12. Lauren
LAUREN
“You can do this,” Lauren told her reflection. She was standing in her room at James’s house, wearing a floor-length blue gown with a flowing skirt. Even her reflection looked skeptical.
“Ready?” James called from the hallway.
“Ready as I’ll ever be!” Lauren called back.
Slowly, she turned away from the mirror and went into the hallway to join him.
James was dressed, as usual, in a tailored suit.
A memory of him walking on the beach, sand on his bare feet, his loafers in his hands, flashed through Lauren’s mind, and she suppressed a smile.
“Don’t worry,” James said as they headed for the elevators. “It’s going to be fine.”
“I know,” Lauren said. She wasn’t sure, though.
Tonight, James was throwing a signing party for Omial.
The guest of honor would be Cameron Proctor.
It had been awkward enough meeting him at the beachside restaurant the previous weekend.
Now, Lauren would have to stand by James’s side, smiling, while he celebrated winning the contract that had almost sent Lauren spiraling into disaster.
It would be a special kind of torture.
By the time they arrived at the venue and parked, Lauren was feeling increasingly annoyed about the situation.
She’d considered claiming she was sick to miss the event, but it would be suspicious if James’s wife didn’t show up.
At least James had given her space in the car and hadn’t gloated about his winning the contract — although that might well be a sign of something worse.
Maybe he felt sorry for Lauren, as though she was no longer his equal, and that was why he wasn’t making fun of her.
Lauren sneaked a glance at James as they got out of the car.
He looked a little nervous, which helped.
As they circled the car, he held his arm out to her, and she took it.
Her fingertips brushed the edge of a well-defined bicep.
She tried to ignore how nicely her hand fit into the crook of his elbow.
That was annoying, too. Why did James have to be so attractive, despite all his annoying-ness?
They entered the restaurant, an upscale place which James had booked out for the evening. They were the first there.
“I need to check everything and make sure it’s right,” James said. A hint of nerves was there in his voice, too, and Lauren instinctively squeezed his arm.
“I’m sure it’s going to be perfect,” she said.
“Perfectly terrible?”
Lauren smiled. “No. Just perfect. You’re really good at this kind of thing. Though if you tell anyone I said that, I’ll deny it.”
“Thanks, Lauren.”
She shrugged. “Anytime. Now, I’m going to go get a glass of wine and try to pretend that this isn’t a celebration of your victory over me.”
James winced. “Right. I promise, I’ll make this as painless as possible.”
“And the wine will help,” Lauren joked. She went to find a waiter while James circled the room, checking name cards and place settings and speaking to the waitstaff.
Maybe it was good James had won this particular contract.
Lauren was great at connecting with her clients, finding out what they wanted, and delivering it.
She wasn’t great at the pomp and circumstance part.
Signing parties were something that made her feel very out of place.
Slowly, the guests began to arrive. Lauren drifted back to James and stood beside him as he greeted the members of the Omial team by name. A few seemed to recognize Lauren, who wanted to disappear through the floor. They probably still laughed about her bumbling, disastrous pitch.
“There’s the happy couple,” Cameron said when he arrived, his wife on his arm. “May I introduce my better half, Missy?”
“Nice to meet you,” Lauren said politely, holding out her hand. Missy, a tall woman with short dark hair and brown eyes, who Lauren vaguely remembered from the beachside restaurant, smiled at her.
“Nice to meet you, too. I heard that you pitched for this project, too.”
“I did,” Lauren admitted. She felt her cheeks warm with embarrassment. “It wasn’t my best performance, I’m afraid to admit.”
“Well, Cameron told me that your ideas were really good,” Missy said. “You know, I run a small nonprofit that protects marine wildlife, and we were looking for a good PR professional for a new campaign we’re running. It’s small, but I still thought you might be interested…”
“Lauren is the woman for the job,” James said without missing a beat. “She’s great at this kind of thing. Honestly, you should never tell anyone I’m saying this, but she’s way better at personalization than my company is.”
“Really?” Missy turned to Lauren.
“Well, I certainly try. And I’d love to hear more about the project.”
“How about now?”
“Certainly.”
Lauren mouthed a thank you at James as she followed Missy to the bar. Missy ordered a glass of scotch, and Lauren sat beside her with her still half-full wine glass.
“Please, tell me what you’re looking for,” she said. “But first, my presentation to Omial was a mess. Did Cameron really tell you my ideas were good?”
“He did. He was really impressed with you, but he said you seemed a little nervous.”
Lauren laughed. “That’s the understatement of the year. Thank you for telling me that, though. It makes me feel better.”
“Of course. Now, before we dive into the project, I have to ask. What’s it like being married to James?”
“Because he’s my rival or because he’s James?” Lauren asked.
Missy laughed. “Because he’s your rival. And because you’re in the same field. Things work so well between me and Cameron because we’re so different, so I can’t imagine what it would be like to marry someone who does the exact same thing as I do.”
“You know, it was hard at first,” Lauren admitted. “We both like to be in charge, and we both have strong ideas. But over time, I realized it’s kind of great that we do the same thing. We can bounce ideas off each other, strategize together… It’s really fun.”
As Lauren spoke, she realized she was telling the truth. It was fun to bounce ideas off James, and it had been fun to strategize about their fake marriage. When they weren’t fighting, they really did work well together.
“I see. Now I’m almost jealous. When I talk about work, Cameron always gets confused.” She changed her voice to mimic her husband’s. “‘You’re trying to save the sharks? I thought sharks were bad!’”
