Page 27 of The Girlfriend Card
“What else is there, then? Name it.” He put his hands together. “Seriously—name it. I’m begging you here. Help me help you.”
I was running out of ways to tell him no, but he wouldn’t give up.
“Please, Olivia. I feel like you’d be perfect for this. It’stotallybelievable you’d be my girlfriend.”
I cocked my head. “Huh? What’s that mean?”
“You’re gorgeous, you’resmokinghot,andon top of it all, you’re funny, smart, and you actually seem like a pretty interesting girl, too.”
I tried to laugh, but no sound came out. “Amazing. I don’t think I’ve ever felt so insulted by a compliment before.”
“Insulted?” Worry crested his face. “No—no, no. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to insult you, I swear. See, ugh, this would make a lot more sense if I could explain, but …” He trailed off, wincing.
“Explain that you’re an egomaniac?”
“Well … if I’m honest, probably a little bit,yeah.But a specific breed of egomaniac in a particular industry, which would put all the rest into perspective. Get what I’m saying?”
“Mm.” I sipped my latte. “So you’re saying you work some kind of prestigious job where you could only possibly have a hot girlfriend who is also—” I injected a stunned gasp, “—smartandinteresting? And if you were seen with any less of a woman, the charade simply wouldn’t be believable?”
“I know it makes me look really shallow … but … ” He nodded guiltily. “Yeah, that’s exactly right.”
I buried my face in my hands and sighed. This conversation badly needed a reset. “Start over. From the top, what happened? Why do you even need a fake girlfriend in the first place?”
Happy to have a do-over, Dakota let out a breath of relief. “Okay, so I got caught in a situation with a woman.”
“Dakota,pleasetell me this isn’t some kind of sexual assault case.”
If so, I was ready to walk.
“No. God no. Nothing like that,” he said, shaking his head profusely. “Me and my coworkers went out for drinks one night. But where we messed up is, it was the night before we had a really big, uh, meeting at work. The night got a little late, and I was talking to a girl, but some people recorded us having fun, and the video got spread around the, uh, office.”
“What kind of fun are we talking about? And how damaging was the video, exactly?”
“Nothing explicit. But the optics don’t look good because, again, we were out the night before an important meeting at work.”
“How did the meeting go?”
“Well, I did my part,” he said smugly. “But overall, I’d say it was a train wreck for the company. So when that video came out, it painted a target on my back. And now basically everyone in the company wants my head on a platter—management, um, our clients, everyone.”
“I see.”
“Really, the video itself is no big deal. It’s just the optics that are bad, like said.”
“And what are the optics, exactly?” I already knew the answer. I just wanted to hear him put it in his own words.
“Well, the video gives the impression that I’m not taking the business seriously enough.”
“Areyou?”
“Uh. I mean.” My question caught him off-guard, and he stumbled over his words. “I don’t know. I guess I could put a little more effort in.” His gaze grew distant, and he lowered his voice. “But … I’m working on it.”
“And how does your fake girlfriend fit into all this?”
“Right, well, when management started grilling me about the video, I guess I might’ve told them I had a girlfriend to imply that I’m settling down.”
“Huh? Why would you do that?” My eyebrow quirked. “They caught you on tape partying with another woman, did they not? So now it looks like you’re either lying about having a girlfriend,orshe’s real but you’re cheating on her. Either way, it calls your character into question.”
“I know, I know …” He groaned. “I guess I thought it wouldn’t be this serious. But then the owner of the company heard, and he invited me and my girlfriend, Jane, to meet him for dinner.”
