Page 4 of Faking Ever After

“What are you…?”

But Kim was already ten steps ahead of me, which was the reason I had hired her in the first place. “I need to make some arrangements. I’ll have Anton help you with the meeting notes for tonight. I’m on a mission.”

“What the hell are you talking about?” I asked, split between awe and pure horror. Kimberly Jones was a formidable force on any Wednesday morning before coffee. But Kimberly Jones with an impossible challenge on a tight deadline? I pitied the poor souls who found themselves in her way.

Kim stood up promptly. “I’m going to find you a man to play the part of your loving boyfriend for two weeks in Greece. One who can absolutely survive your family.”

I wanted to sneer with an: “Impossible!” but I didn’t dare add fuel to this fire.Does such a man exist?Kim was turning on her heels with the kind of determination that promised that, yes, that man absolutely existed. And she was about to pull him out of her bottomless top hat.

When the door to my office closed, I released an embarrassing whimper of despair, cleared my throat, and stood up. Walking around the chair to the double-glass window overlooking the Hudson River, I allowed myself a deep, reassuring breath of air.

Kim had been keeping my life organized and my sanity intact since the day she joined my team. In the two years of this partnership, I changed my diet from quick takeouts to healthy, balanced meals, hired a personal trainer to get some use out of my private gym, attended yoga classes twice a week, and found the freedom to focus on my passion projects instead of having to deal with the day-to-day problems of running the company. With Kim’s help, I had mostly relegated the tasks to capable people she herself had vetted.

There were no doubts about it; Kim had fixed my life just so. And I suspected she would fix the mess I had made with a single phone call at eight in the morning, committing to a two-week trip to Greece.

Though my fingers trembled at the mere thought of it, I was reasonably confident that something might come up and rescue me from the embarrassment of having to admit that I, in fact, made up a boyfriend.

“Again?” Mom would ask, spilling her wine with laughter.

“Orson was real,” I would mutter under my breath, but nobody would ever believe me.

I swallowed the knot in my throat and picked up my phone when it vibrated. “Sis?”

“Is it true?” she asked.

The space between my eyebrows creased. “Is what true?”

“You’re bringing a mystery man to the anniversary party,” Emily teased.

“Mom already told you?” I gawked.

“Where do you think I am?” Emily laughed. “I was there when she called you.”

“Emily, you are the only person who would volunteer to arrive sooner than expected. How bad is it?” I added the question in a conspiratorial tone.

My sister feigned seriousness. “For your information, I am here to help make sure everything is ready for the party.”

“As if Nektaria and Dimitrios would ever let you meddle with planning,” I said with a snort. The caretakers of my parents’ summer home might have been employed by us on paper, but they were Zeus’s own representatives on Earth in actuality. Nobody messed with their party-planning process.

“You’re deflecting, Little Brother,” she singsonged. “Is it true, then? We’re finally meeting the Phantom Boyfriend?”

I exhaled resignedly. “Yes. I’m bringing him. He’s absolutely real.”

“What’s his name?” Emily asked innocently.

Fuckshit.“Ask him yourself when we get there.”

The laughter that nearly deafened my left ear proved that her question hadn’t been innocent at all. “Well, I’m looking forward to seeing you, Percy.”

“Me too,” I admitted grudgingly.

“Right. I have to go, Lil Bro. Dimitrios wants my opinion on the color of the ribbon we are tying to the balloons,” she explained importantly.

“I’m sure he does,” I teased. “Make sure to write him a memo on the color of the candles on the cake, too.”

Emily politely told me where to put the candles and what, then, to do with them, said she loved me and hung up.

I was still chuckling to myself when Anton entered my office. “Hey, boss. Kim said to take over. Is she alright? She looked like she was going to break my neck for jamming a coin in the vending machine.”

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