Chapter 14. How to Un-Fake a Fake Relationship
CHAPTER 14
How to Un-Fake a Fake Relationship
Two days later, I was alone in the shop, setting up the bakery’s new accounting software I’d just installed on my laptop, when a loud knock broke my concentration.
“Ellie Pang?” A lanky, dark-haired man was standing at the door, his cap in hand.
“Hi, yes.” I recognized his voice from our calls. “You must be Mike.”
He nodded and handed me my car keys. “Your car’s outside, ready to get back on the road. We’ve rebuilt the engine and performed a tune-up. Checked and rotated the tires, too. If something doesn’t sound or feel right, bring her back.”
“Great. Thanks so much for dropping the car, I appreciate it.”
“No problem. I don’t normally do it, but Alec asked me to, and you’re on the way to my other appointment anyway.”
I mentally added another item on the list of Alec’s Supremely Thoughtful Gestures. “How much do I owe you?”
Mike handed me a folded piece of paper. “Here’s your invoice.”
I opened it up, reciting a silent prayer. His initial estimate had been four to five thousand, so if I was lucky, it would be at the lower end of that quote.
“ Three thousand? That can’t be right. Didn’t you say four to five?”
“I did.” Mike smiled, showing off perfect rows of white teeth. “But once we started the work, it turned out the damage wasn’t as extensive as we first thought.”
I gaped at him, then at the invoice, and back to him again. “Are you sure?”
“Absolutely positive.”
Both my budget and I let out a relieved sigh. “I’ll organize payment this afternoon.”
“Sure.” He shoved his hands in his pocket and looked around the shop. “Nice space you got here. What are you opening?”
“A bakery.”
“Sweet.” He grinned at me, clearly proud of his pun. “Alec said you just moved here?”
“Brand-new transplant from the East Coast.”
His face turned curious. “You settled in so far? Explored our lovely city yet?”
“Not really. I’ve been focusing on getting this place up and running.”
“I’d be happy to show you around.” The curious look turned into a charming smile. “If you’re a coffee aficionado, there’s this awesome coffee shop that roasts their own gourmet beans. And they make these exquisite red velvet muffins.” He made a kissing gesture on his fingers. “It’s the best in the entire city.”
“Thanks, but I’m busy for the next few weeks. And coffee isn’t really my thing.”
His smile became flirtier. “That’s okay. We’ve also got tearooms, excellent locally brewed beers, and award-winning wineries.”
I chuckled. He was cute, but the last thing I needed right now was more distraction. “Look, Mike. You seem nice, but we just met five minutes ago. What if you’re a dangerous axe murderer, or an organ trafficker planning to drug me and harvest my kidneys?” I tempered my words with a small chuckle.
A grin spread over his face. “Alec can vouch for me.”
Alec. We weren’t supposed to see other people during this deal, right? Even he himself had put a pause on pursuing his new relationship until after this was over.
“But sure, I totally understand if you’re not comfortable. You’ve got my number if you change your mind.”
This isn’t a date, though. My brain swiftly ran an internal pros and cons list. It was a smart business move, an opportunity for me to network and meet more people. Mike was obviously a local, and he might be useful in helping to spread the word about the bakery.
Plus, he might take my mind off Alec. Which was exactly what I needed.
Mike was walking toward the door. “You enjoy the rest of your day.”
“Saturday morning, one hour, in a public café,” I said, stopping him in his tracks. “Just in case you are an axe murderer, there’ll be witnesses who can testify that I was with you.”
“Cool. I’ll pick you up at, say, nine?”
“Text me the address. I’ll meet you there.”
“Awesome.” Grinning, he put his cap back on and pushed the door open. “I promise I’ll leave my axe at home.”
That night, I was back at Ocha Izakaya with Kim and Jenna, all three of us nursing cold drinks after a very long day. Rob and his crew had finished the kitchen today, and some of the tables and chairs I’d ordered were delivered this morning. We were ahead of schedule, and I was breathing a little easier because things were finally taking shape.
