“Yeah. Right. Give me a minute.”
“Sure.” She stood and left me alone.
I went to the bathroom and splashed water on my face. Then I made my way through our tiny apartment to the eat-in kitchen where boxes of Chinese takeout sat.
“I got you broccoli beef and pan-fried dumplings,” she said, putting plates on the table.
“Perfect.” I sat down, feeling disoriented.
“Are you okay?” She sat down handing me a fork for my meal.
“Yeah. Just a little jet lagged I guess.” I put rice on my plate and then covered it in broccoli beef. I grabbed a pan fried dumpling as well.
“What made you guys stay the extra time in Europe?” Natalie asked. I knew she was easing her way into asking about me and Ryan.
“Mr. LaMont, the one who hosted the wedding, he set it up. We felt like we needed to do it to maintain the ruse.”
She nodded her head, but I knew her well enough to know she was thinking how crazy that all was. “And this fake marriage with the fake honeymoon turned real?”
I swallowed the lump in my throat. All of a sudden, I wasn’t hungry anymore. But I forced myself to eat so she wouldn’t worry too much.
“Not real per se. We just took a week to not work or think of work and instead enjoyed the trip.”
“With naked parts.”
I rolled my eyes. “Most of the time our clothes were on, but yes, a few times we were naked.” I shoved my pan-fried dumpling in my mouth.
“Was he any good at it?”
I choked. She reached over and patted my back.
“Why would you ask that?” I said when I got my voice back.
She shrugged. “You always made him sound like a stiff. I mean, he’s cute and looks like he has a great body—”
“Since when were you looking at his body?”
She arched a brow. “I met him at a couple of your office parties, remember?”
Oh. Right. I scooped up rice and a bit of broccoli.
“So? Is he good in bed?”
“Yes.”
A slow smile appeared on her face. “The quiet ones always are, aren’t they?”
I shrugged, not really wanting to go into details about how Ryan could touch me and make my body sing with pleasure.
“So, now that you’re back, what happens?” She got a wistful smile. “It would be like a Cinderella story if you two really got married.”
My heart cracked even more. That would never happen. “It’s not like that. It was just friends with benefits during the trip. Now we're home and it’s business as usual.”
She frowned. “You can do that?”
“Sure. Why not?”
“Well if I spent a week in bed with my boss, I’m not sure I could look at him and think of spreadsheets over his dick.”