Page 1 of Accidental Fiancé

Chapter 1

Maggie

Ihad only made it inside of the lobby, but I had come too far to turn back now. It had taken me all day to work up the courage to come to the reunion. Nora agreeing to come with me helped, though it wasn’t much of a favor, really. It was her reunion too.

Had it really been fifteen years since high school?

It was hard to believe. It felt like a lifetime ago, yet it also felt like I was in Mr. Wedig’s geometry class just yesterday, ignoring him while staring at the freckles on Victor Clyburn’s thick neck. It was sun-exposed thanks to his short brown hair and too much time on the football field. He was the kicker. He was cute and a great distraction from isosceles triangles.

No chance in hell he remembered me.

Not that I cared. I had dozens of little crushes like that in high school. They weren’t even on the actual person; they were focused more on certain aspects of that person. I wondered what Victor’s freckles would taste like, or the feel of Brian Hannigan’s pecs, or what it would be like to wake up with my sheets smelling like Austin Graves.

He smelled the best of any boy in our class, but I never had the nerve to ask what cologne he wore. Considering I’d neverspoken to him in the thirteen years of school we’d had together, asking about his cologne felt a tad bit awkward.

It was never any one boy who had my complete attention because none of them had the whole package, and if I couldn’t get everything I wanted, then what was the point of picking one? I didn’t date in high school, and I’d only had a few boyfriends since, but it never went anywhere serious. Thus, my date for the Saturday night reunion was Nora.

Where the hell is she?

The busy hotel lobby had beige, patterned carpet, gleaming dark hardwood, and crystal chandeliers that glowed warm yellow light. It was lovely, and far too high-class for our school. I wasn’t sure why the reunion committee selected this hotel when the Rosewood High School’s gym would have likely garnered as many attendees. RHS was a lot of things, but classy wasn’t one of them.

“Maggie Bryant? Is that you?”

There were voices in the world that could lock up every muscle in my body and send my hair on end.

Chloe Foster had one of them.

It wasn’t particularly shrill or cloying, and it wasn’t necessarily the voice itself that made me react so viscerally. It was… Chloe herself. Relentless fakeness clung to every syllable that came out of her mouth.

I knew what I would find before I even turned around—a skeletal white woman with long, wavy blonde hair and bright, but somehow lifeless, blue eyes. Her white sleeveless jumpsuit clung to her frame giving her the illusion of curves, her heels offering the only color in her outfit—bright red stilettos that she seemed to be struggling to keep her balance in. Her makeup was perfect; sharp lines and perfect hues applied with precision, from her immaculate eyebrows to her sultry lips. Every inch of her was designer artistry, and while I admired the look, the ideaof copying it was laughable. If I wore anything like that, I’d feel like a little girl playing dress up in Mommy’s clothes.

I had no patience for intricate makeup, and my clothes, though decent enough, were chosen for comfort over style. My outfit consisted of a simple blue dress with straps wide enough to wear a real bra and cute black ballet flats. My makeup was minimal and in neutral hues. I had, however, treated myself to a new necklace for the event—a silver chain with a blue opal pendant that hung at the top of my cleavage. It was a splurge, but after I’d seen it in the window, I had to have it. When I tried it on, it felt like a talisman, something that could give me the strength to get through the night.

Right now, I might as well have been naked for all the protection it offered me. I was trapped, facing off with the person who had made my public education a nightmare.

Seriously, where the hell was Nora?

I plastered on a fake smile, hoping to make this quick. “Chloe, right?”

She held up her black and diamond clutch with her name tag on it. “In the flesh. It’s so good to see you!” She came in for a hug I didn’t want but she gave it to me anyway. I nearly gagged on her vanilla perfume. “Can you believe it’s been fifteen years?”

I shrugged. “Yeah, I know.”

“I was just inside, catching up with some of the girls we used to hang out with. You remember Emma and Harmony, right? And they were talking about how we never see you around town anymore. Why is that?”

Because I have made it an art avoiding the three of you.“Oh, you know. Big city. Different lives, different circles of friends.”

“That makes sense, I guess. I’ve been positively swamped between volunteering at the historical society and running the reunion. I?—"

“You picked the location for the reunion?” I cut her off.

“Well, of course.” She smirked. “Did you think we’d be one of those low-rent reunions at our gym? God forbid.”

“God forbid,” I parroted back, fighting an eye roll.

Her smirk became an annoyed grimace as she glanced around. “This hotel wasn’t even the best one on the list, but the committee said I had to reign in the spending. They limited me to only one ice sculpture inside the ballroom, but if I had my way, there’d be three.”

“Oh.” I had no idea what to say about that.

---