Lucky Charm: A Sweet, Fake Relationship Romance

1. Emerson

“Tell me I’m a genius,” my best friend, Tilly, sang out as soon as I answered her call and sandwiched my phone between my shoulder and my ear.

I was currently sitting on my bed with my guitar in my lap, eating licorice and avoiding the massive pile of half-full boxes that littered my room. To say that I was avoiding this move would be an understatement. I hated that my landlord had rented my apartment out from under me. And even though I knew I was going to have to leave, I was currently the president of the island called Denial.

If only Tilly would join me, we could rule it together.

I slipped my guitar pick between my lips before I leaned over my guitar to draw a B-flat on my sheet music. I mumbled out an incoherent, “Why are you a genius?”

“What?”

I straightened and took the pick out of my mouth before strumming the chords I’d just jotted down. “Why are you a genius?”

“Why aren’t you packing?”

I winced. “I’m packing.”

“Then why did I hear your guitar?”

“I’m taking a break, and then I’m going right back to packing.” I sighed. She couldn’t expect me to work the entire time she was gone.

“Emerson Marie King. You need to pack. You promised me that you would pack.” Her tone became more and more staccato with each word. “You have to be out of that place by Sunday.”

The panic in her voice was making my heart pound.

“And I am doing that,” I said, instantly feeling guilty for lying to my best friend. “As soon as I get down this verse, I’ll get back to packing.”

“I don’t believe you.”

Changing the subject felt like the right move. “Why are you a genius?”

“Oh, right,” she said, her voice changing to a giggle. “Hang on. I just pulled up to your building. I’ll be up in a second.”

She hung up before I could respond. Not wanting to get a second lecture from her when she arrived, I unfolded my legs out from under me, slipped my guitar back into its case, and closed the lid. I leaned it against the wall before gathering the sheet music that littered my bed and stuffed it into my backpack. Then I turned to focus on taping the bottom of a box.

Three sharp knocks sounded from my front door. I set the tape dispenser down and headed out to the hallway that led to the front door. After I unlocked the dead bolt, I pulled open the door. Tilly smiled when she saw me. She lifted her hand up so I could take the drink holder she had in one hand. She’d pulled her blue hair up into a high ponytail, and she was currently blowing the wisps of hair that framed her face away from her cheeks.

“Thank you,” I said as I brought the drink holder up and inhaled the steam coming from the small opening of one of the coffee cups. The nutty scent mixed with vanilla filled my nose, and a smile emerged on my lips. “I needed this,” I said as I pushed my glasses up.

“We need to get to work,” she said as she pushed past me.

I kicked the door shut and turned to follow after her. “Yes, ma’am,” I mumbled.

She shot me a look from over her shoulder but didn’t respond. She let out a giant sigh when she stopped in my bedroom’s doorway and stared inside. Her hands were planted firmly on her hips, and I could just feel her disappointment seeping from her stance.

“It’s not that bad,” I offered, hoping it would distract from how much we needed to get done.

“It’s bad, Emerson.”

I grabbed my cup of coffee and took a sip, ignoring the fact that I practically burned my mouth in the process. Tilly turned to face me before reaching over to remove her drink from the tray and take a sip as well.

We stared at each other from over our cups before we lowered them in unison.

“We need to get moving?—”

“You said you were a genius?—”

We both started and stopped talking at the same time. Tilly pursed her lips as she narrowed her eyes. I could tell that she was weighing her desire to scold me for not packing against her desire to tell me whatever grandiose plan she had for fixing my life.

I loved my best friend. She agreed to be my manager when no one wanted to take me on. She believed in me and my music more than I did at times. If I ever made it in this industry, it was going to be because of the sheer grit of my best friend. I was broken, and she wasn’t going to rest until she fixed me.

The smile that emerged told me that she was going with the news that made her a self-proclaimed genius. She grabbed my hand, pulled me into my room, and motioned for me to sit on my bed before she started pacing in front of me.

“So, you know Cadence?” she asked before taking a sip of her coffee.

“Cadence. As in your older sister Cadence?”

She stopped to stare at me before she returned to pacing. “The only Cadence I know.”

“Yes, I know her,” I replied as I leaned back on one arm and proceeded to take small sips of my coffee. “What about her?”

“Her boyfriend’s sister, Poppy, is looking for someone to sublet her apartment while she’s on a six-month work trip in Europe to take pictures of…” She paused and tipped her head to the side as she stared off into the distance. Then she shook her head. “Birds, maybe? I don’t really remember.”

