Not Safe For Work: A Steamy Fake Dating Romance

Chapter 12

“You’re leavingin the middle of game night?” Gabby pouts at me from across the table. Then she throws her cards up in the air. As dramatic as ever.

“Sorry Gabs. If it’s between Uno and a Mai Tai, I’m going Mai Tai every time.”

I head to my room to change. The Fairmont is one of the nicer hotels in San Francisco, so I assume Liv is dressed up. Probably can’t show up in my usual uniform. Locating a clean and wrinkle-free pair of pants takes a few minutes. Luckily a shirt’s easier.

I call an Uber so I don’t show up sweating buckets from climbing Nob Hill, but it’s still five minutes away. More than enough time for Gabby to scold me some more.

“You’re completely falling for her again, aren’t you?”

“Kadesha, can you please be more attentive to my sister? She is spending way too much time worrying about me.”

Kadesha pulls Gabby into a hug. “She is very well attended to, I promise. We just care about you. Neither of us want you to get hurt again.”

Oh god, now it’s both of them. “No one is hurting me. Liv and I are friends now. And she sounded like she needed one.”

My phone buzzes, alerting me that Dale in a silver Jetta is now two minutes away. “Gotta go. Have fun girls.”

I took some adorable pictures of Churro tonight, so I fire another one off to Liv, along with the message “Quill be there soon.” She might think my puns are stupid, but I’m pretty sure the last one got me a phone call. Now I just need to work on some better lines.

Entering the Fairmont is a little trippy. It’s like decoration overload. But it only takes me a second to spot Liv and her diamond-covered shoes.

“Hi,” I say, tapping her on the shoulder. She turns to face me, and her wide smile is absolutely everything.

“Scottie!” She hugs me. Well, she sort of falls onto me with open arms. “I wasn’t sure if you were actually coming.”

“Didn’t you get my text?”

“Phone died.” She shrugs. “You’re here.”

“I’m here.”

“And you’re all…fancy.” Her gaze follows the length of my body. I have to remind myself a few times that she”s admiring the outfit and not me. “I’m not sure you want to go to the event though. It’s sort of stuffy and it’s all jazz music and?—”

I place my hands on her shoulders. “It’s all good, Sparkles. I have another plan anyway.” She takes a quick breath and relaxes a bit. “Ever been to the Tonga Room?”

“No, what’s that?”

“It’s in the hotel. My second favorite tiki bar in the city.” I let go of her shoulders but offer an arm for her to hold on to. She’s looking a little wobbly on her feet, though I can’t tell if it’s the shoes or if she’s been drinking.

“What’s your first favorite?” she asks when we start walking through the hotel.

“Let’s see how you handle this one first.”

We head downstairs and follow a long corridor to get to the restaurant. Liv never lets go of my arm. Based on the hiccups that started in the elevator, I’m positive she’s been drinking, but she doesn’t seem too drunk. Either way, she can use me for balance any time she wants.

The Tonga Room is one of my favorite places in the city. I’m definitely biased, because I love a good tiki bar, but there’s something about it, being in the basement of the fancy Fairmont hotel, that makes it extra special.

I had a feeling Liv would love it, but when we walk in and she sees the boat floating in the middle of the restaurant, her shriek still catches me off guard. The restaurant itself is one big square-shaped bridge, so every table has a clear view of the water in the middle, where a small boat houses a band playing reggae. As soon as you walk in, you’re immediately on a tropical vacation. Even the air is sticky with humidity and rum. The scents of coconut and pineapple swirling all around us.

Unfortunately, I forgot how busy this place gets on the weekends. There’s an hour and a half wait for a table.

“That’s okay,” Liv says when she sees my disappointment. “Let’s just grab a spot at the bar.”

The bar is slammed too. We walk the full length of the restaurant, but every seat is taken.

“Olivia!” I turn toward the voice and find a pretty blonde sitting at one of the tables closest to the water. She’s flanked by two men in expensive suits.

“Oh my god, she remembers me,” Liv squeals. She takes a few sharp breaths like she’s hyperventilating. “That’s Lucy Gold, my favorite author. Can we go say hi?”

“Of course.”

