I hated myself for it too. For standing by and watching it happen. For not fighting for her when I had the chance.
After a moment, she took a shaky breath and seemed to pull herself together. She seemed more like the old Paige.
“Why did you really ask me to be your fiancée?” She asked, wrapping both arms around herself. “You’re a player, Derek. No offense, but it’s true. The last time you genuinely dated someone was Kelly, and you broke off that engagement after barely a month.”
Her words stung because she was right. I leaned back in my chair, running a hand through my hair as I tried to figure out how much truth I was ready to give her.
I didn’t date seriously. How could I, when the woman I wanted to marry had been swept away by a guy I introduced her to? A guy who I thought was just a friend, until I watched him propose to her on her college graduation, turning her celebration into his spotlight moment while I stood there with a camera and a forced smile.
I started dating Kelly and proposed to her when Paige announced she was pregnant. I was stupid because I saw the hurt in Kelly’s eyes and she knew that she was a replacement for someone I couldn’t have.
“Because Jack is jealous of me,” I said finally, meeting her hazel eyes. “He always has been.”
5
LET ME HELP YOU
PAIGE
“What?” I stared at Derek. “That’s ridiculous. You are his friend. You were his best man.”
“Was I?” Derek laughed, but it was humorless. “Paige, Jack has spent years making sure I kept my distance from you. Why do you think he always scheduled things on the nights you and I used to hang out? Why would he get weird whenever you mentioned grabbing lunch with me?”
I opened my mouth to argue and paused. All those times Derek and I had planned to catch up outside of the office, only for Jack to suddenly need me for something. He had stopped going out with Derek as well.
The way Jack’s jaw would tighten whenever Derek’s name came up. How he had started calling his friend ‘Peterson’ instead of Derek.
Why have I never noticed these things before?
“He was jealous,” Derek said, pursing his lips. “Maybe from the beginning.”
“Derek... I don’t understand. What are you saying?”
He walked to the floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking the city. The lights below sparkled, and I could see our reflection in the glass, with me sitting at his table and him with his hands shoved in his pockets.
“I’m saying that if you agree to this… to being my fiancée—even if it’s fake—Jack will lose his mind.” Derek’s reflection turned to face me. “He’ll rush the divorce because he won’t be able to stand the thought of you with me. It will make everything easier for you. Legally. And it will give you the space and support you need to figure out what you really want.”
I stared at him, trying to process what he was suggesting, but my brain felt overwhelmed with too many emotions.
This morning, I was a wife. A tired wife and exhausted mother, but now I was... what?
A woman whose husband cheated on her. A single mother and a childhood friend sitting in her boss’s penthouse, wearing his clothes, smelling like his body wash, and being offered a fake engagement like it was a perfectly normal solution.
“You have really thought this through, haven’t you?” I sighed and leaned back in the chair. Derek had everything he could ask for, so why was he insisting on this fake engagement with me?
“What would you get out of this?” I asked eventually.
“So many things.” Derek smirked. “My mom will stop pestering me to get a girlfriend. Or a boyfriend. Our firm will benefit from it. Plus, the look on Jack’s face would add years to my life.”
I shook my head and said, “But you could find anyone to fake-date or fake your engagement with. Why me, Derek?”
“Come on, everyone would believe it.” He took a step closer and continued, “It’s a classic friends to lovers trope. Like the books you love to read. And… no one knows me like you do, Paige. You’ve known me for years. Decades.”
Decades. The words hung in the air between us.
Damn it, he is right! He has always been persuasive. No wonder he’s city’s best lawyers.
I looked down at my half-eaten sandwich, then at Lily sleeping peacefully in her carrier. When I looked back at Derek, I tried to ignore the way my heart was racing.
