It's Only Temporary: A Stand In Fake Fiancee Romance Read online

  “Yeah, I do. His name is Connor and I’ve known him for ages.” I chose to misunderstand what she was saying.

  She rolled her eyes. “He’s a customer. You don’t know him.”

  I let out a sigh. I was tired of being so responsible and hardworking. For the first time in a long time, I felt like letting my hair down. “You’re always telling me to have some fun. This is it.”

  Eva widened her eyes. “Fun. Not lunacy. There’s a difference.”

  I laughed. “Don’t worry. He’s not going to call.”

  “If he does go ahead with this crazy proposal, I’ll need his parents’ names and phone numbers and the address where you’re staying.”

  “You’re worse than a mother,” I said.

  “I’m glad you didn’t say your mother,” Eva said in a dry tone.

  “I don’t have a selective memory.”

  “How’s Jeremy?” I asked her, referring to my brother-in-law and her husband of two years.

  She shrugged and my antenna for trouble went up. “Is he still insisting on you guys trying for a baby?”

  “Yes. He’s starting to sound like someone scraping a blackboard with their nails. I keep telling him that I’m not ready and to give me more time. I want to take Biva far and I can’t do that if I’m pregnant or I have a small baby,” she said hotly.

  My sister was the nicest and easiest person to get along with. The problem came in when she made a decision about something. Getting her to change her mind was damn near impossible.

  “I’ve heard that there are women who work and raise a family,” I said.

  “Hahaha, you’re a regular comedian sis,” she said. “Seriously though, I like to give a hundred percent to this and Jeremy simply refuses to understand that.”

  It was time to point out something I’d been wanting to say. “Jeremy is not exactly in the wrong. You’re the one who has changed the goal post.”

  She glared at me. “What do you mean?”

  “When you got married, I remember you telling me that all you wanted was to be a homemaker. Be a wife and a mom who was always available for your family. You told Jeremy the same thing, I’m sure.”

  An irritated look came over her features. “So I changed my mind, sue me.”

  I laughed. “I’m just saying, be kind to the man. You sold him a dream and he loved it. Now you want to back off and expect him to give up his dream without a fight?”

  “I never knew how fulfilling it was to have your own business,” she said, her eyes filling up. “I also know that you didn’t have to make me your partner. You could have just employed me. I want to repay you for that by giving this business everything I’ve got.”

  “It was a strategic decision to make you partner. It would make you dedicated to its success. Still, you shouldn’t sacrifice your personal dreams. You can do both.”

  Her face hardened as it did when she had made up her mind about something. “I don’t want to do both. I want to concentrate on this first.”

  I sighed. That was one problem that Jeremy was going to have to solve by himself.

  Later that evening, after Eva and I had wrapped up for the day and she had gone, and I was relaxing with a notebook, my phone vibrated. I picked it up and swiped to read the message.

  Connor: Hey Bianca

  I smiled at the two-word message. I wiped my hands over my shorts before responding.

  Me: Hey Connor

  Connor: Is this a good time to call?

  I swallowed hard and willed my pounding heart to go still.

  Me: Sure

  A second later, my phone rang and after another deep inhale I swiped to answer.

  “Hi.” I cleared my throat to get rid of the breathlessness.

  Confession time. I’d always had a crush on Connor ever since I saw him and his two friends, almost a year ago. He had never come to the cocktail bar with a date and I’d always assumed that he was single.

  I knew his friends, Mathew and Tony were single from the way they flirted with women in the bar. Tony even flirted with me and had asked me out on a date. I’d politely said no. He wasn’t my type, even for a little fun.

  But Connor, now that was another story. He never flirted with me or other women in the bar. Obviously, he didn’t have a girlfriend else he would have attended his sister’s wedding with her. Maybe he had finally worked up the courage to ask me out albeit in an unconventional way.

  He was sexy as sin and a total gentleman. It wasn’t once or twice that I’d thought he belonged on the front cover of a men’s magazine. Advertising underwear. Or an expensive cologne – in his underwear.

  “I wasn’t sure you’d know who it was,” he said in his deep voice that resonated over my spine. “Anyway, I called about the trip to Colorado. I just need to know. Were you serious when you said yes?”

  My heart pounded hard against my chest. Would he think I was a psycho if I said yes? He had the excuse of being plastered when he asked me while I’d been stone cold sober when I said yes.

  I felt pulled in two different directions. The need to salvage my pride and the need to let loose and just go and have some fun. The latter won.

  “I was.” I held my breath as I waited for his reaction.

  He exhaled loudly. “I thought I’d dreamed up the whole thing. It’ll be fun, I promise.”

  “I have a feeling it will be.”

  Eva was going to have a fit when I told her that I was going to Colorado. Connor gave me more details about his sister’s wedding. It was going to be in a lodge that was family owned and we were going to stay for a week.

  “Will that work for you?”

  God, I loved his voice.

  “Yes.” I’d become breathless again.

  “Great.”

  We arranged the time he would pick me up that Wednesday. I shook with excitement as we spoke. Nothing that crazy had ever happened to me. I knew romance had nothing to do with it but he must have been attracted to me on some level to offer the invitation.

