Page 59 of Faking It with my Small Town Billionaire

“I’ll put it in my diary,” I say, wanting to bring the conversation to a close.

“Very well. I will speak to you soon. Bye for now.”

“Bye, Pops.”

When I hang up, I slump back in my office chair. Great. Just the call I needed right now. I’m not going to say I don’t care about my inheritance. That would be foolish and simply not true. I’ve worked darned hard to get where I am today.

In fact, unbeknownst to most of the employees, it’s been my decisive action-taking that has saved this company from bankruptcy—twice. I’m not being handed something I haven’t worked for, and even when I get it, there’s still a board of directors I have to work with. But I will be the CEO, a title I deserve after all my efforts.

And yet, right now, that’s not my priority. Never in my adult life could I have imagined that thought would pass through my head, and yet, it’s true. I lift my phone again and call Jake.

“I know it’s short notice,” I say when he answers, “but I really need your advice. Can you spare a half hour at some point today?”

“I can spare more than that, buddy. You all right?”

I shake my head. “No. Not at all.”

When I get to the coffee shop. Jake is already there. He’s gotten me a coffee, which sits on the table with steam rising from it.

It’s not often I see Jake without a smile on his face, but he’s looking at me with a worried frown as I sit down across from him.

“Wow, man. You look rough. What’s going on?” he says.

“Well, first of all, I brought you to a public place so you couldn’t hit me,” I joke weakly.

Jake’s frown deepens. “What?

“I have a confession to make,” I sigh, “and you’re not going to like it.”

It has occurred to me that when Lily and I made this agreement of a fake marriage, there were no feelings involved. I’m not saying that anyone who knows us wouldn’t feel sad when we got “divorced,” but if I’m honest, I didn’t really think it through to the end, to what the finality would look or feel like. Not for us or for anyone else who had been caught up in the false narrative we created.

But now, since my feelings have grown for her, I realize that the people we’ve told are going to get hurt. More than that, they deserve to know the truth. I haven’t had a chance to discuss this with Lily yet, and maybe it’s all too late. Maybe we’ll go down in history as the couple who had the shortest marriage in Willow Creek. Though if I were Cindy Caldwell’s brow-beaten husband, I would have totally beaten that record by now, but I digress.

Besides that, Jake is my best friend. I should have told him, anyway. He also needs to know the truth in order to be able to help me.

He sits and listens as I go through everything from the very beginning. My thought process, the reasons I did it, and the benefits it was going to give Lily, too. I watch his face changing, distorting into all sorts of expressions—several of which pain me because he is obviously hurt that I chose not to confide in him. I do explain why, but still, we’ve been friends since high school.

Good friends. And I lied to him.

“So the night at our dinner party, you were both pretending to be married?” he asks, gawking at me.

“Uh-huh.” I nod.

“And the kiss?”

“Well, that was completely unexpected. But I also think that was the catalyst that got us to where we are. Or at least, where we were.”

Jake looks at me for a long time and then nods. “All right. Where is she now?”

“I don’t know,” I say with a shrug and a heavy sigh.

“So, are you worried about Lily or the inheritance?”

“What?” I glare at him.

Jake fixes his eyes on me. “I have to ask the hard questions, Orson. No one else will.”

I suppose he’s right, but the question still angers me.

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