Chapter 4
Sloane
“Door’s open!” I hollered from the floor. My legs were folded under me as I rifled through the newest packet of paper Andre sent over. There were documents spread out all around me on the living room floor and the coffee table. PR research, contract samples, NDAs.
My front door opened, and footsteps hesitated at the threshold as they took in the state of my home.
“Um, okay, true crime,” Cami said as she looked around at the mess. “You know Ted Bundy was caught, right?”
Rolling my eyes at Cami, I lifted my glass of merlot to my lips, taking a small sip. “Har-har. Come in. Sit. Rhys, your new phone is on the counter.”
I’d taken it upon myself to snag him one on my way home today since his screen was cracked to hell. If it were left up to him, his thumbs would be sliced and bloodied for weeks before he made time to get a new one.
Rhys pocketed his new phone and offered a very timid ‘thank you’ before making his way over to the living room.
Cami shuffled in, her husband Dominic following immediately behind her. He stood about as tall as Rhys did, and had the same, absurdly muscular build and boyish charm. It was almost annoying to have them both in the same room.
Dom blew out a low whistle as he palmed the back of his neck. “This might be more trouble than he’s worth.”
Honestly, from their perspective, I probably did look like some crazy detective convinced they were on the cusp of some major breakthrough, but I’d spent all night researching different kinds of PR contracts and NDAs.
After winning Gavin’s case against the sponsor that failed to send him a check and stopping to grab Rhys’s phone, I came home and made good use of the several-hundred-dollar printer that I’d invested in a few years ago when I started working from home.
Rhys sat on the couch behind my station on the floor, dropping a plastic bag stuffed with Chinese food onto the coffee table. My grumbling stomach reminded me that I hadn’t eaten since lunch.
“Okay, so I called Andre and had him draft up a relationship contract—” I sifted through a stack of paperwork on the floor next to me, grabbing the contract and passing it to Rhys without looking up. “Give it a little look-see and let me know what you think. I was also thinking—”
He reached down, snagging all the paperwork from my hands, holding it out of reach while I stared at him.
“Okay, why? What are you doing?” I reached out to grab the papers, but he’d already passed them to Dom and was ripping open the plastic bag.
“Eat, then we’ll talk.”
I rolled my eyes. “Rhys, I can eat in a min—”
He pulled out an eggroll and stuffed the end into my mouth. “Eat.”
Biting down, I swatted his hand away and smiled while I chewed. “Thank you.”
He shrugged while Dom and Cami shared an amused glance.
Everyone who witnessed these little moments between Rhys and me always assumed there were feelings involved, but this was just how we operated.
He more than likely knew that I hadn’t taken a break since lunch, and while sometimes, his knowing what was best for me could get annoying, I was appreciative.
I sat and chewed on my eggroll, moving my legs, so I was sitting on my butt, my back leaning into the couch. A moan left my lips as I chewed, and my head fell back against the sofa while my eyes fluttered shut. “God, I needed this.”
Rhys chuckled from beside me, my eyes opening just in time to see him reach over and wipe the corner of my mouth. “I know you did.”
His thumb lingered on my cheek for just a second, his eyes staring down at me. Something passed over his expression that elicited a new, unfamiliar eruption of nerves.
I’d never gotten nervous around Rhys before, but the way he was looking at me right now brought a swarm of butterflies to life in my stomach.
I cleared my throat, sitting up and glancing over at Cami and Dom, both of whom were still wearing those matching, knowing smiles. Though they had no clue what they were actually witnessing.
It was just me and Rhys being... Rhys and me.
After shooting them a glare, I shoved the last of the eggroll into my mouth and extended my hands towards Rhys. “Papers, please.”
“I see we’ve forgotten our manners,” he deadpanned, grabbing the papers back from Dom and handing them out to me.
“I said please,” I mumbled around the eggroll I was still chewing on, then swallowed and grinned. “Plus, manners don’t exist when it comes to you, Rhysie.”
He rolled his eyes, relaxing back against the couch cushion and crossing his arms over his broad chest. “You can still eat while you present.” Rhys gestured to the food that was sitting right at eye level with me like I could’ve missed it or missed the smell.
“Yeah, yeah. I will.” After wiping my hands, I thumbed through the papers again. “Come on, guys. Sit, sit. Please.”
I snagged a packet for Rhys as Dom and Cami took their place on the other side of the sectional. “Here. Read this over, let me know what you think.”
A slow blush crawled up Rhys’s neck while his eyes skimmed the paper. “I don’t know what I’m looking at. I mean, you’re my lawyer.”