  “Thank you so much for doing this,” he said in that sinfully sexy voice. “I’ll forever be indebted to you.”

  “You’re welcome,” I said and then added. “To be perfectly honest, your offer came at the right time when I really needed a vacation. So we’ll call it even.”

  He laughed. “Fair enough.”

  We said goodbye and hung up. I just sat there, in the same exact spot, grinning like an idiot.

  Connor

  I’d coaxed Mathew into driving me to Bianca’s apartment to pick her up and then to LaGuardia for our flight to Colorado. I couldn’t believe how much I was looking forward to the week at home considering Bianca was basically a stranger.

  “You sure she said yes?” Mathew asked me for the tenth time since he picked me up.

  I laughed. I’d found it hard to believe as well when I called her and she confirmed that she had said: “I’m sure.”

  “What’s her story?” Mathew said as he expertly navigated traffic.

  He was a lawyer but I always thought that he would have made a good cab driver. That’s why I’d asked him instead of Tony. Plus his job was flexible and he could take time out of his day to take me to the airport.

  “What do you mean?”

  “Why did she agree to go with you? What’s in it for her?”

  It was a valid question. “She said she needed a vacation.” It sounded lame even to my own years.

  “I think she has a crush on you,” Mathew said. “She always looks at you funny.”

  I shook my head. “No, that’s not it.” Women who looked like Bianca didn’t need to go having crushes on strange men.

  I was glad when we got to her apartment. I didn’t want to probe Bianca’s reason for agreeing to go to Colorado with me. I was just glad that she had agreed.

  “I won’t be long.” I got out of the car and sprinted to the apartment building.

  I hit the buzzer to her apartment and moments later the door clicked and I pushed it open. She’
d told me that she was on the second floor and rather than take the elevator, I took the stairs. Any excuse to get in some exercise.

  When I got to her door, I gave it a knock and waited. I’d promised myself that I would tell her that she wasn’t just going as my guest but as a pretend fiancée.

  However, that thought escaped my mind as soon as the door swung open and Bianca stood there looking even more beautiful than I remembered. Why hadn’t I noticed her looks before? Okay, I had but I’d never thought of her as a woman.

  The only problem was that she wasn’t smiling. She folded her arms across her chest, making me feel as if I’d gone back in time and was facing my old teacher Mrs. Harris.

  “‘I can’t thank you enough for agreeing to this,” I said, a bit thrown off by her unfriendliness.

  To my further surprise, she narrowed her eyes in obvious disapproval. “For the record, I don’t like this and I don’t approve.”

  I was now completely thrown off. It was as if she had become a different person. Had she changed her mind about going to Colorado. “We spoke on the phone and you said it was okay but if you’ve changed your mind, all you have to do is say no.”

  Giggles sounded from behind her before that person pushed her to the side and another Bianca emerged. A smiling Bianca. Blood drained from my face. I looked from one to the other, until understanding dawned.

  “I’m an idiot,” I said. “I thought I was hallucinating.”

  They both laughed. I stared at them stupidly.

  “As you might have figured out, this is my twin sister, Eva and don’t let her frighten you. She’s a pussycat.” She draped a hand over her sister who still wore a scowl.

  “Identical twin sister,” I said.

  “Genius,” Eva mumbled loud enough for me to hear.

  “You’re the cheerful one,” I said to Eva with a straight look and she cracked a smile.

  “Please take care of my sister and don’t be a psycho. She’s the only one I can call family.”

  “I promise I’m not a psycho and I’ll take care of her. Here, let me give you my number and the name of the lodge.”

  She held my gaze. “I already have all that information.”

  “Great.”

  Despite her best efforts to be intimidating, she wasn’t and I liked her because she was clearly looking out for her sister.

  “I’m sorry about my sister,” Bianca said as we rode the elevator down.

  “Don’t be. I thought she was awesome looking out for you like that.”

  “She’s always telling me to have more fun and now when I do…” her voice trailed off as she laughed.

  It was a laugh I could get used to hearing.

  Outside, I led her to Mathew’s car and opened the door for her. When she was comfortably inside, I carried her suitcase to the trunk.

  “It’s nice to see you again,” Bianca was saying to Mathew when I entered the front passenger seat.

  “It’s weird to see you out of the cocktail bar,” Mathew said and quickly added. “That didn’t come out right. I don’t mean that you look like a waitress. Not that there’s anything wrong with that—”

  “Shut up Mathew,” I said.

  Bianca’s laugh filled the car. “It’s fine. I know what you mean. It was odd seeing Connor at my apartment door. It looked wrong.”

  That broke the tension and we joked and made small talk on the way to the airport.

  “Are you comfortable?” I asked her as the plane cruised down the runway and rapidly gained speed.

  She smiled. “I am, thanks.”

  I was relieved that she was not a nervous flier. When the plane finished ascending, she turned to me.

  “We have three and a half hours,” she said.

  “Yeah, that’s how long the flight is going to be.”

  She chuckled. “I mean that we have three hours to get to know each other.”

  I settled back in my seat feeling more relaxed than I had in a long time. “That’s more than enough time. Do you live with your sister?”

  “Is that important?”

