Page 9 of Dirty Secret

"That makes no sense."

I grabbed my water to drink, leaning back in my hard chair in defeat.

Shifting toward me, Felipe lowered his voice. "Hear me out. We take our dates, the one's we want to take. Me with Anthony, and you with Max the plumber."

Before I even had the glass on the table, knowing I was about to protest, Felipe waved me off. "Please, Heidi, don't start. After I saw him, I considered a sex change just so I could jump his bone-r. That man is unfortunately straight, and from what he told me about his life, he needs to get laid almost as badly as you do."

"What did he tell you about himself?"

For a few seconds I felt a little hurt that Max told Felipe about his life and barely said anything to me.

"Since he worked on my entire place, I got to spend some time with him. And boy, does he have a life. Heartache, inspiration, sexy man arms . . . it's all in there. He is a walking Lifetime movie." Felipe sighed, lost in his own sexy plumber fantasy. "Maybe if you spend some time with him, you'll learn his story, too. Like, say, oh, I don't know, over a conversation at a fancy gala?"

"Never mind the fact that I have known Max for only twenty-four hours. And of those twenty-four hours I spent less than an hour with him. And never mind the fact that he needs to replace all the pipes in my home for forty thousand dollars, and it's going to take weeks to repair. Never mind all that. I should just call him up and invite him to a black-tie gala. That seems like something a normal woman would do." I felt breathless and irritated, and even crossing my arms over my chest didn't help.

Felipe's mouth hung open. Finally, something to render my friend speechless. I loved Felipe, but his schemes didn't always take my embarrassment factor into account.

"That's even better," he said with a large grin on his face.

"Did you even hear what I said?"

He nodded. "If money is the problem, don't worry. I will give it to you. You need Max's sweaty arms and chest working away in your home. You can 'get to know him,'" Felipe wiggled his eyebrows, "while he fixes your plumbing. Then, when he does such a good job, you can invite him to the gala. It's a win-win. Besides, you can't live your life baking sweet confections only to eat them alone while watching cheesy Hallmark movies."

I chose to ignore the baking comment. There's only one flaw in Felipe's plan, and I am itching to point it out. "But that still doesn't explain how we are taking each other to the gala too."

I could feel my heart sink as the corner of his lip rose. "That's the best part. Your date and my date will take each other. But really, they're our dates. Heidi, you and I will pose for the photographs to make your father happy, but Max and Anthony will be our dates."

Crap, his plan really was good.

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