Chapter 12
WHEN YOU THREATEN HIM WITH A GOOD TIME AND HE SMIRKS LIKE THAT’S EXACTLY WHAT HE WANTED. #SOYOUSTARTPLOTTING
DAKOTA
“Hey. We need to talk,” Rebecca said the millisecond I walked through the door.
“I’m sorry, Rebecca, now’s not a good time,” I said, managing to keep my voice soft.
Look, was I confused about my feelings for Mathew?
Yes. Obviously. Where I’d expected a volcano of love and warmth was an empty, echoing chamber.
But A) that was probably just shock. And B) Even if it wasn’t—even if my feelings for Mathew had shriveled up and died somewhere between his leaving and today—Axel didn’t know that.
For all he knew, I was seconds away from throwing myself into Mathew’s arms. For all he knew, this was my one shot at fixing the love of my life, at mending something that had torn me apart for months.
He’d stolen that choice from me.
This—whatever this arrangement was between us—didn’t give him the right to play puppet master with my life. I would never insert myself between him and anyone.
But apparently, he thought he owned me now. Thought he could just … what? Make my choices for me?
Axel, who had always been an ass to me. ALWAYS. This wasn’t just about that post’s photo disaster. His animosity predated any of that, and I had officially reached my limit.
I couldn’t think about selling our ridiculous fake love story with the man I least wanted to share oxygen with right now. I needed to calm down before I did something stupid, like cut holes in the crotches of all his underwear.
My mouth kicked up on one side at the thought. Not a terrible idea actually. Maybe I’d start with his silk boxers. He definitely seemed like a silk-boxers kind of guy. Pretentious bastard.
The elevator doors slid open, and there stood my archnemesis, hands shoved casually in his pockets like he hadn’t just potentially torpedoed my life.
“Sunshine,” he cooed, his voice dripping with fake sweetness.
“Don’t Sunshine me! Do you have any idea what you’ve done?” I snapped.
“You can’t be seen talking to another guy,” Axel answered with the condescending tone of someone explaining basic math to a kindergartner.
“That’s not what this is, and you know it.”
“Isn’t it?” His eyebrow arched.
I narrowed my eyes at him. “There were a million ways to ask me to stop talking to Mathew. Discreet ways. You wanted to humiliate him.”
“And what if I did?” He shrugged like we were discussing a coffee preference instead of my love life.
“You probably ruined my shot at getting back together with Mathew.”
“You want to get back together with him?” Axel spewed.
Well, that’s not the point.
When I didn’t answer, his lips went thin, his fingers pulling out of his pockets and twitching at his sides like they were itching to punch something. Or someone. Preferably Mathew’s face, if I had to guess.
“Why in the world would you ever give that dickhead a second chance?”
“That’s not your concern.”
“I disagree.”
“You’re my fake fiancé. Nothing more. Stay. Out. Of. My. Life,” I spat, enunciating each word.
“He left you. You deserve better than him.”
“Like you care. The only thing you care about is making me miserable. Well, two can play at that game, Axel.” And, honey, I’m about to become a professional.
“What the hell is that supposed to mean?”
I don’t know. But I needed to reclaim some semblance of power and control here. The words had tumbled out before my brain had formulated an actual threat. File that under Things to Figure Out Later. Right next to How to Survive Fake Dating Satan Himself.
“Did you see how he was acting tonight?” Axel stepped forward, closing the distance between us. “He leaned into the altercation, Dakota. He was practically marking his territory like a dog.”
I suppose I should’ve been upset by Mathew’s behavior, but I wasn’t. The truth was, it was healing in a way. The man who never fought for me was finally fighting for me, in more ways than one.
“Hey!” Rebecca clapped her hands like a teacher who was breaking up a playground fight. “You two can argue all you want later. But right now, we are going to debrief.” She turned her screen. “Is this the guy you’re fighting about?”
It was a photo of the altercation.
Axel snarled, “She was canoodling with her ex-boyfriend.”
Canoodling. Who even says canoodling anymore? What is he, eighty?
I tried to murder Axel with my glower. “Ratting me out? Seriously? What are you, twelve?”
“He’s your ex?” Rebecca shrieked. “Someone got a video! No audio, thank God, but the body language … do I need to state the obvious here, Dakota?”
