“You are so not prepared for this.”
“Something tells me whatever happened tonight is gonna make my readers go crazy when they read about it. My sub count has grown so much since I started talking about Nathan West.” Her gaze shifts toward the ceiling, her eyes glazed and faraway. She’s already trying out headlines and that isn’t going to work. I might not like Nathan, but that doesn’t change the definition of right and wrong.
“Nope. No way. Hard stop. You either promise this is protected by best friend code, or I keep the story to myself,” I say, holding up a finger. “You absolutely cannot publish any of this.”
Fallon blinks. Frowns. For a moment, I wonder if I misjudged the power of best friend code, but then she bobs her head and shows her palms. “Done. Your secret is safe with me.”
“Nathan and I had a meeting scheduled this afternoon to talk about some of my ideas for his house, and you will never guess what he asked me.” Stalling, stalling. Why do I keep stalling? Does some part of me not trust Fallon with this information?
“To come up with an entirely different scheme, using colors that will clash with his personality and ruin the flow of the space.” She speaks with the confidence of someone who’s listened to me complain about work too many times.
“It's worse than that,” I respond with a laugh. “Way worse.”
Fallon puts a hand to her heart and drops her jaw. “Tell me he didn’t decide to go with the architect’s functional placement for the staircase rather than your more aesthetically pleasing idea?”
See? This is Fallon. There’s absolutely zero reason to feel weird about sharing this story with her.
“I mean, that sounds exactly like something he’d do, and bless you for listening to me enough to know that’s even a thing. But no. It's worse than that. Best friend code?” I ask, arching a brow and cocking my head.
Fallon mimes zipping her lips. “This information is protected by said code and shall go no further.”
I explain lunch with Nathan and his request for a fake date, his sudden disappearance and me deciding to use the internet for inspiration on what to wear.
“Which turned out to be a total bust, by the way. Imagine meeting Nathan’s family, who are all perfectly sweet, pretending like I’m falling in love with this guy that I barely even know and what I do know, I don’t like. All while wearing this dress while everyone else was super casual.” I flare my hands down my body, remembering the way Nathan trailed his finger along the swell of my breast. My body throbs its approval while I shove the memory into a dark corner to evaluate later. Or never. Whatever’s better for my mental health.
“Oh, Mina.” Fallon flops back, resting her head on the headrest and her feet on the coffee table. “You always, always meet up before the first date and get your stories straight. You know, set ground rules.”
She speaks with such authority, I wonder how many fake relationships she’s been a part of, but we’ll circle back to that later.
“You mean ground rules like no groping?” I ask. “Or making comments on my underwear choice?”
I flash to the look of contrition on Nathan’s face when I called him on it, then the look of shock when I grabbed his butt. My cheeks twitch into a smile that Fallon wipes away by hitting me in the arm.
“He did not grope you and talk about your underwear!”
The arch to my eyebrow asks her why I’d lie. “His hands. Headed for my butt. But I returned the favor and that seemed to set things straight.” I explain what happened and I can’t believe it, but I’ve finally rendered Fallon speechless.
“This…” she finally manages, “is exactly why you need ground rules.”
I stand and move to the kitchen, my heels clicking across her tile floor until I stop and kick them off with a sigh of relief. “We were supposed to discuss things before the party,” I say as I yank open the fridge. “But he…”
I don’t even know what I’m looking for. I’m not hungry. Or thirsty. And a reason to avoid telling Fallon Nathan ditched me to play White Knight for a little kid isn’t sitting next to the ketchup. If I give her this tidbit of kindness on his part, she’ll be sure her plan to shame him back into his old self is working and I’m not sure that’s true. I don’t want to encourage her.
“He what?” she asks from the doorway, clearly finding my behavior suspicious.
I lean farther into the fridge. “He had something come up.”
Fallon’s head pokes in beside mine. “Something came up. Are you kidding me?”
“It’s not that big of a deal. Especially because I negotiated the rest of my design fee back, plus twenty percent.” I straighten with a little swagger in my step, then swing the fridge door shut like the badass I am.
“Twenty percent.” Fallon does not look impressed. “You gave him a sixty percent discount for one measly text, and he can only fork up twenty for an entire fake relationship? Oh, Mina…”
“That twenty percent is gonna help Mom.”
“That twenty percent should have been eighty. Or ninety.” Fallon sighs deeply. “I was going to go for the ice cream, but I think this situation calls for a drink. This man does not have your best interest at heart. And you…” She shakes her head. “You’re so kind and loyal, you expect the same thing from everyone you come across. You dismiss giant red flags because you see this little nugget of goodness, like your mom did with your dad.”
I frown. I’ve worked hard to build a better screening process than my mother’s, but challenging Fallon’s point will do no good. Once she decides she’s right on a topic, she’ll fight to the death over it.
Fallon grabs a bottle of wine and her giant glasses, filling them to the brim. I remind myself to sip carefully tonight. The last thing I need is another drunken mishap.
“You’re gonna need some insurance,” she says, sliding a glass my way. “In case Nathan turns on you.”
“Turns on me? What’s that even mean?” My feet are still aching, so I hop onto the counter while Fallon stares into space. She does that when she’s brainstorming new ideas. She once described it as watching mind-movies.
“That’s the thing with these guys,” she says, her eyes still far away. “You never know. Nathan’s so rich, his grandchildren’s grandchildren won’t need to work. That kind of money comes with power.” She hops onto the counter beside me and lets her legs swing, shaking her head at the blight of generations living to excess while others struggle.
“But what’s he going to do with that power?” I lean in, caught up in her vision and her eyes snap back into focus.
“How am I supposed to know that?”
“You’re the one who brought it up.” And spoke with so much confidence, I was sure she knew what she was talking about.
“I just think you need a little leverage. In case things get squirrely.”
Leverage? What in the world does she think is gonna happen? Nathan’s going through something, and he’s not always easy to be around, but he’s not actually an evil asshole. Not by a long shot. I’m not in any real danger. Not unless death by annoyance is a thing. Though with Nathan and his Jekyll and Hyde mood swings, it just might be.
Fallon hefts her wine glass to her lips, then freezes, a grin blooming. “I know! I’ll write an article about the relationship being fake. ‘It’s Fake, Folks!’ That’s such a catchy headline, I’d grab more subscribers for sure.”
“No. I already told you this whole thing is protected by best friend code. You will do nothing of the sort.”
“You’re not seeing the bigger picture here.” Fallon’s grin continues to grow as she turns to me. “If things go off the rails or you’re in a bad situation, I’ll publish the article to give you a little breathing room.”
“That’s a bad idea.” And I’m seriously starting to regret letting her in on this secret.
“Worse than pretending to date a man you know nothing about and can’t really stand, without spending time to lay some ground rules?” The arch to Fallon’s brow says she thinks she has me.
“I don’t know…” I drag out the last word, hoping to buy time for a catchy comeback that doesn’t arrive. “But I’m sure we won’t need leverage.”
“Why? Because Nathan’s been such an upstanding guy since you met him?”
I can’t get away from the image of him carting his niece around on his back. Or the way his whole demeanor changed when he was around his family. Fallon herself has said Nathan used to be this amazing guy. Why assume he’ll stay in this grumpy state? He probably just needs time to work through whatever he’s working through and meeting bad energy with more bad energy isn’t helpful.
“I just don’t like it, that’s all. I just met the guy. I’d like to give him a chance to prove my first impression wrong before we start planning ways to bring him down.”
“We don’t even have to use it. We’ll write it tonight. Just in case. I’ll save it with my drafts and if things go off the rails, we’ll have it.”
“Nope. Not happening, Fal.”
