Page 63 of The Dixon Rule

“Yes. I said you lived next door but that you went out tonight with your girls.” He groans softly. “I don’t think they believed me.”

“Of course they didn’t. It’s clearly a lie.”

“Yeah. And now I look like an even bigger tool. So, please, I need your help. Can you come over, but, like, get dolled up beforehand? I told them you were going to the club.”

“Uh-huh. Cool. You want me to put on clubbing clothes, come over, and…do what?”

“Be my girlfriend, Diana!” he growls. “Please.”

He called me Diana. And he said please.

This must be dire.

“Like, this is fucking embarrassing.”

A lot of men might be too proud to admit that. Shane sounds so distressed that I find myself softening toward his plight.

“What are the rules?” I ask slowly. “How did we meet?”

“I don’t care. You can make up whatever stories you want. Just do me the solid.”

“Why am I not at the club?”

“I don’t know. Tell them Gigi got food poisoning or something.”

“Gigi was coming to the club with me?”

“I don’t fucking care who—” He abruptly lowers his voice again, his next words barely above a whisper. “I don’t care what story you come up with.”

“Where are you right now?”

“I’m in my bedroom. Pretending to hunt for an old high school yearbook so we can show her boyfriend.”

“Ouch.”

“Yeah.”

“Okay, so to recap, I’m your pretend girlfriend and I have free rein in what I say? I can create a rich tapestry of our love?”

“If you come and help me, you can do whatever the hell you want.”

I can’t stop smiling. “Give me an hour.”

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

DIANA

Top ten reasons why you should date me

PRECISELY SIXTY MINUTES LATER, I FLOUNCE INTO SHANE’S APARTMENT and heave the most dramatic of sighs.

“I am so pissed off right now, babe! Like, it’s one thing if she got food poisoning or something, but to blow me off for a guy? We had this planned for weeks. I haven’t been to Boston in ages. I was looking forward to it and I wanted to dance and—” I pretend to suddenly notice the couple sitting on Shane’s sectional couch. “Oh. Sorry.” I glance back at Shane. “This was tonight?”

I am a phenomenal actress.

“Yup.” He’s fighting a smile. “I told you that when we spoke on the phone earlier.”

“Right, sorry. I was only half listening. Too busy making myself look like this.”

---