Page 21 of Fake Dating My Billionaire Boss

Before I can protest, she steps around me and ducks into her car. The engine fires up.

Addison’s still on the phone, too busy—or perhaps too upset with me—to wave goodbye. My mother wiggles her fingers in my direction and gives me a quick smile.

My shoulders feel tight with tension, and I notice my hand is in a fist. I relax the grip and stretch my fingers.

When I turn back toward the house, I see the front door, barely visible around the corner, open. Bella steps out into the sunshine. Bo threads his way around her calves and then races across the grassy lawn.

“Bo!” she shouts, as he disappears into the woods. “Not too far, you hear me? Stay close. I mean it.”

Then she steps off the front stoop and heads down the walkway. She’s barefoot. Sunlight sparkles off her dark, glossy hair and makes her white top look luminous.

“He’s loving the grass and trees,” she says with a laugh, as she pads over to her Camry. “More grass and trees around mean more squirrels to chase. Hey, can you maybe give me a hand with some groceries? I take it the dynamic duo departed?”

“They’re gone,” I say with a nod.

She opens the back door of her car and sticks her head and torso in. When she straightens up again, she has a bulging paperbag in her arms. A loaf of bread pokes up out of the top, along with something green and leafy.

Parsley? Cilantro? My herb-identifying stills are extremely poor.

“So… I have more questions about this ‘Doc’ of yours,” she says, as she presses the bag into my chest. I have no choice but to circle my arms around it. I catch a whiff of the leafy green thing up close and lean toward thinking it’s parsley.

“I’m not sure I want to answer them.” My relationship with Addison is none of Bella’s business. Is it? Bella hauls another bag from the back of her car, then closes the door with a nudge of her hip. She joins me back on the walkway.

“I brought some stuff for dinner.”

“All this is for one meal?”

“Pasta Pomodoro and homemade meatballs. I thought I could cook for you tonight to say thanks for, you know, hosting me. But back to Addison…”

“No. I don’t want to discuss my private life.”

“I think you opened that can of worms when you roped me into this girlfriend role.”

I head for the front door, taking long strides. The bag in my arms feels full and heavy, and I hear glass bottles knocking together with each step I take.

Bella lags behind but catches up quickly. “What’s the big deal? For real, Damian. If I’m going to play the part, I need to know what I’m dealing with when it comes to her. You really lived with her?”

I reach the door, balance the bag in one arm, and yank it open. Bella steps in behind me.

She cranes her head back toward the yard. “Shoot. Where’d Bo get off to?” she asks. Like I should know.

“He’syourdog.”

“Did you see which way he headed?”

No, I was too busy bathing in the horror that is my life at the moment.

I don’t know what’s worse. The fact that my mother thinks bringing my ex over unannounced is okay, or the fact I watched my ex-girlfriend and my fake-girlfriend duel it out on the topic of nicknames.

Bella goes on. “When he’s all in on a good chase, he can get lost. This one time, I took him to this cute campground in the Adirondacks, by Whiteface, and we got up early and—”

“Bella, I have to get to work.”

This is a lie. I’m the CEO of Bubbly Springs. I can show up at the office whenever I feel like it.

But I need to get away from her and get on with my day.And forget about that kiss.

I have to comb my hair. Put on a tie. Pack my briefcase and leave this house.

---