Accidental Forever: Fake Romance Box Set

by Hazel Parker

  “Go fuck yourself,” she fumed, swiping at the humiliated, self-pitying tears that welled in her eyes before Brett could see them. “It’s not like I want you, either. I was doing this for your grandfather, but it’s not worth it. You can make up something to explain why I don’t want to speak with you ever again.”

  Without another word, he stood from the table, not bothering to throw his trash away before he turned to face the door. That was typical, too, she thought, to leave a mess and not care that someone else was left to clean it up.

  “I’m sure this’ll make my grandpa feel great,” he spat. “Thanks a lot.” Anna’s jaw dropped, and she sputtered speechlessly for a moment, unable to think of a response.

  “That’s not my fault,” she argued weakly. It wasn’t; they both knew it wasn’t, but they also both knew that she’d feel guilty about it either way. She held onto the anger, hot and intense, like a burning coal, and forced herself to focus on that rather than thinking about Eustice. Brett didn’t stay to continue arguing; he didn’t need to. Instead, he plucked his coat from where he’d thrown it on her couch and stormed off, slamming the door shut.

  Anna wasn’t someone who got into many fights. In fact, she’d never gotten into any fights, really, to speak of. She was agreeable to the point of malleable, and it had always been easy to do things out of sympathy. The bottom line was that she cared about other people’s feelings more than she cared about her own, and because of that, she often set aside her desires and opinions in favor of not hurting anyone’s feelings. Even in childhood, she’d done it. Without siblings to fight and make up with, she hadn’t had a chance to learn that people would forgive her if she made them angry, so she feared doing so. It had its benefits, caring that much: she was good at predicting the needs and reactions of others, and she was often regarded as the best shoulder to cry on. However, it also led to moments like these, in which she was surrounded by all the work she’d put into a good deed that had come crashing down around her. Well, she thought, she had the next two days off to think of something to tell Eustice, and if she still didn’t have anything by then, perhaps someone would take over his care when she was on shift so she could avoid his room. Either way, while she didn’t want to hurt Eustice, she never wanted to see Brett again.

  Chapter Six: Brett

  The next morning, Brett woke up to his alarm for the second time in months rather than just sleeping in until he woke up naturally, usually a little before noon. Eight in the morning was a brand new time for him to witness, and now he’d done it two days in a row. Yesterday, it had been to meet Anna, but today, it was for a job interview.

  He only owned a few suits, so it wasn’t too difficult to choose which one he’d wear to the hotel for his meeting. Despite that things hadn’t worked out with Anna, maybe having a job alone would be enough for his grandfather to believe that he’d gotten his life on track enough to be written back into the will. It was the only thing that he could do at this point, after all, so it was worth a shot. After eating breakfast, another thing that he didn’t normally do, he showered, brushed his hair and teeth, and hopped in the car to head for the hotel.

  When Brett walked through the doors, he realized that this was cheaper than any hotel that he’d ever spent the night in. Though there had been no shortage of vacations through his childhood, not to mention spring break trips and spontaneous, sexy getaways with women, he’d never rented a room in a hotel that wasn’t a luxury chain designed specifically for people who were spending a large portion of their vacation inside its walls. This place, the Crimson Garden Hotel, housed mostly people who were traveling for business. It didn’t have any of the accommodations that he was used to seeing in a hotel—there was no pool, no gym, and no restaurant. There was a little chain coffee shop at the front, one whose line was backed up to the door, but nothing that impressed him. However, he didn’t have to stay in this place; merely tolerate working in it for a few weeks before he was able to quit and go back to business as usual. He took a deep breath and approached the young woman sitting at the front desk, who smiled widely.

  “Good morning, sir,” she greeted. “Are you checking out?”

  He shook his head. “I’m here for a job interview,” he explained. “I’m supposed to see—”

  “Oh, you’re here to meet with Charles!” she interjected, picking up the phone and dialing an extension. “You can have a seat over by the café; I’ll let him know you’re here.”

  Brett obeyed and found an empty seat in the lobby to wait for the boss. Not five minutes after he watched the woman hang up the phone, a young, bald man came out of an office, and he stood to greet him.

  “Hi, I’m Charles Greene, the manager here,” he said, shaking his hand. “You’re Brett Riggs?”

  “Yes; nice to meet you.”

  “Let’s talk in my office.” Brett followed him into the room Charles had emerged from, then sat in a chair across from his desk. Charles settled at his desk and looked over his resume when Brett handed it to him. There was an uncomfortable but blessedly short pause while Charles read over the document, but Brett couldn’t be too happy about the brevity of the reading since he knew that it was only for one reason: his resume was entirely too short.

  “You’re going to have to help me understand some things, here,” he said, “because I’m a little confused. It says here that you went to business college, a good one, at that.”

