Page 29 of Theirs to Take

“Too busy to call your very best friend?” Nova questioned.

“Yes,” Evie defended.

“Doing what?” Nova asked.

“She was hanging out with me,” Rod said. “We didn’t want to tell you, but we hit it off, and well, that’s why neither of us answered when you tried calling this weekend.”

“I knew it,” Nova shouted, pointing between the two of them.

“Yep, you called it,” Rod said. He could feel Evie staring him down as if he had lost his mind and he just hoped like hell that she’d play along until Nova went back to her office.

“Well, I’m happy that you finally accepted a job here, Evie. Now, we’ll get to see each other whenever we want. I’m so excited,” she gushed. Nova rushed into the office and hugged her best friend who looked like she was just trying to figure out what was going on.

“How about you two catch up later?” Rod asked. “I have a lot to talk to Evie about before she heads down to HR to fill out all of their paperwork.”

“Right,” Nova said. “How about lunch?” she asked. Poor Evie looked at him as if she was trying to tell him that she needed saving.

“Sorry, Nova,” Rod said. “We’ll be working through lunch today. You’ll have to get on her schedule for another day.”

“Boy, you’re more of a slave driver than your brother,” Nova teased. “I’ll leave you two alone so that you can get to work.”

“Thanks, Nova,” Rod said. “For everything.” He wrapped his arm around Evie and pulled her into his side, causing her to make the cutest squeaking noise, he almost wanted to laugh. He waited for Nova to get back to her office before he released Evie and crossed the room to shut the door.

“What the hell did you just do?” Evie whisper shouted at him. “You told her that we’re together? How could you do that?”

“I did it because it’s the only way that we’ll be able to get anything done around here. You see, Nova is determined to put us together. As soon as I walked in here, she practically knocked me over to ask me a couple hundred questions about our date.She won’t let this go, Evie. So, we’ll have to pretend that we’re together for a while to throw her off track.”

“Throw her off track?” Evie asked. “You’ve lost your mind. Evie is my best friend and knows me better than anyone else does. She’ll know that I’m lying and then, she’ll hate both of us for being deceitful to her. I won’t lie to my best friend.”

“Okay, then tell her that you don’t want to talk about us. Tell her that things are so new, you don’t want to jinx it or something corny like that. She’ll accept that and we’ll have time to figure out our next move. But you and I both know that if we don’t pretend to be dating, she’ll ruthlessly keep trying to put us together. We won’t have a moment's peace. Do you want that while you’re learning your new position here?”

“No,” she grumbled. “I’d rather not have to deal with Nova trying to set us up anymore—especially now that we’re working together. That would be the worst possible scenario. You and I don’t need a relationship messing everything up.”

“Agreed,” Rod said. “So, we’ll pretend to be together for a while and then, we’ll start having little arguments over the next few weeks and before you know it, we’ll be able to claim that things didn’t work out between us and we’re breaking up.”

“So soon?” she teased.

“You’re joking around now, but it’s going to feel like an eternity since you refuse to lie to her. She’s not going to just sit back and let you keep all the details to yourself forever. Sooner or later, Nova’s going to start poking around, and then, we’ll have to figure out a plan B.”

Evie

Evie sat at her desk, rethinking everything that had happened to her in the last twenty-four hours. How could she have foolishly agreed to Rod’s plan to tell Nova that they were dating? She was an idiot, that’s how. All she wanted to do was call a redo of the whole day, but that wasn’t possible unless she suddenly found a time machine.

She had spent half her day in HR, filling out their paperwork, and the other half of the day trying to avoid Nova. It sucked that she was going to have to either avoid or lie to her best friend, but what choice did she have? None because Rod left her with no choice and that just plain pissed her off. Now, she was just waiting for the time to tick away so that she could go home and rethink the past twenty-four hours.

“There you are,” Nova said. She walked into Evie’s office and sat down in one of the two extra chairs. “I’ve been looking everywhere for you. How was your first day?” she asked.

“Oh—you know how first days go,” Evie said. “I spent most of my day in HR, filling out their mountain of paperwork.”

Nova giggled, “Yeah, Alex had me throw out their handbook because he told me that he planned on breaking most of theirrules with me, and we did. I’m betting Rod will have the same take on HR’s rules.”

“Not really,” Evie said. “I mean, we’re keeping things under wraps. You and Alex are the only ones who know and we’re hoping to keep things that way. This thing between us is so new, I don’t want it to mess up our work relationship. We’ve agreed to keep work and our personal lives separate.” Evie thought back over every word she just said and tried to count up the lies she had just told her best friend. After she got rid of Nova, she was going to march down into Rod’s office and punch him in the nuts for putting her through all of this.

“Well, I can keep a secret,” Nova promised. “And I’m sure that Alex will be willing to do so too. But sooner or later, people are going to find out,” Nova said. Evie wasn’t betting on that happening. Before anyone else could find out about her and Rod’s supposed relationship, she planned on staging a breakup. It was the only way to end this crazy ruse without too much collateral damage.

“You all right?” Nova asked.

“Of course I am, why?” Evie countered.

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