Page 37 of Playboy For Hire

Her eyebrows rose, and she darted a quick look over her shoulder at the rest of the team. They were clustered around Martin, the designated writer, staring at stills from popular eighties movies.

“A work thing?” she repeated, lowering her voice so it didn’t carry over the din of the bar. “Anything I need to worry about? You gonna start charging double or something?”

I gave her a discount because I saw her so often. The money still added up, though.

“No, nothing about you. Honestly, it’s not even a work thing. Technically. It’s just—” I broke off. It wasn’t just hard to explain it all to another person. It was embarrassing, too. “Forget it. It’s all good.”

“Good,” she said firmly. “Because usually you’d be all over this category, and I think the brain trust over there could use some help.”

I looked at the group at the far end of the table. Martin looked up, but not at me. His eyes went right to Tessa, and the longer he looked at her, the more I felt like I was watching something I shouldn’t.

Finally, his eyes darted over to me. When he met my gaze, he blinked, and his cheeks filled with a rosy flush, like I’d caught him doing something nefarious. He looked back down at the paper with the movie pictures.

“What was all that about?” I asked Tessa.

“Hmm?” She didn’t appear to have noticed.

“Martin over there.” I nodded in his direction. “That’s the second time I’ve caught him staring at you tonight.”

Tessa blushed. “Martin’s looking at me?”

“Well, not right now. But he was a minute ago. Everything okay there?”

“Yeah.” She smiled, but her voice sounded a little funny. “Yeah, it’s fine. But they definitely need your help.”

“Aye, aye, Captain.” I gave her a little salute before standing and moving to the end of the table.

She was right. They’d incorrectly labeled a still fromHoney, I Shrunk the Kidsas being fromGhostbusters, and they’d somehow been unable to identify Jennifer Grey inDirty Dancingin the iconic ‘I carried a watermelon’ scene.

That was more embarrassing than anything I could confess about Quinn. Who I really shouldn’t have been embarrassed about anyway. So I’d gotten alittletipsy at Bar Onze the othernight. Maybe I’d laid it on asmidgethick with the ex-boyfriend act. But my intentions were pure. Why couldn’t Quinn see that?

I wandered back to my seat near Tessa, still stewing. The guy I’d scared off obviously hadn’t been right for Quinn, if he’d spooked that easily. Besides, I’d watched the first half of their date. It had been so dull. Quinn deserved better than someone who made cleaning out earwax seem interesting in comparison. If anything, I’d done him a favor.

“Did who a favor?” Tessa asked, and I jumped, not realizing I’d spoken aloud.

“Just…a friend,” I said after a moment. I’d been trying to be his friend, anyway.

She gave me an arch look. “Is this by any chance related to the work thing that’s not really a work thing that’s been bothering you all night?”

I glanced around. Half our teammates were getting refills at the bar. The other half were on their phones, now that the movie sheet had been turned in.

“You know that the longer you take to answer, the more you confirm that I’m right,” Tessa said with a laugh. “So come on, what gives? Is something up with one of your housemates?”

I blinked. Nothing was up with Raf or Amir at all. But, I supposed, it was a reasonable assumption. A work situation that also involved a friend described my housemates pretty well, given that they both worked for Heartbreakers Anonymous as well. I decided to roll with it. After all, no one said Ihadto spill all my embarrassing secrets to my fake girlfriend.

I gave her a sheepish smile. “Yeah. But it’s stupid, and complicated, and telling you would be a waste of your time.”

I waved a hand dismissively, and she rolled her eyes. I wondered if it looked like we were having a fight. A glance over my shoulder told me Martin was staring again. I reached out and took her hand.

“Sorry for being weird.”

“It’s okay. But for the record, I do care. Besides, shouldn’t we, like, pretend to be a couple that talks about things going on in their lives?”

I laughed. “Instead of a couple awkwardly giving each other the silent treatment because one of them doesn’t want to talk?”

“Something like that.”

“Fair enough.” I sighed, wondering how to explain without really explaining. “It’s just Raf. He’s back on the dating apps, and the guys he’s meeting just kind of suck.”

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