Page 31 of Fake it With Me

“But?” I could hear the unspoken word hanging between us.

“But I need to ask you not to do that.”

It was basically what I expected. I studied whale behavior but I was also pretty adept at reading humans as well. I took a drink to cover my reaction, the bourbon burning down my throat. “Oh.”

“Not because you did anything wrong,” he continued quickly. “You were perfect. That’s the problem. You were so perfect that Daisie is bonding with you. Really bonding with you. And in a few weeks, you’ll be gone, and she’ll be⁠—”

“Heartbroken,” I finished. “Yeah. I know.”

He looked surprised. “You’ve been thinking about this too?”

“Of course I have. I’m not an idiot, Darek. I can see what’s happening.” I turned the glass in my hands, watching the amber liquid catch the light. “She’s starting to see me as… I don’t know, not a mother exactly, but someone maternal. Someone stable. And when I leave it will hurt her.”

“It’ll be like her mother leaving all over again.” He ran a hand through his hair, frustration evident in every line of his body. “I should have thought this through better. I should have established clearer boundaries from the start. But everything happened so fast, and you and Daisie clicked immediately. I don’t know what I was thinking.”

“You thought we could keep it fake,” I said. “We both did.”

“Yeah.”

I took another sip of bourbon, feeling the warmth spread through my chest. I wasn’t a big drinker, mostly because it was an expense I couldn’t afford. I could feel the liquor flowing through my body and almost groaned with delight. It tasted good. Smooth. I knew it had to be expensive.

“For what it’s worth, I was thinking the same thing,” I said.

“About?” His eyes were locked on mine. I had to be careful. It was so easy to get lost in the pools of blue.

I looked away. “About needing to pull back. Create some distance. It’s just…” I laughed, but there was no humor in it. “It doesn’t feel fake sometimes. It’s crazy.”

“Tell me about it.”

“I’ve never done anything like this before,” I said with a sigh. “This is completely new territory for me.”

“Working at Faux, you mean?”

“Working at Faux, living with other people, any of it. I just signed up a month or so ago. This is my first assignment.”

His eyebrows rose. “Really? You seem so natural at it.”

“Natural at pretending to be someone’s girlfriend?” I laughed. “I’m not sure that’s a compliment.”

“I meant natural at being here. With us. Like you fit.” He seemed to realize what he’d said and quickly added, “Which is good. For the arrangement. You’re doing a great job.”

“Thank you.”

“How am I doing?” he asked. “As far as being a client? I mean, you’re my first, uh, hire, so I have no frame of reference.”

“You’re actually a lot better than I imagined.”

“You had low expectations?”

“I had no idea what to expect. I really didn’t know what kind of man would hire a woman just to hang out. I was expecting old. Icky. I don’t know. Not you.”

He chuckled. “Thanks. I think.”

“I don’t get it,” I said. You’re a good—” I stopped myself from finishing that sentence. I was going to say a good-looking man, but flirting with my boss was not a good idea. Especially after the almost-whatever that happened in the closet. “You just seem like you could get plenty of women to hang out with you for free. You’re successful, you’re clearly a good father, you have this amazing house. Why hire someone?”

He was quiet for a beat. I wondered if I had overstepped. I did that a lot. Always sticking my foot in my mouth. Janice said I spent too much time with the wrong kind of mammals and had zero social skills.

“The whole point of hiring you was to keep things simple and clean. When it comes time to go our separate ways, once I get past this custody issue, I didn’t want anyone to get hurt. Not Daisie, not me, not whoever I might have convinced to help me out.”