Page 31 of The Match Faker

‘Like you’ve never googled me.’ He rolled his eyes.

‘We also need to agree on when and how to end our fake-tionship,’ I said quickly to avoid answering the question. I may have googled Liam once or a few dozen times over the years.

‘Will five minutes after your awards ceremony be too soon?’ He smirked.

‘Look, I don’t want to be paired up with you any longer than necessary either. But we have to make this seem realistic. If I’m lucky enough to win, the last thing I need straight after the ceremony is people gossiping about my relationship ending again. Maybe we could hold off for about a month? Then we can say that even though we were great together, the long-distance thing made it difficult?’

‘Could do.’

‘And obviously, we need rules. So we both need to be single until this ends. If a photo of you with another woman came out before the interview or ceremony, it’d be a disaster.’

‘Fine,’ Liam huffed. ‘Why do you want to win this competition so badly anyway?’

‘I need… let’s just say the prize would be helpful.’

‘How much is it?’

‘It’s worth fifty thousand. Twenty cash and thirty grand’s worth of publicity.’

‘Fifty grand? Maybe we can just come to an arrangement. I don’t normally like to lend people money. It can get messy. But it’d be easier for me to give you a loan than go through this charade. I’ll get my lawyer to—’

‘It’s not just about the money. It’s… I want to be taken seriously. It’d be nice to get that recognition and publicity to help grow my business. These awards are huge and the magazine is super prestigious—it’s the equivalent of being featured in Vogue. It’s a bit like you wanting to win an Oscar.’

‘Okay. I get it.’

‘I think that’s the most important parts covered.’ I rubbed my eyes. It’d been a long day. And I wasn’t sure if the mascara I’d worn today agreed with me. ‘So’—I started writing on my notepad—‘four dates, to include first date, interview, one other date and the ceremony. We met backstage at a play. Two months of fake dating and we both agree to break up one month after the awards, citing long-distance relationship struggles. Okay?’

‘Okay.’

After rewriting the agreement onto another sheet of paper, I thrust it in front of Liam with a pen.

‘What’s this?’

‘Our contract. So there’s no confusion. Sign at the bottom.’

‘Whatever happened to good old-fashioned trust?’

‘Trust?’ I scoffed. I trusted Boris and look what he did to me. My stomach twisted. ‘I prefer to have things in writing.’

‘Fine.’ He took the pen, scrawled his signature at the bottom of both sheets, then handed them back to me. I did the same, gave him back his copy, then stuffed mine in the sleeve of my mobile phone case.

Done.

‘And of course, no one can know about this.’

‘Trust me. The last thing I’d want is for someone to know I have a fake girlfriend. It wouldn’t be good for my street cred.’

‘Who said you have any?’ I laughed.

‘Give me your phone.’

‘Why?’

‘If I’m gonna be your fake boyfriend, you’ll need my number. We can’t keep going through Trudy.’

I sighed, unlocked my phone and gave it to him.

He tapped away on the screen, smiled, then handed it back to me.

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