Page 15 of Good Time Boyfriend
I needed to get to work and go through the thousand things on my list. But first, breakfast and coffee with my best friend. And I had a feeling as soon as she saw my face, she would know something was up. I wasn’t going to be able to lie to her. I’d never been able to. It was only because she hadn’t lived here for the past couple of years that I had been able to hide my imaginary relationship from her.
“I sound like I’ve lost my mind.”
I got ready for the day, trying to focus on myactuallife, and not whatever dream scenario I just made up.
But Heathhadkissed me. He’d kissed me and bought me dinner and had lied for me in front of my family. And while the latter might not sound like a good thing, he had done it to protect me from myself.
How was I supposed to act rationally when I wanted to think about what would happen next?
Except things like this didn’t happen to me. It was only a good time, like he said. A fake one. Nothing was going to come of it.
My phone buzzed as I got out of the shower, and I wrapped a towel around myself before looking down at the screen.
Addison:Meet you at Latte on the Rocks?
I bit my lip, but I couldn’t avoid our favorite coffee shop just because I was stressed.
Me:Give me thirty minutes? Just got out of the shower.
Addison:Sounds good. Can’t wait to see you. I feel like it’s been ages.
I smiled to myself as I pulled out my moisturizer and began to work on my face.
Addison had moved away to finish the last two years of her graduate school program. It led to an internship for a company that was connected to the one she was working at now. And when that internship and her degree were finished, she moved back to Denver, and I had my best friend back. I hated her being gone for so long, although it made sense. We had both gone to CU, had been roommates in the dorms in Boulder, and then lived together in a small apartment off campus. We were lucky we had been able to find a place at all, because housing in Boulder was ridiculous. Most people were forced to cram together or spend way too much on loans just to be able to afford rent. My parents had been wonderful about making sure I hadn’t needed student loans, too. With the loan crisis as it was, it made sense, but they had eleven children. I had done my best to get scholarships, grants, and we all had chosen in-state schools, and done our best to pay our way as much as possible.
So now I wasn’t in debt from school, just the choices I made in my personal life.
Me:I’ll see you soon. Love you.
Addison:Love you too! *kissing emoji*
I finished getting ready, blowing out my hair, thankful it seemed to do what I wanted it to. It fell in its natural waves without too much frizz, and I knew that I would never be able to live in a climate with humidity. My hair just wouldn’t let me.
Whenever I visited places with humidity, like the beach, or went to Texas for a wedding, my hair got huge.
Addison straightened her hair every other day, but she had a little bit more curl to her hair. So, Denver was perfect for us. It was beautiful, had amazing skylines and things to do, and it didn’t kill my hair.
My skin was always dry, and I bathed in a vat of lotion, but that was a small price to pay for not having to deal with the hair of beach days.
I grabbed my things for work, double checking that my first meeting wasn’t until ten. I only had to work a partial day at the office that day, because we worked four tens rather than five eight hours. My boss, Paisley, was great at making sure that we got work done but didn’t require us to always be at our desks to make it happen. Some days I was able to work from home, as long as I didn’t have meetings in person. There were a few people who didn’t even live in Denver anymore. I enjoyed the socialization of working with people sometimes though, so I kept an office and came in often. But sometimes there was nothing better than working in a tank top and pajama bottoms while trying to figure out the next PR piece for the company. Paisley made that super easy. I loved the matchmaking division of the company, even though I never would go near it. But I really loved the way that we built up small businesses. And we even guided people in expanding their businesses, like with Latte on the Rocks.
It was an up-and-coming coffee shop and bakery that had the best coffee in Denver, even though it was technically in Arvada, Colorado. It also had some of the best pastries and sandwiches—which I had to be careful with, or I would eat until I was overfull.
The company was actually a subsidiary of another one that was famous in downtown Denver. The owners of Taboo Downtown wanted to expand, but in a unique way. Enter the owners of Latte on the Rocks. They needed help figuring out how to expand without overshadowing each other. Paisley had come in as a consultant, and I had been there for the initial PR rollout for the grand opening. That was when I became friends with Greer and Raven, the owners of Latte on the Rocks.
So, while Paisley’s company didn’t own any part of the building, we had done consulting. And everything worked out, and now I got coffee on a near daily basis I didn’t have to make myself.
Except that now I knew what Greer’s brother’s lips tasted like.
I hadn’t known the two were related when I made him my fake boyfriend; it was just fate’s cruel way of making sure I sat in my own lies and realized the consequences of my own actions.
I wasn’t sure how I could even face Greer today, but I would. And I would pretend nothing happened. Because, of course, it hadn’t.
I hadn’t kissed Heath. He hadn’t said he wanted to help me with a certain problem. I blushed so hard thinking about that, because there was no way I’d told him I was a virgin. And that I wanted to get rid of my virginity. No, that had been dream Devney. Idiotic Devney.
“Why are you thinking so hard?” a voice said from beside me, and I realized I’d parked and gotten out of my car without realizing it. That was stupid, and I didn’t know how my daydreaming had somehow gotten me to this parking lot without hurting anyone. Dear God, I needed to get my head out of the clouds and back into the real world.
“I think I just need caffeine,” I said as Addison opened up her arms and I hugged her.
