Page 36 of Fake It For Him

19

CALAN

Another man answering Ella’s door wasn’t what I expected knocking on nine doors prior to this one, hoping to find her. The guy looked vaguely familiar, so he had to be Mikey, who I’d met at my club last week, but he looked different in the harsh light of the apartment than he had standing on the other side of the bar.

Despite Ella having told me that she wasn’t dating him, he was at her apartment at dinner time, holding a glass of wine and opening her door. My jaw tightened as I looked at the floppy-haired friend, wondering if there was something I needed to know about the two of them.

I’d asked him a question, but he hadn’t answered it yet, instead just staring back at me, looking about as happy to see me as I was to see him. His eyes were narrowed, his posture rigid and his shoulders stiff.

After a tense moment, he rolled his eyes and turned his back on me. “Ella! Your pimp is here.”

“Pimp?” I laughed, but Mikey did not.

Since he’d vacated the doorway he’d been blocking with his body and the door itself, I could see into the tiny apartment now. It wasn’t much, but it’d been done up nicely, with pops of color and a cozy atmosphere.

When I saw Ella sliding off a bar stool and hurrying over to me, my gaze zeroed in on hers. Her greens were filled with trepidation and curiosity, wide but definitely darker than usual with her brow slightly furrowed.

A whiff of fried rice met my nostrils on my next inhale, and a frown creased my brow until I deliberately schooled my expression. What Ella did on her own time had nothing to do with me—even if it would’ve been nice to know that she had a friend she seemed to cook for and drink with on weeknights.

All of which pointed at the fact that this was a date. As she stepped out into the hallway and closed the door behind her, I smirked. “I’m sorry. Am I interrupting a date?”

“A date? With Mikey? No, of course not.” She folded her arms over her chest. “What are you doing here?”

I arched an eyebrow as I kept smirking, looking down into those green eyes and wondering why the idea of her on a date with another man had made me so uncomfortable. “I came to talk to you, but are you sure I’m not interrupting a date?”

“No,” she said emphatically, her nose wrinkling a little as she shook her head. “We’ve already talked about this. I’m not dating anyone⁠—”

“Other than me,” I said lightly.

“Sure, except for you.” She rolled her eyes, but I saw the heat that spread to her jaw and the way she shifted on her feet. “Mikey is one of my best friends. It doesn’t matter anyway. What did you want to talk about?”

Amused by how flustered she was, I leaned in a bit. Ella pulled her head back when mine came closer, but I noticed that she didn’t move. Didn’t take a step back to regain some of the distance between us.

Either she was standing her ground, or she didn’t actually want any distance between us. Whichever one it was, I kind of liked it.

“I had coffee with my sister today.” I looked down past Ella’s eyes, noting how her long lashes swept up in a slight curve before she finally lifted her gaze to mine. “Freya’s taken a serious interest in you. She wants to spend some time with you.”

“No way.” Ella shook her head. “That wasn’t part of the deal.”

“It is part of the deal,” I countered. “The contract stipulated that there were going to be a few other outings to help convince my family that we’re dating. This falls into that category.”

Hesitation flickered in her eyes and her teeth sank into her lower lip. “Are you sure that’s a good idea? Your sister isn’t stupid, Calan. The more time she and I spend together, the more likely it is that she’ll figure us out.”

“She won’t. Not unless you slip up.” I kept a careful eye on her reactions as I moved an inch closer. “Freya wants to get to know my girl and I’m going to let her.”

“I’m not your girl,” she hissed.

I chuckled, reached up, and wound a lock of her loose hair around my finger. “In Freya’s mind, that’s exactly what you are, so you’re going to walk the walk, go shopping and have lunch with her tomorrow.”

She tilted her head into my touch for a fraction of a moment before she took a step back, smacking my hand away. Okay, so maybe I was pushing my luck a little bit there, but clearly, she’s not as uninterested in having me touch her as she wants to be.

In the meantime, she crossed her arms stiffly over her chest and was now looking at me with a slight scowl on her face. “Let’s say I do this. What would I even talk to her about? What if I tell her something and you contradict me later? This feels like a surefire way to give her enough ammunition to shoot our story down.”

“She’s not going to be looking for ammunition, Ella. All she wants to do is to get to know her big brother’s girlfriend a little bit better. I don’t care what you talk to her about, as long as you mention how much you care about me and that you see a future with me.”

“A future?” Her head started shaking again, the conflicted feelings she was having about this reflected in her eyes. She shook her head again. “If I do that, she’s going to expect me to be around by the time she comes back from her honeymoon, Calan. She might even grow attached to me, and then what do we do?”

I hadn’t really thought that far ahead yet, but I’d handle it when the time came. For now, all I needed was for Ella to agree to lunch and a shopping trip. “Look, I’m going to be the one who has to pick up the pieces after our breakup, not you.”