Page 21 of Falling Slowly
“Hi! Charlie, is it? I was really impressed with your work this morning. I’m Miranda, from Wave Collective.” She offered him her hand, tossing a strand of expertly colored honey blond hair over her shoulder.
“Great to meet you.” Charlie gave her a quick handshake and gestured for her to go ahead of us. Instead, she parked herself at the doorway, blocking our way with her giant handbag.
“I’m so glad to bump into you, to be honest. We’ve been following Wilde Creative for a while, and I’m so impressed withyour work. That cheesecake campaign… Inspired! I’d love to talk to you about it.”
My stomach grumbled even louder at the mention of cheesecake. Charlie laughed. “That’s great. I appreciate it. Let’s have a chat later.”
She lowered her voice, a wicked smile making her eyes glint. “You know about the hot tub under the stars, right? I heard it’s incredible. I’m going tonight and wouldn’t mind seeing you there.” She winked at him.
She was probably in her forties and looked immaculate.
Charlie turned to me with an exaggerated grin. “Did you hear that, honey? A hot tub under the stars! This is going to be the best anniversary.”
I stared at him, stunned silent.
“She’s so excited she can’t even process it,” he explained to Miranda.
Her flirty smile gradually faded into disbelief, then genuine surprise as she witnessed Charlie slipping his arm around me. “Babe, I told you this was a five-star place, didn’t I?” He turned to Miranda, who was now only hanging around out of sheer politeness, her focus on the phone she’d unearthed from the giant bag. “She was so disappointed when she found out our cabin didn’t have a bathtub.”
“Uh-huh. I hope you enjoy!” Miranda flashed us a forced smile and stepped into the hallway, waving her hand.
As soon as she was out of earshot, I turned to Charlie, my insides flaming. “What wasthat?”
“I’m so sorry. I can’t take these women. Not this week. Please, help me. Please!” He pressed his palms together, those blue eyes begging for… what, exactly?
“What do you want from me?”
“You don’t have to say anything. Just, don’t correct them. Let them assume we’re together, and they’ll leave me alone.”
I drew a breath. “First of all, there are plenty of women who couldn’t care less about your relationship status. They’ll see it as a fun challenge. Second, they might ask questions. What do you expect me to tell them?”
Charlie blinked, confused. “Why would they ask questions? What kind of questions?”
I had to raise my voice to talk over my gurgling stomach. “Questions like ‘how did you two meet?’ or ‘how long have you been together?’”
“That’s easy. We met through work, and we’ve been together for two years. This is our two-year anniversary.”
“So, basically from the day I started at Wilde Creative?”
Charlie laughed. “What can I say? You caught my eye.”
He’d called me Becca for the first two days, until I’d corrected him.
“Okay.” I sighed. “I’ll try to keep my facts straight.” I was here to assist Charlie, in any way I could, and nobody could say I didn’t go the extra mile.
“Don’t worry. We can iron out the details in the hot tub.”
That’s right. I didn’t have a choice. He’d introduced me as a devoted hot tub enthusiast. It didn’t matter that I’d packed an awful, fraying swimsuit I’d only planned on using alone, in the dark.
“I didn’t pack a swimsuit,” I lied. “I didn’t realize there was a hot tub.”
“Really? There’s a huge picture on the website.”
“I must have missed it. Sorry.” I bit my lip.
I had to get out of this. No other human with eyes was allowed to see that two-piece.
“That’s okay. We’ll go shopping in Cozy Creek!”
