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Act

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Chapter 10: Act (Aaron's POV)

We were both here yet again, sitting in front of Davidson, signing our freedom away. "I'm very glad you both understood how important this is and agreed. What do you two plan to do next?" 

Nothing. Because we have absolutely no idea. 

"Why don't you leave that to us, sir?" I asked, raising my eyebrows. 

He shrugged and leaned back in his chair. "Fair enough, I trust you both. Go ahead." 

Vanessa and I let ourselves out of his office, slowly making our way back to the main office room. "I'll leave first," I mumbled. 

"Fine. I'll come down five minutes later." 

This mess was huge and there is no way it's going to fix itself. We've already signed our souls away, now we have to follow through. I thought about it the whole day, I thought I'd be able to come up with a better idea and we could sell that to Davidson instead. But nope. Both Vanessa and I were blank in the case of new ideas. When we needed our intelligence the most, it dumped us. 

I blame it on Vanessa because when I could have been thinking of better ideas, I could only imagine having to do this with her. Take her as my date to an office or author launch party, spend time with her. Alone. 

I grabbed my stuff as Vanessa sat in her seat. 

"You're leaving?" Thomas asked as I turned my computer off. 

"I don't need to stay back so why would I? Everybody else is already gone, I take it you're staying." 

"Yeah. I have some work left to do, I'll be done in another thirty minutes or so. Jade's still here too though, she went to get coffee." 

I nodded once. "See you tomorrow." I glanced at Vanessa who went right back to work as if nothing had happened. I stepped into the elevator and as the doors closed, I leaned against the wall, tilting my head back, and closed my eyes. "What the hell did you get me into, Vanessa?" I got into my car and waited for her to get downstairs. 

We need to get our plan straight and to do that, we planned to go to a café that's near our apartment buildings rather than the one near the office. A little more than five minutes later, there was a knock on the passenger window. I unlocked the car and she pulled the door open, climbing in and slamming it shut with more force than necessary. 

"Go ahead and break it, will you?" I started the car and drove out of the office parking lot before she could reply. We drove in silence until we reached our neighborhood when I asked, "Which café do you want to go to?" 

"Late Latte Coffee Bar," she answered. 

I spotted the neon sign immediately. The sign of the café was in neon blue and pink, the colors alternating by word, and the little coffee cup at the end was broken, flashing both colors repeatedly. I've always seen this café but never stopped in the mornings because I don't have the time to. The walls are painted black and polished, but the inside is mostly made up of warm browns and burnt oranges. 

We waited in line for our turn while she looked around for an empty table. The place was pretty full for this time of evening. 

When it was finally our turn, the waitress behind the counter only greeted Vanessa. "Nessa, hey," she grinned. 

"Hey," Vanessa answered with a small smile. 

The woman's eyes drifted to me and then back to Vanessa. She lifted a brow, smiling. "Who's your friend?" 

"I'm not her friend," I answered. 

"Oh... boyfriend?" 

"He's nobody," Vanessa said. "We just work together, Gwen." 

"Ah, okay. Anyway, what can I get you two?" 

"Green tea."

I resisted the urge to groan. "Medium black coffee," I answered. 

"Okay, go have a seat, we'll bring them to you." 

I followed Vanessa until she stopped at a booth towards the end and sat down across from me. We both sat in silence, only hearing the chatter and noise from the others in the café. When we looked at each other, we both looked away very quickly. I glanced at her while she stared out the window on the other side of the room. I resisted an eye roll. "Vanessa." 

She met my gaze but stayed quiet. 

"We have to figure this out. We're already neck-deep in this mess and the only way to get out of it now is to see it through to the end. It... can't be that bad." 

But it can. 

"All we have to do is put on an act." 

"An act," she repeated dubiously. "Sure. An act that involves spending a lot of time together, being around each other more than we already are, being nice to each other, touching—" She cut herself short. "Being closer," she said, clearing her throat. "I genuinely don't think we can do this." 

"I don't think we can get away without trying either." 

"Your tea and coffee." Another waitress delivered. 

"Thanks, Skylar," Vanessa smiled before the girl left. 

