Page 49 of Forever and Other Lies

“I’ve always had bad taste in men. So, dating you should be an easy sell.” She flashed him a saccharine smile.

His lip curled up. “Are you saying that I’m not boyfriend material?”

She snorted. “Yeah! You’re definitely not boyfriend material. If you were this great guy, then Daddy Warbucks wouldn’t be threatening bodily harm.”

“That is true,” he acknowledged.

“Besides, we only need Vito Corleone and Lance to buy it.”

Chapter 24

“We only need Vito Corleone and Lance to buy it,” Jayna had said. Derek was more than a little impressed that she could name the main character in The Godfather.

Following her back to their barstools, Derek’s eyes narrowed. She couldn’t be serious about dating. Fake or otherwise. The phone in his back pocket vibrated, and he pulled it out. Mario Flavia’s name flashed, and he swiped to answer, cringing as he did.

“Mario.”

“Derek, my boy, we need to talk.” The gruff voice crackled through the phone. “Have you been avoiding my calls along with my daughter’s?”

“Uh, no. Just have a lot going on.” He stepped outside of the bar. What the hell had he been thinking when he asked Francesa Flavia out? She was a dead ringer for Penelope Cruz, that’s what he’d thought.

“You have such a promising career in front of you. I have big plans for you, my boy.” Again, he used that term of endearment, yet it was far from endearing in the tone he used. The threat was loud and clear. The earlier threat to break his legs may have been a bluff, but the threat to end his career was not.

“So, care to tell me why my daughter has called crying?”

There was a long, tense silence. The last thing Derek wanted was to go along with Jayna’s fake dating scheme. But hearing the anger in Mario’s voice had him quickly reconsidering. The man was seriously pissed.

While he was fairly certain that Mario wouldn’t go through with the threat of bodily harm, he knew that Mario could seriously derail his career with a single phone call.

So, he just went and blurted out Jayna’s hare-brained idea. “My ex just showed up. She’s pregnant. Looks like I’m going to be a father. No one is more shocked than I am.”

That part was true. He was totally shocked that he was agreeing to Jayna’s proposal.

“We owe it to the baby to attempt to make it work,” he continued to blubber. Would the guy even buy it?

There was another long pause.

“I agree. A child needs their father in their lives,” Mario conceded. Though he was a cutthroat businessman, he was also a devoted family man. It was evident by the lengths he would go to ensure his daughter’s happiness.

“Our gala is in a couple of weeks. Make sure to bring this woman with you. I want to meet her.” More like demanding to meet her to prove that she actually existed.

“Of course.” Derek disconnected the call and frowned at the cell phone in his hand! Mario had bought it. Now he just had to sell it.

Stepping back into the pub, his eyes settled on Jayna. He just needed to fake date the one woman he couldn’t stand.

No problem.

No problem! Yeah, right! Trusting Jayna with his career felt like a huge risk. His career meant everything to him, more than anyone knew. Unlike Tommy who had excelled effortlessly, Derek struggled with his grades until his final year of high school. Determined to shed his reputation as an underachiever, he worked hard, earning the grades needed for university. His effort paid off. Not only did he receive an Engineering degree, but he graduated with distinction, proving that even a "failure" like him could turn things around.

Derek walked up behind Jayna, wrapping his arms around her waist. Leaning down, he whispered in her ear, “Looks like we’re doing this. Hope you have a classy dress because you and I have my work gala to attend in two weeks.”

She stiffened for a moment and then beamed up at him. “Black or red?”

“Definitely black.”

A vivid picture of her wearing a sexy little black dress flashed through his mind. He quickly shoved it away. This was annoying, pain-in-the-ass Jayna Sutton. He was not going to start daydreaming about her.

He had no idea why he said what he did next. It was yet another stupid idea. However, he was the king of stupid ideas. So, he just blurted it out, “If we are dating, then we should kiss.”

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