Her words had me sitting a little straighter on the bed. Six months would be amazing for me. Six months might be exactly what I needed to get my life back on track. “How much?” I asked, wincing as I thought back to the meager amount currently sitting in my bank account. The life of an aspiring musician who worked as a barista at a coffee shop didn’t come with big bucks.

Tilly sucked air through her teeth which told me I wasn’t going to like what she was about to say. “It’s a little more than what you were paying here.” She smiled a little too enthusiastically.

“A little more.” I narrowed my eyes. “How much more?”

She pursed her lips before whispering, “Five hundred.”

My jaw dropped. “Tilly! Five hundred? As in, dollars?” I flopped onto my bed and stared up at the ceiling. Fate was mean, always dangling what I wanted in front of me before ripping it away.

The mattress shifted as I felt Tilly sit on the bed and then flop down next to me. Her arm rested against mine, and from the corner of my eye, I could see that she was staring at the ceiling as well.

“I told her you were going to take it.”

Her words lingered in the air around me. I frowned as I tipped my head to the side so I could look at her. Did I hear her wrong? Did she say she already agreed to have me sublet the apartment?

I sat up. “What? Why did you do that?”

I felt Tilly’s gaze land on me as she moved to sit as well. “You have to stop living like you aren’t going to make it.” Her gaze intensified. “I know you’re going to go all the way to the top. You need to start living like you are the star I know you are.”

I appreciated her confidence, but there was no way I could afford another five hundred dollars to my rent. “I can’t afford that, Tilly,” I said, my voice cracking from emotions. I wanted to be the big star she seemed to think I was, but I felt like I was trying to walk up a muddy mountain in the rain. I just kept slipping down no matter what I did.

“I know.” Her smile turned mischievous. “I have a plan.”

I frowned. I didn’t like the way her smile looked or the tone in her voice. “You do?” I asked.

She nodded. “Yep.” She climbed off the bed. “Let’s go look at the apartment.”

“And feel tortured by what I can’t have?” I reached forward and grabbed my pillow. I hugged it to my chest and rested my chin on its fluff.

“Maybe seeing what you can have will help your mindset. If you believe you can only afford to live in a subpar apartment where you landlord is a dick and rents your apartment out from under you, that’s what you’ll get.”

I raised my eyebrows. Tilly was all, “Visualize what you want, and you’ll get it.” I loved my best friend, but sometimes, you just needed to stop fighting reality. I wanted to believe that I could be a star, but I was getting to the point where I just needed to accept how far I was going to be able to go. And that was this crummy apartment in the outskirts of Nashville. Always on the outside looking in.

But she looked so hopeful, so I forced a smile. “Okay. I guess we can go check it out,” I said.

Tilly squealed as she moved to get off the bed. “Let’s go! We can grab some lunch while we’re downtown.”

I groaned, but she just stuck her finger up in the air in front of my lips to silence me. “I’ll pay. After all, I need you indebted to me so when you’re the big shot singer you’ll feel too guilty to ignore your lowly commoner friend.”

I pulled her into a hug. “I would never forget you,” I said.

She laughed and pulled back. “You better not.” She searched my room before she found my cowboy boots and tossed them to me. “Get your boots on. Thankfully, you already look adorable,” she said as she waggled her finger in my direction.

I was wearing a pair of cutoff shorts and a Van Halen t-shirt that I’d distressed with bleach. I’d cut the neckline so it would slip off my shoulder and expose the lacey bralette I had on underneath. I’d pulled my long, blonde hair up into a messy bun this morning, and I contemplated convincing Tilly to let me freshen up, but then pushed that thought from my mind.

Relationships and men were the last thing I needed. Especially after my latest breakup. The relationship only lasted a few months before I put a stop to it. I could never seem to get past the first few months. Maybe it was because I always compared every new relationship to my grandparents’. Their romance was one for the books.

My grandfather met my grandmother when she owned a trinket store in Ireland. He was on a self-exploration trip and went into the store on a whim. He bought a four-leaf clover key chain with the words a chuisle, a chroí etched into it from my grandmother.

Later that night, he found her at the local pub and asked her to dance. They spent the evening drinking and eating, and in the morning, he flew home convinced he would never see her again.

