The Fake Engagement

“I’m sorry, menstrual cycle?” Her face was on fire.

“I know men are a little put off by it, but my mom raised her sons to be … well respectful of a woman’s personal time, and that’s what I’m doing. We’re going to be away for an entire month, and during that time you will—”

“I know what will happen.” This conversation couldn’t get any weirder.

“I am sorry about all of this, and I do apologize. I hope you can forgo the sexual harassment complaint in the hope that you can see you’d be doing me a huge favor.”

This was the closest thing she’d ever gotten to an apology from Preston Boone. She was going to take it.

“I know none of this is sexual harassment of any kind. We’ve got an arrangement, which includes talking very personal with each other. We can handle this. We’re two grown adults, agreeing to a fake engagement for an easy and happier future.”

She forced a smile to her lips. This was going to be easy.

Talking with her boss about her menstrual cycle, him knowing personal details about her. It was going to be a two-way street. There was nothing weird about this at all.

****

This was totally weird.

Preston couldn’t even believe he’d put Eliza’s cycle schedule in his calendar. When he was younger, and they were teaching sex ed at school, his mother had been strict with her boys to never make fun of a girl’s time of the month. If she needed help or a young woman was showing signs of needing help, she expected her sons to be discreet and protective. In all his years, there was only one time, and that was with Annie Bilshaw, back in senior year. She’d … started her period, and rather than let the entire class make fun of her, he’d removed his sweater, wrapped it around her waist, and guided her out to her car.

He never got the sweater back, but what he did get was a giant thank you. She’d baked him a cake, and that was all he’d needed. No one needed to ever know that story, apart from his mom, who’d been so proud of him. Preston hadn’t thought about that time in so long.

He rarely thought about Westcliffe as home, not anymore. The city was home, but at the same time, it wasn’t exactly a comfort.

“I thought you told me not to overthink this,” Eliza asked.

“You want to know these details now after you told me your menstrual cycle?”

She glared at him. “Personally, as a survival instinct, I think a boss should know every single woman’s cycle. Then he gets to know when the best time to shut the hell up is.”

He chuckled. “Right, is that PMS?”

“You’re not funny, Preston.”

“I’m hilarious.” He smiled. “My mom called me last night. She wanted to know more about you, and then I realized other than being a damn good PA, the best I’ve ever had, I don’t know anything about you.”

She put her fingers behind her ear and smiled. “Come again. What did you say?”

“I don’t know anything about you.”

“You know that wasn’t what I was getting at. I can take all compliments. Please do not skimp on any of them.”

He smiled. “Fine. You’re a damn good PA and you know it.”

“I do.”

“You know I was going to fire you, the next day,” he said. “I realized how rash I’d reacted, and I didn’t have the first clue about you. I thought it would be a bad fit.”

“Then I should warn you that I’m allergic to failing. You gave me this job, and at first, I ran to the bathroom, had a panic attack, but then I got stuck in. I got to work, and I realized the order and I took over, making it even better,” she said.

“You don’t believe in failing?”

“No, sir. It’s not in my blood to fail.”

“I like that,” he said.

“You should. It’s what’s going to help us.” She brushed the crumbs off her fingers, folded up her napkin, and placed it in the trash.

Eliza reached for a spare notepad as well as a pen. “So we need to learn each other. You said you had three brothers. What are their names?” She had the pen poised over the notepad and then held her hand up. “Wait, we’ve got to be careful about this.”

“Why?”

“If I know too much, then it will show I crammed for a test.”

“We’re engaged to be married. Doesn’t that suggest we would’ve been going out long enough to know each other?”

“Long enough to know one another, but not long enough to have already met your mom, dad, and family. I met your sister just yesterday. Speaking of, where is she?”

“Headed back to Westcliffe Heights. She’s done her deed for the day—ruin me.”

“You’re not ruined. We’ve got this. So I need to know enough that you’d tell your girlfriend that you were willing to marry, but not too much in the short time we’d been together. That seems fair, right?”