I smiled. “It’s a simple PR contract for relationships. Length of relationship, exclusivity, living arrangements, income, social media, etc.”
He nodded very slowly as if his mind couldn’t wrap around the idea that he was all in for just a few hours ago.
Rhys swallowed and passed the contract to Cam. “Thoughts?” he rasped.
Her eyes skimmed the paper, Dom peeking over her shoulder with a smirk on his face, clearly enjoying how uncomfortable this was making the two of us.
I grabbed a box of fried rice and ripped it open, shoveling a spoonful into my mouth.
She shrugged. “Pretty standard. You guys just have to agree on terms.”
This was the part I wasn’t looking forward to.
After I finished chewing, I grabbed my wine glass and downed the rest of its contents in one gulp before setting it on the coffee table. “You’re the PR expert. Tell me, what do you recommend?”
Cami sat back against the back of the couch, twisting her lips while she pondered the question. “Well, normal PR relationships last around a year.”
I sputtered out a cough. “A year? I’m twenty-nine years old!”
Rhys’s face flushed a deep red as he scratched his cheek nervously. “Six months?” He suggested with a raised brow.
“That’s fine.” Cami nodded, grabbing a pen from the table and filling it in. “Six months would work just fine.”
Fuck. I was going to be thirty soon, and while I had never really paid much attention to the societal pressure to be married by the time I was in my thirties, I felt it now.
I was fresh out of a hard breakup, and instead of spending the next six months recovering and moving on, I was entering into a fake relationship with someone I would never stand a chance with.
Doubt crept into my mind. I stood from my place on the floor and slowly began to burn a path on the rug as I paced around the coffee table. “I mean, six months. Okay. Six months.” I blew out a slow, slow breath, my hands digging into my hips. “I can—okay. Six months is nothing, right?”
Everyone’s eyes slowly moved over to me as I panic-paced the living room, chewing my thumbnail until the skin underneath began to bleed.
“Exclusivity?” Cami asked. There was a nervous energy wavering around the edges of her tone, like she wanted to address the breakdown I seemed to be on the cusp of having but also didn’t want to bring attention to it.
I looked over at Rhys, waiting for him to answer. But the flustered expression on his face led me to believe approximately zero words were going to come out of his mouth.
“I mean, it would look bad if we were also seeing other people. Right? Can’t really help Rhys’s reputation if he’s seeing multiple people or the one person he’s supposed to be cleaning up his act for is seemingly cheating.
” I paused, eyeing my empty wine glass and wishing I’d left something in there instead of downing it to stifle the nerves. “Right?”
Cami shrugged while Dom’s grin grew. She wrote something down on the contract. “So, we’ll mark it as exclusive. Neither of you can see or sleep with other people.”
I choked on air, patting my chest as I fought to catch my breath. “We won’t be sleeping together.”
The red filling Rhys’s cheeks somehow deepened, and Dom burst into a fit of laughter, clutching his stomach while his whole body shook.
Why is this so fucking awkward?!
“This. Is. Amazing.” Dom choked out between laughs, earning a smack from Cami and a glare from Rhys and me.
“Read the room, asshole,” I muttered under my breath. Giving in to the pressure, I snagged my wine glass from the coffee table and walked across the room to my kitchen.
I took a second to refill my glass, then ran a paper towel under the faucet, patting the cold fabric against my hot neck. The air conditioning in my apartment was set to sixty-seven degrees, but I was most definitely sweating through my shirt.
I was dying.
This shouldn’t be so uncomfortable. The two of us were best friends for fucks sake. It was a simple agreement... between friends. That was all.
Nothing more, nothing less.
But still, I was panicking.
Fake-dating Rhys would be a lot. Lying to my friends and family would be a lot. Was I mentally prepared for this kind of commitment? Once again, I was cursing myself for jumping into something for the sake of saving Rhys without a complete grasp of what the consequences would be for me.
The press coverage of our relationship would more than likely have him coming out on top, looking like the good guy. The reformed playboy who finally found someone worth settling down for. What were people going to say about me? How would this look for my career?
“Hey.”
I jumped, whirling around to see Rhys standing behind me.
“Fuck. Hey,” I breathed, closing my eyes and attempting to catch my breath.
“Look, Pip. If this is too much for you, we don’t have to do it. We haven’t signed anything. Honestly, I wasn’t really expecting you to follow through with it. I can—I don’t know. We can figure something else out. I can—find someone else.”