“People arealreadywanting to know,” Heidi added. “I’ve been monitoring social media all morning. There are already threads on Reddit speculating about who you were with. A few gossip blogs picked up the story. Nothing major yet, but it’s building exactly the way we hoped.”
I stared at the photo and was suddenly overwhelmed with a very strange, uncomfortable feeling in my stomach.
“This is good, right?” Lucas asked, his enthusiasm dimming slightly when I didn’t respond immediately. “This is exactly what we wanted. Controlled leak, building interest while keeping Ina’s identity protected for now.”
“Right,” I said. “Good work, team.”
And it was good. From a business perspective, this was exactly what we’d planned. The photos were appropriately mysterious, the public interest was building, and Ina’s face was obscured enough that she could still move through her life without being recognized.
Not because I didn’t want people to know I’d been with her.
But because this wasn’t real.
This was a marketing campaign that would end after Valentine’s Day, and then what? Then Ina would go back to being my assistant, and I would go back to being the CEO who didn’t date. She would use her new Cupid’s Arrow profile to find someone who actually believed in magic and Disney movies and perfect gifts as a love language.
Someone who wasn’t me.
The thought made my chest feel hollow.
“Dane?” Lucas was looking at me with concern. “You okay, bud?”
“Fine. Just thinking about the next steps.”
“Well, the next step is more dates for the lovebirds,” Heidi said, pulling up a calendar on her phone. “Lucas and I were thinking maybe coffee this weekend? Something casual, daytime, where you can be seen but it doesn’t look staged.”
“I’ll coordinate with Ina,” I said, already heading for the door. “Email me the details.”
Lucas fell into step beside me, which meant he had something to say that he didn’t want to discuss in front of Heidi.
“Spit it out,” I said.
He shrugged. “I’m just wondering if you’ve thought about what happens after.”
“After what?”
“After the campaign ends. After Valentine’s Day. After you and Ina stop playing pretend.” He gave me a sideways look. “Have you thought about what that’s going to look like?”
“She goes back to being my assistant. I go back to being her boss. Everything returns to normal.”
“You really think it’s going to be that simple?”
Before I could answer, we rounded the corner to find Keith leaning on Ina’s desk.
He was in full charm mode, leaning in too close, flashing that smile that he probably thought was disarming. Ina laughed but I could see the tension in her shoulders. I noticed the way she’d positioned her body to maintain distance, the way her eyes kept darting toward my office like she was hoping for an escape route.
Keith didn’t notice. Or didn’t care.
They both looked up when Lucas and I approached. Ina’s expression flooded with relief. Keith’s shifted to mild annoyance.
“I need you,” I said to Ina. “My office.”
Keith straightened, giving me a look. “Yeah, actually. I have a meeting. We’ll talk later, right, Ina?”
“Sure,” Ina said with zero enthusiasm.
I waited until Keith was out of earshot, then gestured for both Ina and Lucas to follow me into my office. Lucas shot me a knowing look as he passed, but I ignored it and closed the door behind us.
“Explain to me exactly how this is going to work,” I said to Lucas without preamble. “The dates, the timeline, all of it.”
