Chapter 4
HOLDEN
At this hour, the campus cafe was nearly empty. There were only a few students still lingering, and they were either too desperate for caffeine or too busy pretending to study to notice us.
When we reached the counter, I ordered two coffees and a bear claw, sliding them onto the table between us. She looked at the pastry like she wasn’t sure if it was a bribe or a trap. Those intriguing green eyes darted toward it, then back up at me.
“Sugar helps with late night negotiations,” I said, mindful to keep my eyes on her face instead of her body clad in that striped, navy skirt suit. “It won’t bite you and it’s not poisoned.”
She looked back at me. Ellora. Even her name was different. Unique.
Just like her, it turned out.
I hadn’t expected her to show up tonight looking like professional sex on a stick, but holy hell. A big part of me had wanted to chase all the others out of class and bend her over my desk for a different kind of lesson.
Clearly, she’d taken my advice from the first class to heart. Somehow, she took direction so well while still being fiery and sassy. The way she’d responded every time I’d looked her way had definitely made my pulse spike.
All of it combined? Well, it had been an interesting class for me.
“Right,” she said finally, averting her gaze and tearing off a tiny piece of the pastry but not eating it just yet. Her gaze settled on mine again and I could see that she was curious. She didn’t keep me waiting for it much longer. “Do you do this often, then?”
“Do what?”
“Buy your students coffee after class.”
I shook my head. “In the five years I’ve been teaching here, this is a first. How am I doing so far? Should I have gone with a muffin instead?”
She scoffed quietly, seemingly choking on a dry laugh more than legitimately scoffing. “Well, you certainly seem to know how to build suspense. Are you ever going to tell me what this mysterious business proposal is?”
I took a sip of my coffee, mostly to distract myself from knowing how ridiculous this was going to sound out loud. “I need a date, but not a real one. I don’t need someone who’s actually interested in me. It would simply be an arrangement to attend a function with me.”
Her eyes narrowed. “That’s your business proposal?”
“Trust me, I realize it’s unorthodox, but I need a date to a wedding and you know what they say about desperate times. Well, this is one of those times.”
Her full lips parted as she stared at me, doing the closest thing to a double-take I’d ever personally experienced. “You’re kidding. You want me to go to a wedding with you?”
“I wish I was kidding, but unfortunately, I’m entirely serious.”
“But…” She trailed off, blinking hard and giving her head a quick shake before she finally continued. “Why would you need a business proposal just to get a date?”
I chuckled. “I don’t need to do anything to get a real date. I was planning on flying solo that night, so I RSVP’d for one. That was before I knew my ex-wife was going to be there.”
I exhaled through my nose, the words coming faster now that I’d started.
“It’s the wedding of someone I work with a lot.
If I skip it now that I know she’s going, he’ll be pissed off and that would damage our relationship, but if I show up alone, Shannon will assume I’m still licking my wounds, and I’d rather not give her that satisfaction. ”
“So your solution is to hire a fake girlfriend.” It wasn’t a question as much as a slow-spoken observation, like she was saying it out loud just to wrap her own head around it.
I didn’t blame her, but I also needed her to wrap her head around what it actually was. “Whoa there. I need a fake date. Girlfriend is a little too much commitment for me. It would just be this one night out.”
She leaned back in her chair, dropping the piece of pastry she still hadn’t eaten and crossing her arms. It had the unfortunate consequence of making her cleavage even more prominent. This woman had to be at least ten years younger than me. There was no way I should be thinking about her tits.
“Why me?” she asked, chin rising a little as those green eyes blazed with skepticism and distrust. “If it’s true that you don’t need to do something like this in order to get a date, why not just take someone else? Someone you actually know?”
“Ah, that’s the beauty of this.” I didn’t even hesitate to give it to her straight, needing her to understand exactly what she was getting into.
“I’m asking you precisely because we don’t know each other, and what little you do know about me, you don’t like, which means I don’t have to worry about you getting any ideas about this being at all romantic. ”
“Wow.” Her mouth fell open, giving me a glimpse of her pink tongue that I truly didn’t need. “You really know how to flatter a girl, don’t you?”
I ignored the jab and kept my tone even. “It also looked like you could use some extra cash, judging by the outfit you wore to the last class.”
Her expression turned to ice, her pretty, delicate features hardening like stone and the light in her eyes going out. Yeah, maybe I shouldn’t have said that out loud.
For a long, long moment after, she just stared at me. I sighed. Smooth, Holden. Really smooth.
But ultimately, it was still the truth, and if there was one thing I had always believed in, for better or for worse, it was leading with honesty. It often made people want to throw their coffee at me, but it’d gotten me damn far and I wasn’t about to change tactics now.
It had been a while since I felt bad if someone felt insulted, but as she frowned at me, her arms still crossed, I felt a tiny twinge of regret. Tiny but it was there. Even so, I didn’t take the comment back or try to smooth this over. I never did that, either.
She finally lifted her chin a little higher. “For your information, I’ve just moved. I didn’t have a lot of wardrobe options unpacked.”
“Planning for contingencies is important in business,” I said without skipping a beat. “Things fall through all the time. You have to pivot.”
“Pivot,” she repeated, arching an eyebrow at me as her gaze sharpened. “Do you mean like paying one of your students to be your date for a wedding?”
