emotional. My heart wasn’t a machine the way my brain was.
