Mr. Twang_A Fake Relationship Romance

by Kelli Callahan

  “Yes, Brendan can be a bit difficult.” Sawyer sighed and shook his head. “I’ve been dealing with him a lot longer than you have.”

  “Yeah, well you’re not the one that has to pretend like you’re having sex with him.” I clenched my jaw and felt my arm twitch. “Do you know how hard it is to share a meal with him and smile when you want to stab him in the eye with your fork?”

  “Please don’t do that—at least not until your albums are out.” Sawyer raised his eyebrows and sighed again. “Remember, this relationship is driving your success right now. It isn’t fair, but this is what Nashville wants, so we have to give them the full package.”

  “If I had anything left in Texas, I’d already have my bags packed.” I stood and shrugged. “I’m on your crazy train, boss. Please let me get off soon.”

  My parents were less than thrilled to see me in the tabloids, even though I warned them it was coming. The fact they didn’t want me to get involved in the music business to begin with didn’t help. They still saw what I was doing as throwing away my future since my college plans were officially on hold. The only person that seemed to be somewhat supportive was Misty, who thought Brendan was a wet dream, just like I did in the beginning before I found out what he was really like. I hated having to keep the secret from her, because she believed I was living in bliss with a hot-and-heavy relationship. Sawyer blessed me telling my parents, even though we had a non-disclosure agreement in place, but that was the only exception he was willing to make.

  I’ll be so freaking happy when this is all over with.

  6

  Brendan

  Accompanying Song:

  “I’m to Blame” by Kip Moore

  Two weeks later

  “Country music’s hottest new couple.” I chuckled when I read the latest headline about my fake relationship with Lauren.

  At least they mentioned that we both have albums coming out next month.

  I had really done a poor job of being Lauren’s fake boyfriend during the course of our relationship. It was easier to keep her at a distance than risk falling for her. After everything went to hell in Chicago, that was the last thing I wanted. I needed to stay focused on my music and once I had some success, I could start playing the kind of music I enjoyed. Once we got our albums out, we could kick each other to the curb and move on. I did feel bad about treating her like shit, though, even if it was a shield I was holding up to make sure she didn’t get too close. That part I had done well, because she seemed to absolutely despise me. I owed her an apology—she was barely tolerating me at that point.

  Maybe I could try to be a little nicer…

  We had generated enough interest in our relationship for some interview requests to start coming in. I had done a couple and dodged the questions about Lauren. She had done the same when the subject turned to our relationship. We weren’t going to be able to hide it forever, though, and every major radio station in Nashville was trying to get the first interview that put us in the same room together. Sawyer was nervous, but it was inevitable with so many questions circling us. It was going to require some preparation, which is why I was waiting outside his office for him to get back from the recording studio with Lauren.

  “That song is really good.” Sawyer was smiling as he walked down the hallway with Lauren.

  “Yeah, I think it’ll be a good one to finish the album with, and it’s one I wrote, so it feels more authentic.” Lauren was all smiles as well until she turned her head and saw me.

  “Hello, darling.” I plastered a smile on my face.

  “Hello, asshole.” She muttered under her breath and immediately looked around to make sure nobody heard her. “I mean, darling.”

  “Let’s get this over with.” Sawyer pulled the door of his office open and we both entered.

  For the next couple of hours, we rehearsed our back story. We didn’t meet at Sawyer’s party originally. We had talked a couple of times before that, but his party was the first chance we had to actually sit down and have a conversation. Any questions that drifted towards sex would be avoided entirely. Lauren would smile or laugh and I would shut the interviewer down. I was pretty sure I could do that easily. Sawyer wanted the relationship to seem sweet, even if we teased sex to get people talking in the first place. The country music fans needed to see a man and a woman falling head over heels for each other. They didn’t need the raunchy details to know we were supposedly knocking boots when the lights went out.

  “So, do you think you can actually be nice to me long enough to pull off an interview?” Lauren looked over at me and narrowed her eyes.

  “I’ll convince them that I’m treating you like a full-time country princess.” I grimaced and nodded.

  “It’ll be the performance of a freaking lifetime.” She shook her head angrily. “I can’t wait to have the most explosive breakup in history and write angry songs about you.”

  “Darling, it’ll be an honor.” I forced a smile. “Okay, we’re supposed to be having lunch at our favorite restaurant soon.”

  “The paparazzi will be there.” Sawyer looked at his watch. “Fairly soon, actually.”

  “Okay, let’s go.” Lauren stood and reached for her purse. “I won’t even pretend to wait for you to get the door for me.”

  Lauren stormed out of Sawyer’s office and I followed behind her. She kept her angry march going until she reached for the door and relaxed. She took my hand once we were on the sidewalk and we started walking towards the restaurant on the corner. I had held her hand so many times during our relationship and it was still as rigid as the very first time I took it. She might be hiding her true intentions in public, but her body language told me that she hated me with every fiber of her being. I hadn’t hated anyone with that much fury except the woman that broke my heart. We sat down on the patio once we got to the restaurant. The paparazzi were right where they were supposed to be, snapping pictures from a distance, but too far away to hear our conversation.

