Fake Marriage Box Set

“I'm going to hold you to that,” I teased. I linked hands with her and let her lead me down the street to a little hole-in-the-wall burger place that she knew. Eating a burger while dressed in a nice, new suit wasn't my idea of a good time.

But it was hers, so I was all in.

Chapter Twelve

Gretchen

I might have expected that Mina would be there on Monday morning, wanting every detail from the date. I rolled my eyes affectionately at her. “You're obsessed,” I said.

“He's the hottest young bachelor in the country,” Mina said. “According to, like, five different magazines. And his money. I can only imagine what it must be like to date him.”

I groaned. “Don't remind me about his money,” I told her. “That's all he wanted to talk about for the first, like, half an hour.”

“Oh, yikes,” Mina said. “So, it didn't go well, then?”

I sighed. “It kind of did,” I admitted. “It was almost as though we had two different dates, rolled into one night.” Mina looked confused; I shrugged. “He took me out to the Bay Resort restaurant to start with,” I told her. “We both dressed up nice, and yeah, he just was kind of an asshole about his money and everything else. He acted as though it was a given that I was going to go home with him at the end of the night.”

“He is Christian Wall,” Mina pointed out. Then, she winced. “Sorry. I know you're my best friend, and I should be on your side, just.”

I laughed a little. “Yeah, he's pretty attractive,” I agreed. “I walked off from the first part of the date before we'd even ordered our food or anything. Actually, it was as we were ordering our food. But he was just being such an ass about everything that I didn't want to be there anymore. That's when we started the second date. I took him to that little burger place up the street from Bay Resort, Kathy's place, and even though I could tell that eating a burger while wearing a fancy suit wasn't his thing. He just went along with it.”

Mina shook her head. “You had Christian Wall on a date, and you just went for burgers?” she asked, sounding incredulous. “You at least got a little dessert, right?”

I laughed again. “Mina, you know I'm not that kind of girl,” I chided. I blushed a little. “I told him that he had to take me on five dates before I'd sleep with him.”

“So, are we counting last night as one date or two?” Mina asked, grinning slyly at me.

I rolled my eyes. “One,” I said. I paused, biting my lower lip. “The thing is, I know he's going to be headed back to New York soon enough, and I don't want to get tied up with him, knowing that.”

Mina groaned. “Gretchen!” She sounded positively scandalized. “You do realize that it's okay to just have fun with somebody, don't you? I mean, have fun and get your needs met! It doesn't all have to be about settling down and having kids and having a future or whatever else.”

I sighed. “Yeah, I know,” I said. “But all the same.”

“You like him,” Mina said, realization lighting her eyes. “Oh, wow. You like him.”

“No!” I said, a bit too quickly.

“You do,” Mina said, looking gleeful. “You're afraid to sleep with him because you're afraid that you're going to start feeling attached to him, and you're not sure how to deal with that.”

I scowled. For all that I might wish that things were otherwise, I had to admit that she was right. I didn't like the side of him that I'd seen first, on Saturday night. I didn't need to hear him bragging about his money trying so damn hard to impress me. None of that mattered to me.

But the guy who had come into my massage parlor twice now, the guy who had started to unfurl once we were over at Kathy's hole-in-the-wall burger place. Yeah, I liked him. He was cute and sexy and funny and all the things that I wanted in a guy. And that was exactly why I couldn't sleep with him.

Especially since he still wouldn't tell me how long he was going to be in Hawaii for.

Before I could respond to Mina, though, my first appointment of the day came in. “Mrs. Harris, it's good to see you again!” I said, as enthusiastically as I could, moving around to give her a little hug. She was one of my regulars, once just a woman on her honeymoon, but she'd been living there for six years now, and I'd been with her every step of the way.

“Good morning, Gretchen,” she said warmly. “And good morning to you too, Mina. How are you?”

“Wonderful,” Mina said, smiling at the woman. I could see in her eyes that this wasn't over, that we were going to return to the conversation about Christian again, but for now, I was grateful for the reprieve. “I'd better get back to the pineapple shop, though,” she said.

“I hear that things have been busy there lately!” Mrs. Harris said.

“Yeah, they've been a bit nuts,” Mina said, running a hand back through her hair. “It's all Gretchen's fault, of course; she keeps insisting to people that there's no better detox than a massage and a pineapple shake!”

“And she's right with that!” Mrs. Harris said, her blue eyes twinkling.

I handed her the massage robe and showed her back into the second, larger massage room, leaving her alone for a moment to get situated.