What was she doing?
This was not like Charlie. Not at all. But at some point during the day, she’d grown to like this man she’d just met. Which seemed absurd. Maybe she’d even developed a bit of a crush on him, which was even more absurd. This wasn’t high school, for heaven’s sake.
But it had been so long since she’d dated, it was no surprise she’d reverted to the way she’d behaved toward the male species in high school.
“So what’s your story?” Nichs asked just as soon as the owner, who apparently was Nichs’s new best friend, had set the street tacos down on the table. They’d been sipping alcohol-free margaritas and enjoying chips and guac while discussing her entire life story, pretty much. She had no idea what this particr question was about.
“I think I’ve told you everything about me.” Charlie looked down at her te, realizing she actually hadn’t. Where she was from, her education, her hobbies-those weren’t everything about her, and she knew it. But she didn’t want him to dig any deeper.
“No, I mean your rtionship story.” He took a big bite of one of the tacos and chewed. She chose to dive into her own tacos in lieu of answering right away. Once Nichs had swallowed his first mouthful, he added, “Justin says you’re single, but that’s new?”
Suddenly, the food was hard to get past the lump in her throat. “Justin knows about that?”
“He’s dating Brooke. People talk.”
Couples talk. Yeah, she should have known that. She and Brooke had lunch together in the break room pretty much every day Brooke wasn’t traveling or away at a meeting. They’d had more than a few woman-towoman chats about Charlie’s failed rtionship.
It looked like she wasn’t getting out of answering this one, so she decided to just minimize it. “I was dating someone for four years. It didn’t work out.”
“Four years, huh?” Nichs looked off to the side thoughtfully. He was thinking about her rtionship? That was how it appeared. She did not like that.
Squirming in her seat slightly, Charlie rushed to add to what she’d said. “It feltfortable. Like an old pair of slippers you’re afraid to rece, even though they’re all worn out and dirty.”
Nichs stared at her, eyes wide, holding the second taco he hadn’t yet bitten into. She realized what she’d just said. It was an analogy she’de up with toward the end of her rtionship, when she exined to Brooke why she stayed with him even when she wasn’t really into him anymore.
“You’reparing your ex to an old slipper,” Nichsmented.
Now he had a smirk on his face. It was annoying but somewhat adorable. Yeah, maybe she should stop making that kind of analogy.
“We had a routine,” Charlie said. She took a sip of her drink to think through how she was going to exin it, then continued. “During the week, we didn’t see each other, but he called me every night before bed-nhirty on the dot. Friday nights, we had sushi at his favorite ce. Saturday nights, we had dinner at one of three different restaurants, then went to the movies.”
“What about Sundays?” he asked, wiping his mouth with his napkin.
“Sundays were like weeknights. Had to get to bed early.”
“So…what? He couldn’t see you during the day? Was he nocturnal or something?”
“He was very…organized.”
That brought a slow nod from Nichs. An assessing nod. She could almost hear the gears in his head turning. Charlie, who had established herself as a creature of habit, had dated someone who, like her, was a creature of habit for four years, staying with him only because the setup wasfortable…like an old slipper. It didn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out what Nichs was thinking right now.
“And that’s why you ended it.”
His statement caught her off guard. For a moment, she considered lying. The messy end to her rtionship with Brandon wasn’t exactly her finest moment. But she’d already said this much. May as well reveal the ugly truth.
“He ended it. Said I was too boring.”
There. It was out. She waited for Nichs tough or express horror… Anything. Instead, he just stared at her.
“Sounds like he was the boring one.” Nichs shrugged. “Rtionships don’t fail because of one person.”
“I was going to break up with him after my high school reunion.” She scooped up a generous heap of guacamole with a chip, punctuating her sentence by taking a bite.
“Your high school reunion.” He said the words as though trying to process them. “Let me guess. You want to show some ex-boyfriend that you moved on without him.”
Charlie shook her head. “It’s not about a guy. It’s about Shellie
Ashworth.”
“Shellie Ashworth.”
Just hearing the name from a stranger made her realize how silly the whole thing was. She’d been out of high school for ten years. Why did she care what Shellie Ashworth thought?
“It’s not just Shellie,” Charlie rushed to amend. “It’s what Shellie stands for. She had a lot of friends. She was one of the most popr girls in school, actually. But she and another girl…well, they weren’t very nice to me. Let’s leave it at that.”
Why was she telling him all this? She was immediately embarrassed at just how much she’d opened up to this guy she’d previously had the urge to impress. So much for that. He was sure to think less of her now.
“Girls can be mean,” Charlie added with a littleugh. She tossed her napkin on top of her now-empty te and sat back in her seat, crossing her legs in front of her. Maybe they should just call it a night.
“People can be mean.” He polished off thest taco and picked up his drink, also leaning back in his seat. “The things that happen to us in school stay with us for life. I didn’t go to my ten-year reunion, and I doubt I’ll go to fifteen, either. Mostly because I don’t ever want to see those guys again.” Charlie’s heart softened toward him. There was a lot he wasn’t saying. She could see it in his eyes. Despite all he’d achieved, he was still missing something in his life. She wasn’t sure what it was, but she sensed it in the trace of sadness she saw in his eyes.
But Nichs was staring at her again. She could tell she wasn’t getting out of this conversation easily.
“What did your rtionship with the boring guy have to do with Shellie Ashworth?” he asked.
Oh, that. Yeah, good question. She supposed she hadn’t really been clear there.
“I don’t know. It was just this silly fantasy I had of walking into my reunion with a well-known corporate attorney on my arm. It’s sort of a ‘take that’ to the way they treated me. I’m sure Shellie probably doesn’t even remember who I am.”
