17. Dani
DANI
“Ireally think you need to consider losing your virginity to Graham.”
“Piper!” I shriek and race to the door of the conference room I’ve commandeered and jerk the sliding door shut. “Seriously, I don’t need everyone at Svensson Investment knowing I’m a you-know-what.”
“‘Virgin’ is not a dirty word.”
“It is when you’re almost thirty and all of your mom’s friends’ daughters are married and having babies.”
Piper sits down across from me and opens up her laptop so that to anyone passing by it will look like we’re working.
“You heard him at dinner the other night. Graham likes you!”
“He was just playing along. He was pissed after.”
“About what? The fact that Vivienne Belmont kept throwing shade on your wedding planning ideas when they’re too cheap to spring for the fancy wedding-planning firms like Weddings in the City?”
“I think she’s mad because she believes Colette deserved to have a billionaire fiancé.
Vivienne’s whole dynamic with my mom is that she’s got the richer husband, she has the prettier daughter, she’s more deserving of happiness.
And me being”—I use air quotes—“with Graham is messing with the natural order of things.”
“Guess Colette shouldn’t have settled for your loser brother. No offense.”
“To be fair, if my parents had been half as hard on him as they were on me, he might have made something of himself in life. You remember how it was when I was, like, thirteen. How Vivienne kept going on and on to my mom about how she was so sure that I was going to get pregnant as a teenager, and then my parents doubled down on all the ‘don’t have sex’ talks. ”
“Oh, I know. I’m the one who has to deal with the fallout of your virginity crisis.”
“Ugh, stop saying ‘virginity.’”
“I will if you lose it. Preferably to Graham.”
“I can’t sleep with him. We’re not like that.”
“If you go on about how you’re not the type of girl he likes, I’m sending a mass email to everyone in the company with photos of your stuffed animal collection,” my cousin warns me.
“I’m just being realistic.”
“If you were, then you’d know that your fake boyfriend’s not going to say no if you offer to sleep with him—and then it’s like ‘give a mouse a cookie’ territory.”
“I don’t want to be a sex goddess,” I groan. “I just want my own room and one of those fancy Japanese toasters.”
My phone goes off.
“That better not be Colette complaining on the group chat.”
I glance at it. “It’s Graham.”
“What does he want?”
“To talk.” I make air quotes. “He’s probably trying to get me to agree to close our arrangement and pay me off.
” I give a dejected sigh. “I’m wondering if I don’t need to say yes.
I hate that a very small part of me is furiously shoveling coal onto the fires of fantasy desires about the billionaire boyfriend.
I never should have brought him home to meet my parents. ”
“No! Don’t take the money. Then Colette’s just going to go after him.”
“She’s not.” I snort. “She’s marrying my brother.”
“She’ll try to upgrade. Especially because the other two girl-squad girls are not engaged yet. They’ll go after him if you dump him, and then Colette will lose her shit.”
“Maybe I should just let them. This has all been too much social time for me anyway. If that’s what being a billionaire’s girlfriend is, I don’t want it.”
“Really? You don’t want to be paraded around in a pretty dress on a hot, rich, powerful guy’s arm?”
“No. I want to eat chicken nuggets in bed.”
Graham: Stop ignoring me.
“I need this room for a meeting—you’ll have to meet elsewhere.” The VP of Client Relations strides in, followed by Colette and the Girl Squad.
“Sorry, Dani,” Colette says with her fake smile. “We just have to have this conference room. You can go work at your desk. It’s not like you two are doing anything important, right?” Colette laughs like it’s a joke and she didn’t just insult me.
The VP ignores me as I gather my things.
Lulu whines at her former owner. Her husband gave her the dog for Christmas last year. She gave him divorce papers, and the dog was dumped on me.
Back at my desk, I wonder what I should order for lunch. I’m going to be working at my desk, obviously. I need something close by. They have salads in the restaurant downstairs. That’s what Colette and the VP are eating.
Too bad it wasn’t catered.
I stare at the conference room. Wow, that must be an important meeting. Even Carl Svensson is attending.
I check the calendar to see if anyone in the office has a catered client lunch that I can scrounge leftovers from later.
You’re going to work late, I remind my growling stomach. Try to make it to one p.m. at least.
I’m trying to get back into my spreadsheet when there’s murmuring in the office. I look up in time to see Graham storm in, his head on a swivel.
He sees me.
His green eyes narrow, and he stalks over to me, grabs the back of my chair, and spins me around.
“Why aren’t you answering my texts?”
“I don’t have to answer your texts. Besides, I’m working.”
Lulu freaks out because apparently Graham is her favorite person, and it’s such a hardship to be here in a posh office with me.
“You’re my fucking girlfriend, and I expect you to respond to me immediately.”
