Chapter 28
“This is insane, you know that, right?”
I shrug, handing Ainsley my iced coffee so I can sift through the racks with both hands. “Is it insane or genius?”
“Like your plan to fool the guy into dating his son’s ex?”
I turn to glare at him over my shoulder. “It’s different. That was more like temporary insanity. This, however, this is genius.”
I’ve had three whole days to freak out and settle back down, fully convinced that my plan is going to work. When I called Ainsley and explained the whole thing, he offered to take me shopping for an outfit in Manhattan.
I’m happy for the company but since I insist on paying for my own clothes, we’re in Queens, searching for buried treasure in the discount racks.
“I mean, it’s sweet. But I still think we should have gone with my plan.”
“For you to let me into his house so I could be waiting there for him when he got home?”
“Waiting for him naked, yeah.”
I roll my eyes. “You just wanted to think about me naked.”
He shakes his head fervently. “No way. I will never think about you like that again. In my mind, you’re already my stepmother so thinking about you naked means I’m thinking about my dad naked. So no…just no. Besides, I have a girlfriend now.”
I wait for the pang of rejection to hit, the one that always strikes me down when I hear about one of the guys I chased after, one of the guys who ‘wasn’t looking for a relationship’, being in a relationship with someone else.
But it doesn’t come.
For once, I know what I want, and I’m going to get it. Come hell or high water. Well, maybe not the high water. I think I’ve had enough flooding for one lifetime.
“I think I can pull off hot stepmother.”
“That sounds like a Halloween costume,” he jokes, leaning on the wall beside me sipping coffee.
I pull an outfit off the rack and turn to him, holding it up to my body. “What about this?”
His face twists into an expression that I can’t quite read. “Are you going for hot stepmother or law clerk?”
I look down at the tight black skirt and fitted jacket set, imaging the sheer blouse I could tuck underneath. “Hot law clerk?”
Ainsley nods. “Yeah. I think that’ll work.”
I let him buy me dinner and accept all of his good luck and good wishes.
Honestly, if nothing else comes of this whole experience, I will have gotten a great friend out of the deal.