Page 28 of Allured By Her

“I’ll come on a few conditions,” I said, going over to the counter. Lark was pretending not to eavesdrop but doing a bad job of it.

“Such as?” Tenley asked, raising one eyebrow.

“First, you drive. Second, I get to say I want to leave, and we have to go, no matter what. Third, you buy me dinner beforehand. Lobster.”

Tenley smirked at me and then laughed. “Done. I’ll pick you up at six on Friday.” She slapped her hand down on the counter and then went back to her chair.

“You should have been making her buy you food before now,” Lark said.

“I know, but I’ve never been a fake girlfriend before. I’m learning as I go,” I said.

“It’s very entertaining to watch, so thanks for that,” Lark said.

I saluted her. “Happy to help.”

* * *

Tenley hung out with me on my breaks for the rest of the week, and it got harder and harder not to spend all of my time thinking about her. Even when I was doing something else, her laugh would pop into my head, or I’d think of something funny or interesting that I wanted to share with her. Occasionally, we would send each other messages back and forth, but I didn’t want to seem like I was bugging her or contacting her too much. Most of the time I typed out and then deleted my messages. A beach party sounded fun, but it wasn’t so fun helping your fake girlfriend get back with her ex. At least I had the lobster dinner to look forward to.

Chapter Five

Even though it was summer at the beach, nights could be chilly, so I dressed in shorts and a t-shirt, but I also had a cozy sweater and a pair of pants I could change into if I needed. I also had an extra blanket that I folded up and could carry with a yoga strap in case of emergency. I hated being cold.

Tenley arrived on time and wearing a gorgeous flowing green kaftan that made her look like she should be posing in Bali while she was on vacation or something.

“Ready for your lobster dinner?” she asked as I threw my stuff in the backseat.

“Hell yeah. I haven’t had lobster in a while.”

“I figured we could just go to Pine State in Castleton, since it’s so close to the beach,” she said.

“Works for me,” I said, and she backed out of my driveway.

“So how was your day, fake girlfriend?” she asked, turning the music down. She hadn’t been at the shop today. I’d looked up about a thousand times and realized she wasn’t there, and I wasn’t going to analyze any of that. No way.

“My day was fine, how was yours?” I asked. “I still don’t know what the hell you do all day besides typing on a computer.”

“Oh, I’m a writer,” she said. I sat up straighter.

“That explains all the books,” I said.

“Doesn’t it?” she said as we passed from Arrowbridge and headed toward the coast and the beach town of Castleton.

“What kind of stuff do you write?” I asked.

“Novels,” she said, and didn’t elaborate.

“About?”

“Mostly romance,” she said, but there was an edge to her voice that I couldn’t put my finger on.

“How many books do you have out?” I asked.

“A few,” she said.

“I’m sensing this is a touchy topic for you,” I said with a laugh. She was being just as forthcoming about her job as I was about my sex-toy side-hustle.

“Not exactly. I’ve just had people be shitty about it,” she said. I wanted to ask if Shane had been supportive, but I also didn’t want to talk about him. We were literally going to see him soon. He didn’t have to intrude on our night yet.

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