My Super-Hot Fake Wedding Date

I shook my head. “I work a lot.”

“C’mon.”

“No, really. There’s not a lot of time to socialize, and honestly, I haven’t met anyone worth my time.”

“Ouch.”

I laughed. “Present company excluded, of course.”

“Of course.” Bob put his hands together, looking thoughtful. “We should do a quick stat check. It’s good that we’re saying we’ve only been dating for a month because we wouldn’t know each other that well, but let’s start with the basics. I’m Roberto Olivier Palmieri from the South Shore Palmieris. I have an older sister, Marta, and my mother’s deceased. My father lives in Boca—the other Boca, Boca Grande on the West Coast. I’m thirty, never married, nonsmoker, lapsed Catholic. I like whiskey and IPA. I lived in Boston my whole life. I went to Boston College.”

My jaw dropped. “Did you make all that up just now?”

“No, ha. It’s all true.”

“You went to BC?” I knew I sounded shocked. Bob the UPS guy went to the same college as my super-snobby father.

“Yeah.” He looked a little uncomfortable. “I know the delivery business isn’t what you’d expect from a BC grad, but I wasn’t cut out for a desk job.”

“You had a desk job?” I don’t know why I was so surprised. It wasn’t as if I thought he’d been born wearing a brown uniform.

Bob smiled, but it looked a little forced. “Yup. It wasn’t for me.”

“Huh.”

He chuckled. “You sound truly stunned.”

“I guess I am.” I ran my hands through my hair. “I hadn’t thought about your backstory. I guess I assumed you’d always been a happy outdoor person.”

He looked confused. “I’m sorry?”

“Someone who works outside and likes hiking. Do you like hiking, Bob?”

“Sure.” He still looked confused.

“Just ignore me. Sometimes I make assumptions. I don’t have enough time to get to know a lot of people, you know?”

He tilted his chin. “No, I don’t know. What do you mean?”

“I’m just kind of in my head a lot. Never mind.” I waved him off. I had zero desire to tell Bob about my inferior people skills and how I vastly preferred staring at my computer to socializing. “My dad went to Boston College. He’s going to love you.”

“He probably wouldn’t love me if he knew my dark secrets.”

I leaned forward. “What dark secrets?”

Bob looked at me like I might be crazy. “That I work for UPS. And that I’m your fake date.”

“Right, that, ha ha.”

“Okay, Maddy. Your turn. Give me the rundown, including how it is you find yourself with no time to get to know people, which forces you to snap judgments or no consideration whatsoever of their backstory.”

I frowned at him, wondering if he was one of those people who was so nice that he got a little sanctimonious.

“I’m not judging.” He smiled, using his dimple as a weapon against me. “Just waiting.”

I sighed. “I’m Madison Anne Delaney from the Wellesley, Nantucket, and Boca Raton Delaneys. I have a younger sister, Sienna. I’m thirty-one, never married, nonsmoker, also a lapsed Catholic, and I also like whiskey, but wine and Prosecco are my favorites. I’ve lived in Boston my whole life, too. I went to Wellesley College and then Harvard for my MBA. My business was named one of the fastest-growing cloud services companies by Wired. For some reason, all of this seems to drive my mother absolutely batshit crazy.”

Bob nodded. “Go on.”