Page 31 of Faking It with my Small Town Billionaire

She looks at me then with concern in her eyes. “Don’t take this the wrong way, Lily. You know I love you like you’re my own sister. But I really hope you haven’t done this for the wrong reasons.”

I can feel the heat rushing to my face. At some point, I told Orson that maybe two weeks was pushing it, but he convinced me things would be okay. I’m not sure he realizes how smart people really are.

“You don’t have to worry about me, Jasmine. I promise.”

But I can see she doesn’t believe me, and I feel it in the atmosphere between us for most of the day.

Jasmine’s reaction was tricky enough, but now, I have to tell my sisters. There is no point in putting it off. In fact, I can’t. Martha still has friends living here in Willow Creek, and the last thing I need is for my sister to hear that I’m married from somebody else.

I call for an impromptu Zoom meeting, and half an hour after I close the bakery, I’m upstairs in my apartment with my stomach in knots.

“Is everything okay, Lil?” Ellie says once she comes on.

“Yes,” Martha adds. “What’s going on? Are you all right?”

“I’m fine. Please, stop worrying. I have some news, and I wanted you both to be the first to know.”

“Oh, Lord. Is it the bakery?” Martha cries. “Are you going to lose it?”

“No.” I smile. “Nothing like that.”

“Then what?” Ellie presses.

It worked this morning, sort of, so I do the same to them and lift my left hand up to the screen. Both of my sisters have a far swifter reaction than Jasmine did.

“What? What is that? Is that a wedding ring?” Martha balks.

“No way,” Ellie says. “It’s not a wedding ring, right, Lil?”

I nod, still smiling. “Yes. It is. I got married.”

“What?” Ellie squeals. “When? How? You’re not even dating.”

I had neglected, accidentally on purpose, to let my sisters know I was dating Orson. I just couldn’t handle the interrogation. Though, now, I think I might pay for that omission.

“Are you pregnant?” Ellie blurts.

“Ellie!” I yell.

And then Martha and Ellie both start talking at the same time, and Zoom just can’t keep up. The green outline jumps from one to the other, and it ends up that I can’t hear either of them until all of a sudden, I yell at the top of my voice.

“Stop!”

My sisters fall silent, both astonished by my action, and I take a deep breath and tell them the same story I told Jasmine. Maybe it’s because they know how much I liked him—I don’t know—but both of them accept it a little easier than my colleague, even though they are not overly thrilled.

“I don’t know why you’ve rushed into something like this, Lil,” Ellie says, sounding far calmer and less dramatic. “I mean, okay, you guys were dating. But two weeks? Seriously?”

“It just felt right,” I say, keeping to the same script.

The call ends half an hour later, with me feeling guiltier than ever, and I realize that I really didn’t think this through. Not the fake marriage, but how hard it was going to be to lie to everyone I love.

I moved into Orson’s apartment that same night. It was weird for me, and I know Orson felt it, too. It was probably the first time we were really awkward with each other. But as the days have passed, we’ve fallen into some kind of a rhythm, and after a couple of weeks, things have settled.

Of course, the town is alive with talk of our love life. Clearly, they have nothing better to do with their time. I’ve heard every rumor, from gold digger to pregnancy and a few bizarre ones in between.

Fortunately, I have my beautiful Jasmine to put them in their place. She has come around, slowly but surely, and the workplace has resumed the easy atmosphere we have always shared.

“Well, how is life in paradise?” she asks me when she arrives this morning. “Do you want to hear the latest rumor?”

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