I stared at her cup of tea. 

"Stop staring at tea if you don't like it, Aaron." 

"I don't like it," I agreed, "I hate tea." 

She rolled her eyes and then said, "Then it's a good thing you don't have to drink it. Focus, please. What do we do?" 

I paused, thinking for a moment. "We pretend," I shrugged, "we treat it like a project because that's all it is. That's all it'll be." 

"Agreed," she nodded. "It has to be believable though." 

"So we'll go slow. Start by convincing our co-workers." 

"How?" 

I resisted the urge to sigh. "By," I cleared my throat, "spending more time together. Being less hostile." 

"Which is near impossible. I don't know if we can do that because I don't know how to talk to you without being a bitch and you don't know how to talk to me without being a dick." 

I shrugged in agreement. "True." 

"So... maybe we could start by helping each other out at work. Or at least making it seem that way. Bringing coffee for each other, getting printouts for each other, I don't... I don't know. Maybe stay back for lunch so they think we eat together. Or leave for work around the same time like we did today." 

"That seems fair enough. At least for now. What about after that? We can't keep that going for longer than a week at most." 

"Let's cross that bridge when we get to it. Let's complete one week first. Maybe by then, we'll understand how to go about this a bit better. But there's one more thing." 

"What?"

"A few more things, actually. We've known each other for five years but we don't really know much about each other." 

"That has nothing to do with this." 

"It has everything to do with this. What if someone asks us questions about the other person? What are we going to say? 'I don't know' really?" 

I took a sip of my coffee and put it back down. "What do you suggest we do then?" 

"Get to know each other. At least the things a couple would know about each other. Favorite color, birthday, all that stuff." 

"I know your birthday." 

She blinked in confusion. "You do?" 

"August seventeenth. I bet you don't know mine." 

"Yes, I do." 

"What is it?" 

"It's June... something. Hold on." 

I raised my brows, waiting for an answer. 

"Twentieth?" 

I nodded slowly, pretty surprised she got that right. "June twentieth." 

"See, I know," she said, almost bragging about it. "My point is, maybe to know a bit about each other we should meet outside work. Plus, it'll help if someone from work sees us together, it'll speed up the process." 

"Fine. On the weekends, we'll meet. Every Saturday and Sunday. But some days we should go somewhere together after work too. It's more believable than only being seen together on the weekends." 

She nodded in agreement. "Okay, done. But one thing." 

I lifted a brow. 

"We can't tell anybody. That includes people outside of work, that includes family." 

"I wasn't planning on telling my family anyway. But why don't you want to tell yours? I thought you told your parents everything." 

Her brows furrowed. "What makes you think that?" 

"What happened in college." 

She seemed confused before realization flickered across her face. "How much Spanish do you understand?" 

"A lot. It's not that different from French and I studied both in high school." 

"How long have you known that I told my mom about that?" 

I shrugged, "Pretty much since it happened." 

She scoffed softly. "I was nineteen and freaking out, cut me some slack. And anyway, telling my parents that I have a fake boyfriend, actually, that I'm being forced to have a fake boyfriend, isn't a good thing." 

"Oh, but what happened in college was?" I lifted a brow. 

"That's not what I meant and you know it." She glared at me. "What happened in college was... weird. And we agreed to never bring it up again." 

I rolled my eyes. "Fine. My bad. Are we done here then? Can we leave?" 

"Yeah," she mumbled, gathering her stuff. 

I followed as we walked back to the counter. She reached into her purse but I already had my wallet in hand, so I paid. I caught her looking at me as I tucked my wallet back inside and then turned to her. "Let's go?" 

She nodded softly. "Let's go." We got back to my car and as I started driving, she spoke up again. 

God, she never shuts up.

"Before I forget. You don't have a girlfriend, do you? Like a real one." 

"No. If I did, I wouldn't have let you kiss me."

"Then we should keep things that way. Not date anybody else while we're doing this. I mean like real date, of course. It could cause a lot of problems for obvious reasons."

I agreed.

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Chapter 10

I bet y'all wanna know what happened in college

take your guesses and place your bets

next chapter: lace