Page 65 of Fake It 'til You Make It

I laugh but it’s nerves rather than amusement driving it. Then I’m silenced by Mike’s hand on my knee. As soon as his skin contacts mine, I feel something change in my body. My pulse quickens, my heartrate rises, my skin heats, and I want more contact.

Am I crushing on Mike? No, that is literally the last thing on my mind.

He snatches his hand back, as if in horror. Hardly surprising, given his ex-girlfriend may not even have left the state yet.

Business is a safer space to be than whatever else might or might not be going on here. My mind is busy enough with fake dating, fake acting and generally being fake, never mind real crushes, and Mike’s mind is surely full enough of the last twenty-four hours alone.

I take hold of the pile of papers, set my self-doubt aside, and start reading. Mike says he doesn’t understand all of this at all, so I have to be an improvement on that position. ‘Okay, on the basis you should take away anything I say and get an actual employed adviser to bless it, let’s get into it.’

I listen to everything Mike knows about his brother’s business and his business relationship with his friend Roman. He also lets me read a detailed note Ted’s lawyer provided about the partnership. Mike is way smarter than I’ve previously given him credit for. He’s also incredibly close to his brother, that much I can decipher.

We finish the Indian meal I brought and Mike makes us two rounds of coffee, which we drink whilst eating nuts that I send him to retrieve from my place as I work on his laptop.

I get lost in it, remembering how much I love this stuff. I try to relay my thoughts and suggestions as my fingers speed type each pertinent point into a business analysis document I’m creating. Somehow, time turns into the early hours of the morning, and despite the fact I have to be on set by 8a.m. this morning, I am still going.

27

TED

It’s peculiar to see someone so into what I consider an absolute nightmare of business restructuring and financial speak.

It’s even more bizarre to see someone who quit this stuff to become an actress be so into it. It makes me wonder why she ever did quit.

Then again, she said it herself: being an actress is much more happening than being a numbers girl.

I guess my tech nerd is sort of equivalent to her previous career and I have to confess, though I might like numbers and code, people like us don’t get to keep the girl.

I also know for sure now how uncool she thinks people like me are. But Mike, cocksure sports guy, he’d keep the girl.

After nearly four hours, Abbey has compiled a document I would have expected to pay my accountants and lawyers tens of thousands of dollars for. More than that, she has explained everything to me as she’s worked, in a way I understand. And she’s given me something my lawyer didn’t – a way of getting whatIwant, rather than what Roman wants.

In a nutshell, Roman goes, I can keep doing what I love and I won’t lose control.

‘Abbey, I don’t even know how you’ve come up with this but if it works, you’ve come up with something that Ted and I couldn’t in more than two weeks of thinking about it and it’s taken you four hours. I don’t even know how to thank you.’

Her cheeks flush at the praise and I know before she speaks that she’s going to qualify my statement. I know because I saw how riddled with anxiety she was just about helping me out. But she overcame it and ploughed on. She’s resilient, whether she knows it or not. But in her bashfulness, I’m reminded how different she can be to her fancy-pants persona sometimes.

‘Remember, you need to get someone proper to take a look at this and sanction it. They’ll probably come up with something better. The document I’ve put together is in really rough form, so?—’

I place my index finger across her lips, feeling her soft pink skin under my touch. ‘Stop putting yourself down. Take the compliment.’

Her lips curve beneath my finger, then she takes my hand away. ‘You’re welcome. For what it’s worth, though, I’m sorry your brother is having to go through this. You’re both in the relationship wars at the moment, huh?’

Right now, in this moment, I’m not sorry. My gaze falls to Abbey’s lips, where my finger has just been…Heyyy, steady. She’s getting me through a massive mess, regardless of who she thinks she’s helping, and I’m grateful. I don’t need to read too much into it.

What I need to do is juststop. Squash those crazy thoughts.

‘I should go,’ Abbey says, yawning as she sets my laptop down on the coffee table. She checks her watch. ‘I have to be up in a few hours for work.’

Good idea. ‘I’ll show you out,’ I tell her, walking her to the door, where I tell her, ‘Thanks, again.’

She shrugs, dismissing her hours of brain power. ‘Any time.’

I open the door. ‘Can I ask you something? If you love this stuff so much, which you clearly do because I’ve watched you grin as you type for hours, then why don’t you do it as a job? Why acting?’

‘I did briefly. I did a rotation in the department at my firm but when it came to applying for jobs on qualification, there was a guy who was great at it and I knew he’d get the job. I liked numbers and there were a handful of jobs in the auditing team, so that’s where I went.’

I lean my head to one side, trying to get a better view of her downcast look. ‘You avoided competition.’

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