The other man shrugged as he continued eating his fries. “Just a friendly payback for all the crap you gave me at trivia night. And I thought it would be fun to fuck with your head a little bit. So far, I’m enjoying myself immensely.”
“You’re such an asshole,” Eric said, though he wasn’t completely surprised that Dylan had hijacked his phone. He still hadn’t looked at the app. He was honestly afraid to see what awaited him.
“Oh, for crying out loud,” Dylan said dramatically. “Give me your phone. I’ll take care of it.”
Without thinking through the consequences, Eric unlocked the device and handed it to Dylan, with both of his brothers watching the whole scenario as they finished their beers. He thought Dylan intended to deactivate the app, but when he started typing on the phone’s keyboard, Eric’s suspicions were piqued.
“What are you doing?” he asked.
Dylan didn’t look up from his task. “I’m taking care of it, like I said I would.” His thumbs continued tapping on the screen, longer than Eric felt was necessary. When he was done, he looked up at Eric with a smartass grin.
“There, it’s done,” Dylan announced, much too cheerfully. “I accepted her request for you, and you’re meeting her tomorrow morning at 7:30 at the Espresso Cup to discuss the details of being her temporary boyfriend. Her name is Evie, and judging by her photo, she’s pretty easy on the eyes.”
Jesus Christ. Eric snatched his phone back. “You really are an asshole. How do I retract that message?”
“You can’t.” His friend sat back, clearly enjoying Eric’s annoyance, along with both of his brothers’ amusement as they quietly looked on. “It’s already sent.”
He swore beneath his breath. “I’m not doing this. I’m not going to be some woman’s fake boyfriend.”
Another ping sounded on his phone, and he reluctantly glanced down at the notification on his screen from the Boyfriend Experience app. Evie had already sent him a response.
I’ll be there. I’m looking forward to meeting you. See you in the morning. She followed that up with a smiley face.
Eric groaned in defeat. What did he say to that? Oh, sorry, I changed my mind seconds after setting up a time to meet? He wasn’t that much of a dick. He didn’t know this woman, and any other guy probably wouldn’t have hesitated to rescind the offer, but the thought of her feeling as though he’d personally rejected her, maybe based on her looks, wasn’t his style.
“I don’t see what it could hurt to meet her and hear her out,” Aiden piped in. “It could end up being an interesting date. It’s not like she’s asking you to put a ring on her finger and marry her.”
“This is so not my thing,” he muttered.
“It wasn’t my thing, either,” Leo reminded him with a laugh. “But I have to admit, being Peyton’s fake boyfriend was fun, and as a bonus, I got the girl.”
“You knew Peyton,” Eric pointed out. “You went to college with her and you at least had some kind of history to make the whole relationship thing look believable.”
A sly smile lifted the corner of Leo’s mouth. “I dare you to do this,” his friend challenged.
“I’m going to double down on that dare,” Aiden added, his tone filled with way too much amusement.
“Make it a triple,” Dylan said, clearly wanting in on the bet.
Eric shook his head. Nothing like being ganged up on. “You do realize that I get nothing out of this except being used for some woman’s amusement, right?”
Aiden grinned. “There are far worse ways of being taken advantage of by a member of the opposite sex.”
Eric rubbed his fingers across his forehead, knowing he’d pretty much lost the battle, not because of the three dares his friends had just issued but because it wasn’t in his nature to stand up any female.
He could do this. It was just one date. Like Aiden said, it wasn’t like he was going to marry the woman.
Eric arrived at the Espresso Cup the following Thursday morning, ten minutes earlier than his 7:30 a.m. appointment with Evie Bennett, and took a seat where he had a direct line of sight to the entrance while he waited for her.
Yes, he was now privy to her last name, because once he’d gotten home last night after dinner with the guys, he taken a better look at the Boyfriend Experience app, and Evie’s profile in particular, to see what information he could glean about her.
Not much, he’d quickly realized. Her last name . . . and that was about it, other than her photo. Considering she was doing the hiring, he supposed it wasn’t necessary that she write a bio . . . like the laughable one Dylan had posted for him. He was seriously surprised she’d contacted him after reading the ridiculous, over-the-top paragraph.