“Hey, Lucy,” Liv says, her nerves on display. I run my hand down her spine to help settle them. “Did you have a good time at the gala?”

“It was an amazing event. Henry’s getting over some jet lag, so he took Rowan upstairs a while ago, but these are my friends, Jayce and Graham.”

The men stand and we all greet each other. They seem nice enough, even if I’m a little jealous they’re stealing some of Liv’s attention.

“Why don’t you join us?” Graham offers, his Australian accent throwing me for a sec. “I’m sure the wait for a table is ages.”

She looks at me, her eyes pleading a bit. No idea who Lucy Gold is, but if it makes Liv happy, I’ll talk about books for the rest of the night.

“Thanks, that’d be great actually.” I pull out a chair for Liv and once we’re seated, I throw an arm around her back. Maybe I feel a little possessive because of the guys sitting across from us, but she’s my pretend girlfriend, not theirs.

“I just have to say,” Liv starts, leaning toward Lucy. “I have read Beautiful Beasts at least three times. I actually just finished my last read about a month ago. After my break-up, it really spoke to me. Like, I wanna be the villain of my own story, you know?”

What the hell? There are a million questions I want to ask her about this. I decide that I’ll try to remember them later, because there’s no way I’m cutting into Liv having her moment right now.

Lucy laughs a little. “I love that. I don’t think I’ve ever heard someone phrase it that way before, but I was actually going through a tough break-up when I wrote it. I was tired of focusing on the happy ending, and I wanted my lead to have her moment without a man to make it happen.”

“Ugh, yes,” Liv replies, completely lit up. She licks her lips a few times and I turn around to try and flag down a server. “I know you don’t know me and I’m sure I sound ridiculous, but I think I could feel that through the book. It’s just so empowering and it really made me want to find a better story for myself too. Not killing people, obviously. But just taking control of my narrative. You’re such an incredible writer.”

Lucy looks down at her drink before taking a long pull from the pink straw. “The best feeling is just knowing my words resonated with you. But no more talking about me or I’ll get very weird, very fast.”

“That’s just because she’ll drink until she’s comfortable getting compliments,” Jayce says, smoothly sliding Lucy’s coconut drink toward himself.

A waitress pops by to take our order and Liv looks to me. “What should I get?”

“Oh, get this!” Lucy offers, stealing her drink back. “It’s called the Divine Dragon.” She says the last two words with a flair, and I can immediately see that she’s a storyteller.

“You’re a divine dragon, Luce,” Graham says, ruffling her hair. No one has made it clear if either of these guys is “with” Lucy, but I’m getting major brother and sister vibes.

“Ooh, that sounds good,” Liv replies, reading the menu. “But I can’t decide between that and a Mai Tai.”

“I’ll get the Mai Tai,” I tell her. “We can share.”

She must be tipsier than I thought because she looks up at me with glistening eyes. “That’s so nice of you.”

“I’m a nice guy,” I say back.

“Yeah, you are,” she murmurs, still gazing at me. “It’s very unsettling.” She narrows her eyes and purses her lips before her face transforms into a grin.

I give her shoulder a squeeze, tucking her a bit closer. “Brat.”

I never let myself flirt with Liv before this week. At first, I didn’t want her to be uncomfortable starting a new job, and then, once our working relationship felt more settled, she got herself a boyfriend. I’ve waited over two years to be able to do this and it feels amazing.

“So, Olivia,” Jayce muses, pulling me out of my daze. “Do you work at the winery?”

“No, I’m in sales with this one.” She tilts her head toward me almost close enough for us to touch. “What about you guys? Are you all writers?”

“Song writers.” Jayce raises an eyebrow and a muscle in my jaw starts to tick, because with two words I can already tell he’s about to hit on her. Does he not fucking see me here?

“Graham and I work with Lucy’s husband. We mostly score movies or high production TV series.” He bites his lip this time. “Do you like music?”

What kind of question is that? Who doesn’t like music?

“Of course. That’s such a cool job. What instruments do you play?” she asks them, somehow unaware of Jayce’s intentions.

“I do strings,” Graham says just as Jayce replies, “A little bit of everything.” He licks his lips and I feel like smashing his head in. Thankfully our drinks just came so I can chug some rum and ignore this guy.

