Page 33 of It's Always Been You
“Holy fuck,” I mumble.
“What’s going on?” Molly asks.
I lift my head slowly and realize that nine pairs of eyes are trained directly on me, but I focus on only one of them. Turning to Molly, I say nothing at first. I consider asking her to go somewhere with me so we can deal with this alone, but then I change my mind. This is her family, so it happens here. I make sure my screen is still on and hand her my phone.
“Please don’t hate me.”
She scans the screen, and I see the exact moment she registers what she’s looking at. Her face pales at first and then becomes a mask of fury. She scrolls for a minute, then slowly lifts her head. If looks could kill, I would be so completely dead.
“Uh, what’s going on?” Julie asks, looking from Molly to me.
“You want to know what’s going on?” Molly’s voice is aggressively calm, and I wonder briefly if she’ll kill me first or skip that step entirely and just bury me alive.
“I’ll tell you what’s going on. This guy,” she says, pointing to me. “This guy called me his fiancée in a restaurant full of people, which would have been fine, except he’sfamous, and abillionaire, so people care about what he does. Someone must have overheard and taken a fucking picture, and now every single news outlet in the damn world is running with the story. Who the hell even knows how they identified me so fast. But now the entire fucking world thinks I’m engaged. To him.”
She stabs a finger in my direction, and I think I should feel sorrier than I do because right now, she’s so fucking gorgeous that all I want to do is carry her out of here and kiss her until I can’t breathe.
“Oh, my god,” breathes Hallie. “It really is like a romance novel.”
The room is silent for a full fifteen seconds after that, and then Julie starts to laugh. Once she gets going, everyone falls like dominoes. Molly is the only one not laughing, but her face is marginally less murderous than it was two minutes ago.
“Goddammit, stop fucking laughing!” Molly exclaims, standing up and shooting a glance around the room. “I have an old stogey client I need to impress next week so he doesn’t take his business to his nephew Asshole McRageIssues, and he will absolutely not take kindly to his lawyer being a liar. Which is what he’ll think I am since being splashed all over the press for a false engagement rumor means I can’t tell Dickbag McPoppedCollar that he didn’t hear what he thinks he heard because now the entire world heard it too. I can’t tell him his nephew was a hair’s breath away from all-out assault because then I’m the nagging woman causingissues. Instead, I’ll have to tell him I’m not actually engaged so I’ll be whatever the assholepaints me as, and I’ll also be a liar. Just completely fucking great.”
Molly sucks in a breath and puts her hands on her hips, breathing deeply and squaring her shoulders, glaring around the room as if daring anyone to contradict her.
“Maybe just don’t tell him you lied.”
Molly whips around and stares at Emma. “Fucking what?”
Emma shrugs. “If he asks, just go full romance novel fake engagement and tell him it’s true.”
“It’s not the worst idea, Mol,” Julie says. “I mean, you just have to get past this meeting and the next few weeks. Once you wow him with your brilliance again and he realizes that all he needs is you, you won’t have much to do with him except when he needs something from you, and by then, he won’t care whether you’re engaged or not.”
Molly turns to Hallie, as if begging her to be the voice of reason. I try and send a subliminal message to Hallie to agree with the other girls because being engaged to Molly, fake or not, is suddenly exactly what I want. I get an excuse to be around her, and as a bonus, I can help her beat that asshole and keep her client. All I’ve ever wanted to do was make her life easier. I know I did the exact opposite of that for a while, but now I can do this.
Hallie shrugs. “Don’t look at me. I’ve read too many fake engagement books. I can’t be objective here. I love this idea.”
“Same,” Allie says. “I can’t help it. I’m a slut for conflict and gossip. You need to do this and then come sit by me and tell me every damn detail.”
Molly stares at her friends. “I thought you were the smart girls,” she says, with an accusatory note in her voice.
“We are,” Julie says. “We’re playing the long game. Beat the asshole. Keep your client.”
“And as a consolation prize, you get to hang out with all that, and he is delicious.” Allie waves a hand at me, and I laugh. Did I mention I love it here?
“What the fuck is wrong with you?” Molly asks her.
Allie grins. “You can’t be you right now, so I’m being you for you.”
Molly huffs out a laugh. “I must love you, because I followed all of that exactly. Ugh. Fine. Fake engagement. What the actual fuck,” she mutters. “But I’m telling my parents and my sister it’s fake, and Jules, I’m also telling your parents.”
“Wise,” Julie says, nodding. “No one lies to Rachel Parker and lives to tell the tale.”
“You haven’t been Rachel Parker’d yet,” Ben says to me. “But this little scheme guarantees you will be, and probably soon. Welcome to the family.”
“We’re chaotic but loving.” Asher slaps a hand on my shoulder. “You’ll fit right in.”
“Come hang with us one night,” Jeremy says. “Ben and I own a bar on the South Side. We’ll have a guys’ night.”
