Page 32 of Just One Fake Date

“Your Spidey sense was tingling.”

“Absolutely. So, I invited Giselle. It was an act of desperation.”

“Yet not Kyle’s idea?”

“Not directly. He’s always telling me to be more impulsive and go with the moment, that I overthink things. Not my best trick, to be honest,” he admitted and Shannyn smiled. “We went out for dinner the first night in New York, she went back to her hotel, then I picked her up for the party, mostly because it was too late to change the plan.”

“Wait. She didn’t even come to your place the first night?” She almost bit her tongue because she was asking too much, but the question was out there.

Shannyn halfway expected him to shut her down, but he answered.

“No.” Tyler was firm. “An hour at dinner and I didn’t want her to know where I lived. She was charming, but greedy.”

“She ordered the most expensive thing on the menu?”

“Yes, but I wouldn’t have cared about that, if it had been what she wanted. She ran her fingertip down the list of prices, then followed the highest one back to the item. She thought I didn’t notice.”

“Okay, that would irk me. Dessert, too?”

“Yes. Aperatif, appetizer, wine and brandy. She took just a taste of each. Again, if she’d really wanted it and enjoyed it, that would have been fine.”

“But it seemed like she was just trying to spend your money.” Shannyn could see the sense of targeting a business traveler in an expensive suit, but it seemed like a bad plan to take advantage of him.

“We went to the party, my mom adored her, but I was regretting my impulse. I took her back to her hotel and that, to my thinking, was that.”

“I’m going to guess that this is where Kyle comes in.”

“You’d be right. I made the mistake of telling him about it, and after he had a good laugh, he suggested that I keep Giselle as a fictional girlfriend, at least as far as my mom knew.”

Shannyn gasped. “Shut the front door. You didnotlie to your mother!”

“I did, “ Tyler admitted. “It was an act of self-defense and the results were glorious. I’ve had eight entire months of Friday nights with no one trying to fix me up with anyone’s daughter or sister or nurse practitioner or dog groomer.” He paused. “So, now you know my dark past. Go on. Give me the bad news.”

Shannyn laughed despite herself. “It was kind of a jerk thing to do, but I wouldn’t call you an asshole for it.”

“That’s a relief.”

“Your mom seems pretty intense about this matchmaking thing.”

“It is, unfortunately, her reason for living.” Tyler sounded resigned to that. “My mom and her sisters are competitive about the grandchildren count.”

Shannyn wasn’t going there. “Is that the robe in your bathroom?”

“Yes, waiting for the right woman to come along.”

“I’m surprised you haven’t had any contenders yet.”

“I’m not. They say you only find the right person when you’re ready to settle down.”

“And you’re not ready.”

“I don’t have time.”

“You keep saying that. You could quit one job and make time.”

Tyler caught his breath, making a joke out of it. “Perish the thought.”

“All work and no play makes Tyler a dull boy.”

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