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No, possibility wasn’t the right word. I had known this was aninevitability.But finally having to face it was a much different feeling than I had anticipated.
“Ma’am?” A voice broke through my thoughts, and my gaze darted around until it landed on the customer across the room.
The woman had short, spiky red hair and oversized wire glasses. She was regarding me from behind those glasses with raised brows as she pointed to the painting in front of her.
“We have a few questions about this painting here. Would you be able to assist us?”
I smoothed down my hair nervously with shaking hands as I tried to steady myself.
“Absolutely,” I said with what I hoped looked like a genuine smile as I stuffed down my nerves and walked over to her.
She and her partner began peppering me with questions, and before long, all thoughts of Blake were driven from my mind. I threw myself into my work for the rest of the day, doing my damndest to keep my mind from wandering.
Before I knew it, Hugo was locking up the front door, and it was time for me to head home.
When I made it to the subway, I pulled out my phone and shot Lex a quick text, letting her know I was on my way. She responded immediately, telling me she’d be waiting outside my door.
Of course, she made good on that promise, and the moment I walked up the stairs, I spied her bouncing on the tips of her toes impatiently as she stood in front of my apartment.
“What the hell is going on?” She asked in a rush the second her green eyes fell on me. “How could you get engaged and not tell me?”
“I’m not engaged,” I answered in a hushed voice, rushing forward to unlock my door so I could get us inside. “Give me one second. I don’t want to talk about it out here.”
I was alright with Lex knowing the truth about my agreement with Blake. But if anyone else found out and it somehow got out, I’d never hear the end of it from my family.
I pushed my front door open and led her inside. She didn’t even give me time to lock it before she set on me again.
“What do you mean? If you aren’t engaged, why are all the articles calling you his fiancé? There are even shots of the ring.”
“It’s a lie,” I said simply with a shrug of my shoulders.
That clearly hadn’t been what she had expected, and a look of confusion pulled her pale brows together. I launched into the explanation then, telling her everything.
She knew that I was estranged from my family, so, thankfully, I was spared from having to go into too much detail about that.
But I told her all the rest about running into Blake after all these years and finding out that he was our new landlord.
How my family had bombarded me, and in a moment of not thinking and to get them to shut up, I’d told them I was engaged.
And that after the fact, Blake offered to be my fake fiancé since he was the one who got me into this mess.
After I finished recounting the story to her, she was staring at me, looking no less confused than she had the moment I started talking.
“So, you’re pretending to be engaged to him?” Lex asked skeptically.
“That’s right.” I gave her a decisive nod.
“To prove something to your family?”
“Yes.”
“The family that you don’t even like?” She arched an eyebrow at me, and I felt myself starting to blush.
“When you put it like that, it sounds ridiculous.”
“Nell, my love,” she gave me a pointed look. “That’s because itisridiculous.”
I opened my mouth to argue with her, but she beat me to it.