Lauren laughed. “Well, I see the good in sharks. Speaking of which, tell me what you need in your PR support.”
As Missy dove into telling Lauren about the project, Lauren’s eyes kept drifting back to James.
He was working the room expertly, his brown eyes shining.
As he gestured to accompany his words, Lauren’s gaze was drawn to his hands, and she remembered how it had felt when he held her hand in his.
She remembered his kiss at their wedding, the way he’d looked down at her with an expression in those brown eyes she hadn’t been able to read, an expression that had made her knees weak and her heart race.
No, wait. That had just been the hunger. Right?
“Lauren?”
Lauren snapped her attention back to Missy, heat blooming in her cheeks.
“I’m so sorry. You were saying something about your new project for the preservation of marine vegetation?—”
“Don’t worry.” Missy smiled as her eyes followed Lauren’s to James. “I remember those days. You two are newlyweds, aren’t you?”
“We are,” Lauren agreed.
“I bet you can’t keep your hands off each other.” Missy winked, and Lauren flushed again.
“I…”
“Your silence speaks volumes.” Missy winked again.
“Please, tell me about your project once more,” Lauren asked, and Missy did.
This time, Lauren’s iron will kept her focus on the other woman’s words.
She didn’t know why her attention had drifted to James like that.
Pretty soon, they’d agreed that Lauren would put together a pitch over the next few weeks, which was great.
After a while, dinner was served. Lauren was seated with James, Cameron, Missy, and a few higher-ups at Omial. They spoke about everything from the traffic on San Valentino’s main highway to the unseasonal rainstorm that had come the other day to vacation plans.
“So, where did you two go for your honeymoon?” Missy asked as she piled steak and potatoes onto her fork.
“Um,” Lauren managed eloquently before James jumped in.
“We haven’t gone yet,” he said. “It was a busy time with work. But we’re planning something special in a few months.”
“We are?” Lauren asked before she could stop herself.
“Of course.” James took her hand. “I’m taking care of all the arrangements, so it’s a bit of a surprise for Lauren here.”
“How romantic,” Missy said.
“Very,” Cameron agreed.
“And how did he propose?” Missy asked. This time, Lauren was ready.
“We were on a walk on the beach,” she said.
“James never used to like walking on the beach until he met me, but he started to love the seaside too. It was just the two of us, near sunset, and all of a sudden, James got down on one knee and told me he couldn’t imagine a life without me.
He gave a whole speech about how I’d changed his life for the better.
The best part was that I always dreamed of a proposal on the beach, though I’d only mentioned it to him once.
I was so touched that he’d remembered. I said yes, of course. ”
“Aw,” Missy said. “I love that.”
“It was a special moment,” James agreed. He smiled at Lauren. “I remember the look on her face when she said yes. She’d never looked more beautiful.”
“How did you propose to Missy?” Lauren asked Cameron, and the conversation moved on. Lauren was grateful. She didn’t want to talk about pretend proposals anymore.
As the evening wore on, Lauren found that she was starting to enjoy herself.
Missy telling her that Cameron had been impressed despite her failed pitch had raised her spirits.
And this was turning into a great networking opportunity.
As well as Missy’s nonprofit project, Lauren had been approached by two others looking for piecework.
Though none of it was the huge project she was still looking for, she was happy.
There was something fun about seeing James in his element, too.
He was effortlessly charming with everyone, from Cameron to Missy to the waitstaff to Lauren herself.
Previously, Lauren might have been annoyed, but now, she found it fun to watch.
This was the fa?ade James presented to everyone.
Not many people saw who he really was, and Lauren was one of those people.
“How’s it going?” James asked in a quiet moment as the waitstaff took away their dinner plates and went to get dessert.
“Not bad,” Lauren said. “Better than I thought.”
“Good. I felt bad for putting you through this.”
“Don’t worry. Anything for you, my darling husband.” Lauren winked, and James chuckled under his breath.
“What are you two lovebirds whispering about?” Cameron asked.
“Nothing,” Lauren said, straightening up.
“I doubt that,” Missy put in. She nudged her husband. “Remember when we were newlyweds?”
Lauren blushed again as the other couple gave them a knowing look.
Though she and James hadn’t done anything more than share a very brief kiss at the wedding, the implication made her imagine more.
An image floated into her head of James taking her hand, pulling her into the hallway, pressing her against the wall, and kissing her thoroughly.
She dismissed the fantasy. Just because he wasn’t as annoying as he’d always been didn’t mean that she wanted to kiss him. It was just the power of suggestion and Missy’s knowing look that had made her think of kissing James like that.
“Anyway,” James said, clearly as eager to move on from this topic as Lauren was. “Cameron, shall we discuss first steps on our project?”
“James, James,” Cameron said. “I’ve heard rumors that you’re always ready to get down to brass tacks, and I suppose it’s true.”
Lauren laughed. “That’s James in a nutshell. He’s always thinking about work.”
“That’s why I’m so good at what I do,” James put in. “Now, what do you think, Cameron?”
“Fine, fine. I suppose we can talk business.” Cameron smiled. “At least, once we’ve had dessert. What do you have in store for us?”
“This restaurant makes a specialty tiramisu that’s absolute mana,” James said.
“Perfect.”
As the desserts arrived, Lauren realized that she was having more fun than she ever had at a signing dinner. Of course, this wasn’t her event, but still. Maybe there were advantages to playing the part of James’s wife. Sometimes.