Page 63 of Fake Out

I can’t get the phone off its charger and to my face quick enough. I’m half terrified that if I don’t answer right away, I’ll miss the call and never be able to get in touch with this person again. This person who might be…

“Hello?” I answer breathlessly. “This is Charlie.”

“Hi, Charlie. This is Evan, one of the reps you met with in San Antonio.”

My heart pounding, I sit on the edge of my bed. “Hi, Evan. Good to hear from you.” I’m trying to sound normal, but I can hear the quake in my voice.

“Listen, Charlie. I was really impressed with you. We all are. Things are looking promising over here, and I wanted to speak with your agent, Marissa, again. I called her office after she didn’t answer her cell, though, and they told me she doesn’t work there anymore. She still reps you, though, right?”

I suck in a sharp breath. Shit.

Here it is. The moment of truth.

If I tell Evan that Marissa doesn’t represent me, then he’s gonna want the whole story, which will be hard to hide. I’ll need to tell him that we ended our professional relationship, and no way will he buy that we’re still dating.

Plus, I don’t want to lie. That’s akin to running, and I’m tired of running.

I clear my throat. “No, Marissa doesn’t rep me.”

There’s a long, painful silence.

“Oh,” Evan says. “So you’re unrepped. Can I ask why?”

I work my jaw around. Screw it. Here goes nothing.

What do I have to lose anyway?

“Marissa’s boss, Isaac, didn’t like what was happening between me and Marissa, personally. It turned into this whole mess that ended with her leaving the agency.”

“Oh, really?”

I can tell there are more questions coming, so I decide to get ahead of them and just dive right in. “Here’s the thing, Evan. Marissa and I, our personal relationship started out as fake. We thought it would make me look good after my scandal with the bar fight. We wanted people to think I’d settled down, turned over a new leaf, we decided to act like we were in love. Turns out…”

My chest tightens, and my eyes burn. “Turns out I fell in love with her for real,” I add. “We started dating for real, but Isaac didn’t know about it. He thought the relationship was still just fake, just for show. When he found out it wasn’t, he got pissed, and… that was that. So, yeah. Now, I don’t have a girlfriend, and I don’t have an agent. You’ve caught me at a time when I’m about as alone and pathetic as a man can get.”

I sigh, my shoulders dropping as the weight of the secret is released. I’ve done it. I’ve put my cards out there and shown who I really am.

What comes next, who knows?

I do know that the old saying is at least partially right: the truth does kind of set you free. Whatever its consequences are, I’ll face them.

I couldn’t be the man Marissa needed me to be when she needed it, but I’m learning. Slowly but surely, I’m becoming him.

And that feels better than any Super Bowl trophy ever could.

CHAPTER 28

MARISSA

“Okay, so this is how we transfer calls,” Fran explains, her fingers dancing over the phone’s buttons with practiced ease.

I watch as she demonstrates, trying to keep my focus on the task at hand.

“Got it,” I say with a smile plastered on my face, though the thought of spending my days managing calls for realty agents is far from exciting.

A job is a job, though, and I know I need to be grateful for the opportunity. Ria was nice enough to refer me, and her boss was nice enough to give me a chance.

And now Fran, who is moving on from manning the front desk to another position at the company, is nice enough to give me training. I should be grateful for all of these wonderful people.

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