  “Yeah, I never liked the whole ‘school’ thing, but my folks wanted me to go, so I agreed just to keep them from nagging me about it.”

  Charles nodded, seemingly unphased. “That, I can understand, but…well, don’t take this the wrong way, but it appears as though this is your first job, despite the degree.”

  Brett nodded in agreement. He hadn’t listed the taxi driving, since he’d rarely done it, anyway, and he didn’t want to risk this man calling the supervisor.

  “Can I ask you why you’d want to apply for a job that you’re overqualified for, education-wise?”

  Brett shrugged. “Listen, all you need to know about me is that I can work hard when I put my mind to something and that I don’t cause drama. I can be polite to pretty much anybody, and I’m not looking for advancement. I can work for any wage you want to pay me. Is that sufficient?”

  Charles bit down on a surely satisfied smile and continued. “We have a lot of guests in and out of here and a pretty high room turnover rate on the weekends. Can you lift at least twenty-five pounds unassisted?”

  Brett laughed out loud and flexed one arm, so muscular that it made the fabric of the suit move. “I can lift a few times that,” he bragged, but Charles wasn’t overly impressed.

  “Good, good,” he continued. “When can you start?”

  He blinked in surprise. “You’re offering me the job?”

  Charles shrugged. “Normally, I’d be hesitant to hire someone who has no references and no experience, but after hearing everything that Anna said about you, I’ve decided to take a leap of faith.”

  Brett hesitated, speechless for a moment. “Oh?” he tried playing casual. “What kinds of things did she say? Just, you know, out of curiosity.”

  Charles gave him the sort of knowing smile that high-school kids gave their friends before accusing them of having a crush. “All good things,” he said. “She said that you’re strong and friendly, good with people, and that you’re able to do anything you put your mind to. She promised that you’d work hard here, and I trust her. She’s a good egg, but I’m sure you already know that.”

  Brett wanted to roll his eyes but resisted. “She is,” he agreed earnestly instead.

  The man went through the basics: he’d start at the end of next week, after his background check cleared, and work thirty to forty hours per week, depending on how busy the hotel was. They needed him mostly on early shifts, which meant that he’d be seeing a lot more sunrises than he was used to, and he’d get a small raise every six months. Brett tuned a lot of that out since most of it didn’
t apply to his particular situation, anyway, but he was good at pretending to listen. Honestly, most of the perks of the job were pretty generous for a beginning employee, but with his grandfather’s prognosis, there was no way he was staying here for more than a month.

  As he signed the paperwork he was given, Brett couldn’t help but think about what Charles had said about Anna. Even if she was willing to lie about their relationship, he was hesitant to believe that she’d tell Charles anything that she didn’t believe. If she truly didn’t believe that he was fit to work this job, there would be consequences, and Charles and Brett would be the one to pay them, so there was no way she’d have risked asking her friend to hire someone she thought was just a lazy jerk. He wasn’t used to being held accountable for anything, nor was he used to having anyone recognize any potential in him. His parents had handed him anything he wanted all his life because they could afford to do so, and the rest of the world had just assumed that he was a spoiled rich boy because that’s what he’d acted like.

  Anna had seen a different side of him. She’d seen him dedicate himself to helping her study and commit to a fake relationship to put his grandfather’s mind at ease before he passed. For him, that had just been what he’d needed to do to achieve his agenda, but for Anna, it had been a promise: he could be better if he tried. If he cared and put his mind to something, he could be a better person. It dawned on him for the first time that she’d worked hard all her life for everything she’d gotten: her nursing degree, her job, every penny she’d earned. Anna had never been cut a break by anyone, himself included, yet she still managed to give each person she met the benefit of the doubt. He’d wanted to appear to be a better person for his grandpa’s money, but he now found himself wanting actually to be a better person for Anna for…well, he didn’t know what he’d get out of that. He wanted to find out, and the only way to do that was to get her to speak to him again.

  Brett waited until evening to visit her. Honestly, a lot of that time had been spent thinking about what he’d even say to her, deciding what parts of their argument, if any, he’d apologize for and how hard he’d work to convince her that he was sorry. He hadn’t said anything that wasn’t true, really, but he possibly wasn’t giving her enough credit. She was a big girl, after all, and could be responsible for her own feelings. She, however, had said some mean things, too, so it wasn’t like it was all his fault. Anna owed him an apology as much as he owed her one.

  He knew she would be off work by four, so he waited until six to leave his apartment so she could have some time to wind down, change her clothes, and eat dinner. Without knowing how angry she still was, it was difficult to decide how he should approach this. Should he bring her flowers and chocolates as an olive branch? Would she go easier on him if he were dressed up, or would she think he was being self-absorbed? In the end, he decided just to wear the suit and tie he’d worn to his interview—after all, that was what had motivated him to reach out to her now, so maybe it would be a good talking point. Gifts, he thought, would be overkill, so he decided to just wing it, heading straight for her apartment and not bothering to text her a heads-up.