  “I feel like I should apologize to you for the way I’ve treated you since we started this whole fake relationship thing.” I exhaled sharply and reached for my drink.

  “Oh, now you feel like you should apologize?” She narrowed her eyes until they were almost burning with rage. “How about the time you practically pushed me out of your car when you dropped me off outside my apartment because nobody was watching?”

  Yeah, okay. That wasn’t my proudest moment.

  “I’m trying to say that I’m sorry.” I sipped my water and put the glass back on the table.

  “It’s a little late for that.” Her tone was so fierce she practically growled like an angry lioness. “I really did try to like you, even after you offered to fuck me for real the night we first started this. I even tried to get over the fact you’re nothing but a fraud in a Stetson hat that Sawyer created to sell records. Perhaps if you were more like the man you pretend to be, you wouldn’t need a fake girlfriend.”

  “I deserve that.” I nodded and stopped talking when our waitress brought our food.

  “You deserve that and a whole lot more.” She actually managed to say her words through clenched teeth, while keeping a smile on her face.

  “Let’s get through this interview and then we can spend some time apart. We’re supposed to be busy putting the finishing touches on our albums, and the interview will keep the rabid fans satiated for a while.” I reached for my cheeseburger and took a bite of it.

  “Yeah, until I have the worst birthday in history because I’m spending it with you.” She stabbed her fork into the corner of her salad and shoved some lettuce in her mouth.

  “It would look weird if you spent your birthday alone when we’re supposed to be so hot and heavy.” I sighed and shrugged. “But it should be the last one you have to spend with me.”

  “Thank god for that.” She nodded quickly.

  There was no getting around her upcoming birthday party. Sawyer wanted to make a big deal out of it and get some good sho
ts for the press since it would be so close to the release date of her album. We still had a couple of weeks, but the plans were already in place. Some of the fans had even started a countdown clock, speculating about what awesome gift I was going to buy her. Technically, it would be whatever awesome gift Sawyer bought and I gave her, but they wouldn’t know that.

  I continued feeling like shit as I finished my food. It was clear that I had completely shattered any chance of even sharing a friendship with Lauren once the fake relationship was over. The sad part was that I had started to get slightly attached to her, despite all of my attempts at the contrary.

  “God, we’ve still got another fucking hour until the interview.” Lauren checked the time on her phone and sighed.

  “Why don’t we go take a walk and work off some of these calories before our big performance?” I motioned in the direction of the park that was near the restaurant.

  “That’s not a popular spot for the paparazzi to hang out. That’s where normal people go.” She tilted her head and glared at me.

  “I know. Honestly, I could use a little bit of time away from them.” I looked at the cameras and smiled.

  “Fine. It’ll be better than sitting here.” She grabbed her purse, flashed a smile, and then started walking towards the door. “Oh wait, we’re in public—you have to get the door for me.”

  “Of course.” I grabbed the door and held it open as she walked through.

  “You know, I’m not always a jerk.” I walked beside Lauren as we strolled through the park.

  “Oh really? So, I’m just some sort of exception to your normal personality?” She turned and glared at me for a moment.

  “No.” I sighed and shook my head. “I went through a really bad breakup in Chicago. I was about to sign a record deal that would have let me make the kind of music I wanted when I found out that my girlfriend was fucking my bass player.”

  “Well, if you treated her like you treat me, I’m sure you deserved it.” She paused for a moment. “Okay, that was really mean, I’m sorry.”

  “No.” I exhaled with a grumble “I’m starting to see that I probably was a jerk to her too. I was always busy, always in the studio, and I never really paid her much attention. I took the relationship for granted and then it was gone.”

  “So how do you go from that to Nashville where you start recording music you hate?” She tilted her head to the side. “That doesn’t make any sense.”

  “Yeah, maybe it wasn’t the best decision.” I nodded as we continued to walk. “I saw it as a quick way to get back on my feet since Sawyer was one of my father’s friends.”

  “I’m pretty sure this is the first time you’ve actually been honest with me since we first started this whole thing. It make me hate you a little less.” She smiled and chuckled. “You should try being yourself more often—but keep the accent.”

  “I’m struggling to get rid of it.” I nodded and laughed. “I’m even talking this way in my dreams now.”

  “Come on.” She reached out and took my hand. “Let’s go do this interview while we’re still amicable. I’m sure you’ll do something to ruin it soon enough.”

  “Darling, that’s my specialty.” I winked at her and walked towards the exit of the park.

  I really hadn’t opened up to anyone about my last relationship. Sawyer knew why I came to Nashville, but I didn’t go deeper than the surface when telling him my story. It felt good to actually say the words out loud and admit that I did have some responsibility for the way things blew up. I could have salvaged my rock music career if I hadn’t let the immediate darkness consume me. I decided that I was going to try and be nicer to Lauren going forward. It wasn’t going to make up for the way I had treated her, but I could at least make the last few weeks something less than torturous. I regretted that I had been such an asshole in the beginning, because there was something about the emerald-eyed blonde that was starting to stir something inside me that went deeper than lust for her delicious curves.

  I may already be in trouble.