Two years later, he found that key chain in a box and put it on his key ring. When he got to work later that day, she walked into his law firm in Brooklyn. He swore that day he would never let her go again. He married her two months later, claiming the key chain he’d bought that day was his lucky charm.

Any relationship seemed ridiculous when compared with theirs. It’s probably why Cayden and I were still single in our twenties.

“Let’s go,” I sang out as I slipped my purse strap up onto my shoulder. The bottom tassels that hung from the bag tickled my leg, but I ignored the sensation as I grabbed my key and waited for Tilly to join me in the hallway before I locked up.

My eyes widened as Tilly drove me from my run-down apartment to downtown Nashville. I could feel the wealth the further we went, and my purse began to feel like a weight on my lap. There was no way I could afford to live here.

Sure, it would be great for my singing. There were so many bars and stages for me to try to get on to, but this was so far out of my tax bracket that I wanted to cry.

Tilly’s hand appeared in front of me as she patted my thigh. “Let’s just see it,” she said as if she could read my mind.

“I don’t think they will even let me into the building,” I whispered.

She pulled up to the parking garage for the Elysian Heights Apartments. It was a white brick building that looked older but refurbished. The car engine idled as Tilly rolled her window down and punched in a code she’d pulled up on her phone. The garage door opened with a creak and a groan.

That was a good sign. Even though this place was in downtown Nashville, maybe there was a chance that I could belong here. From what I could make out of the building, there were stairs that went up to each apartment. There was no doorman or lobby. It seemed simple enough, so the location had to be what was driving up the rent.

Tilly pulled into the parking space with a white 25 sprayed on the concrete. I glanced over at her, and she gave me a hopeful smile before she pulled on the car door release. I did the same and then walked around the hood to join her as we made our way to the elevator at the end of the parking garage.

“So, when does she need someone to take the apartment over?” I asked as the elevator car took us up to the fourth floor.

“Today,” Tilly said as she shot me a smile. “Which is why this place is perfect!”

“A thousand dollars a month sublet is far from perfect,” I muttered.

Tilly slipped her arm through mine and pulled me to her side. “We’ll figure something out, but you can’t beat this location. You’ll be so close to so many mics that someone is bound to discover you. You just have to believe.”

I smiled at her. “Sure, Tilly. We’ll go with that.”

I used to believe that anything was possible, but when my life started to crumble around me, it had been hard to be optimistic. During my junior year, Cayden lost all of his scholarship opportunities and spiraled. Dad and Mom divorced. The day I graduated high school, Cayden got arrested, so he missed seeing me walk. My parents got in a fight and they both ended up leaving before the ceremony was over. I was stuck on the sidewalk in my cap and gown, waiting for someone to come back to get me.

I spent three years at college, only to have my dad go bankrupt, and I lost all financial aid. I never graduated. Instead, I decided to focus on my music, which brought me here…evicted from my apartment and with no place to live.

So, while Tilly wanted me to believe, I was going to be realistic. Some things weren’t meant to happen.

The elevator chimed, and the doors slid open. We stepped out onto the landing and looked around. The stairs were directly in front of us. One set went up and another went down. There was a door to our left and one to our right. I waited for Tilly to move first since she had the key and the address.

“It looks like it’s…” She scrolled on her phone. “This one,” she declared, pointing toward the apartment door that had 4B affixed under the peephole.

I waited as she slipped the key into the lock and followed her into the apartment, shutting the door behind me. One look around and I knew this had been a mistake. I loved everything about this place. It was older, but the ceilings were high, and the doorways were arched. The long wall in the living room was a continuation of the exterior brick that had been white washed. Every room had a window. Even the kitchen had a window above the sink. Sure, it looked out to the landing, but the natural light had my soul singing.

“She said she’s leaving the furniture.”

“That’s perfect,” I breathed out as I glanced around. Whoever this woman was, she and I had the same taste in just about everything. Her color palette was neutral with pops of green, purple, and blue. This place felt like home.

“So…” Tilly’s voice sounded next to me.

I startled and glanced over to see her standing inches away from me with a grin spread across her lips.

“This isn’t fair,” I said as I sat down on the couch and nearly disappeared in the pillowy cushions. I groaned as I sat back. “I’m dreaming…this is a dream, right?” I asked as I lifted my arm and pinched it a few times.

Tilly sat down next to me. “All you have to do is say yes,” she said, using her shoulder to bump me.

I glared at her. “That’s all? And what, a genie will suddenly appear and grant me all my wishes?”

