Page 22 of Loving You

CHAPTER FIVE

MILES

Seeing the light on outside the shop apartment as soon as I walked out my front door this morning was like a slap in the face for every poor choice I made yesterday.

I made bad choices to take care of other bad choices.

I’m in my thirties. I should know better by now.

Fuck.

I’m fake dating Quinn Banks to keep Cherry away from me.

What kind of person does that?

Me. Apparently.

Is it a stupid plan? Yes.

Am I smarter than this? Yes.

Is this going to end in disaster? Yes, probably.

But am I also desperate? Extremely.

About four years ago, Cherry’s father came into my shop because he drove over a nail during a scenic mountain drive. He noticed the Mustang that was in the shop and asked me question after question about it. After an hour or so, I had him on my books for three different cars. The next day, he brought a friendto meet me—another booking. The next week, he brought me two friends. More bookings.

The amount of people those friends have brought me is incredible.

He could have booked his cars and just left it at that. But he clearly liked my work, and because of that, I owe a lot of my success to him.

Which is exactly why I can’t tell his daughter to just fuck off, as much as I want to. I tried the “I think we should be friends” and the “I don’t have feelings for you like that” and the “you deserve better than someone like me” and that straightforward “no, thank you.”

None of it has worked.

But me dating someone, even if it’s not real—well, it might actually work.

Still, I have got to figure something out. There’s no way Quinn and I are going to be able to pull this off.

My family, for starters, is going to be suspicious from the first time they see us together. However we do this, we need to do it right. I don’t want to look like a fool, and right now, I’m feeling a little like one for even going along with this.

But as I saw yesterday, a fake relationship does what I need it to do, so I’m giving it a shot.

I unlock the shop door and jerk it open, cursing when it sticks in the corner again.

I flip the lights on and walk right through the office to the shop. Apparently, Quinn is going to handle all of that now.

I let out a deep sigh.

Don’t even get me started on that whole thing. I only know her as someone who travels, takes pictures, and shares them for the world to see. I’m also aware that she shares different products for different companies online, but again, I have no cluehow that is going to help her with the office shit I need her to do for me. Although, she sounded confident enough.

Fuck.

Did I really hire someone because she sounds confident?

I’m so in over my head here.

“Morning!” Quinn says right behind me, and I startle, spinning around to face her. As soon as I gather myself, I point at her.

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