Page 14 of Fake It For Love (Faux Love)
“It could be,” she mused. “He did have dark hair. It was always kind of shaggy back then.”
“He did like planes,” I said aloud. I stared at the man walking around the plane and talking with the airport people. It could be him.
The hair did seem similar. The height was about right, but the man that I was looking at now was bigger. Beefier.
When he walked around the plane, he pushed up his sunglasses and flashed another smile before shaking the hands of the people he was talking to.
“Oh shit,” Norah said. “It is him!”
I suddenly had the urge to get the hell away. I had never counted on seeing Ryan. I really thought he would skip this thing. He didn’t exactly have a great time in high school either. We were both outcasts.
The memory of the last time I had seen him bubbled up and left a bitter taste in my mouth. I had managed to go fifteen years without seeing him after I humiliated myself in front of him.
The last time we were together, I screamed at him and then bawled my face off on his shoulder. The kind of bawling that left his arm soaked with my tears, saliva, and probably a little snot. I couldn’t look at him without remembering prom night. It was a night I wanted to forget. I had managed to forget the bulk of it until now.
“I have to get to the hotel,” I blurted out.
“What?” Norah asked with concern.
“I need to get ready to meet my date,” I said. “I’ll catch up with you later.”
“I’ll get all the juicy gossip I can about Ryan and report back to you,” she said. “I wonder if he remembers me.”
“I don’t think a man forgets his first love,” I said.
I caught a glimpse of my bag sitting on one of the carts and rushed to grab it. I didn’t knock over any ladies in my haste to get a seat on the bus, but I probably would have. It was every man for himself. I did not want to come face to face with Ryan Jones. This day was already proving to be far more taxing than I was ready for.
Maybe this wasn’t a good idea. Norah didn’t technically need me for another few days. This seemed to be a trip into hell. The Mean Girls, Tony’s rowdy gang of misfits, and now Ryan Jones? It was like revisiting hell. People didn’t go back to hell once they escaped. Why in the world did I think the setting would change who these people were?
I settled into a seat on the shuttle and watched the mob move toward Ryan and his shiny blue plane. This should make him happy. I remembered he always had a thing about planes. Looked like he finally got his wish. Good for him.
As the shuttle pulled away, I couldn’t help but stare at the man. It was definitely him. I almost laughed at the deer in the headlights look on his face. That was an expression I knew well with him. If this was a version of the Walking Dead, the mob moving toward Ryan was about to eat him alive.
Not my problem. I had bigger worries. Tonight, I would meet the man paying me a ridiculous amount of money to pretend to be his girlfriend. I didn’t want him to change his mind or regret his decision. I had way too much invested in this now. And I already spent the money in my head.
I had to make this work.
