Page 23 of Faking It With My New Boss

He wanted to know a whole lot of everything about something that didn't exist and I was starting to feel a little bit panicked. I might have been able to pull off just agreeing to the idea of being engaged to Bryan, but I probably couldn't rattle off an entire relationship history without preparation. One disastrous improv class in college was enough to prove that.

Fortunately, Bryan seemed prepared to beg us away from the conversation.

“We would love to tell you everything and talk about the wedding sometime soon,” he said. “But right now we have a lot we need to work on. Courtney is helping plan the fundraiser. And she is absolutely brilliant. I think you will be really impressed and pleasantly surprised by what she's come up with.”

He squeezed me a little closer and gave my hip an encouraging rub. I wanted to think that was a genuine gesture, that he was reassuring me this spiral into potential disaster was coming to a close sometime soon.

“Oh,” his grandfather said, nodding. “I was wondering who was helping you. I heard the woman your father's former secretary hired was turned away on her first day. That made me very concerned. But now I understand.”

My stomach sank and my heart started pounding in my chest. Embarrassment crept up the back of my neck and burned on my cheeks. That was definitely not the way I anticipated Bryan ever finding out the truth behind me starting to work for him. Ideally, he was never going to find out. But if he ever did, I was hoping for some sort of nostalgic conversation years down the line where we reunited over drinks and I told him that funny story.

That definitely wasn't going to happen.

I did my best not to show how I was feeling, and also didn't look up at Bryan. He kept his arm wrapped around me and out of the corner of my eye I could see he was still smiling. We managed to extricate ourselves from the conversation with his grandfather and waited for him to leave before Bryan's arm dropped from around my waist and he started stomping out of the room.

I hurried to follow him and when we got outside, I saw him climbing into the back of the car. I got in after him and as soon as the door was shut, the whole happy coupled act was completely over.

“What the hell is he talking about?” Bryan demanded.

“I'm sorry,” I said. “It just kind of happened. I came in to interview for the interior design position and you just assumed I was there to be your assistant. Remember, I did question it. I tried to tell you I wasn't the person you thought I was, but you wouldn't listen to me.”

“So, you lying to me is my fault?” he asked with an incredulous laugh.

“Don't you dare try to act all self-righteous,” I said. “You just looked your grandfather right in the eye and lied to him. That is so much worse. At least I didn't know you and I wasn't making up a relationship that he was really excited about and eventually he's going to have to find out isn't real. That was cruel and I don't even understand why you did it.”

“I didn't do it to be cruel,” he said. “I did it because I needed to. It's no different than what you did.”

“Yes, it is! They are absolutely not the same thing. I took an opportunity that was put right in front of me. You were handing the position to me and thought I was the right person, so I accepted it. You just turned me into your fiancée without even telling me, right in front of your grandfather who I had never met. What if I had a boyfriend?” I asked.

“Do you have a boyfriend?” he asked.

“No, but that's not the point,” I said, feeling flustered and upset. “The point is, you can't just do that to a person. You can't just throw me out into the fray like that and hope for the best.”

“And you can't steal someone's identity and steal their job from them,” he said.

“I didn't steal her identity!” I shouted.

“Alright, we aren't getting anywhere with this,” he said. He leaned forward to move the partition and talk to the driver. “Can you pull over in this park up here?”

The car stopped and Bryan and I tumbled out. I knew I was completely freaking out, but I couldn't help it. Walking around in small circles, I drew in deep breaths trying to settle myself down.

“What are we doing here?” I asked. “Is this where you're going to stage the proposals so we can start posting it on our couple’s Instagram? Should we come up with a name now?” I thought about it for a second. “There isn't even one I can say facetiously. Our names don't even go together.”

“We are here so that we could take a walk and talk this through,” he said. “Come on.”

“I hate when you tell me what to do,” I said.

“Just come on,” he said.

We walked out onto a path that led through the pocket of nature tucked into the sprawling urban landscape. The trees and grass were surprisingly soothing. As we walked, Bryan explained everything about his grandfather and the expectations he had for him. He talked about his reputation and how it could cause him not to lose his position within the company, and the financial backing of his family.

“So, it really is only money you ever care about,” I said.

He looked over at me and instead of anger in his face, I saw pain.

“That's all I ever got from my family,” he said. “My mother was the only one who ever really loved me. I figure the money and the power are what they owe me.”

I nodded. “I guess I can understand that. And it's really shitty that they are pressuring you like that. But why me?”

---