Page 25 of Moon Shot

It was the same once we were inside the restaurant, with people recognizing him and staff mopping up their drool.

“If this is going to work, we need some expectations. How often, what it looks like, what we do,” I rambled.

“You want, like,” Rowan laughed, holding my hand across the table, “a kiss quota?”

“It’s not that. I just want to know our limits. How many times per week do I need to,” I couldn’t help but watch the way Rowan bit his bottom lip, remembering what happened in bed after the funeral, “kiss you.”

“How about we agree to kiss when there is a camera on us?”

“Okay. Kiss when there’s a camera. Touching?”

Rowan traced his index finger on the inside of my wrist, unmoving when the server placed two wine glasses filled with red between us. “This counts. Touching when we’re being watched?”

“I really can’t believe I agreed to do this.” I looked at him, watching the gentle smile form on his mouth, a reassuring expression void of his arrogance and full of empathy.

“Keep your eyes on the prize, babe.” Rowan winked, raising his glass.

The prize was my job. I could focus on that. We agreed on our plan to make it work, to have everyone fall in love with us so we’d earn my money and fix his mess from punching Ryan. I still had so many questions about that, but I figured I’d wait until our fake fourth date. By then, we would’ve fake slept together and fake expressed our vulnerabilities so I could for real ask him why did that.

Each time he smiled at me, or touched me, I reminded myself it was fake and that helped me overcome the knot in my stomach for giving in to my nemesis.

“We have to tell Ethan, Ezra, and Aubrey.” I reached into my purse for my lip gloss, gliding it over my lips once we finished eating. “Especially Aubrey.”

Rowan’s eyes were on my lips, his hands folded in front of his mouth. “What’s there to tell?”

“That we’re not really dating? That we still can’t stand each other.” Rowan rolled his eyes at me. “Fine. That we can tolerate each other now.”

His laugh resonated around the emptying room before he stood up and placed his wallet in his back pocket. I joined him leaving the restaurant, clutching my purse as his arm slipped around my shoulders. When Rowan lowered his mouth to my ear, the crackle of his voice sent a shiver across my skin.

“You snored on my chest in Seattle, Meredith. We can do more than tolerate each other.”

He opened the car door for me, taking my hand to help me in.

“I’m sorry. This is just,” I waved between us, “weird. I need the money, you need the wholesome image. We can do this. So,” I bit my lip, “what do we tell our friends?”

Settled into his seat, Rowan’s hands clenched the steering wheel before he turned to look at me, his eyes hopeful. “Everyone has to believe it.”

“Well, I should probably tell you I don’t believe in sweetest day,” I confessed, earning his grin in response. “It still doesn’t feel right to lie to our best friends. And when it’s all over, it’ll be the wedding, and won’t it be awkward?”

“We can have a fake breakup.”

“Won’t your team want their money back? We can’t be together for two months and then split. Nobody will believe it,” I argued.

“Everyone has to believe it,” he repeated. When I asked again about what our fake breakup would look like, Rowan and I discussed how it’d be a mutual decision and we’d tell everyone we were friends, blah blah blah. It wouldn’t distract from the wedding. Aubrey wouldn’t hate me forever.

“What’s our cute story? How did we get together?” I pressed, thinking of all the times we were this close that something could’ve happened had we not disliked each other equally.

“I’ll let you decide. You’re more creative and romantic than I am,” he chuckled, turning onto my street.

“You’ll need to practice your romance then, because I think we’ll need a lot of it to woo your team.”

“Thank you, Meredith,” Rowan uttered. It was warm and quiet in his car, too relaxing that I could’ve easily drifted off before we got to my apartment. “For doing this.”

“What are friends for?” I grinned, going all in and feeling hopeful about saving my job. It was the part about the public love for Rowan I’d have to work on. I’d mastered private disdain, but I was up for a challenge.

We’d sorted through a list of what would make us look the most believable. He almost fooled me at dinner but, when he dropped me off at home and he tousled my hair as a goodbye, it was easy to remember every touch and endearment was a story.

Aubrey's pounding on my door the following morning wasn’t the way I wanted to wake up on my day off. I only climbed from my bed to let her in, so my neighbors didn’t call the landlord.

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