Page 88 of The Girlfriend Clause
That was all.
A quick spritz of Eliza’s Red Vanilla perfume had almost erased the scent of three-day-old pepperoni, and my apartment felt quite tranquil. I could get used to this. Shame we actually had to live in it. Otherwise, it might have stayed that way.
The entry buzzer rattled through the hall, and I jumped.
“Right, you know the plan,” I said. Eliza nodded withall the solemnity of a jewel thief about to rappel down a skyscraper. She’d say hi to Liam, then vanish to her room. Close enough to eavesdrop and assist with the postmortem if my brain melted.
I gave myself a quick once-over in the hall mirror: denim cutoffs, surprisingly flattering, and my favorite white band tee. Aerosmith. I liked the logo. And the music. The fact that the fabric sat well across my chest was purely incidental.
My cheeks were still flushed from the frantic cleaning frenzy—showering hadn’t cooled me down at all. Hopefully, he wouldn’t notice. I took a deep breath and visualized calm.
It was really no big deal.
Guys came over all the time.
Well. Not for a while, to be honest. But sometimes.
And Liam was just another guy.
Except richer and taller and someone I couldn’t stand.
I buzzed him in.
*
Liam balanced his paper coffee cup on his knee. He looked huge in my living room. Huge and totally unreal. I could hardly believe he was sitting there, cool as a cucumber, nestled into my faded sofa with the old saggy IKEA cushions that we’d done our best to plump up, but failed.
“I got you an oat milk flat white,” he said. “You didn’t answer my text.”
I’d been way too busy wiping toothpaste blobs off the bathroom mirror with the sleeve of my T-shirt to check my messages.
“Yes, that’s what I… um, thanks.”
I kept my upper arms pressed against my sides in case sweat marks were showing under my pits. Fuck.
“The wedding’s in just under three weeks,” he continued, annoyingly calm. “Between now and then, we’ll need to make sure we’re ready.”
“Ready,” I echoed. “You mean, to convince people we’re not strangers?”
“That would be a good idea, yes.”
I took a long sip of my coffee. It was exactly how I liked it.How could he haveknown?
He set his own cup down carefully. “We’ll need a schedule for the next couple of weeks. Dinner, maybe an event or two. Enough to build a trail, at least. In case someone asks why there are no photos of us together.”
“A dating roster?” I raised an eyebrow. “And they say romance is dead. You do realize normal couples don’t make Gantt charts to prove they’re in love?”
“I prefer spreadsheets.”
Was he… joking? His mouth remained a firm line. Hard to tell.
“All right,” I said, slumping back into the sofa cushions. “What do you want to discuss?”
He paused. “We can get to that. The first issue is… Novexia. There may be crossover between my friends and associates at Nick’s wedding and people at the office. Especially senior people.”
I hadn’t thought of that. I’d assumed the wedding act would somehow exist in isolation, and we could keep it separate from the rest of our lives. Especially from the office. But of course, it couldn’t.
Everyone had seen me chase Liam down at the big meeting. They knew something was up.