“You’d be surprised. Your ex is a well-known corporate attorney?”
She nodded. “Brandon Charlesworth.”
“Never heard of him.”
“Remember when social media sites were being sued over privacy? He was on the news every night here locally. He represented one of the biggest ones.”
Nichs’s expression told her he knew the case, but she was pretty sure he didn’t have the image of her ex-boyfriend in his head. He’d go home and look him up, though. At least that wasn’t embarrassing. Her rtionship with him may have turned stale, but he was a good-looking, wellcredentialed attorney. On paper, he impressed.
Which was why it had been so important for her to have him with her when she attended her ten-year reunion.
“So find someone else.”
Nichs’s suggestion pulled Charlie from her thoughts. “What do you mean?” she asked.
“Your high school reunion. Your attorney isn’t the only guy with an impressive background. I’ll bet you could find a good-looking, sessful guy who would be more than willing to spend an evening in yourpany to show Shellie what’s-her-name what’s up.”This is the property of N?-velDrama.Org.
As much as she liked that he’d already forgotten Shellie’sst name, thest thing she wanted was for Nichs to think she was hinting around for him to step in and be her pretend boyfriend. That hadn’t even urred to her, although her heart did speed up a little at the mere thought of showing up with a billionaire as her date.
“It’s not just one evening,” she rushed to rify. “It’s an entire weekend of fun and festivities.”
Thatst part was quoted directly from the social media post that had invited everyone to the reunion. They hadn’t even tagged her in the first, second, or third round. Someone who had been on the debate team with her senior year had tagged her after the invite had been up for four months. By then, the people organizing the reunion were begging and pleading for people to invite anyone they thought had been forgotten because they hadn’t sold enough tickets to pay for the venue.
“I need to cancel my hotel room,” Charlie said, more to herself than to him. “I’ve been putting it off. I keep telling myself I’ll go alone, but it’s next weekend, so-”
Nichs choked on the swig of margarita he’d just taken. “Next weekend?”
“Yeah. Why?”
“Nothing. I just thought this was some faraway event. And this is in your hometown?”
“Sacramento, yeah. They’re having it at the country club. Shellie’s on the nningmittee, and she’s a member, so she did us some sort of huge favor by getting us the ce for the night.”
That was a lot of information Nichs probably didn’t need, but it sure felt good to get it out. She was so wound up about the whole event, and she hadn’t even realized it until now.
“Why go at all?” Nichs said. “Sounds like you didn’t really care for high school.”
“I guess…I don’t know. FOMO, maybe?”
Nichsughed. “Yeah, I’m all too familiar with that feeling. I guess you think the weekend of the reunion, you’ll be sitting at home, wondering what you missed?”
“Yeah. But the idea of walking in there alone gives me the shivers. So I guess I’ll just stay home. There are enough events in life we dread without forcing ourselves to go to ones we don’t have to, right?”
She wasn’t sure if that made sense. Looking at Nichs, it may very well not have. He was staring off to the side thoughtfully, probably trying to piece together what she’d meant about events that people dread. Maybe she was the only person who felt that way.
“I’ll make you a deal.” Nichs swung his gaze back to her, the thoughtful look gone from his eyes. The look in his eyes told her that he was alert now, focused on what he was about to say.
She was almost afraid to ask. “What’s that?”
“I have an event I’m dreading. It’sing up in two weeks.”
Charlie couldn’t help but notice that when Nichs focused on something, his face took on an intensity that made him even better looking than he was otherwise. His deep brown eyes grew even darker, reaching a smoldering depth that made her one hundred percent unable to look away.
“My younger brother’s getting married,” he said. “My mom already has a wife picked out for me. She’s going to be at the wedding.” What? Surely she’d misheard.
“Did you just say your mother has picked out a wife for you? Like, an arranged marriage?”
“Not exactly. Well, sort of. She’s constantly fixing me up with various people, but this time she’s sure this one is the perfect woman for me.”
“And you think she isn’t?”
“I know she isn’t. My mother has a very specific type. You fit the type, actually, which is why this is the perfect n.”
Charlie shook her head. Was she suffering from some sort of food poisoning or something? The kind that went straight to her brain? This conversation suddenly made no sense to her.
“I don’t understand,” she said.
“If I show up for the wedding with you, my mother will be off my back. But it won’t be enough for me to say I’m dating you. You have to show up as my soon-to-be wife.”
It felt as if all the air had been sucked out of the room. And it was a fairly big room, filled with other people. All around her, life went on as usual. Meanwhile, her own life had suddenly be something she didn’t recognize.
“Here’s what I’m offering.” Nichs leaned forward, crossing his arms in front of him on the table and leveling his steely gaze at her. “I’ll pretend to be your boyfriend, fiance, husband-whatever-at your high school reunion next weekend. The weekend after that, you go with me to my brother’s wedding and pretend to be my fiancee.”
“How will that solve anything with your mom?” Charlie asked when she finally found her voice again. “You can’t just bring a fiancee to a wedding, then not get married at some point.”
“I’ll figure it out after that. Or maybe I’ll tell her my engagement is none of her business. Whatever the case, it will put an end to her persistent matchmaking. That’s all I want.”
Charlie was one hundred percent sure his n was a faulty one. At some point, his mother would figure out he wasn’t actually engaged- probably the first time he showed up for a holiday gathering without her in tow. All he was doing was dying the conversation he needed to have with her…which was that she needed to mind her own business.
But Charlie was now excited about having a date for her high school reunion. A date who was a billionaire-a very, very handsome billionaire. The kind of billionaire who would make even Shellie Ashworth’s life look ordinary.