“We should make this a weekly gig.” Kim clinked her Sapporo with my Coke Zero, looking like she was well on her way to tipsiness. “The alcohol’s probably not good for my health, but I get to hang out with two wonderful friends and flirt with the cute chef. Win-win.”
“He’s been checking you out, too,” Jenna said. “Go talk to him.”
Kim considered this, then shook her head. “Maybe not. He looks a bit like Leo, my ex-fiancé. Don’t need another Leo in my life.”
Jenna did a spit-take while my eyeballs nearly spilled out of their sockets, then we both started talking over each other.
“Shut the front door! You were engaged ?”
“You kept that tiny bit of information a secret from your housemate? How dare you? ”
“Who’s Leo? How did you two meet? How long were you two together?”
“Why did the engagement end? Are you still in love with him?”
Kim raised a finger, silencing us. “We were engaged for a few years. Classic case of him being a dickhead and screwing around. But I don’t want to waste my breath talking about him, because he’s ancient history. Prehistoric. I prefer to live in the moment, okay? Let’s talk about something else.”
“Fine. But you’re not off the hook,” Jenna warned. “I have the means to pry secrets out of someone, and I’m not afraid to use them.”
“Bring it.” Kim stuck out her tongue at Jenna, then turned to me. “Have you thought of a name for your bakery?”
“Of course I have.” I beamed at her. “I’m calling it Sugarless Goodness.”
Kim grimaced. “Do you want me to be polite, or should I be brutally honest?”
It was my turn to wince. “I thought it perfectly conveys the concept of the bakery—desserts that are sugar-free and good for you.”
“It does, but I think you can do better. Any other alternatives?”
“There’s Sugarless Pleasures, Sugarless Bakeshop, or Sugarless Cravings.”
“Those are the best you could come up with? Anything without ‘sugarless’ in them?”
“I also thought of Twisted Sweets, Guilt-free Pleasures, and Heavenly Cravings.”
Kim snorted, apparently having given up all pretenses of being diplomatic and sparing my feelings. “Why don’t you just call it Ellie’s Den of Heavenly Pleasures?”
“It’s a bakery,” I protested. “Not a harem.”
She grinned. “Well, with those names, it might as well be.”
“I vote for Twisted Sweets,” Jenna helpfully said. “I like that one the best.”
“I disagree.” Kim shook her head. “You need to find something catchier. Bolder. Something that will make people look up and pay attention.”
“Like what?” I raised my eyebrows. “The Whisk Warrior? The Naked Baker?”
“There you go. Now you’re talking.”
Jenna frowned. “I’m not going into a bakery called The Naked Baker.”
Kim scrunched up her nose. “Eh, true. People might go in expecting some kind of Magic Mike situation. You’re not licensed for that.” She sighed. “Well, keep brainstorming. Anyway, how did it go at the function with Cutie Building Expert? Did he swallow his own tongue when he saw you in that black dress?”
“I told you, he’s just a friend.”
Kim scoffed. “Keep telling yourself that, and maybe one day you’ll believe it. Remember what I told you about that morning when we first met him? There was nothing friendly about the way he looked at you. Jenna, back me up here.”
“I concur.” Jenna wriggled her eyebrows suggestively at me.
“In case you didn’t catch the meaning, allow us to translate. It announced that he wanted to kiss you and undress you and do filthy things to make you scream. I personally think, woman to woman, the least you could do is let him try, so I can live vicariously through you.”
“We,” Jenna added. “So we can live vicariously through you.”
I choked out a laugh. “I’ll pass.”
“Why not? It’s okay to admit that you’re attracted to him,” Kim said. “And you both live in the same house, which means you’ve cut down on commuting time, so you’ve got even more time to do all those things. Maybe you could make him scream. Or growl your name. Groan in ecstasy. I’m not a romance novelist, but you get the idea.”
