“Fine. Continue.” Picking up her discarded spoon, she drags it through the melted mess in her bowl and takes a lick.
“Before I go on, you aren’t involved with anyone or have some abnormally large fiancé you aren’t telling me about, right?”
“I don’t like where this is heading, Niall…”
“Just answer the question.”
“No.” She draws out the word slowly while pursing her lips
Exactly the answer I want to hear.
“Good. Do you want one?”
Laken blinks at me, the spoon dropping from her hand and clinking on the Formica table. “Excuse me?”
Giving her a wicked grin, I relay the story concerning Gloria and her indecent proposal, leaving out important details such as names just in case she tells me to go to hell.
An incredulous laugh breaks from her lips. “So, let me get this straight. You want me to pretend to be your fiancée and attend a company party with you just to lie to your boss so she’ll leave your dick alone? Have I pretty much covered it?”
“No, smart-arse.”
She raises an eyebrow.
“She’s not my boss, but she could make my life hell. I just need her off my back.”
Laken gives me an accusing stare, as if I have some grand scheme in choosing her. “Why me?”
Feckin’ hell. Okay, I have a grand scheme, but that’s beside the point.
“Why not?”
“That’s not an answer,” she argues, shaking her head. “What’s in it for me?”
“Look, you said you need an internship, right? I have connections where I work, and I can get you in front of people who make those decisions for my company.” Frustrated this isn’t going as easily as I’d hoped, I throw my hands up and slump into my chair. “Hell, I could ask a lot of other women and they’d do it just for the opportunity to walk into a Tate & Cane party.”
Laken suddenly stills, her face paling. “I’m sorry, did you say Tate & Cane?”
“Yeah, I’m one of their photographers, and for some reason, I also want to help you. I think you deserve a break.” I let out a harsh breath and pack up to leave. “But if you aren’t interested, then—”
“Yes!” she screams, causing more than a couple patrons to glance our way.
“Are you sure you don’t want to think about it?”
“It’s just one night, right? It shouldn’t be that hard. A few hours of pretending to like each other won’t kill me.”
I scowl at her. “You’re amazing for a guy’s ego, you know that?”
“So how do we do this?” she says, ignoring my jab. “Do we just meet there and make out on the dance floor?”
This going to be a hell of a lot more work than I anticipated. “While you make it sound quite enticing, it’s a little more involved than that.”
“How so?”
I study her for a moment. What we’re doing is risky and walking into the lion’s den unprepared is stupid. “Give me your number. I think we should get to know each other a little. We need to be able to rattle off personal details about each other.”
Laken sucks in a deep breath as if I just asked her to swim naked in a tank of starved piranhas. “You want to go out on a date?”
“Okay, we really need to work on you not making that face every time you think about spending time alone with me. It’s kind of a dead giveaway.” I squeeze the bridge of my nose, in frustration. “Damn, Laken, have you never played poker in your life?”
