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"The two douchbags on your team at work who are constantly trying to get in your pants?" Her eyes narrowed.
"That'd be them. I told them to knock their shit off like three months ago, and True even sort of staked his claim, but they keep texting me." I handed her my phone, and she scrolled through the texts.
"Wow. You need to go to HR, Am. I know you don't want to, but this is ridiculous." She handed me back my phone, shaking her head. "You can't keep letting them get away with this. They're never going to stop."
"I know, I really didn't want to have to do it, but I can't put it off anymore. They're getting more aggressive."
"Just let HR deal with them. You've got enough on your plate with this whole Lexi thing and the baby as it is. You shouldn't have to handle them, too. Get it out of the way so you can get a handle on the fake girlfriend thing."
She was right. I could do this for True. It wouldn't be easy, and it was likely I'd hate every single second of it, but I loved him. When you loved someone as much as I did, sometimes you had to do things you didn't want to, things you knew were going to hurt to lift the other person up.
True had been my rock, my support system over the past couple of months, and now it was my turn to be his.
Having to come back to LA, while Amara stayed in Washington, for this fake relationship crap with Lexi was stressing me the fuck out. Amara still wasn't ready to move, and being apart from her and our baby was almost unbearable. What had me even more pissed off was our twenty-week appointment was this week and we’d find out whether little P was a girl or a boy and Amara was going without me.
My mom insisted on something called agender reveal partythis weekend at her house, so we'd all find out together, but I wanted to see my baby, and now I didn't get to. Was I throwing a bit of a tantrum this morning when I hit the gym with Zen and bruised my knuckles punching the shit out of his heavy bag? Yep. Did I care even one little bit? Not one single fuck was given.
At least I knew Zen had my back. He was currently pissed off at Harrison for this whole thing and thought I was making a colossal mistake. I couldn't say I disagreed with him. In a couple of hours, I'd know for sure.
I was scheduled to meet the notorious Lexi for myself this afternoon. It'd been nearly a month since Harrison had suggested this whole ridiculous idea, and Amara had surprised the shit out of me by telling me she was okay with it. The problem was I didn't know if I was okay with it, and deep down, I knew she really wasn't either.
At first, I'd been a little hurt that she agreed to the plan, but when she explained that she was doing it for me, putting my dreams above her own feelings, the pain vanished. I realized just how much she really cared about me.
Stepping out of the shower, I threw on jeans and a t-shirt. I didn't want it to look like I'd put too much effort into this meeting in case Lexi got the wrong idea.
Driving downtown, my stomach churned with butterflies the size of seagulls. I still couldn't believe I was doing this. When I parked, I jumped out of my Jeep and checked my phone one more time before I moved into the building. A smile crossed my face when I saw a text pop up from Amara, and my grin got bigger when I saw what she'd sent.
Amara: Forever your girl - Paula Abdul
True: Love you x
I tucked my phone into my pocket and caught the next elevator up to the twenty-eighth floor. I hoped I didn't look as upset as I felt. My heart was racing, and I wanted to both run away and throw up, and I wasn't sure which one was more likely to happen at this point. It honestly felt like I was walking to my execution. My gut was screaming at me to turn around and back the fuck out of this situation. Maybe I was an idiot, but I had to see this through. I refused to live my life with regrets, although going through with this might be something I lived to regret in the end.
Hopefully not, though. Hopefully, it all worked out.
I heard the grating giggle before I even stepped foot into Harrison's office. I cringed because it was high pitched and fake-sounding and made me want to rip my ears off. Was this what I'd have to endure over the next three months? I forced my feet to move forward, ignoring how my brain was screaming at me to turn around.
As I stepped through the door, Harrison's gaze met mine before a tiny girl with long, brown hair half up in a ponytail jumped out of the chair and ran towards me, throwing her arms around my waist. I raised my arms up, and I'm sure the panicked expression on my face wasn't a good look, but what the fuck was I supposed to do?
Harrison saw my distress and stood up, clearing his throat. "Right, Lexi, let's sit and talk."
She looked up at me with her big brown eyes surrounded by thick mascara-coated lashes. "I'm so excited to meet you! I'm going to be the best girlfriend you've ever had. Just wait." She squeezed me tighter again before letting me go and grabbing my arm, dragging me over toward the chair.
I immediately felt like this was a mistake. I was sweating, and my heart raced. I was also pretty sure my balls were trying to make their way back up inside my body. Her touch was almost unbearable. I found myself once again asking myself what the fuck I was doing.
I sat down in the chair next to Lexi, and she tried to grab my hand. Why was she so goddamn touchy-feely? I stood up and moved the chair further away from her before sitting back down. Harrison moved behind his desk and sat, his eyes darting between the two of us.
"Lexi, love. You know this is a fake relationship, right? True has a girlfriend." Harrison leaned forward in his chair, his eyes focused directly on her.
She looked down at her fingernails, picking at her perfect manicure. "Yeah, you said that already."
He clapped his hands together. "Great. So, when we're not in front of the cameras, there's no need to touch or act like you're together."
She huffed, and I swear she was pouting a little bit. Confused didn't even begin to cover how I was feeling. I thought Harrison had explained everything to her, and she was on board, but she seemed like she had a different impression on how this whole thing was going to go.
I smoothed my hands down over my jeans, trying to wipe some of the dampness off. I turned toward Lexi. "Look, Lexi, I don't know what you think is happening here, but I have a girlfriend I love and a baby on the way. I'm not interested in anything except our mutually agreed on plan to help each other's reputation. If you're not good with that, we can just shake hands and be on our way."
She looked up at me and smiled. "No, no. It's fine, I need to do this, right?" She turned toward Harrison.