Uninvited images of a naked Alec on top, moaning and moving against me, sneakily slid into my brain, making me hot all over. I shook my head to chase them away. “No. No one’s getting any ideas.”
“All I’m saying is,” Kim said, “you’ve been working too hard, and you deserve a break. Just start by asking him on a date, and the screaming and the moaning can happen after.”
“I already have a date. Well, technically a non-date.”
“Yes!” Kim brightened. “With Sexy Building Expert?”
“With the mechanic who fixed my car.”
“NO!” She looked scandalized. “Lord Building Expert isn’t going to like it.”
“I’m just meeting the guy for coffee. No big deal.”
“Alec still won’t like it,” Jenna agreed. “Kim’s right. I can tell when a man looks at you like he wants to strip you naked and do dirty, delicious things to you all night long.”
Kim nodded, lifting a finger to stop me when I started protest ing. “And please don’t insult our intelligence by reciting that spiel about ‘just friends’ again.”
I wondered if I should tell them about the fake dating arrangement. Naomi was very suspicious and had asked lots of questions when I’d called her after the dinner, but I didn’t tell her anything. I trusted her, but the fewer people that knew about it back home, the better. And since I couldn’t tell Naomi, these two women were the closest friends I had in this town.
“Can you two keep a secret?”
Jenna nodded, her face solemn. “I don’t have any other friends, so I can’t tell anyone.”
“That’s not true. She has more friends than you and I combined.” Kim sipped her drink. “And of course I can. My lips are sealed tighter than Fort Knox.”
“Okay.” I took a deep breath. “Alec and I are in a pretend relationship. He was going to hire a fake girlfriend, so I offered, in return for his help finding a contractor to repair the shop.”
My friends’ eyes grew larger, followed by a few moments of silence.
“Back up a little,” Kim said. “Start from the very beginning, pretend we’re a couple of one-year-olds, and go reeeaalllyy slow. What on God’s green Earth are you talking about?”
They both listened, unblinking, as I told them about our agreement. Our food and drinks sat untouched until I’d finished recounting the story.
“Interesting,” Kim said. “One question. Is there anything in your agreement that says you’re not allowed to consummate the fake relationship?”
“Kim!” I groaned, as Jenna roared with laughter. “ That’s your takeaway from the story?”
“I’m just saying, he looks like he’d be interested in taking your fake relationship further and un-fake the hell out of it.” Kim grinned, before her face turned serious. “Joking aside, though. How do you feel about it? You kept saying he’s just a friend, and you don’t have any feelings for him. But has anything changed?”
I considered her question. “I don’t know. I know that things are different between us now,” I said. “He’s definitely not the same person he was ten years ago. He’s much friendlier now, and he keeps doing these sweet little things that surprise me. Thoughtful things I wouldn’t have expected from the Alec I used to know.”
Jenna smiled. “And you’re starting to have feelings for him again.”
“Maybe a little, yeah,” I admitted. “But I’m not going to do anything about it. Because he said he’s interested in someone else, so I’m convinced he’s only being nice to me because he promised my brother to look out for me.”
Kim frowned. “If he’s interested in someone else, why is he asking you to be his pretend girlfriend?”
“He said it’s still very new. They’re still getting to know each other.”
“I think he’s lying.” Jenna piped up. “I think he told you he likes someone else as an act of self-preservation. Because he’s afraid he’ll fall madly in love with you, but he thinks you still blame him for what happened ten years ago. So he’s pretending not to be interested in you, to protect himself from getting hurt.”
My mind flitted back to Rob’s theory about Alec being curt as a defense mechanism, and for a brief, hopeful minute, I wondered if Jenna was right.
But what if she’s not?
I curbed that tiny flicker of hope. Whatever it was, it didn’t matter. My priority right now should be to get the bakery up and running, and I had no time for anything else.
Especially to un-fake a fake relationship.