“You’re supposed to be my fake boyfriend. I’m not supposed to be your fake girlfriend,” I whisper at him.
My seatmate doesn’t even give me a dirty look at the commotion. She and all the other analysts are blatantly watching.
“Fuck off and stop rattling the collection plate for your stupid charity, Graham.” Now Carl is here.
Graham turns on him with a flash of teeth.
“I am bringing my girlfriend lunch. Is that a problem, Carl?”
“It’s like a nature documentary,” the analyst who sits across from me breathes. “Two alphas vying for territory.”
“You better pay me for the lost hours when you’re distracting her,” Carl snaps.
“You’re lucky I let her work here at all.” Graham rolls his shoulders. “I could make her quit today to stay home and take care of me. Then where would you be?”
The VP and the Girl Squad are all staring and whispering to each other in the conference room.
My face is hot.
I flap my arms at Graham. “Let’s go talk on the deck.”
“Five minutes,” Carl spits.
“Fuck you, Carl. I know how much unpaid overtime she works.”
“Graham. Out.” I grab his arm. “What is wrong with you? You can’t just show up here.”
“Yes, I can,” he insists. “Fuck the Svenssons. They don’t own you. You’re mine first. Don’t forget that.”
Suddenly everyone in the office needs to go to the break room for coffee. We’re watched from a crowd on the other side of the window.
“You need to come to the charity ball with me for the Haven Foundation,” Graham states.
“I—what?”
“It’s this Friday, so you need to buy a dress.”
“I don’t really go to fancy black-tie events like that…”
He pulls out his wallet and hands me a black credit card. “That’s yours. You need to wear something nice.”
“Why are you doing this, being nice to me?”
“Nice?” He turns back to me. “Don’t get your hopes up.” He pauses. “You’re making things very… difficult for me right now with your little fake-relationship fantasy. The offer is, of course, still on the table. We can stage a big breakup right now.”
I glance back to the office where Colette and the Girl Squad are staring. Colette isn’t smiling.
Is it worth the humiliation to take the millions and the condo?
“No way.”
“Fine. Then I’ll pick you up at six sharp. We need to be there early.”
He holds the door for me back inside.
“Next time you need to text first.” I have to get the last word.
“I don’t put details in text messages. That’s a bad habit. Next time you need to pick up when I call you. I should be your highest priority. Darling.” He sets a paper bag on my desk. “I brought you lunch.”
It’s a cheesesteak from Chop Shop.
“Oh, that’s my favorite cheesesteak place.”
He tilts his head. “I know.” He bends down. “I was calling to see if I needed to bring Lulu anything to eat, but you didn’t answer, so I’m just taking her with me.”
“You can’t take my dog.”
“I think you mean my dog.”
Lulu freaks out, her tail wagging in his arms when he picks her up.
“Traitor.”
“A ball!” my mother exclaims that evening when I walk out of the office with Piper while texting Graham, trying to figure out how to get my dog back.
Should I just show up at his penthouse? He brought me lunch. Are we close like that, where I can just show up to his house?
“Mom? Gran? What are you doing here?” I pull my coat closed against the snow flurries blowing around. “Why is everyone showing up unannounced at my office?”
“I’m your mother. I can’t come visit my daughter? Also, where is the new hat I bought you?”
“This one’s warmer.”
“But you look like a bag lady, Dani. We’re going to have to buy you a new coat to go with your dress.” My mom gives me a critical look.
“I’ve had a stressful day. I’m not dress shopping. My nerves can’t handle it.”
“Vivienne informed me that you’re going to be Graham’s date. This is your coming out in high society.”
“It’s a weeknight charity fundraiser. I’m not stepping out into Regency England.”
“You never went to prom.” My mom tries to fix my hair.
“Yeah, because Colette pulled a mean trick and paid that guy to ask me out, and then he never showed up.”
“It was a mistake. You and Colette are best friends,” Mom chides me. “Don’t gossip and spread rumors about her. She apologized, didn’t she?”
“It wasn’t a real apology, Aunt Linda,” Piper says, bouncing in her boots to stay warm. “And she didn’t mean it, and she’s repeated the behavior.”
“Nonsense. Don’t be catty, girls. It’s not a good look.”
Behind my mom, Piper rolls her eyes.
“When you get married to your billionaire, don’t invite that ho to your wedding,” Gran tells me. “Now look here. Your mom is trying to take you to some overpriced boutiques, but I know a gal who runs a thrift store.”
“Dani cannot wear a used dress.” My mom is horrified.
“Everyone is doing pre-loved now, Aunt Linda.”
“Not in this family.”
“Well, your husband’s trust fund ain’t covering a ball gown.” Gran crosses her arms.