  7

  Lauren

  Accompanying Song:

  “Forgive” by Rebecca Lynn Howard

  I was wary of Brendan’s words, even if they seemed authentic. He had been such a jerk to me since the day we started our fake relationship that it was hard to let go of that and trust him. I put on a brave face, I let him see a smile, and I even took his hand when we headed towards the studio. I did respect him for opening up about his previous relationship in Chicago. That part seemed real, and I sort of understood why he was afraid to open up about it for so long. He seemed to trust me enough to tell me that, at least. I hoped that meant something. If he just treated me like a human being for the final stretch of my time as his pretend girlfriend, it would make the days a little more bearable.

  Maybe my birthday won’t be a total disaster after all.

  We walked into the studio and they left us in a small room while they got everything ready for our interview. I felt like I had a good grasp on our story and Sawyer had given us a rundown of the questions they were likely to ask. If we were more popular, we could have picked the questions out ahead of time, but we weren’t at that stage in our careers quite yet. It was nice to sit beside Brendan without totally despising him. He still had some miles to go in his boots and Stetson hat before he earned forgiveness, but I no longer wanted to just reach over and strangle him. I was still going to write angry songs about him when the whole thing ended, but they might not end with him at the bottom of a lake like I originally planned.

  “Are you nervous?” Brendan reached over and squeezed my hand.

  “It’s hard not to be.” I looked over at him and sighed. “It’s easy to put on a show when we’re just smiling for the cameras, but this is an actual conversation with people.”

  “We just have to get through it. I know you’ll do a great job.” He squeezed my hand and smiled. “You always do, even when I treat you like shit.”

  Was that… something of a compliment?

  “We’re ready for you.” A slender man poked his head in the door and motioned for us to follow him.

  “We’ll be there in a second.” Brendan looked at him and smiled.

  “Okay.” The man nodded and let the door close.

  “Here we go.” Brendan stood and helped me to my feet.

  I had done a couple of interviews on my own and they were nerve-wracking as hell. It was easy to dance around the questions about Brendan in those interviews. It wouldn’t be possible with him sitting next to me. I had a lot of nervousness and concern as I got to my feet and stared at the door. All it would take was one slip-up to blow the whole charade wide open. We would have to meet every question head-on unless it pertained to sex. Those Sawyer had given us permission to avoid. Brendan squeezed my hand one final time and walked towards the door. I had gotten so used to having it closed in my face when nobody was watching that I was caught off guard when he pulled it open and waited for me to walk through.

  Chivalry without a camera? That’s new.

  “Thank you.” I nodded to him and stepped out into the hallway.

  We walked into the studio and I started to go into fangirl mode when I saw Carson Jones sitting behind his microphone. I grew up listening to his show and coming face to face with him was like meeting a celebrity. I tried to remain professional as I sat down across from him. Brendon took the seat beside me and put his hand on my knee, which was already starting to bounce from nervousness. I gave him a faint smile and prepared for the interview to start. The introductions were made, the questions we expected came, and both of us carved through them without stuttering over our words. I was impressed that Brendan handled it so quickly. If I struggled to pop out an answer, he quickly took over and said something eloquent in his stupidly sexy fake accent.

  “Okay, you two. We’ve got some fan questions here. First one—Charley from Anniston, Alabama. She wants to know what Brendan has planned for you on your birthday. Bonus points if
he tells us what he’s getting you.” Carson smiled and chuckled.

  “I’ve been shopping at a few stores that sell… diamonds.” Brendan winked at me.

  “Oh my goodness!” I feigned shock.

  “Yeah, I’m thinking a necklace or a bracelet.” Brendan leaned back and laughed.

  “I’ll be happy with anything you get me.” I nodded as I spoke into the microphone.

  “Okay, the next question comes from Hannah in Dahlonega, Georgia. Are you two planning a duet anytime soon? Actually, I’d love to hear the answer to that question as well!” Carson nodded quickly.

  A duet? Oh god, we didn’t rehearse this answer.

  “Um, oh—I don’t know.” I felt my heart racing in my chest as the words got tangled in my throat.

  “Well…” Brendan had a panicked look in his eyes. “Yeah, we’ve talked about it.”

  No, we haven’t—no!

  “You heard it here first, folks, and I think that’s the exclusive you’ve been waiting for. Brendan Tanner and Lauren Williams are planning a duet!” Carson’s eyes got extremely excited. “I can’t wait to hear it. I hope you’ll let me play it on my show.”

  “Of course.” Brendon nodded with a nervous smile forming on his lips. “We’ll make sure you hear it first.”

  What the hell are you doing? Just shut up!

  I couldn’t contradict Brendan live on the air. Once the words were spoken, they might as well have been the gospel truth. My stomach tied up in knots as I thought about what he was saying. A duet wasn’t something you could just promise. Our styles might not even be compatible. We didn’t have a song. I barely heard the last few questions Carson asked because I was so overwhelmed by what Brendan said. All of the goodwill he earned earlier in the day evaporated instantly. I just wanted to end the interview and get out of the radio station as quickly as possible. When we were finally dismissed, and the headsets came off, I bolted for the door with Brendan chasing after me. He pulled me into a side room before I could have a total meltdown, but the tears were already in my eyes.