Page 2 of Dating Your Fake Fiance
“You are evil.”
I smile. “Only when I need to be.”
“I guess I will be going,” Carter announces to Charlie and walks off towards the door. He spins around just as the door is closing behind him. “Thanks for the free cake pops.”
That little mooch.
“I’m so sorry about that.” I turn back to Charlie.
He chuckles. “Your boyfriend has a flare for the dramatics.”
“What? Him?” I look from Charlie to the door and back again. “No, oh god, no. That’s my brother.”
I can’t be sure, but I swear I almost see a look of relief cross Charlie’s face, but it’s gone before I can even be sure.
“I’m sorry,” he says. “I just assumed.”
“No, I have no boyfriend. I’m single. Totally alone.”
Stop. Talking. Now.
“Anyway,” I say, walking over to the case. “Can I get you a couple of butter tarts?”
They are Charlie’s favorite of all the desserts in my shop. He told me how much he missed the sweet treats after his family moved from Canada to the U.S. when he was a kid.
“You know I’d never pass up eating your butter tarts.”
The double entendre of what he just said instantly adds a layer of tension between us. I want him to eat my butter tarts—and I’m not talking about the ones in the case I made this morning.
“Are you ready to sit down and go over some of the mock-ups that Kelsey came up with?” Charlie says, trying to move the conversation along.
“Yes.” I set the dish with the tarts down on the table between us. “I’m excited to see what you’ve come up with.”
I start to sit, just as the bell to the bakery chimes again. Unbelievable. No customers all morning, and when I don’t want anyone to distract my attention from Charlie, someone walks in.
“I told you I’d handle it,” the redheaded woman says into her phone. “I’ve already hit all the good bakeries, but no one can work the reunion last minute. I’ve just walked into a shop that doesn’t look like a complete lost cause.”
Charlie and I exchange glances, and he chuckles under his breath when I roll my eyes at the dig. It’s like the woman thinks that no one can hear her speaking right now. I'm about to make some under-the-breath comment to him about her when she turns around, and I'm face to face with Buffy Pendleton—my high school nemesis.
“Oh my god, Mitsy,” Buffy scoffs into the phone when she sees me. “You will never believe who I’m staring at right now.”
Don’t say it.
“It’s Boogie.” She throws her head back in laughter. “I know, right?”
I close my eyes, instantly finding myself back in high school with braces and reliving in a moment the time that Buffy and her minions invited me out after curfew into the woods behind our school. They claimed it was a rite of passage to go through some initiation out there so I could join their group of friends, but it was just a way to torment me. Buffy’s boyfriend Chip and some of his teammates on the lacrosse team were already out there. I was forced to stay out there on my own in the dark, and that’s when they came out of the shadows like the boogieman and scared the shit out of me. They all laughed when they found me huddled on the ground sobbing.
“Are you okay?” Charlie asks, pulling me back from the memory.
I open my eyes and turn to see his concerned expression. “I’m fine.”
2
CHARLIE
I’ve heard the saying “they went pale as a ghost” before, but I've never seen it until this moment. One moment Dana is happy and smiling at me, the next thing I know, some woman walks in, and all the color drains from her face.
“Boogie, I can’t believe it’s you after all these years," the woman says, holding out her arms like she wants to embrace Dana in a hug. But judging from Dana’s expression, it looks like that’s the last thing she wants.