  “Well yes. I’d like to know who my girlfriend lives with,” I said. “Someone might ask.”

  She laughed again. I liked it. I rarely made Angie laugh. What she did a lot was roll her eyes as if I was irritating her. It was refreshing to be with someone who found me a little funny.

  “If you must know I live alone but my sister and I use my guest room as an office and studio.”

  I was intrigued. “Oh, doing what?”

  “We own a jewelry company,” she said.

  I notice the matching silver necklace and earrings she’s wearing. “Did you make those?”

  She nodded. “Yeah.”

  “They’re beautiful.” They really are. I’d buy them for Angie or any woman I was dating. “You both make jewelry?”

  “I’m the creative side and my sister takes care of the business side of things. Marketing, processing orders… basically everything else that’s not creative.”

  “I’m impressed.”

  “Thank you. You’re turn now. What do you do?”

  I told her about my job working for an advertising agency.

  “It sounds so fast-paced,” she said.

  “It can be but I love it.” I loved the charged atmosphere when we were in the middle of a brainstorming session.

  “Good for you,” Bianca said. “Too many people complain about their jobs then do nothing about it. It’s nice to meet someone who actually enjoys what they do.”

  “You sound like you enjoy your work too,” I pointed out.

  “I do. I waitress on the weekends to make extra money but that’s over for now.” She told me about being laid off but from what I could make out, she had no money worries.

  We spoke more about our work and then she asked me about my sister and her husband to be. Bianca was easy to talk to and we chattered for the duration of the flight.

  Only when we heard that the plane was about to land did we remember our original purpose which was to get to know each other better.

  “I think we did, only not in the way we had thought we would,” I told her with a chuckle.

  February in Colorado was harsh but I had no issues with the cold and the snow. Probably because our family fun revolved around snow and the harsh winters.

  We bundled into a cab for the hour-long journey to the lodge. Bianca was nicely bundled up but for most people, our winters were unbearably cold.

  “Cold?” I asked her.

  She flashed that gorgeous smile at me and shook her head. “I remember the winters here. My dad used to bring us here for skiing vacations. It’s nice to be back.”

  “You ski?” I asked her.

  “It’s been a while and I’m a bit rusty but yes, I do.”

  “In that case, this mini vacation is going to be loads of fun for you. The lodge is on top of a mountain and skiing is one of the main activities.”

  Bianca was full of surprises. Angie could not ski and she hated the snow. I was glad it was Bianca I had come with. Guilt flooded me as soon as that thought popped into my brain. I told myself that Angie was the one who had broken our engagement and thus I had no reason to feel disloyal. Still, the speed at which I was moving on to another woman was frightening.

  “I should have asked you this before we left. What is the cost for the lodge? I want to pay my share,” she said.

  My admiration for Bianca went up a notch. “Everything’s taken care of, don’t worry.”

  “I want to.”

  “The lodge is closed to visitors for a week and my parents own it. No one is paying anything. That’s their gift to my sister and her husband to be.”

  “Oh,” she said. “Is that where you grew up?”

  “Yes, but it was much smaller then and more of a bed and breakfast. They’ve expanded it over the years and it can now accommodate up to a hundred guests.”

  “That’s the coolest thing I’ve ever heard. I don’t know people who own a
lodge in the mountains.”

  I laughed at her awe. “Now you do.”

  “Didn’t you want to stay and work there?” she asked.

  “No. I love New York and I always wanted to work in a fast-paced environment. My sister works at the lodge so when my parents retire, she and Brian will probably take over.”

  “Sounds perfect,” she said and then glanced out the window. “Aww, would you look at that?”

  The snow-covered mountains rose majestically in the distance as we followed the winding road.

  “It’s magical,” Bianca said, her nose pressed against the window.

  “It is,” I said. “I always feel as if I’m being transported to another place and time when I come home.”

  “You’re so lucky to have this.”

  We were getting nearer to the lodge where all my family were waiting and I hadn’t sorted out a few things. Like the fact that they were expecting my fiancée, not just my girlfriend.

  I cleared my throat. “There’s one little detail I forgot to let you in on.”

  Something in the tone of my voice made her turn to me startled. “What?”

  “Hey, it’s not a biggie,” I said, a longing to wipe off the worry from her face. “It’s just that I was supposed to attend the wedding with my fiancée. So my family is sort of expecting my fiancée.”

  She paled and her mouth fell open. “What?” she shifted in her seat and glanced out the window as if she was contemplating getting out of the car. She turned back to me. “I don’t get it. You have a fiancée?”

  “Past tense. I had a fiancée. She dumped me that night at the bar.”

  Bianca’s face reddened and the eyes that were previously warm turned cold and distant. “So in essence I’m here as another person?”

  The beginnings of a headache were forming around my skull. “Not really. They didn’t know her name. You’ll still be Bianca.”

  Then she turned away abruptly but not before I saw the tears that had sprung into her eyes.

  Fuck. I was an idiot. I had handled it so badly.

  “I’m sorry but I didn’t think it was a big deal,” I said lamely. “I should have told you the whole story.”

  “It doesn’t matter,” Bianca said. “Why did she dump you?”