“Well, because I accidentally told my mom we were together, and my family’s coming here soon and I don’t want to admit to them that I was catfished and he felt bad his cousin and brother did the said catfishing so he agreed to pretend to date me.”
Rhiannon steepled her hands under her chin. “I need a longer explanation.”
Jia ran through as much as she’d told Katrina. When she finished, Rhiannon rubbed her forehead. “Hiscousin?”
“Yeah.”
“I can’t believe I missed all this. How did you get into this mess?”
“I’m not sure. Sometimes things happen to me.”
Rhiannon edged her keyboard closer to her. “You know I’m going to stalk him, right?”
“I’m surprised you haven’t already.”
“My personal life is clearly distracting me. This is what friends do.”
“I don’t think friends regularly stalk people their friends are having fake relationships with.”
“It’s so wild, how you don’t hear how silly that sentence sounds.” Rhiannon twirled her pen between her fingers. “Has your family been driving you nuts?”
“No, actually. They seem to have calmed down. My mom said she’s waiting to talk to Ayesha before booking theirflights, but they’re aiming for the end of the month. Noor and Zara have chilled out. I haven’t talked to Ayesha or Sadia yet.” Privately, Jia had wondered if she could have had this level of peace all along if she’d just made up a fake boyfriend that they approved of.
She could have a huge platform, do groundbreaking stuff, and no one relaxed until she had a man. Amazing. And annoying.
“Well, that’s—”
A knock came at the door, and a petite woman with blond hair stuck her head in. “Rhiannon? I’m sorry, but you said it was okay to interrupt? I need a few signatures.”
“Yes, Tina,” Rhiannon said warmly.
She walked in and handed Rhiannon a sheaf of papers. “Here’s that information you wanted, too.”
“Thank you.”
“I couldn’t find the files on the pension plans, though.”
“Hang on a second.” Rhiannon tapped a button on her phone. “Lakshmi can show you.”
Jia nearly groaned. Rhiannon’s assistant, Lakshmi, was cool, intimidatingly cool. She was also painfully dismissive of Jia, which brought out all of Jia’s worst habits, like baiting and poking.
“You know my roommate Jia, right? Jia, this is Samson’s aunt’s assistant. She’s on-site while we iron out the details of this merger.”
Jia waved at the young woman. Samson’s aunt owned a rival company that was close to being a sister company. “Hi,yes, of course. We’ve met a few times.”
Tina gave her a quick smile. It faded when the door opened and Lakshmi stuck her head inside. “Yes?” Lakshmi gave Tina a once-over, and then her attention moved to Jia. She bared her teeth. “Jia.”
“Lakshmi.” Jia twitched her skirt into place. Lakshmi wore a cropped tank and high-waisted jeans. The side of her head was shaved, and the rest of her hair was dyed blue. So damn cool. “Good to see you.”
“Sure. Come up with any life-changing makeup hacks lately?”
The sneer in the other woman’s voice turned Jia’s smile syrupy. Her mother had once said that the sweeter Jia’s smile, the more trouble everyone was in. “Sure. I was sent a new line of lipstick that tastes like fruit. Want to try it? It might wipe that sour expression off your face.”
“Ladies.”
Jia subsided at Rhiannon’s chiding tone and made a mental note to work on her bitchiness—er, crankiness—again.
Rhiannon gave Lakshmi a look. “Can you help Tina find the historical paperwork on the retirement plans?”