“I wasn’t canoodling. I ran into him and had a cordial conversation.”
“That wasn’t part of the plan,” she chided.
“I didn’t plan to run into him.”
“You should’ve walked away.”
“I will sell this ridiculous love story to save my parents, but let me be clear about my boundaries. I will not hurt relationships in the process.”
“Relationship?” Her eyebrows shot up so fast, they might have achieved orbit. “So, you do want a relationship with this guy?”
“It was written all over her face,” Axel accused, the smug satisfaction in his voice making me want to throw something at his perfect teeth.
“Why are you doing this?” I stormed over to him, jabbing my finger at his chest. “My conversation with Mathew wasn’t even on anyone’s radar until you decided to butt in.
That was bad enough, but then you come here and tattle on me like we’re in third grade?
What’s next, Axel? Going to tell my mommy I stayed up past my bedtime? ”
“My business is on the line, Sunshine.” He caught my finger mid-jab.
Why did his hands have to be so warm? Stupid, attractive villain hands.
And why did my stupid ribs get all squirmy with delight at the contact?
Did they NOT experience that fight? “Rebecca needs to know exactly what happened if she has any hope of salvaging my reputation after your little reunion tour.”
“That’s all you care about, isn’t it?” I accused, yanking my finger back.
“Should I care about something else?”
I opened my mouth to argue, but suddenly forgot where the hell I was going with that. I shook my head, mentally cursing the effect his proximity had on my ability to form coherent sentences.
“Let’s just have the debrief and get this over with.” I stepped back.
“You cannot be seen with your ex-boyfriend,” Rebecca said. Her tone suggested that violating this rule would result in my immediate execution.
“Fine. If I want to see him, I’ll make sure it’s somewhere private.”
She shook her head like I’d suggested we rob a bank. “We cannot take that chance. If you’re seen with an ex-boyfriend, it will call the authenticity of your relationship with Axel into question.”
“I wouldn’t do something stupid like kiss Mathew,” I assured her. Maybe I should have confided in her how confused and empty I was feeling for Mathew, but that was so not happening right now.
“It doesn’t matter. We can’t risk it. You cannot see him,” she said.
“What if I told him the truth? About the fake engagement? Then he’d understand why I can’t see him, and—”
“Absolutely not.” Rebecca’s voice cut through the air. “Ex-boyfriends are off-limits for confidential information. Period.”
“But Mathew’s not like that. He wouldn’t—”
“Dakota.” Rebecca’s tone turned gentle but firm.
“I’ve seen what happens when jilted ex-lovers get their hands on information like this.
It doesn’t matter how much you trust him or how good your relationship ended.
Jealousy makes people do things they never thought they were capable of.
One angry moment, one too many drinks, one argument about why you chose Axel over him—real or fake—and suddenly, your secret is trending on social media. ”
I wanted to argue, to defend Mathew, but something in Rebecca’s expression stopped me. She’d clearly seen this scenario play out before.
“Besides,” she continued, “think about it from Mathew’s perspective. You’re asking him to keep quiet about information that could destroy the man you’re supposedly choosing over him. That’s not fair to put on anyone, especially someone who still has feelings for you.”
My stomach sank because she was right. Mathew did still have feelings for me. And asking him to protect Axel’s reputation would be cruel.
But so was lying to him.
I wasn’t sure how I felt about Mathew. But I did know that I wanted to want him back. If I had enough time to process everything, I bet my feelings for him could come back. And then I’d have the life I’d dreamed of with him.
But now … because I hadn’t sacrificed enough for this fake engagement, I’d lose any hope of exploring a possible reconciliation with the only man I’d ever loved?
It seemed my whole life had been one series of sacrifices after another: helping my family through their ordeal with my brother, spending a tremendous amount of time helping them with repairs because they didn’t have the money to hire someone to do it, and now enduring the animosity of my enemy to try to save us all from my mistake.
And now they were asking me to give up the one thing—the ONE!
—that had once mattered most to my heart?
It wasn’t fair. For once, I just wanted to be selfish. Put myself first.
But I couldn’t. And you know what? A better daughter would never have these self-pitying feelings. A better daughter would do whatever it took to save her family, period.
