Myfakeboyfriend.
THREE
Ford
I workeduntil close last night, and now I’m here opening this morning.Normally, I would sleep in and let someone else handle it, but Cameron is working this morning and I love when it’s just the two of us in the morning.She seems to open up more and for a few minutes, I can pretend that we’re more than just coworkers and friends.
“Hey,” I greet her as she comes in the back door.
“Hey,” she says quietly.
She’s chewing on her bottom lip, a sign that she’s deep in thought, and I give her a moment to hang up her hoodie and purse.She can get like this in the mornings if she hasn’t gotten enough sleep, so I pour her a cup of coffee, making sure to add plenty of the sweet cream coffee creamer she loves before I pass it to her.
“Thanks,” she says with a smile, but it looks strained.
“Is everything alright?”I ask, and she nods, heading for the dining area.
We head out of the kitchen and up front to pull chairs off the tables and get set up.
I help her get set up, keeping a close eye on her.She’s wearing black shorts and a Nosh Diner shirt.The material strains over her curves, and I have to look away and adjust myself before she notices the hard-on I’m getting.
We’re finished getting ready, and I stop and lean against the counter, watching her.She leans against the other side and finally looks at me.
“I need to ask you for a favor,” she starts.
“I can’t give you this weekend off.Ruby and Nikki are already off,” I say, and she shakes her head.
“No, I don’t need time off… well, maybe one day.I haven’t checked the schedule for next week yet.”
“I haven’t made it yet.I’m doing that today,” I tell her.
She nods and takes a deep breath.
“Will you be my boyfriend?”She asks in a rush.
She says the words so fast that it takes me a moment to decipher them, and then once I do, I’m sure I must have misheard her.
“What?”I ask, staring at her in a daze.
“Will you be my boyfriend?”She asks, slower this time.
“Fuck yes.”
She blinks, her cheeks turning pink, and I’m close to leaping over this counter and kissing the hell out of her.
What changed?Did she finally realize that she’s in love with me too and that we’re meant to be?
“Thank you so much,” she says.“My grandma is coming to town and she’s trying to set me up with someone’s grandson or something.I just can’t go through another awkward, forced meeting where I have to reject the guy and then make excuses to my grandma.This will be so much easier.”
“This?”
“Us pretending to date,” she says, and I can physically feel my heart breaking in my chest.
“Right,” I say softly.
“She’ll only be here for a week or two.She’s coming for a visit so I think if we hang out around her, maybe all go get dinner or something.I can tell her that you’re working the other days, and then she’s going to be visiting friends in town too, so we won’t have to pretend the whole time.”
I want to beg her to stop saying the word pretend, but I can’t get the words out.She seems so relieved that I’m helping her, and I sure as shit can’t tell her no and have her go and ask some other guy to be her fake boyfriend.Besides, I could never say no to Cameron.
