Page 14 of Pretend Girlfriend

I felt like I’d been hit by a bus. Connor Bedard, my favorite hockey player, was in the next room. And Theo wasn’t a dumb-but-pretty Ken Doll after all. He was a fucking dentist! He had a doctorate!

“When I asked about your job, you said you mostly do paperwork.”

“I do,” Theo muttered. “Paperwork is half my job these days.”

“You intentionally kept this from me. You lied.”

Theo sighed and turned to face me. “I’ve been on a lot of dates with women who just want to date a doctor. Too many dates. I wanted you to like me for who I am, not my profession, so I removed some of the details from my profile.”

I could see how heartfelt his answer was, and it was tough to stay mad at him. “Fair enough. I understand.”

He let out a long sigh of relief and cupped my cheek. “Thanks for not being mad.”

“I’m still mad our date ended early. But now I’m mad at the circumstances, not at you specifically. I can’t believe you didn’t tell me! If I were the dentist for the Blackhawks, everyone would know about it. Do you know why?”

“Why?”

“Because I’d have a tattoo on my forehead that says, I’m the dentist for the Blackhawks. It’s all I would talk about.”

Theo laughed, then glanced at his watch. “This is going to take a couple of hours. I can meet you back at the hotel whenever I’m finished…”

“How about a rain check instead?”

Theo grinned. “I’m free tomorrow night.”

I winced. “I’ve got… plans tomorrow night. But I’m free the rest of the week.”

“I’m going to be out of town the next two weeks,” Theo replied. “And no, that’s not an excuse. How about we meet up when I’m back in town?”

I smiled up at him. “It’s a date.”

Theo pulled me into a kiss, folding his arms around me. For a few seconds, all the magic from the night returned and I considered maybe going back to the hotel room to wait for him after all.

Our kiss was interrupted by a loud moan of pain from the other room. Theo chuckled. “That kind of kills the mood, doesn’t it?”

“Would you judge me if I told you it kind of turns me on?”

Theo barked a laugh. “You hockey fans are nuts.” He kissed me one more time, then pulled away. “I’ll text you.”

As I turned to leave, I noticed a mini fridge underneath a table in the waiting room. Sure enough, it was the same one from the hotel room.

I can’t believe I assumed he was dumb.

5

Landon

I glanced at my watch. She was late. Only by a minute, but that wasn’t a good sign for the woman I was trusting to pretend to be my girlfriend.

The whole thing was a mistake. It had sounded smarter when I came up with the idea, but now that it was time? I saw how ridiculous it was. It would be better to call the whole thing off and make up some excuse.

I pulled out my phone and texted Joanna.

Me: This is a bad idea. Let’s call the whole thing off. Thanks for offering to help.

As soon as the text was away, a deep sense of relief washed over me. I could just be myself tonight. My family would give me a hard time about being single, but I could handle that. I’d been handling their disappointment my entire life.

A flash of red caught my eye, and she walked in. Joanna was shorter than me, even while wearing heels. Her yellow-blonde hair hung down around her shoulders in ringlets, and her ruby-red cocktail dress showed a tasteful amount of cleavage.

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