Page 91 of Boyfriend of the Hour

I buried my face into his neck, inhaled his clean, sleepy scent, and sighed, suddenly as content as I’d ever been in my life. “It’s perfect.”

It wasn’t until much later that it occurred to me, I wasn’t just talking about the hug.

SIXTEEN

RICH MEN’S WIVES WHO STARTED OUT NORMAL

#8 Karlie Kloss

Nathan Hunt was holding my hand. He was holding myhandand had been since he’d picked me up from our apartment at 5:05 p.m. and ushered me into a cab that was waiting at the curb.

He’d done it in front of the weekend doorman, Turo. He’d done it in front of two of his neighbors, whom he’d greeted by name and introduced me to as his “girlfriend, Giovanna.” And he’d done it in the cab all the way to the Upper East Side, where he’d tugged me out on the sidewalk and led me across Fifth Avenue and through the revolving glass doors of Bergdorf Goodman.

He was just following through. But I hadn’t expected our agreement to start the moment he’d returned home after the clinic. I’d spent the afternoon taking a long bath in the oversized tub, scrubbing and moisturizing every inch of my body, then doing my physical therapy exercises before coming up with a million reasons why pretending to date Nathan Hunt was a verybad idea. They all boiled down to the same basic three, which I scribbled on the back of a receipt along with a few others:

Reasons Nobody Will Buy This Fake Relationship

1. Rich handsom men only scrwe washed up dancers. They dont bring them home.

2. Your going to emberess him. Nathan can keep his Mouth shut. U cant.

3. ur life is a mess. Hes going to get sick of cleening it up.

By the time he rushed in from the clinic, still wearing the pressed slacks and maroon-striped button-down that made my mouth water, I was ready to call it off and get packing. Then he grabbed my hand, and every single reason evaporated into thin air.

“This really isn’t necessary,” I said for what was probably the tenth time since we’d entered the luxe, marbled interior of the famous department store.

Bergdorf’s was one of those places I’d always known existed. Theoretically. It was a New York landmark, like the Plaza or the Empire State Building, so I’d probably even walked by it—maybe on a class trip to see Rockefeller Center or Central Park. But I’d never been inside. Because why would I, a broke dancer, sixth child of a lower-middle class family, ever have a reason to mingle with the too-rich-to-be-famous people who shopped at a place like this?

“I’m telling you, I can get ten-dollar knockoffs of all this stuff on Lennox,” I said as we strode across the fourth floor past whole sections filled with couture. Things seemed to getmore expensive in this store the more stories you climbed. I was legitimately wondering if they held a second Fort Knox on the floor above. “Or St. Mark’s if you don’t want to go uptown.”

Nathan just shook his head as he towed me toward the back of the floor. “This is easier. They’ll know what you’ll need for the next few months.”

Few months, huh?

Was that the amount of time he thought it would take to get rid of my parasitic ex and throw his family off his reclusive ways?

I should have added another reason to my list. Considering my past relationships, Nathan Hunt was going to get sick of me way before then.

“Hello, Andrea,” Nathan greeted a petite woman standing in the center of an empty department with the words “Personal Shopping” mounted in big brass letters on a beam over the entrance. “I apologize for our tardiness. There was a bit of trouble getting across town. This is my girlfriend, Giovanna.”

He kept using that name, and I kept letting him. Like it helped me get into character as the type of woman who would actually be Nathan Hunt’s significant other.

“It’s no problem, Dr. Hunt. You know it’s always our pleasure to work with your family.” Andrea turned to me. “It’s lovely to meet you, Giovanna.”

Andrea looked like she belonged here, with her pinned-back blond hair streaked with silver, shiny red loafers and a sleek black outfit that wasn’t too tight or too loose. Perfectly fitted in that way I’d never achieved in my life.

I glanced at him. Hisfamily?

“My mother likes to shop,” Nathan told me. “I get fitted at the men’s store across the street. It’s why I knew they would know what you’d need.”

I reared. “Nathan. I don’t want to look like your mother.”

It was out of my mouth before I could stop it. Exhibit #1017 of Joni running her mouth.

That list was coming to life before my eyes.

Andrea, to her credit, didn’t even giggle as she set a kind hand on my shoulder and smiled. She was probably a little older than my sisters, sweet in that way I’d expect my mother might have been if she hadn’t been ruined by alcohol and a criminal past.