Page 62 of Fake It 'til You Make It

‘You didn’t share a feeling and you got a bite.’

‘Buyer’s prerogative.’

My lips betray my battered mind. ‘I booked her a flight, told her it’s over, that you and I are together, and she needs to take her things out of my place and back to hers. In response, she told mewe aren’t over, that you and I are over, and that I can have two more weeks in New York before I have to go back and tell her to her face that I don’t love her anymore.’

‘Wow, that’s a lot,’ Abbey says, covering her mouthful of food with her hand. ‘What did you say?’

I snap off a piece of poppadum and dunk it in lime pickle. I chew through the bite-full enough to be able to speak, then tell her, ‘I looked her in the eye and said, “I don’t love you anymore.”’

‘Burn. Then she said?’

‘“You need time, so I’ll give you time. Two weeks.” Then she left, wheel-on case, bags full of shopping and all.’

Abbey stops eating and rests her hands on the island top. ‘Do you still love her?’

I pause, too. That’s the question I’ve been asking myself for the last hour since Fleur left. But this time, I’m also questioning the tone of Abbey’s voice, the way she’s looking at me, and wondering if she cares in more than a platonic way. ‘I can’t, can I? Not after what she’s done.’

Abbey neither agrees nor disagrees, not giving me a hint as to the answer to my silent question. The way her attention is fixed on me, it’s like she’s trying to read my source code. I hope she can find my next instruction in there and tell me what it is because I’m clueless.

But I do know I’m glad she’s here. I also wonder whether I was tossing a baseball to numb my mind or because, on some level, I wanted Abbey to hear. I wanted her to come.

She moves and opens another carton of food, tandoori spices assaulting my senses. She slides the box closer to me. ‘You deserve a piece of fish for that disclosure.’

I take the fork Abbey holds out to me because I really do need that delightful-smelling food. ‘So, now I need to wait two weeksbefore Fleur will officially leave my place in San Francisco and I’m basically on the countdown to having to go home and front up to my team mate. That’s if he doesn’t try to find me here first, now that he knows from his mistress where I am.’ I take another forkful of fish. It’s outstandingly good. ‘Which means,’ I begin, my mouth still full but the fish too fantastic to stop eating, ‘the sooner we get to Canada, the better.’

A smile breaks on her lips, like she’s genuinely happy to be going. Fleetingly, I forget everything else, including the fact I’m going across the border as her fake boyfriend, not her real one. For reasons that are nothing to do with Fleur or Roman, reasons that are as yet unfathomable to me, I might be a little disappointed by reality.

‘We do need to start probing each other to pull this thing off,’ Abbey says, wagging a fork at me. ‘But first, are you sure you’re okay?’

‘I’m not even sure I know how to answer that question. Honestly, I’m a bit all over the place. I need space from Fleur but we need to sort a lot of stuff out. I don’t ever want to see Roman again but he’s my— my team mate, and that’s a whole load of sorting out I can’t get my head around. I’m squatting here on the east coast, living a make believe life with this crazy but sort of great lady who, by her own admission, is a bit of a hot mess, too.’

She frowns, making me chuckle. ‘Hmm, I think I preferred you when you were just straight arrogant.’

I literally bellow a laugh – the sound so loud, it feels like a release.

‘For what it’s worth, it does get easier. But admittedly, I didn’t have to train and play baseball with Andrew’s new girlfriend.’

I close my eyes and drag a hand through my hair, exhausted. ‘I’ve no idea what I’m going to do about that.’

Abbey holds out the last poppadum for me and as our fingers touch, our eyes meet.

‘Abbey, I’m telling you this because I trust you and, honestly, you’re pretty much the only person who has seemed to care how I’m dealing with all of this. But the whole reason I’m in New York is because I have no idea how to unpick all of this and if I’m in San Francisco when word gets out, there’ll be a media circus. Fleur is a model and influencer.’

‘And you’re a MLB player.’

‘Right.’

‘Your secrets are safe with me, Mike.’ Though her words are finished, she doesn’t take her gaze from mine, contemplating, I think, what comes next. ‘Mike, I— You’ve been really honest with me and, especially since we’re really going to do this fake relationship thing, I need to tell you something because I’d rather you found out from me than my family.’ I see her swallow deeply.

Oh Jesus. What’s coming? Does she know who I actually am?

‘My family don’t know the reason Andrew and I split. No one except my sister, my best friend and now you know the truth.’

Not what I was expecting.

‘See, my mom has always drummed into me that I need to have everything figured out by the time I’m thirty – the husband, the career path, the child even. So when they find out that I’m definitely not going to rekindle the romance with Andrew, that we are never getting married, that I won’t have a child by the time I’m thirty-two, they’re going to be disappointed at best. At worst, they’re going to try their damnedest to get us back together.’

‘Then why not tell them the truth?’

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