Page 12 of The Plus-One Deal

“Hey. It’s all right.” I took hold of her shoulders and held her in place. She shrugged my hands away, but I stroked her tense arms. “It’s not as bad as you think. Can you just hear me out?”

Claire’s fists bunched up, and I thought she might hit me. Then they went loose, and her shoulders sagged.

“Fine,” she said. “Let’s hear you explain this.”

“Helen thought we were a couple. She must’ve told Verity. And Verity… well, you heard her. She’s sentimental. She’s big on old-fashioned values, family, loyalty. She married her high school sweetheart, and she thinks we’re the same. I made a choice on the spot not to correct her. Not to risk embarrassing her or making her look stupid. I thought I might blow your shot, so I played along.”

“And what about the next few months, while I’m sealing her deal?” Claire made a huffing sound, a harsh gust of breath. “We’re not together. She’s going to find out. I’ll look like a liar. You’ll look insane.”

“We won’t,” I said, and drew her away from the doors. I found a plush couch and sat us both down. “Listen, I promise, it’ll all be okay.”

“Easy for you to say! How do you figure?”

“How do younot?” I let a slow smile steal over my face. “Everyonealwaysthinks we’re together. Every party we go to, every event. When I do go alone, I get ‘tell Claire we missed her.’ No one’s going to tell her we’re not an item. All we need to do is get through tonight.”

Claire bit her lip, thinking that over. “What if there’s more events once we get home? Lunches and dinners to talk through our deal? She might expect you.”

“So I’ll be there.”

“No! No, you can’t. I’ll make some excuse for you, say you’re sick. Say you’re busy.”

I could see Claire was panicking, her mental gears spinning. Her eyes had a wild look and her lips had gone tight. She ran her hands through her hair, leaving it tousled.

“Whatever you need.” I kept my voice low and calming. “I got you into this, so whatever you need. I’ll be there, I won’t be there. Just say the word.”

“I don’t know,” said Claire. “So much could go wrong. And what about after, once the deal’s done? A couple of months is one thing, but I can’t fool her forever.” She pressed her palms to her cheeks. “My stomach’s in knots. This is why I don’t lie.”

I took her hands and lowered them down from her face. She’d smeared her eyeliner, and I fixed it with my thumb. “It’ll be okay. Really. People break up. You’ll do your deal, keep going as normal, and one day Verity’ll ask you, ‘hey, how’s your man?’ And you’ll give her this sad look and tell her we’re over. You can even blame me, say I got too busy. You know she’d believe that, the hours I keep.”

Claire breathed in deep, and then she breathed out. Her shoulders rose, fell. A shiver ran through her.

“All right,” she said. “But we fly out first thing tomorrow. I can keep this up through dinner, but after that, I don’t know. The more time we spend here, the more chance we slip up.”

I exhaled sharply, myself. “I’m with you on that. It’ll just be tonight. Standard plus-one stuff. We can do that.”

Claire stood up, shaky. “I’ll go change for dinner. You just, you just… Go change as well. Don’t talk to anyone. Don’t dig us in deeper.” She turned and swept off, her skirts fluttering about her. I stood and smiled after her, watching her go. I’d stuck my foot in it big-time, but we’d be fine. We could do this.

One day, we’d look back on this whole thing and laugh.

CHAPTER 5

CLAIRE

Verity leaned forward, smiling at Conrad. “Okay, I have to ask: how did you two meet?”

Conrad glanced my way. I kicked him under the table. To his credit, he didn’t flinch. He took my hand and held it in both of his.

“Well, as you know, we first met in college. I’d see her around, but she always looked busy, always with her laptop, tapping away. And she’d have her headphones on, and we all know whatthatmeans.”

“Do not disturb,” said Ken.

“But you did anyway? Brave!” Verity reached for her wine glass and found it empty. Ken refilled it from the bottle, and she took a sip. Conrad squeezed my hand, then kissed my knuckles.

“I didn’t,” he said. “I respected her hustle. I could see she was working, not shopping or chatting. She was on a mission, so I gave her her space. But then I heard about this project…” He smiled, wide and wicked. “I found out ahead of time we’d be working in pairs, so I went to the professor and I asked forClaire. I told him, I said to him, she’s the smartest there is. And I need to ace this class, so I need the smartest.”

I gaped at Conrad, dumbstruck. Was that true? Had he rigged it? No — no, of course not. He’d had no cause. Unless hehaddone it to secure his grade. If he’d done it to get close to me, we would have kissed. This would be real right now, instead of some fiction.

“I was livid at first,” I said, playing along. “I thought Conrad would be the worst partner ever, typical alpha, demanding we do things his way. But it actually ended up being amazing. He had good ideas, and he made mine better. We made a great team, and then, well… much more.”