Chapter 14
There’s not enough patience in the world to help me suppress my eye roll as Griffin starts our story the way one would a fairy tale.
“I was enjoying the evening with my granny while my parents were out on their weekly date night, when there was a knock at the front door. Carolers. That’s when I walked onto the porch and saw this beautiful woman”—he reaches over, intertwining our fingers—“and everything else faded away.”
I take a sip of Dr. Pepper, trying to hide my annoyed look behind my cup—it doesn’t exactly say romance.
“I couldn’t look at anyone but her while she sang ‘Deck the Halls’ with a choreographed routine.
It truly felt like fate had brought her to my doorstep.
” He rubs the stubble on his chin. “Anyway, I saw that they were all holding cups and stupidly thought they were collecting money for charity. I pulled a handful of change out of my pocket and proceeded to drop it into Mallory’s half-full cup of hot chocolate. ”
“Oh no.” My mom laughs. “I can picture that scene playing out perfectly.”
“It was a meet-cute straight out of a rom-com.” Griffin squeezes my hand. “Until I dropped the change in her cup, and the hot liquid sloshed over and burned her fingers. I held some snow to it, trying to help the best I could.”
“What a gentleman.” Mom looks between us, doe-eyed.
“I try my best, ma’am.” He smiles at her. “To make up for my terrible mistake, I offered to buy her a hot chocolate at a local place the next day.”
“Mallory never meets up with strangers.” My dad raises a skeptical brow.
“I wasn’t sure she’d agree to it, sir. But when she countered with me buying her two cups, we had a deal.”
“That’s my girl.” Dad nods at me like he’s proud I got an extra hot chocolate out of the encounter.
Griffin glances at me, looking the picture of calm, cool, and collected. A complete contrast to my current anxious, sweaty, and frazzled state.
Why did I ever agree to this?
It feels wrong lying to my family. But I suppose Griffin’s only told the truth thus far.
“The next afternoon, I met her at my favorite local coffee shop, and we enjoyed hot chocolates and talked for hours until we were both starving. Plus, I was looking for any excuse to spend more time with her.” He shoots me a grin.
I hate when he fake flirts with me. It’s been clear to me since watching his interview that our date didn’t mean as much to him as it did to me.
So, I don’t understand why he’s making it out to be as wonderful as I thought it was when he doesn’t believe the words he’s saying.
I guess he’s a better actor than I gave him credit for.
“That’s when we decided to grab wings before Daisy picked her up,” Griffin adds. Conveniently, he left out a crucial element: our earth-shattering first kiss with the snow slowly falling around us. Though I’m glad he didn’t mention it. I’d be mortified talking to my parents about our kiss.
“Then what?” my mom asks, leaning forward expectantly.
Griffin’s expression falls. “Unfortunately, our story paused there for a few years, courtesy of two dead phones, a phone number on a napkin, and a slushy puddle of snow.”
I meet my mom’s unexpectedly emotional gaze. “Is that why you never told me about him?”
I nod solemnly. “I thought he wasn’t interested when he never called.”
“Oh, sweetie.” She frowns before turning back to Griffin, waiting for more of the story.
“But that couldn’t have been further from the truth.
” He places his hand on my thigh, giving it a gentle squeeze.
“I left for an audition right after our date, and that was what landed me my first leading role in A Chance Romance. I hired an agent shortly after and worked with her to try to find Mallory. Unfortunately, our searches always came up empty-handed.”
He should win an award for his Oscar-worthy sigh and look of dejection. It’s pure torture having to sit here and listen to Griffin share our story. Because, while my parents think it ends in a happily-ever-after…I know that it ends in a tragedy with a fairytale facade.
Griffin leans toward me and tucks a strand of hair behind my ear.
The back of his fingers brushes along my jaw, sending my thoughts tumbling back to when he did the same thing before our first kiss in the snow.
My eyes dart to his, and I can see the same memory reflected in his eyes.
His gaze drops to my mouth, and the desire to feel his lips on mine builds.
I shove those feelings away into a deep abyss where they belong.
I’ve always thought that the chemistry I felt was one-sided, but the way Griffin’s talking and the heated way he’s looking at me makes it seem like it wasn’t one-sided at all.
