Page 81 of The Match Faker

Oh… So when Susie complimented my lipstick, she was really saying I know what you’ve just been up to. And then I said we’d just been in the bedroom. How embarrassing.

Then again, this was good. It proved we were a bona fide couple doing normal boyfriend and girlfriend things. It was fine.

After wiping away the lipstick smudges, I prepared the drinks, then returned to the living room.

‘Sorry, I didn’t catch your name,’ I said to the man as I handed him his water.

‘Mr Morgan.’ Wow. So formal.

‘Very nice to meet you, Mr Morgan.’

‘Will Mr Stone be much longer?’ He glared at his watch. ‘My wife and children are expecting me home for dinner.’

‘I’m sure he’ll be down any minute.’ Beads of sweat trickled down my back. They hadn’t even been here five minutes. And they’d arrived ten minutes early, so it wasn’t as if we were late.

Just as I was about to suggest I’d go and find Liam, I heard him walking down the stairs.

‘Hi!’ He strutted into the room looking like a sexy hero from a romance novel and my heart flipped. ‘Sorry, sweetheart.’ Liam bent down and planted a soft kiss on my lips, causing my ovaries to explode. His hair was still damp and he smelt of shower gel and Eau de Hot Man. ‘Sorry for keeping you waiting.’ He walked towards Susie and held out his hand. ‘I’m Liam.’

It was sweet that he introduced himself, but I was pretty sure there wasn’t a person on the planet who didn’t know who he was.

‘So lovely to meet you!’ Susie gushed, fluttering her eyelashes. ‘This is Mr Morgan, one of the senior competition judges.’

Liam stretched out his hand to her colleague, who shook it without muttering a word.

‘I see you’ve both got drinks.’

‘Shall I get you something, honey?’ I asked.

‘Water would be great, baby.’

Normally I hated when people, especially men, called me sweetheart or baby, but for some reason, hearing it from Liam tonight made my insides light up.

As well as getting the water, I used the opportunity to quickly reapply my lipstick. I needed all the confidence I could get if I was going to pull this interview off.

When I returned to the room, Liam was complimenting Mr Morgan on his glasses, but it did nothing to crack his stony expression.

‘Shall we get started?’ Mr Morgan sighed as I returned to the sofa.

‘Of course!’ I squeezed up closer to Liam. He rested his hand on mine. The heat from his palm caused a spark of electricity to race through me. It was so intense I almost jumped out of my skin, but luckily I caught myself just in time and remembered that Liam was supposed to be my hot boyfriend and we touched all the time.

‘How long exactly have you two been together?’ Mr Morgan, aka Mr Grumpy asked.

‘Our romantic relationship is in the early stages, but we’ve known each other for over twenty years,’ I said calmly. I knew that question was coming, so it felt good to get one prepared answer out of the way.

‘Hmm. So how long?’

Why couldn’t he just accept my perfectly crafted answer and leave it at that? I didn’t like this guy.

‘Since the end of July,’ I murmured, knowing it didn’t sound great. But at least I’d practised enough to deliver the line successfully.

Technically it’d only been two and a bit weeks since Liam had messaged to confirm he’d fake-date me, but it was almost September, so that made it sound like it was longer.

Liam and I had worked out the dates to make sure it was after the Sunrise scandal, which was around mid-July. No one had seen him for weeks after that, so technically he could’ve been with me.

‘So barely two months?’ He raised his eyebrows, clearly unimpressed.

‘That’s what’s so incredible,’ Liam added. ‘On paper that might not sound like a long time, but when you meet the one, time is irrelevant. I’m sure being in the business you’re in, you’ve met people that fall in love quickly and the feelings they experience in a couple of months are more intense than what some people experience in a lifetime. And when you consider our history and how close we were, it’s a powerful combination.’

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