Fake Marriage Box Set

I ran my hand down my jaw and stood. “Half a million,” I scoffed and shook my head.

“Up front,” she repeated.

I left before I destroyed something and returned to my car without looking back. I punched the steering wheel as her words repeated in my head.

Half a million dollars to convince my mom that I was in love so that she would be happy in her last remaining months.

The last thing I wanted to do was give that bitch a single dollar, but as I thought about my mother and how happy she had been to hear who I was dating, I realized that I was going to have to give her exactly what she asked for.

I only prayed that I could figure out some way to make sure that Maddie was fucking miserable through the entire ordeal. She’d earn every damn dollar I threw her way.

Chapter Twelve

Maddie

I stayed to finish my drink. Gavin had run off yet again, leaving me with a guilt that would never be erased. The waitress apologized after taking our finished plates away as if she had anything to do with my date leaving early. I told her it was expected, and that I just had the worst luck when it came to dating. She glanced around us, at the several men who had been staring at me the entire night, and chuckled.

“The beautiful ones always do, I suppose,” she said and left me to my drinking. I realized I had been doing a lot of it lately, as if the alcohol would help me feel less like a shitty person. Was half a million too much? I had blurted out a number without really thinking about it. But that was practically chump change for someone with several billion dollars, right? And it’s not like the situation would have been easy for me either. I had to convince everyone in my life that I was head over heels and in love with a man who I had seen three times in the past decade. That wouldn’t be as easy as I’d hoped. And not to mention all of his ridiculous rules.

I groaned and leaned back as the last few drops of my cocktail slid down my throat. I should have gotten straight shots, but I was driving myself home, and it didn’t take more than a single shot to leave me passed out on the floor.

All of Gavin’s rules made sense, I supposed. One dinner a week with his mother was the entire reason why the situation would have existed. Convince everyone that we were in love. It would have to be a great act if we were going to be engaged shortly. But maybe the hardest one was not sleeping with anyone else. It wasn’t as if I wanted to sleep with other men. I hadn’t bothered with that in a while, too long possibly, but I at least appreciated having the choice. I hadn’t realized that pretending to be his pretend fiancée meant giving that up. And it wasn’t like we were going to be sleeping together either. It would be six months of cold showers, for the both of us apparently.

I shook my head and contemplated ordering another drink. It wouldn’t make me feel any better, but maybe it would make me forget about the dinner for a while. The waitress returned saying my date had paid the bill at least. It was a surprise to the both of us.

I decided against ordering another drink and readied my stuff to leave. A man with a balding head and dark blue eyes approached me as I slipped into a leather coat, and introduced himself politely.

“I just can’t believe any man would be dumb enough to walk out on a woman like you,” he said. It was a compliment that any other day would have made me blush, but tonight it only irritated me.

“A woman like me?” I asked. “What does that mean?” He had no idea what a woman like me was capable of.

“Oh,” he stumbled, “I just meant that you’re beautiful. Definitely the best-looking woman I’ve seen in a while.”

“So, he should have stayed just because I was beautiful?” I knew I was being unfair to this poor man who had just wanted to pick up a woman who had been abandoned by her date, but the drinks had made me bold, and my own actions made me angry.

The man held up his hands. “I didn’t mean anything by it, I swear,” he said. “I just wanted to compliment you.”

I opened my mouth to tell him to save his compliments for someone who cared, but I remembered that I needed to add more followers.

“I’m sorry,” I said and lowered my tone of voice. “It’s just been a rough night. Can I buy you a drink?”

He smiled and relaxed. “I’d love that.”

We spent the better part of an hour chatting at the bar and enjoying the jazz band. He placed his hand on the upper part of my thigh, and I decided against moving it. Nancie always explained that we were technically selling ourselves while looking for potential followers and that every once in a while, it wasn’t a bad idea to let them a little closer than I’d like.

He wasn’t so bad, to be honest. His eyes were captivating, and while he wasn’t as muscular as Gavin, many guys weren’t; he at least had a good body with a great smile. Gavin made him look like a has-been, but my handsome sugar daddy did that to most men. He was gorgeous, rich, and hated me. I let out a soft sigh as I thought about it.

“There’s something about jazz that really lifts the spirit,” he said as the band finished a song. He glanced at me. “Hopefully you’re feeling better now, right?”

“I am, thanks,” I said. “I barely even remember the guy’s face.” It was a blatant lie. It would be impossible to forget Gavin’s face.

“I can’t believe the asshole,” he said. I frowned; it wasn’t fair to Gavin that he was known as an asshole.

“I wouldn’t really blame him,” I said. “He said he had something important to take care of. And it was just a first date; I don’t expect him to tell me private matters.”

“Look at you, making excuses for him.” He shook his head. “The guy is an asshole; you can say it.”

“No,” I said sternly. “I really can’t. Look, I should probably get home.”