Page 59 of Fake It For Love (Faux Love)
RYAN
Itook a car to my parents’ house. It was just a little disturbing to find myself in trouble with my parents at the ripe age of thirty-three. I loved my family. I respected them. They respected me and had always been my biggest supporters. We were close, which was a rarity these days. We actually enjoyed hanging out together. We shared our lives and talked almost daily. This was a dumb move and I knew I had screwed up. I would go in with my head held low and beg for mercy.
I walked through the door of the family townhouse on the Upper East Side and was bombarded by my mother first. “Living room, now,” she ordered.
Like a child in trouble, I dragged myself to the living room. I sat down in the hot seat. It was actually the hot seat. It was the chair closest to the fireplace and it seemed like whenever one of us had something to say, we had to sit in it.
“Explain.” Mom sat down on the couch across from me. Eliza and my father sat down, and all eyes were on me.
“It’s not real,” I said.
“What isn’t real?” Mom asked.
“I’m not actually engaged,” I said. “I would have told you guys.”
“What do you mean it isn’t real?” Dad was irritated. The best option was to explain all of it.
I cleared my throat. “I didn’t want to go to my class reunion alone. I, well, I hired someone to pretend to be my date to the wedding and reunion.”
“You did what?” Eliza gasped.
“Is that legal?” Mom fanned her face.
“It is legal,” I said. “There’s actually a service that provides dates for people like me.”
“What do you mean someone like you?” Eliza asked. “What does that mean?”
“A single guy,” I said with a shrug. “Single with no time or desire to try and find a real date. At least a date that wouldn’t expect anything more than a date.”
“When you say service, does that mean you paid this woman to pretend to be your fiancée?” Dad asked.
I nodded. “I did. Initially, I went to the service to hire someone to be my date for a few events. Then I got to the island, and it was like being mobbed. Everyone wanted to talk to me. The women, you know how I hate that.”
Eliza laughed. “Only you would hate to be mobbed by women.”
“It’s uncomfortable,” I said. “They want what I can give them, not me.”
“So, now the world believes you are engaged,” Mom said.
“I didn’t intend for the world to know,” I said. “It was supposed to just be for the benefit of the people I went to school with. I didn’t think people would talk about it. No one has cared about me before. I’ve always managed to fly under the radar. The goal was to get people to not ask questions and to simply not look like an idiot showing up alone. That’s it.”
The three of them looked at one another. “Fine,” Mom said. “I can understand that, but did you choose Claire Sullivan to be your fake fiancée?”
“Yes. Technically, no. The service I used paired us together. I had no idea it was her until the contract was signed. At first, we weren’t going to go through with it. But I changed my mind and convinced her to do the same. She was alone as well.”
“I’m not surprised Claire Sullivan has had to resort to selling herself,” Dad said.
“It’s not like that,” I said firmly. “This was a first for her.”
“I doubt that,” Mom said. “I really wish you would have chosen a different woman. The scandal that clings to that family is still very ripe. Don’t you remember what John Sullivan did? The guy cost his family everything. They went bankrupt and lost everything because he is a terrible gambler.”
“That doesn’t mean Claire is a bad person,” I said. “Her father screwed up. Not her. She was just as much a victim in all of it.”
“I thought that family left the state,” Dad said.
“They moved out of town,” I replied.
“I just think you should have tried to find a different woman,” Mom said. “You don’t want to get involved with that family.”
