Page 47 of Love in Fine Print

I hoped Ben’s deliberation was much shorter than seventy-two hours, because while the jury was still out, I was going to be a mess.

20

BEN

I stoodin front of the fifty-story glass building that housed the law firm where Olivia worked and stared at my reflection. I looked like myself, but I was scared that an alien had actually inhabited me and was making all of my decisions for me.

Had I officially lost my mind?

People in my life, mostly guys I’d played with, had joked that I had lost it when I decided to honor my Gram’s wishes and run Ever After. But this,thisactually might be crazy. And not the fun-party-time-NFL-antics-crazy. I’m talking actual certifiable crazy.

I’d gone to bed thinking that there was no way I would agree to Olivia’s proposal. Then, I’d spent the next five hours tossing and turning and by 3:00 a.m. I’d decided to go along with it.

This agreement might be untraditional, but it actually did solve both of our problems. If Nadia backed off just thinking I had a girlfriend, how much easier would it be to deal with clients when I was married?

And, as ridiculous and antiquated as it was, I believed Olivia when she said she wouldn’t even be considered for partner without a ring on her finger.

There was the slight inconvenience that I had a date tonight. I was supposed to meet Kelly. I thought about putting this off until tomorrow, but that seemed unfair. Also, there was no way I’d be able to concentrate on a fucking thing until this was resolved, one way or another.

Which was why I’d shown up at Walters, Cline, Katz, Chen & Assoc. at eight in the morning to get this figured out. I only knew that Olivia was in the office this Saturday morning because she’d mentioned that she’d be working on a case all weekend, and this morning Trevor had tagged her in a photo on Instagram with hashtag weekend beast mode activated.

As I walked inside, I was struck by how impressive the building was. There were marble floors and a huge chandelier that hung in the center of the lobby. I started toward the elevator banks when I heard, “Excuse me, sir.”

I turned and saw a security guard walking toward me. He stood at around six foot tall, a good four inches shorter than me, but was built like a mountain. The cotton band of his short-sleeved polo shirt was taut around his muscular upper arm.

“Can I help you?” His expression was friendly(ish) but stern.

“I’m here to see?—”

“Oh shit!” His eyes lit in recognition.“Ben Whitaker!” He held out his hand and when I slapped it, he pulled me into a one-armed man hug. “I’m Curtis. Man, my dad’s not gonna believe this. He’s been a Marauder fan since he was a kid. Can we take a selfie?”

“Nice to meet you, Curtis. And yeah, sure.” I smiled as he pulled out his phone and snapped several photos of us.

“What are you doing here?” Curtis asked.

“I’m here to see Olivia Bradshaw.”

He winced as he sucked air through clenched teeth. “Damn, bro, I’m sorry. I didn’t know you were married.”

“I’m not.”

Curtis looked confused for several beats before jumping to the conclusion that I was there for personal reasons. A smile slowly spread on his face, and he gave me a fist bump.

I was about to tell him he had the wrong idea and that our relationship was professional. But, since the contract I was holding said that we were going to get married, maybe it would be a good thing if he thought something was going on between us.

I’d read the contract she’d given me several times last night. It stated that the only way this would work was if everyone believed we were a real couple. To that end, she’d outlined several non-negotiables, including that at all times in public and in the presence of any other person, we had to behave as a couple who were truly in love. She also stipulated that under no circumstances could we tell anyone in our lives that this marriage wasn’t a “real marriage.”

Olivia was right, if we were going to do this, people had to believe that we wereactuallya couple. They had to believe that we’d had a whirlwind affair and, I assumed, what would be an elopement. The terms of the actual wedding weren’t laid out in the contract, but I didn’t think she’d want a ton of people witnessing our fake wedding.

Curtis typed on the tablet he held in his hands. “Is she expecting you? I don’t see your name on the list.”

“No. I was just stopping by.”

“No worries, man. I’ll call up.”

For some reason, it made me feel better that even though the man was clearly a fan of mine, or at least his father was, he didn’t allow me access to Olivia. I’d done my research on her over the past month that I’d known her, and she had entire websites dedicated to her. Some were filled with hate. Others seemed to be on the fanatic side of things.

It didn’t surprise me at all that she elicited such strong reactions from people. Besides her stunning appearance, she had an air about her. A presence that was undeniable and also indescribable. But If I had to describe it, I would call it regal. It was as if she was royalty. Or maybe it was that ‘it’ quality that some celebrities had.

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