Page 20 of The Mistletoe Bluff
Way to go, Maya.
Oliver’s eyes threatened to pop right out of his face.
“Excuse me?” his dad sputtered out. “What do you meangirlfriend?”
“Just go with it,” I whispered, waving frantically at nothing.
“Um…Maya’s my girlfriend,” Oliver said. “I was going to introduce her at Christmas dinner.”
“Oh?” His father sounded skeptical, and it made my muscles twist into knots. “And why have you never mentioned this girl before?”
“I’ve mentioned her to Mum,” Oliver muttered, and it was my turn to gape at him.
Why on earth would he have told his mom about me?
“I need to go, Dad. I’ll see you at Christmas dinner.”
His father swore but Oliver disconnected the call and cut him off.
Oliver was white as a ghost as he pulled over to the side of the road even though we hadn’t made it to Dina’s yet. His fingers tangled in his dark hair as his head landed on the steering wheel, shoulders rising and falling in tempo with his erratic breathing.
I was used to seeing Oliver put together and composed, but now he was unraveling. I didn’t want to admit it, but I hated the sight of it and found myself wanting to help.
“He sounds like a real winner,” I remarked, trying to distract him.
He turned his head to look at me, and I swallowed hard at the pain in his eyes. “Why did you do that, Maya?”
I hesitated for a moment, unsure what to say. It wasn’t like I could be honest and tell him I was going to use him to get to his dad. And I certainly couldn’t tell him that I felt bad for him because he’d never let me live it down.
“You seemed like you were floundering a little bit and…your dad was being a jerk. I…wanted to help.”
“You wanted to help so you told him you were my girlfriend,” he deadpanned.
I winced. “My impulsive ideas aren’t always the best.”
“Did you consider that it will be obvious I’m lying when I show up to Christmas dinnerwithouta girlfriend?”
The anxiety in his voice prompted me to say, “What if it wasn’t a lie?”
“Excuse me?”
“Or at least it didn’tlooklike a lie,” I amended. My ears grew hot from the way his eyes scoured my face.
“I don’t think I’m following, Maya.”
A frustrated breath slipped through my lips. “I will come to your Christmas dinner with you andpretendto be your girlfriend.”
Oliver’s mouth popped open in anOof surprise.
“Why would you do that?”
Why indeed.
How was I supposed to pretend to like a guy that I hated; who annoyed me to no end and kept screwing up my life?
Maybe that was a bit dramatic, but drama ran in my blood. The truth still remained: he won that spread in theIowa Artist Gazette, ruining the quickest chance to make something of my life. And, if I was honest, him winning instead of me had shaken my confidence so much that I couldn’t find the motivation to try harder, or find another way to bring in business. Because of him, it all felt like a lost cause.
And yet I still offered to help him. I wasn’t sure I was ready to examine why.