So, what’s the truth? This story he’s selling now, or what he said on the interview a few months after he met me?
He shoots me a small smile before turning back to my parents.
“I didn’t even have a last name to go off.
And now I know that I was searching using her middle name rather than her first name, so it makes sense why I always came up empty-handed.
I tried her school, but the university wouldn’t give out any information, and a lot of Mallorys popped up with a search for Louisville, but none of them were her. ”
“How did you find our Mallory again, then?” My mom has never sounded so invested.
“Granny recently got a hip replacement. Some of her friends recommended a doctor here. I was between projects, so I rented a house to be nearby while she recovers from the surgery at a rehab facility.” He rubs the pad of his thumb along mine.
“This past Saturday, I was checking out one of the local coffee shops when I ran into Mallory.”
“And he means that he literally ran into me,” I chime in, realizing I’ve been pretty quiet this entire conversation.
I haven’t been able to keep my eyes off Griffin as he’s shared our story.
Not because I believe he really was interested in me after our first date, but because he really is captivating as an actor.
He’s literally been trained for a moment like this, so I guess all his hard work has paid off.
“Yeah, it wasn’t my best moment.” He laughs good-naturedly. “I caused a hot drink to spill on her for the second time. But I couldn’t get over how fate brought us together not once but twice in the same way, almost exactly three years apart.”
“And that’s the first picture the media got ahold of? The one in the coffee shop?” My mom nods like she’s putting the whole picture together.
“Exactly.” A blush climbs his neck as he looks between my parents. “I always told myself that if I found Mallory again, I’d never let her go. So I did just that. And, well, here we are.”
I should give him a standing ovation or a trophy for his performance.
Maybe I still have a soccer participation one somewhere up in my childhood bedroom.
I’m sure Griffin knows how to play the field, so it’s fitting.
“I’m sorry we couldn’t tell you before it went public.
It all happened in the blink of an eye.” Guilt still swirls inside, knowing that my parents found out the same way the rest of the world did.
“I was a little sad,” my mom admits. “But I can understand how the tabloids pick something up and run with it before you’ve had a chance to talk to loved ones first.”
“Thanks for being so understanding.” Griffin’s expression oozes gratitude. He grabs my hand and kisses the back of it before placing our joined hands on the table.
I don’t know what to believe. The lines between what’s an act and what’s real feel blurry. They’re lines that I don’t want to cross. But I’m unsure what Griffin’s stance is. It probably should’ve been something we talked about before all of this. Made some ground rules and set boundaries.
I mean, he kissed me during our photoshoot. I never planned on our lips meeting ever again, but when it seemed necessary to keep up this charade, I caved. And although the kiss was gentle and ended before it even started, it still affected me.
It brought me back to the flurries of snow hitting my face, the taste of snickerdoodle hot chocolate, and the warmth and safety I felt in his arms.
Those are things I cannot be feeling right now. Memories I’d rather stay in the long-term reserve, never to pop up again. But it seems that’s what Griffin does. He just pops into my life and reels me in like a fish on a rod with no chance of escape.
Griffin squeezes my hand hard, like he’s trying to get my attention. “I’ll check with Granny as long as it’s okay with you, beautiful?”
My eyes widen as they dart to him. “Hmm?”
He smiles, and I wonder if he knows that he’s the source of my distraction. I wouldn’t put mind reading past him at this point.
“Your mom said Granny and I better be at Christmas next week.”
“Right. You both should come.” I hate how breathless I sound.
Griffin’s brows dart up in surprise. I blame it on this stupid trance he put me in with all the touching and thoughts of kissing.
“Wonderful. Mallory’s brother will be thrilled to meet you.” Mom looks like she’s about to burst with joy. Probably at the idea of having the whole family here, but also at the fact that her only daughter just brought a man home for the first time…ever.
I snort. My older brother, Connor, is one of the most reserved people I know.
He has a grumpy exterior that no one has ever been able to break.
I glance over at our family photos hanging on the living room wall and find him smiling in only a handful—one handful of smiles in photos across a lifetime.
Yeah, I’m sure he’s going to be thrilled to meet my celebrity fake boyfriend.