I met her stare head on. “Yes. Exactly like that, actually.”
She blinked, looking like she was almost about to start laughing. “You realize that this is really inappropriate, right?”
“There’s no pressure,” I said evenly, holding up my hands. “It will be nothing romantic and it’s totally your choice. You can say no, and if you do, that’ll be the end of it. It’s entirely separate from the class. I’m not offering extra credit or anything.”
“Good,” she said. “Because I’d fail on principle if you were.”
I felt the ghost of a smile flit across my mouth. “I don’t doubt that at all.”
She sighed but finally picked up her piece of pastry again, popped it into her mouth, and chewed as she studied me like I was a specimen under a microscope. At least she hadn’t taken off yet. That was a good sign.
“What exactly is the job description? Pretend to like you for one night? Compliment your tie in front of the ex?”
“Something like that,” I said. “You don’t have to hold my hand or anything. It’s just to make it look like I’ve moved on.”
“Uh-huh.” Her lips quirked. “Have you? Moved on, I mean.”
“I don’t want her back, if that’s what you’re asking.” I shrugged.
She paused for a beat, like she was trying to decide if I was telling the truth. Finally, she seemed to realize that I was. Nothing had ever been truer.
“Okay then,” she said. “If I do agree to go, should I expect your ex to stab me? It feels like perhaps it would be better to come armed.”
I was so surprised that I laughed. “Weapons won’t be necessary. There won’t be any stabbing. She’ll just glare. A lot.”
“Great,” she said, blinking rapidly like she was still a little startled about the fact that I’d laughed. “A glaring contest with a bitter ex. That sounds like my ideal Saturday night.”
“Think of it as a paid social experiment,” I said, grinning now. “It’s next weekend. Can I take that as a yes?”
She eyed me for a moment, probably trying to figure out if I was insane, desperate, or both. Probably both, but at least she relaxed a little as we’d kept talking.
“I don’t know,” she said eventually, tapping her chin twice with the top of her cup before she looked at me again. “What’s the pay scale for tolerating your company? Do I get hazard pay for every passive-aggressive comment from your ex?”
“That depends,” I said. “Are you planning on starting any fights?”
“Only if she throws the first punch.”
I laughed again. “You’ll be compensated for any physical altercations.”
“You’re ridiculous.” She was smiling as she said it, which was enough to make me think she might actually say yes.
Before I could overthink it, I took out my phone. “I’ll give you a down payment just to think about it. You don’t have to decide right now. Just give me an answer in a couple of days.”
Her eyebrows shot up. “You’d seriously pay me just to think?”
“Consider it a show of good faith.”
She hesitated but then sighed and gave me her cash-app info. A few taps later, her phone buzzed. When she glanced at her screen, her eyes suddenly went as wide as saucers before they flew back up to mine.
“Ten grand?” she said, sounding completely incredulous. “Just to consider your offer?”
I nodded. “Well, for that and for not calling me a creep just for asking. I know it’s not exactly a traditional request.”
She shook her head slowly, still staring at the number like it might vanish. “You really are insane.”
“Probably,” I admitted. “It’s not the first time I’ve been called that. Although when you’re as wealthy as I am, people just use the term eccentric.”
“Right. So this is a normal thing for you.” She glanced at her watch and her features suddenly tensed. “I should get going. I’ll let you know soon what I’ve decided.”
We wrapped up fast, saying awkward goodbyes and leaving our half-finished coffees and the mostly untouched bear claw between us. I watched her walk away from me with a confident little sway in her hips.
For one dangerous second, it made me forget why I’d picked her of all people. As soon as I realized I was staring, I turned on my heel and went home. Back at my building, the elevator took me to the top of the tower. Intense, deafening quiet hit me the moment I stepped into the penthouse.
The city lights stretched endlessly beyond the glass, but the inside was achingly empty. I’d lived alone for years and I liked it. The silence, the space, and the order appealed to me. There were no surprises, no arguments, and no emotional landmines waiting to go off.
Just clean lines, glass, and the hum of the city far below. Still, I had to admit that it had been nice spending time with Ellora. She wasn’t just a pretty face, though she was definitely that too. It was just that she was sharp and witty as well. Strangely fun.
Striding to the bar in the corner of the main living area, I poured myself a drink, pulled my tie off, and tried not to think about how much more interesting the evening had been before I got home. I’d liked talking to her. Maybe too much.
For a brief moment, I considered using one of those numbers in my phone. It was possible she was affecting me this way because it had been too long since I had gotten laid, but not even the thought of a booty call was appealing to me right now.
I set my drink down on the counter and stared out at the skyline. Somewhere down there, she was probably still shaking her head, wondering what kind of lunatic offered a student ten grand to consider fake-dating him for a night.
A lunatic who really hopes she’ll say yes. Frankly, if she showed up to the wedding wearing anything like that outfit from class—classy, confident, and a little devastating—Shannon would hate it.
The thought made me smile. For the first time in a long while, I found myself actually looking forward to something. Provided she said yes, of course, and unfortunately, I couldn’t put any pressure on her for an answer.
It had been years since I’d felt like this, on pins and needles to hear back from a woman, but for the next few days, all I could do was find a way to enjoy the sweet agony of anticipation.
And then hope that the chips fell in my favor.
They usually did though, and I had a feeling it wouldn’t be any different this time.