Page 91 of The Fake Dating Plan

I gave my thank you speech, aware of his presence behind me the entire time. It was shorter than I intended, but my throat was too clamped up.

Back at the table, the other company was congratulating us as well as me. I said to Laura, “How was I?”

“You did well. What did he say to you? I saw him leaning in.”

With all the excitement and confusion, I had forgotten his cryptic words. Talk about what. I had nothing to say to him. “He was congratulating me.”

She didn’t seem convinced, but let it go. “Let me see the award!” I handed it to her. Her eyes widened as she weighed the black sculpture in her hand. “It’s heavier than I expected.”

“It’s supposed to be,” Dylan said. “It’s a prestigious award, after all. And we got one!” He took the award from Laura and held it at arm's length, observing it. “I can’t believe it,” he said.

“I can,” Dylan’s husband said.

The show went on more or less than expected. KMVH won the biggest award of the night and Ax, the showman that he is, gave a speech that was both funny and charming. Miles is better than my bumbling word salad. Our enthusiasm dimmed after a while and when it was over Dylan announced, “I hear the after parties of this thing are epic. We should definitely go to at least one. We’re invited, right?” he said to me.

“Winners are invited to all the parties by default,” I heard a voice say. Everyone at the table went quiet. I turned to Ax, standing behind me. “Congratulations,” he said to the table.

“Thank you,” Dylan’s husband said. Everyone else was glaring at Ax with daggers in their eyes as he continued, “Congratulations to you too.”

“Thank you. Although it was a peaceful year since we practically swallowed our competition.”

“What do you want?” Laura said.

“We were supposed to take some photos with the press,” he said to me, “but you skipped that part. I came to take you.”

“Oh.”

“It won’t take much of your time.”

“I’ll be back in a few,” I said to Chad specifically.

I followed Ax backstage, where a press corps and a sprinkling of the other winners were gathered. Ever since all the news had come out, encounters with journalists filled me with dread. Now I had to face a room full of them. I took a deep breath as the first question came out.

“This is your first time nominating and your first win,” a woman with gray streaks in her hair said, “what did you think of the event?”

I was surprised at how low-bar the question was. In fact, the rest of the questions were pretty tame and easy to answer. No one asked me about my relationship with Ax, even though he was standing a few feet away from me answering questions of his own. After they were done, they asked for my photo, which I was more than happy to give. As soon as I was done, I went out of the room and saw Ax waiting for me.

“I think we should talk now.”

I rolled my eyes. Whatever he wanted to say to me, I wanted none of it. “I have a party to attend to. Make it quick.”

“Fine. I deserve that. One question? You and Chad, nothing happened between the two of did it?”

“Now you ask?”

“It is true, isn’t it? Am I right in saying it’s all a charade?”

“Where’s this coming from?” My earlier enjoyment got quickly replaced by anger. Here I was having fun, and he had to dampen it by expressing his doubt.

“Heron. Silvester Heron, he said something to me.”

“Whatever, I have better things to do than to listen to you.” I made to move past him, but he blocked me.

“Please.” He begged, not with just his words, but with his eyes. There was a desperation there I never saw before. It gave me pause. “You and Chad.”

“I may be fucking his son, but Heron knows nothing about our relationship so, whatever he told you is bull.”

“Liar.”

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