“Ha, ha.” I roll my eyes. “Such an idiot.”
She smirks.
“Look, I have nowhere to be, I can take as looong as I need to have this conversation.”
“Fine, I’ll stop. Wrap it up.” She swirls her finger.
“I hope he is wrapping it up.” I point at her door.
“Oh, my God.” She brings her hands to her face, the tips of her ears turning pink.
“Okay, I want to fake date Athena.” The words roll off the tongue with ease, and I watch as she slowly peels her hands away from her face, eyes locking on mine.
“You want to what now?” Her voice slips a note higher.
“I just think it makes sense,” I say, lifting a shoulder to my ear. “She is going to be with me all the time, following me like a little stalker.”
“Shouldn’t say that.” She shakes her head, lips turning down in a disapproving manner.
“I want to clean my act up… have you Googled me?” I ask and she sinks her teeth into her bottom lip. “Exactly, that is why.”
She sighs.
“It’s nothing more than what it is.Fake. Nothing will change between me and her, she’ll still follow me around, I’ll be a good boy. When I am bored, I can hang with her instead of seeking out some fuck buddy.”
“You have such a way with words.” She inhales heavily, looking down the hallway. “You’re going to make one lucky lady very happy one day.”
“What do you say?” I ask, choosing to ignore the last part of her sentence.
“You promise you won’t fuck this up and cause me more work?”
“Pinkie promise.”
“You promise you’ll show up to all media and press events without rolling your eyes and sulking?”
I go to speak but slam my mouth shut and nod.
“You promise to behave at all times and when asked to do something for social media you will conform?”
“Cross my heart.”
“Then yes, fine, I’ll get the paperwork drawn up.”
“Paperwork?”
“Yes, Royce. Contracts, NDAs… I can’t run the risk of not doing this properly, you know, just in case.”
“I see.” I run my hand around the back of my neck.
“I’ll set a meeting for this evening, maybe me you and Athena?—”
“And your fuck buddy.”
“Piss off.” She shakes her head and begins to push the handle down. “I’ll send you the reservation. I think we need to stay out of the hotel and get this across the line before you go public.”
I give her a look and she sighs.
“As much as this is fake, everyone is going to believe it is real. You’ve spent the last few months banging on about not wanting a relationship to mess up your plans for WDC… and well, here we are.”
