Fake Summer Wife

Claudia set the plates in front of each of us. “You want me to make someone sick?” she giggled. “Honey, that is the opposite of what I do. I spread joy and great food.”

“Claudia, do you have plans for Saturday night?” Bob asked.

I elbowed him hard in the ribs. “Shut your mouth.”

“Come on, boss, you know she’d be perfect,” he said.

Claudia stood there expectantly with her hands on her hips, her little sneaker tapping. “I’ve got orders, boys. Spit it out.”

“Don’t—” I started, but Taylor was quick and loud, as always.

“Vaughan’s ex-girlfriend is showing up at an event this Saturday night that is supposed to be to celebrate an incredible project that his company built. It would be awesome if he could show her up by arriving with a gorgeous fiancée on his arm.”

Claudia looked at each of us in turn, then rolled her eyes. “What – I’m not good enough to be a full-fledged wife? Don’t waste my time, boys.”

She waved to the plates in front of us. “I’m not even having this discussion until you tell me what compliments I’m to send back to Scotty.”

She dashed away, returning with ketchup, barbecue sauce, and vinegar. “I suggest a half ketchup half barbecue sauce mix for those fries,” she said to Taylor.

“If we eat everything on our plates like good little boys, will you consider being Vaughan’s date?” Taylor asked.

“Oh, I don’t think I’d ever go out with a man who didn’t have the nerve to ask me himself,” she said with a cheeky grin.

Then her eyes flashed to mine, and I saw something magical. She wanted me to ask her. I could see hope, mixed with nervousness, as if she wasn’t sure whether she should let her sassy waitress mask slip.

This was my moment. I could either let the idea fade and brush the whole thing off as a joke, or I could take this opportunity to ask Claudia out. Even if we didn’t go to Saturday’s event, I really did want to show her that I thought she was the most incredible woman I’d ever met.

I stood up and went over to the end of the counter where there was a small vase of plastic flowers. Pulling them out, I turned to her and fell to one knee.

A couple of white haired ladies at the front gasped, but I figured this would give them a fun story to tell.

“Claudia, I know we just met, but would you please be my wife just for this Saturday night?”

My heart was pounding along to the old fifties love song playing quietly in the background. I waited while Claudia’s expression morphed from disbelief to amusement. “What do I wear to such a thing?” she whispered.

“I’ll buy you whatever you want.”

Her hands twisted in her apron. “Um, we’ll need some... backstory and stuff if we’re going to pretend to be married.”

“We’ll have coffee this week and get our story straight. It can be whatever you want. Please?”

She hesitated, while one of the ladies in the front called out, “Just say yes, honey. My coffee’s gettin’ cold.”

“Yes,” she finally said, taking the flowers from me.

Bob and Taylor cheered as I stood up. I wanted to hug her, but she looked so nervous that I didn’t dare.

Then she smiled brightly. “Now eat your dinner and let me work,” she laughed. “Gosh, I knew that more than two of you would be a handful.”

As I walked by her, my hand brushed her upper arm in a tiny caress. The way she smiled up at me made my heart beat with a strange new jazzy rhythm that I’d never felt before.

I already knew that this date wasn’t going to be fake. Sure, the part about being married was, but we already clearly liked each other.

It was sudden, but I already knew that we belonged together, and this was going to become so much more.

Chapter 3

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