“What?” Jenna questioned. “There’s something you’re not telling me.”
“Niko stopped by after my final class today.”
Jenna wagged her brows. “Ohhhh.”
“No. It’s not…” Tiana shook her head. She could feel her cheeks heating up, which she knew gave away just how attracted she was to the man. “He came in when Valerie and Helen were trying to set me up with their nephew. He didn’t know what they were doing, he just asked if he could borrow me because he’dspoken to his publicist and had some information he needed to pass on to me. They jumped to conclusions and thought he and I were dating. I tried to correct them, he played into it. When they left, he suggested…” She took another breath.
“He suggested you two pretend that you are a couple while your exes are in town,” Jenna relayed as if it was a totally sane solution to a ridiculous situation.
“Yes, how did you know?”
“Because it’s perfect! She clapped her hands together. “Absolutely perfect!”
“No. It’s not. Who would believe that?”
“Who would believe that two ridiculously hot, successful, kind, funny people would be into each other…hmmmm, I don’t know…maybe everyone.”
“I’m not?—”
“You are ridiculously hot, so help me if you are one of those women who look like you do and then sit there and argue about how insanely attractive youaren’t—you and I will have serious issues.
Tiana wasn’t going to say that. She was going to say, successful.Hotwas objective.
“It’s lying,” she pointed out.
“Okay, first of all,whois it lying to? If you guys are hanging out, which you will be, then who is it lying to? And you are constantly being set up, so that would give you a slight reprieve.”
“That’s what Niko said.”
“And Niko could probably use a break from women throwing themselves at him.”
Tiana rolled her eyes as she smiled.
“I’m not kidding, you should know that better than most. I’m sure he’s had women sneak into his rooms and hide in the back of his cars when he hired car services. Did you watch that documentary that showed professional athletes are basicallyobjectified for their paychecks and fame the way women are for their appearance and sexuality? And the better looking and more high profile your position and team are, the worse it is. Niko is ridiculously sexy, tall, and actually has a personality, he’s the pitcher, and he’s led his team to the World Series and won.”
Tiana hadn’t watched the doc, but that was mainly because after divorcing Brock, she hadn’t wanted anything to do with athletes.
Her phone buzzed, and she glanced down to see a number she didn’t recognize. When she opened up the text, it didn’t take long to realize who it was from. It was a GIF of Niko’s face superimposed onto Julia Robert’s body fromNotting Hillin the scene where she’s in the bookstore with Hugh Grant wearing a light blue V-neck sweater and cardigan, a black skirt, and black sandals with the words underneath saying, “I’m also just a boy, standing in front of a girl, asking her to be his fake girlfriend.”
Tiana couldn’t help but smile. In fact, she couldn’t help but laugh. He’d done a really good job with the Photoshop.
“What?” Jenna demanded. “What is it? I haven’t seen you smile likethatin…a while. Probably not since our Girl’s Night, and you were drinking, so that doesn’t count. Alcohol smiles don’t count the same as sober smiles.”
It was true. With Pops’ health and the financial strain she’d been under, there hadn’t been a lot of smiling and laughing.
Tiana turned the phone around to show Jenna, whose face immediately split into a wide grin. “If you don’t say yes, I don’t think I can be your friend anymore.”
“Jenna.” Tiana rolled her eyes.
“I’m serious,” Jenna maintained. “If you can turn that man down, I don’t think we have anything in common, and I have to seriously question your sanity.”
Tiana knew it was an empty threat. She also knew that there was no way she could actually turn Niko down, not that it was areal proposal of a relationship. It was fake. There were no stakes. So why did she have butterflies? And why was her hand shaking when she typed back, okay.
Niko wondered if he’d gone too far. He was good at reading people and knew that Tiana was someone who would overthink something to death. She would talk herself out of a good thing, which is what he was afraid she was going to do.
As he sat staring at his phone, he wondered what the feeling he had in his stomach was. Then he realized he’d never been rejected before, that wasn’t something he was bragging about, it was just a fact. So he really hoped that his first rejection didn’t happen when he asked someone to be hisfakegirlfriend.
He hoped if he caught her off guard and made her laugh, maybe, just maybe, he’d get her to agree to his—unfortunately for him—totally platonic, completely decent proposal.
