Page 8 of My Fake Neighbor's Valentine

“Mom, let Seth go to his job. He does really need to go.” Grace grabs me by the shoulders and turns me towards her front door. “Sorry, I didn’t give you the RSVP card before. It would have saved us this mess.” She whispers as she pushes me forward.

I reach for her hand and squeeze it. “It’s okay. I’ll see you later.” I turn to her mom. “I wish we could have met differently, but I’ll comeback and answer questions you might have for me. Have a great day Mrs. Stewart.” I leave the apartment and speed walk to my car.

I arrive at my business partner’s office just as he is greeting our client.

I can feel Everett’s stare the moment the call ends with the client.

“What?” I ask.

“First question; why you barely made it to the meeting?” He taps the card, right on top of her name. Grace Stewart is written in blue ink in the section of plus one. “And are you really taking her to our company’s Valentine dinner?”

“Grace’s mom caught me inside her apartment with the RSVP card. I don’t think there is anything wrong with inviting her to the company dinner?”

“Did Grace tell you her mom was coming?”

“No, it was a surprise for her, too. She’s been staying with Soraya for a day or two.”

“Why did that make you come late, though?”

“Well, we had to explain who I’m and why I have access to Grace’s apartment.”

“What is the explanation?”

“Same one we give to Maggie.”

Everett shakes his head and sighs. “You, my friend, are digging a hole you might not get out unscathed. If it was any other friend that you were inviting, I would say no, but we are talking about Grace. You’ve been crushing on her since you meet her. She is literally the woman of your dreams and now you are lying to her family about being her boyfriend. Sleeping with her almost every night is a big hole enough. You didn’t need to add a fake relationship to it. Let me ask you something, Seth. Can you really go back to just being her friend? No special anything. Just another of her male friends.”

“I don’t want to ruin our friendship. I can deal with my heart. I can’t lose her completely.”

“Being friends with benefits and pretending to be her boyfriend in front of her family will eventually ruin the friendship.”

“You don’t know that.”

“Did you forget my last situationship?”

I shudder at the memories of Everett’s last relationship. He and Gabriella were friends longer than he and I been buddies. I’m not clear how they ended up turning their friendship into a friend with benefits agreement. I remember the horrible weeks after Everett broke the agreement because she confessed to being in love with him.

“This is different. She already had feelings for you and tried to make you fall for her through sex. Grace and I are compatiblein bed and after a long conversation, we agreed to sleep together, no strings and no feelings.”

“But you already have feelings for her before you even knew you had such a great chemistry in bed with her.”

“True, but I’m not Gabriella. I would never use my feelings to influence or guilt-trip Grace into anything. If she finds someone or wants to find someone, I will gladly go back to being her friend.”

“Do you think her future boyfriend will be okay with you being her friend after knowing her that intimate?”

“Grace’s future boyfriend’s feelings are not my business. That’s between her and her man. I’m not gonna get involved if she doesn’t want me to.”

“You say that now, but you might react different when you witness another man kissing and touching her.”

“You could be right or wrong. I guess time will tell. These are my feelings and I’m the one responsible for them. I’m content with what I have. Now if you excuse me, I need to give this to Rachel before she marks me as not attending my company dinner.”

I pat Everett’s shoulder, grabbing my stuff and heading towards Human Resources.

Five

Grace

Icould only do half-day remote work. It is a day of mostly meetings and I didn’t want to make my coworkers grab the tech to make it possible for me to attend virtually. Today, besides reviewing some of the ad campaigns we are presenting to a loyal client we are seeing for the first time the packaging for a new product. During the couple of days I work remotely while I was still in Clear Springs for the holidays, I learn I cannot work if my mom is around. Coming up with trendy and memorable ad copy is hard with the constant interruptions. I make sure that all of my important work is done before I leave around two in the afternoon to keep Mom company.

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