Page 30 of The Fake Dating Plan

“Sorry about that.”

Dylan had a small smile on his face that said he was seeing something only he could see. “It’s okay. Many people say my face blends with the crowd.” He was being facetious. “Wanna join us?”

Before I finished nodding, Dylan had already called over the bartender.

“I’m sure he doesn’t want to be bothered by us,” Emilia said.

“Gin and tonic.” I gave my order to the bartender, challenging Emilia. If she thought she was going to spend some love time with her boyfriend, then she had another thing coming. When the drink came, she kept glaring at me with eyes that seemed to say, “go away.” It made me want to stay.

“So, Dylan?” I said after taking a few sips, “How did you two meet?”

“She was looking for a human resources manager. I was under-qualified for the position, but needed the job badly so she felt pity for me.”

“Humble much! You have an MBA!”

“From a community college.”

“You were overqualified.”

“I had no work experience.”

The lovey-dovey was too much. I had to cut in. “That’s where you met? At work?”

“It was an apartment back then, I think.” They both smiled as if they shared an in-joke. So he was already sleeping with her? The grip on my glass tightened, and I took another big gulp to quench the fire that was brewing inside me. They continued to talk about their earlier experiences working together. I was being given the sanitized version, of course. One that didn’t involve hot late-night sex sessions. After a while of them talking and laughing, and me trying to rein in my jealous beast, Dylan made an excuse and went to the bathroom.

“I didn’t think sex with your employees was something you did.”

“What in the ever-loving fuck are you talking about?”

“How long have you and Dylan been going at it. Four years? Five? I’ll say four and a half from conversations.”

She tilted her head again in that are-you-insane look. “Dylan is my co-worker, you dolt.”

“Who, I guess you’ve been sleeping with as well. It's okay if it’s consensual and there isn’t any abuse of power happening.”

She laughed. Belt out with so much laughter, the sprinkling number of patrons in the bar turned to us. “Yes. It’s official. You’ve gone bonkers.”

“Am I off?”

“Dylan is a friend of mine. But you won’t understand that because you think men and women can only fuck and never have relationships deeper than that.”

I still wouldn’t believe it. “How is that true?”

“Not that you deserve the explanation, but Dylan is happily in love with his current boyfriend. I mean, he’s bi, but his preference leans heavily towards men than women.” She took a sip of her drink. “At least that’s been my observation.”

I truly was a dolt. “I’m sorry.”

She swirled her stool to face me fully. She sipped her drink again. Her face was shiny with mirth and possibly too much alcohol. Suddenly, I was taken back to when we would go out on weekends and get wickedly drunk and get up to all sorts of shenanigans. Sex shenanigans.

“Why are you here with us, anyway?” she said, “Shouldn’t you be off to some business meeting somewhere?”

“I’m not allowed to wander into bars anymore? We were supposed to meet, remember?”

She rolled her eyes and swiveled her chair until she was facing the bar again.

I took another sip of my drink. It tasted better somehow. I didn’t want to think that it was probably because I knew Dylan wasn’t sleeping with Emilia.

“I wanted to talk to you,” I said after a while.

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