Tilly shrugged. “Something like that.”

I hated that she was being so cryptic. I wished she’d just tell me the truth. “What aren’t you telling me?” I folded my arms and gave her a stare that told her I wasn’t interested in half truths. I needed to know what she was talking about before I agreed to any of this.

She pinched her lips together. “Let’s just say that you have a fan who’s willing to help you reach your dreams.”

I frowned. “A fan?” Recognition dawned on me. “Not the guy that sent me his hair.” My gag reflex activated, and I had to swallow a few times just to settle my stomach.

“Creeper? No.” Tilly swatted my shoulder. “I wouldn’t take anything from him.”

I studied her. I couldn’t think of anyone who liked me enough to want to help my career take off. “Who is it?” I asked, leaning forward and staring her down.

She brought her phone close to her chest and shook her head. “I can’t tell you.”

“Tilly!” I lunged for her phone. But she must have anticipated that I would try to get it from her because suddenly, she was on the other side of the room, tucking her phone into her bra.

“Emerson,” she said, raising her hands as I stalked toward her. “Emerson!” Her voice got louder as I approached. “I really don’t know,” she wailed when I was inches from her.

I stopped to stare at her. “You don’t know?”

She shook her head. “I don’t. But I promise you that this is legit. They just said they don’t want their identity to be known.”

“Then how do you know this is legit?” I folded my arms.

She sighed, blowing the hair that had fallen out of her ponytail away from her face. Then she took a step back and narrowed her eyes. “I’ll show you if you promise not to yank my phone from my hand.”

I narrowed my eyes but then nodded. “I swear.”

She sized me up for a moment before she slipped her hand into her bra and removed her phone. She swiped at the screen and typed something in. Then she turned the phone around. “They already deposited the money into your account. The six-month sublease has been paid.”

At first, I didn’t know what I was looking at. I wasn’t used to seeing that many digits in my business account before. My jaw dropped as I leaned forward. “They what?” I glanced at her over her phone.

“I told them that you needed some help, and they offered to pay your rent.”

My mind was reeling from Tilly’s words. Who would have done this? My parents? No. They were constantly hitting me up for money. Cayden? Naw. Last time I saw him he was sharing an apartment with three other guys. I was so confused; I didn’t know what to say.

“So?” Tilly’s question broke through my thoughts.

“So…” I blinked as I glanced around the living room. This seemed like a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. I’d be stupid to turn this down. Even though I wasn’t sure what this person’s angle was, I couldn’t turn down their help. If I did, I would have to move back to my hometown, and there was no way I would get discovered there.

I sucked in my breath, prayed that I wasn’t going to regret this, and nodded. “Yes.”

Tilly’s eyebrows rose. “Yes?”

Excitement brewed in my stomach. “Yes.”

Suddenly, Tilly closed the space between us. She wrapped her arms around me, and I let my enthusiasm take over as we both started jumping in a circle.

“You live here!” she exclaimed.

“I live here!”

Just then, I realized that we were on the fourth floor and someone most likely lived beneath us, so I stopped jumping and stepped away from Tilly.

“I’m going to call Poppy to tell her.”

“Awesome,” I said as I moved to look at the trinkets on the shelf by the TV.

I half-listened to Tilly as I began to daydream about where I was going to create a music corner. The sound of snapping fingers drew my attention over, and I turned to see Tilly standing by the door, waving her hand to get my attention.

“Your neighbor,” she mouthed as she pointed at the peephole.

I nodded and moved to join her. Butterflies erupted in my stomach as I squinted and peeked through the hole. I hoped they were nice and that we would get along.

It was a guy. He had brown hair and was built like a tower. He was wearing a leather jacket. A motorcycle helmet was tucked under his arm while a few white grocery bags hung from his hand. I ran my gaze over his back as he turned the key and pushed open his door. Disappointment flooded through me as I watched him walk into his apartment. I wasn’t going to see who I was living across from.

But just as he moved to kick his door closed behind him, he stopped and slowly turned. He brought his gaze up to my door, and I got a good look at who was standing there.

My entire body froze as I stared at his familiar blue eyes and brown tousled hair. I gasped and turned away from the peephole, like he could see me. I clutched my pounding heart as Tilly stepped up to me with a frown on her face.

“Who is it?” she whispered as she moved around me so she could look through the peephole.

I took in a few deep breaths before I said, “Stone Walker.”