Page 72 of The Fake Dating Plan

I checked the time. It was around eleven already. Maybe I shouldn’t have stayed up late as I did. “What are your people saying?”

“They’re congratulating me if you can imagine. They like you more than our last principal investor.” She meant Heron and I could understand why. I was sure even Heron didn’t like himself most of the time. “But it’s not about me. It’s about my reputation.”

“I’ll fix this, I promise. Give me time.” I didn’t know how, but I would find a way. I had to. “I texted you last night.”

“I was asleep.”

“You read the message.”

“And then went to sleep.”

Ha. Is this how she’s gonna play it? “Do you want to see me again tonight?”

“You want us to go out when there’s a bright light shining on us.”

“You could come to my place and I will sneak you back to yours smoothly with no one knowing.”

“Still too risky.”

“Come on.”

“No.”

“See you later?”

“Not if I can help it.”

“I meant goodbye.”

“Sure.”

She ended the call. I chuckled to myself, got up, got a quick shower, and went to work. When I got there, I wished I never came.

The ethics committee and the lawyers were in a tizzy. They were filled in my office and all of them were panicking for no reason at all. Suits filled my office. They wanted to know when the relationship started. How long has it been going on? How far we’ve taken it. That last part made me give the person who said it a glare so cold he cowered back.

“What we want to know is,” said the general council, Ira Johnson, a hard-nosed man in his early fifties, “is if there’s any likelihood of sexual harassment suit that might bite us in the ass on a later day.”

“What the fuck? We’re just dating.”

“Did she sign an NDA? It would make things smooth if she did.”

The way these men took great stock in NDAs as if they solved everything. They couldn’t even save Harvey Weinstein, not that any of my relationships were that ghastly. “You weren’t this concerned when I was dating other people.”

“Those other people weren’t CEOs of a company we’re in partnership with.” I glanced at Jennifer, who smirked at Ira, echoing what she had told me the day before.

“Right. What do you want me to do about it?”

They all fumbled.

“If you want me to break it off with her, that’s off the table.”

“That would have been ideal,” Ira said, “but if it’s not possible, maybe you have to make it clear what type of relationship you have with her to the company and if it played a part in you giving her the deal.”

“Great. She’s my girlfriend. We started dating way after we finalized the deal. Satisfied.”

“You’d have to put it in writing. Including when and where you exactly started dating and how long your relationship is. We might also need to bring Emilia Harris in. Have sign an NDA .”

“Are you kidding me!” I blew off more than I should have and startled Ira’s junior.

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