He laughed, but it was sharp and wrong. My hand paused in mid-air. “Oh, shit.”
“I’m not going to have sex with you… outside of work.”
Blue’s shoulders relaxed, and I plucked the drink from his grasp.
“That’s not the favor I was going to ask you.”
“Ah, so this drink does come with strings.” I hid my smile behind the glass as I took a sip.
“No strings. I just have something to run by you, if you have a couple minutes.”
“Well, I just so happen to have a few minutes before we go on for another set.” I motioned to an emptier spot at the bar, near the far end away from the stage. “What’s up?”
When we got there, Blue slid onto a stool and rested his elbows on the bar. After a deep breath, he looked at me. “Are you still single?”
Answering felt like a trap. If I said no, I was a liar, and then Blue might not tell me what he needed me for. And if I said yes, I’d probably end up roped into whatever scheme Blue had cooked up.
“Yeah.” I hadn’t been interested in dating ever since my not-straight, not-boyfriend had dumped me when I’d finally decided that his closet was only big enough for one person. “Why?”
Blue opened his phone, swiped around for a moment, then showed me the screen. “This is my boss, Rex. Rex is a complete catch, but he’s had kind of shit luck with men.”
“Blue, are you… I’m not a prostitute. Like, that man is fine. I’d do him for free.”
He laughed and shoved my arm. “You’re an asshole. That’s not what this is about.” After a sip of his drink, he launched into the story about how his boss’s brother was marrying a man that Rex used to date, who his brother was completely unaware of because Rex never shared much about his love life with his family.
So naturally, rather than coming clean and avoiding drama, Rex had invented a boyfriend of his own and now that the wedding invitation had arrived, he’d officially started panicking.
“You want me to pretend to be your boss’s boyfriend?” It was a rhetorical question, but Blue answered anyway.
“You’d be great at it. You’re sweet and funny and easy on the eyes. You wouldn’t have to do much, just get your story straight with Rex before the wedding. It’s an excuse to dress up.” Blue said that last part knowingly.
Tonight, I dressed the part of a drummer in a rock band. Thick, heavy rings on my fingers. A black shirt with the sleeves torn off that I’d turned into a crop top. And a pair of tight jeans that rode low, exposing my hip bones.
“You want me to go to the wedding of a couple I don’t know, with a man I’m pretending to date, and you think the way to get me to do that is to appeal to my vanity?”
Blue didn’t even blink at me.
“Well, you’re right. I’m a sucker for parties with a dance floor. When’s this wedding?”
Blue practically launched himself at me. He wrapped his arms around me and squeezed me tight. “It’s in a few months.”
“Well, you should probably give Rex my number so we can invent our backstory.” I disentangled myself from Blue’s embrace and downed my drink. We were due back in a few minutes, and I saw Ben coming out of the bathroom and heading for the stage. “I wish I could find out more about this, but I have to get back up there.”
“No, no, it’s fine. We’re good. I have to head out anyway, but I figured that if I came and asked in person, I could use the puppy-dog eyes if you tried to say no.”
“You’re an asshole, Blue,” I said, not meaning the words.
“Yes, but I’m a loveable asshole who is a master at getting his own way.”
“Okay, master manipulator. Go home to your men. Manipulate them into shutting that lippy mouth of yours.”
Blue grinned at me. “With pleasure.” He downed the rest of his drink and set the empty glass on the bar as he slid off the stool. “I’ll give you Rex’s number. I’ve already given him yours.”
“You were that confident that I’d say yes?”
“Of course you’d say yes. I know all your secrets, Perry. You love weddings. You love dressing up and going out. And I also know that you date bottom feeders who don’t know a good thingwhen they have it.” He leaned in and brushed a kiss against my cheek.
Blue wasn’t wrong in his assessment of my past boyfriends. They were all kind of shitty. For a while, I thought I’d struck gold with Darren. He was nice. Sweet. Caring… closeted. I thought I could overlook that for the rest of his qualities. But little by little, Darren’s mask slipped and I’d walked out of there knowing that I’d never meant anything to him and I never would.
