Chapter 4 Marsh #3
“No, of course not.” She puts a hand on her collarbone. “But if they find the strength to leave their shitty relationships with my help, I won’t be mad.”
“And you think your editor will be happy with the trajectory of those stories?” I ask.
“Well, that’s why it’s perfect, Marsh. Everyone is going to think I’m falling head over heels for my new boyfriend. Everything will sound completely genuine and then bam.” She hits the back of her hand on her palm. “Hit ’em with a dose of reality.”
“Uh, okay…”
“It was your idea,” she says.
“My idea?!”
“Yes,” she insists. “You told me to write about the messy, real side of relationships…and it’s a brilliant idea.”
“Yeah, I thought you were going to write an opinion piece on how empowering it is to be single. Not a whole manipulation series with a fake relationship.”
“Aren’t all relationships technically fake?” She raises an eyebrow.
“No?”
“Look, it doesn’t matter,” she says, dismissing me.
“I thought this through, and I’m confident I can pull it off.
Forget about what I need to do on my end.
I’m telling you that I can be your plus-one, Marsh.
You don’t need to go on any apps or try to pick up women at grocery stores.
I will make this so easy for you. And you don’t have to worry about me wanting anything more.
You can flaunt me in front of your family and your ex with no strings attached. ”
My eyes quickly travel from the top of her head down to her toes. A pearl white pedicure peeks out from her flats. I’ll be honest, a woman like Lucy is someone I couldn’t have even conjured up in my dreams let alone have on my arm…but there are a million reasons why I shouldn’t agree to this.
“I can’t ask that of you.”
“You’re not asking me. I’m asking you,” she says like it’s no big deal. “You haven’t found anyone, right?”
“Well, no.”
“Then what’s the problem?” she retorts, and there’s something so determined about her stance. She most definitely was in debate club in high school.
“What happened to that whole conversation from the other night?” I ask. “I’m sure you have many men that are lining up to date you. And you don’t have to make a case for them either.”
“I don’t want to date those men,” she says. “I want to date you.”
Oh.
“Lucy.” I cough.
“I mean that you get me. You get what I need,” she explains.
“I don’t want to spend all that time with someone else and lead them on and by the end of it, drop them once I write my stories.
It’s the same reason you don’t want to bring some random as a date.
That’s why I told you what I’m doing up front. ”
She does have a point. It would be pretty shitty to date someone, build a foundation, only for it to just be exposed in a story. Despite the whiplash I have right now, I do appreciate Lucy being honest with me from the beginning.
“You don’t think other guys would understand and go along with it?” I ask.
“Maybe.” She shrugs. “But when it comes to my job and what I need to do…I trust you, Marsh.”
Her words stick to my frontal lobe, and I fear it’s one of those things that I might not be able to forget. But I fight literally every fiber of my being from saying yes.
“Okay, first tell me what these articles are,” I say.
“Nothing personal, I swear,” she tells me earnestly. “And like I said, I won’t use names. I haven’t mapped out exactly what the stories are. I think that will just come naturally once we start doing things.”
“Right…” I say, imagining what doing things even means.
“I will run every article by you and let you read it before it’s published,” Lucy says.
“I feel like it would be…”
“A conflict of interest?” she offers, clearly two steps ahead of me. “Inappropriate? Like you took advantage of a co-worker under the influence at an office party?”
“Yes”—I adjust my glasses—“to all the above.”
“Maybe if the lines were blurred,” she explains. “But it’s not like we’re going to sleep together.”
In an instant, I’m hot underneath my collar. Her candidness when it comes to sexual relations is something I’m going to have to get used to.
“No, no. Definitely not,” I say, making sure she knows I don’t expect anything other than a plus-one for the wedding.
“Well, then it’s settled. Marsh, can you please take me to your ex’s wedding and be my pretend boyfriend for the next five weeks?”
I think of my call with Oliver and how Julia is someone who clearly isn’t showing any signs of disappearing from my life. At least, not anytime soon. As embarrassing as it may sound, a date and distracting the attention from poor single Marsh is the only way I’ll be able to get through this summer.
“There’s also a rehearsal dinner the night before the wedding,” I say, wondering why I’m even telling her.
“Fun,” Lucy says, unfazed.
I’ve tried to find someone with absolutely no luck.
I’m not good at the whole dating thing, and putting myself out there is terrifying.
Now here’s a beautiful, fun, intelligent woman offering to help me out.
No strings attached. I would be an absolute idiot to say no.
I could accept and spend the remainder of the summer with Lucy.
Or, I could say no and continue my bleak attempt at matching with someone who wouldn’t even be half the woman Lucy is.
“Please,” Lucy says, her tone more serious than ever. “I think this is the only way I can keep my job, Marsh. I can’t lose this job.”
Fuck. I wipe my palm across my face. “All right.”
“All right?!” Lucy’s face lights up, and I hate how happy she looks. How much I like seeing her happy.
“Yeah…” God, I hope I don’t regret this. “I guess we’re doing this.”