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Chapter 14

Message Received

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“YOU'RE DOING ALL OFthis for your mom?”

It was barely noon but I was double fisting cold beers and trying to catch the waiter's attention for round three. “Yes,” I said. “Why else would I have asked someone I barely know to pretend to be my fiancé?”

Aubrey stared me down as she slowly stirred her spoon through her vanilla milkshake. “You're right. It's the only thing that makes sense.”

“Does that mean you believe me?”

“How could I not? The alternative is you met a stranger online, hooked up with him one night, then decided it was super smart to say yes to his out of the blue proposal because you were both head over heels in love at first sight,” she said bluntly.

I squirmed in my seat. I really really needed that third beer. “Uh huh.”

“And you're not some moron who agrees to marry a stranger because of love. You're too intelligent for that. Too wise.”

“Mmhmm,” I mumbled.

“Yeah, a fake marriage to help your mom is the only thing on this earth that would convince me you aren't fucking insane, Maya. Crazy god damn loco with a straight-jacket style wedding dress waiting in the wings—”

“Enough!” I snapped. “You've made your point, you don't need to rub it in!” That was when I noticed the edges of her smug smile. My anger deflated. “Wait, were you trying to make me mad?”

“You fell right into my trap!” Sighing dramatically, she shook her head as she slid around in the red-vinyl booth seat. “I can't believe you've got the hots for someone you hardly know. Worse, someone I've never even seen! Show me a photo of him.”

The waiter appeared near my elbow. “Would you like a refill?”

“Yes,” I said, straining the word. He hurried off with a side-glance at me. I knew I sounded like an alcoholic but I couldn't do this conversation without something to dull the edges.

Aubrey waggled her eyebrows. “Photos. Now. Or I'll keep being angry.”

“That's so childish.”

“Yup! Gimme the photos, girl.”

Mortified, I opened the dating app and navigated to his profile. He had a few sexy pictures, but also some that were more casual. I handed my phone over to my friend, nearly dropping it in the transfer.

“You're shaking,” she noticed.

“This is stressing me. I can't believe I'm showing my guy-crush to you.”

“Why? You let me meet Ben.”

“After a month of dating him! And Conner... isn't Ben.”

“Christ, he sure isn't,” she gasped, eyes widening at my phone. “If you hadn't met him in person, I would have thought he was a catfish. These could easily be fake photos! My goodness, is he a model?”

I was red from the neck up. “No, I don't think so, anyway.”

“You don't think so? Maya, you know what he does for a living, right? Tell me you do.”

Instead of answering, I upended my empty glass and sucked at the last droplets.

“Maya!” she hissed. “Come on! Barely knowing someone is one thing, but you told me you're living with him, too! How could you do that without asking about his job?”

“I did ask him. Eventually. I guess I didn't think it mattered, I was just having fun with him. I wasn't planning anything serious.”