I take a long pull of the Mai Tai and offer it to Liv. Her eyes flare up at me when she takes a sip and I grin.

“Delicious, right?” I ask, our eyes still connected.

“I pegged you more for a ‘whiskey, neat’ kind of guy to be honest.” I nudge her shoulder. “You’re really full of surprises, Scottie.”

I keep smiling at her. My face feels stuck this way.

“Olivia,” Jayce continues, ignoring the fucking moment we’re having. And this time he reaches out to grab her hand on the table. “If you could be any instrument, what would you be, and how would I?—”

He’s cut off when Lucy and Graham both yell “stop it!” and Graham smacks Jayce over his head. I like the Australian one.

Liv turns to me with wide eyes and we both laugh.

“So, Olivia,” Lucy says, ignoring Jayce’s pleas for her to “play nice.” “It looks like you landed a new boyfriend, huh?” She tilts her head and eyes me.

“Oh, no, we’re just friends,” Liv offers. It only hurts for a moment because a week ago, I’m not sure she’d even call me a friend.

Graham chuckles, also ignoring Jayce when he shouts “see!”

But then he eyes Liv, then me, and Liv again. “Have you told him that?” And I take it back. I do not like the Australian one.

“I cannot believeI just spent the night drinking with Lucy Gold. She gave me her number. Her number.”

Liv has been gushing non-stop since we left the musicians. After the second round of drinks, I could tell it was time to go. Though I’m still feeling grateful she was tipsy enough to not bat an eye at Graham’s comment.

“Should I call an Uber?” I ask, tugging gently on her hand. She’s been holding on to me since we left the restaurant.

She looks up at me, a perfect angel, twisting her lips in indecision.

“What is it?”

“Are you hungry at all?” she asks.

“Always. Wanna get some pizza? Golden Boy isn’t too far from here.”

She grins back, nodding her head vigorously.

I offer to get a car, but she says she can walk it. Halfway down the hill she stumbles, and I just barely catch her before she rolls all the way to Chinatown.

“Want a piggyback ride?” I offer. “We’ve only got a few blocks left.”

“Yeah, but I’m afraid my dress will rip. I’ll just take these off.” She bends down to slip off her shoes.

“All right, princess.” She gives a little shriek when I pick her up, but there’s no way in hell I’m letting her walk outside barefoot.

We walk like that the rest of the way, her body pressed against my chest, until we reach the long line of every other drunk person in the city wanting pizza.

“Maybe this was a bad idea. It could take forever with this line.”

“Nope,” the guy in front of us says, turning around. “Some douchebag just bought three pies for the whole line. As long as you like pepperoni we’re all about to get slices.”

“That’s…generous,” I reply. But the guy just laughs.

“Yeah, right. He said he doesn’t wait in lines. Offered to buy for everyone so he could cut.”

“Huh. Do you like pepperoni, Sparkles?”

She wraps her arms a little tighter around my neck. I can tell she’s minutes away from sleep. “Mhmm.”

As promised, employees start handing out slices to everyone in line. I let Liv feed me while I use one hand to hold her and the other to call an Uber. I definitely don’t want to wait and compete for a car with this group.

When I get to the end of my slice, I bite down gently on her fingers. She squeals but it morphs into a laugh and our eyes lock. I’ll do anything to keep recreating these little moments, like the one Jayce stole from me earlier.

Max in a black Tesla arrives a few minutes later and I carry her into the car. She sort of falls into my lap. I guess it wasn’t the smoothest move, but I was only worried about keeping her feet off the ground.

To my surprise, she doesn’t try to move, just settles in, wrapping her arms around me and burrowing into my chest.

“This was the best night. Thank you for coming out,” she says against the collar of my shirt.

“Thanks for tempting me with your choice of clothing.”

“You never told me. Did you like the dress?”

“Of course. You look stunning.” She just responds with an “mmm” sound, and I wonder if she’s disappointed in my answer, so I might as well be honest with her. “It’s so plain though, compared to everything else I saw in your closet. Where’s the sparkle?”

She laughs, or exhales, or does something that vibrates against my chest. I swear she nuzzles in a little closer.

“You get me.” It’s the last thing she says before promptly falling asleep.