Page 36 of Fake Date with the Mountain Man

“Thanks,” she says, motioning to the sandwich before taking another bite. She chews slowly. Even when she’s sitting on a log in the middle of the forest, her perfect posture remains intact.

“I ate so much mystery meat in foster care,” she says with a little laugh. “Meatloafs, Salisbury steaks, stews…it was almost always terrible. I learned to love vegetables at a pretty young age.”

“So that’s why you’re a vegetarian?”

Marlow takes another bite of her sandwich, buying herself some time to think about her answer.

“It’s not just that. When you grow up in foster care, you don’t get a lot of choices. You’re always having to adapt to new families and their way of doing things. New houses, new schedules, new people, new food. You don’t have any choice but to adapt…quickly. I promised myself back then that once I got to make all my own choices, I’d make good ones. From what I eat to what I wear to how I live.”

“I thought you were just a pain in the ass,” I admit, though I probably shouldn’t.

Luckily, Marlow laughs. “Well, I do take certain things pretty seriously. I don’t want to take those decisions for granted now. I’d rather be a pain in the ass than be unhappy with myself.”

“At least you’re self-aware.”

“Yeah, well foster care will do that, too. It’s not exactly great for a kid’s self-esteem.”

And the award for biggest asshole goes to: me.

All the things I believed about Marlow start to unravel in my head. What’s left is one single fact: I want her so badly I can barely think straight.

Chapter 13

MARLOW

Surprise, surprise…Ryan’s plan backfired.

Ever since our hike, he’s been walking on eggshells around me. I can’t help but feel embarrassed over talking about my past with him. Now he feels sorry for me, which is my least favorite thing ever.

This is how it usually goes. I finally get comfortable with someone, open up to them, and then things change. Pity is the natural reaction to my situation, I suppose, but that doesn’t make it any easier to accept.

Honestly, I’d prefer the asshole version of Ryan over the version that asks me how I’m doing every single time we bump into each other around the office.

Luckily, my first group of summer interns started this week and they are keeping me pretty busy, even though there are only four of them.

Jeremy is the oldest at twenty-three. He just finished a graduate certificate program in Parks and Recreation Management. He’s a know-it-all who is driving everyone crazy by constantly reciting useless facts and figures, but can’t seem to remember how to make coffee properly. He has nearly burned the building down twice already.

Beth is nineteen and majoring in environmental science. She’s smart but takes everything too seriously. I swear she’s written down every single word I’ve said this week.

Brayden is, quite frankly, a hiring mistake on HR’s part. He seems to have zero interest in anything we do around here. I’m not sure that he’s even enrolled in college, which is a prerequisite for the internship program. Most days he reeks of weed.

And Kayla…well, I haven’t quite figured her out yet. She’s twenty and majoring in public administration. She seems smart and eager to learn, but she also spends a good amount of her time flirting shamelessly with the male interns. Neither of them seems to have any complaints though.

I sneak out of the conference room after putting on another boring orientation video. On my way to the break room, I bump into Ryan.

“Hey, how are you?” he asks.

It makes me want to strangle him.

“Fine,” I say a little too curtly. Ryan notices it and pulls his eyebrows together in a concerned stare.

Yep, I’m going to strangle him. Maybe then he’ll stop treating me like I’m so fragile.

He follows me into the break room. The coffee is a cold sludge, so I pour it out and start a new batch. Ryan leans casually against the counter and traces all of my movements with his eyes.

“Those training videos are horrible,” I say as the coffee machine sputters and gurgles to life between us.

Ryan laughs. “Yeah, I’ve been asking for new videos for years, but they always shoot me down. They don’t want to waste money on updating them because the information hasn’t really changed.”

---