  When he knocked on the door, he waited for a few moments, listening to her rustling around inside until she opened up the door just a crack to peek at who would be visiting her at this hour. She was wearing leggings and a sweater, comfortable but still cute, and her hair was pulled into a high ponytail. He waved to her, flashing a small, apologetic smile, and then sighed when she shut the door in his face.

  “Oh, come on,” he muttered. “Just hear me out for a minute.”

  “I told you I didn’t want to see you again,” she called from the other side of the door. Brett leaned one arm against the doorframe.

  “Aw, don’t be like that,” he urged. “Open up. I’m not even here to ask you to forgive me. I’m here to thank you.” There was silence on the other side of the door; then the door unlocked once more.

  “What?”

  Brett wedged his foot in the door before she could change her mind. “I had that job interview today,” he explained, “and Charles told me all those nice things you said about me.” It was a good thing that he’d put his foot in the door crack because he felt her push against it as she turned red with embarrassment.

  “Yeah, well, I’m a good liar,” she said defensively. “I said those things before I knew what you were really going to be like.”

  Brett nodded. “I get that,” he admitted. “Listen, Anna; I said some things yesterday that I shouldn’t have. I think we both did. I wanted to come by to say that I was sorry.”

  Anna didn’t look convinced, but after only another moment of consideration, she opened the door enough for him to step inside. “How do I know you’re not just saying that so I’ll go to your sister’s wedding?”

  Shrugging, Brett went straight to the couch and sat down, patting the seat next to him for Anna so they could talk. She followed, pushing a few stray hairs behind her ear in the way that she did when she was nervous. “I guess you can’t,” he told her. “It’s not unlike me to say whatever I need to say to get what I want.”

  “It’s not,” she agreed. “And you’re a good liar, too.”

  She wasn’t wearing makeup; she must’ve taken it off after work because it was rare to see her without it. Anna was a woman who liked to be put-together in every way she could control, which meant the same makeup routine every morning, the same simple updo that was now unbrushed and a little damp from the shower she’d taken. She was a little paler, looked a little more tired, but she still looked as gorgeous as she always did. Her naked face was a sight that he hadn’t seen much of even when they’d lived across from one another, and something about it was so alluring. The pink of her lips, unmuted by the brownish-nude lipstick she normally kept on them, was so distracting that he had to actively remind himself that they were talking and that she was mad at him.

  “I don’t lie,” he denied, feeling a little panicked that she might have figured out the entirety of his secret, but the lack of malice in her eye-roll told him that she still didn’t know the real reason behind the rouse.

  “You could, if you wanted to,” she accused. “It’s because you’re compelling. You’ve just got an air about you that makes people want to let their guard down.”

  Brett frowned. “But you haven’t.”

  “Because it’s what predators do,” she said, leaning in toward him. Her eyes were fiery and serious, still angry, but there was something else in that heat that pulled him in. “It’s a false sense of security you lure girls into before you use them. You make people feel good about themselves, then you leave.”

  “I’m not the one who left, Anna,” he reminded her, his voice low and husky rather than accusatory. “You are.”

  “Because you didn’t tell me to stay.” She was still sitting forward, tugged as if via a magnetic force toward him. Her dark brown eyes never left his as she stared at him from beneath long eyelashes. “Even now, you’re only being nice to me because there’s an expiration date.”

  He bit his lower lip because he really, really wanted to take a bite of hers. “Then how about we get as much out of this as we can before it’s finished?” Anna startled a little, her eyes flickering to his lips and then back to his eyes and blinked in confusion.

  “How do you mean?” she asked. Surely, she had something in mind, but she seemed afraid to say it without Brett making the first move. Slowly, half expecting her to push him away and tell him to leave, he reached up to touch her face, laying his palm behind her neck and caressing her cheek with his thumb until it brushed over her soft lips. Then, he tipped her chin up and watched her eyes flutter closed like a doll’s and leaned in to kiss her gently.

  She didn’t resist the kiss, but she didn’t return it at first. In a very Anna fashion, she was going to lie in wait, thinking, analyzing what she should do rather than just giving in to what she wanted. Brett wasn’t good with words. He tended to say the wrong thing at the wr
ong time, and he never thought about what another person wanted to hear enough to consider his words before they came out. That was the real reason that none of his flings lasted longer than a few days, not strictly because he never wanted them to. However, when most girls would decide a weekend or two of great sex and free dinners was a good place to call it quits, Anna demanded better from him. She didn’t let him mess things up and run—she made him clean up the damages. For Anna, he didn’t just have to get her to decide that she’s got nothing better to do like most of the other women that Brett slept with: he had to make her want it so much that it drowned out her rational thought.