“Look, the faster we sell the story, the faster you can get out of it. And then once you’re out of it, you’re free to do whatever you want,” Rebecca said.
“How long will that take?”
“It takes as long as it takes.”
The most unhelpful answer in the history of unhelpful answers.
But what if Mathew moved on before then? I couldn’t tell him to wait around for me, could I? My throat swelled at the realization that I might lose Mathew forever. Before I even knew what I wanted.
“Then Axel can’t date anyone either.” The declaration didn’t make me feel as better as I’d hoped.
“He can’t,” Rebecca agreed, nodding.
A look of panic settled across Axel’s face, like someone had just told him Christmas was canceled. “I can have a woman over to my penthouse. Discreetly.”
“A booty call?” I glared at him.
“A man has needs.” He spread his hands like it was the most reasonable thing in the world.
“Then you’re the neediest man I’ve ever met,” I said, thinking of all the Instagram posts I’d seen of him with a different woman on his arm in every photo. I had nothing against a lifestyle of free love and all that, but that wasn’t the point.
If I couldn’t see Mathew to keep this story alive, then Axel couldn’t see anyone either.
“Any woman I call over would be very discreet,” he assured.
Oh, how noble of him. Discreet booty calls. What a gentleman.
“If I can’t meet Mathew, you can’t have some rando come over for a hookup.”
“She’s right.” Rebecca crossed her arms. “No women.”
“Are you kidding me right now?”
Boy, look at that raging case of panic.
“Axel Pierce, Chicago’s biggest playboy, unable to get some ass,” I quipped. “Must be hard. Literally and figuratively.”
Jeez. I had left the neighborhood of Bratty and entered Bitchville without stopping for directions.
I needed to get it together, but something about Axel Pierce made my normal self-control (and evidently kindness) evaporate like ice on hot pavement.
His seething resentment infected me like a virus, making me want to hurt him like he did me.
It was a vicious cycle—his contempt feeding my hostility, which fed his contempt.
Honestly, of all the people in Chicago—hell, on the entire planet—why did karma decide to shackle me to him?
“What can I say,” Axel sneered. “I’m an ass man.”
“I just threw up in my mouth a little.”
“Now”—Rebecca rubbed her thighs like she was warming up for a marathon—“as we move forward, it will be very important that you and Axel know each other very well. Your homework assignment is to learn personal details about each other that will increase your credibility as a couple.”
“I can google him,” I assured her. I’d already done that, if I was being honest. Not because I cared, obviously. Just … research.
“You need to learn everything about each other. What are your fears? Goals? What’s something in your past that shaped who you are today? The things that couples know about each other.”
Oh, hell to the no. Hard pass.
“We don’t need to know all of that information to sell this love story.” Because, fine, I would rather put my arm around Axel’s hip than divulge any personal information to him. At least physical contact was temporary. Emotional vulnerability was forever.
“At some point, you are going to be giving interviews, and you two will be prepared for them.” Rebecca pointed her finger at us like a mother scolding unruly toddlers. “Got it?”
So, let me process this fresh hell for a moment.
Now, not only did I have to endure these fake romantic dates with Axel, not only was I evidently going to have to give interviews—which, let’s be clear, made me break out in hives at the thought of some nosy reporter asking me questions about a relationship I wanted nothing to do with—but in order to be prepared for that, I had to divulge extremely personal information about myself? To him?
I wanted to argue. I wanted to fight tooth and nail. I even considered calling this whole thing off because this was too much. Too extreme.
But I pictured Mom with that wooden board strung across her lap, and I imagined how many broken boards she would endure if I didn’t get this together.
“Fine,” I said, my voice flat. “But for the record, this whole thing is making me miserable.”
Axel walked up to me, towering over me like the human skyscraper he was. Probably wanting to intimidate me with his size and muscles, but I held my ground. Raised my chin and squared my shoulders.
“Trust me, Sunshine,” he said, his voice a dark silk activating something inside me, “there’s nothing you could do to make me more miserable than I am right now.”
I met his gaze without flinching, a slow smile spreading across my face. “Challenge accepted.”
Apparently, I had a petty side to me. And she was about to come out and play.