Pretend I'm Yours_A Single Dad Romance

by Vivian Wood

  She turned her car around and headed in the direction of Josh's apartment. Perhaps he would take pity on her yet again, and let her stay in his spare bedroom until Mary came home. At the very least she hoped he would be there so she could vent.

  As it turned out, he was home. One look at her tearstained face, hunched shoulders and travel bag, and he had pulled her into his apartment without question.

  It had also turned out that Josh hadn't been alone, but he had pulled her straight into the kitchen, poured another huge glass of chilled white wine for her, and instructed her to stay put for a second.

  Emanating from his living room, she heard a shrill – clearly quite unhappy – female voice. “Seriously Josh, someone knocks on your door and now you're just throwing me out? In the middle of that?” the mystery woman had almost yelled.

  Josh had replied in a voice so low she couldn't make out the words he said to the woman. But she could hear the woman's response clearly. “I don't give a fuck what happened. You just don't treat a woman like this, Josh. You just don't fucking kick her out seconds after you... Asshole!”

  The woman had been well and truly yelling by then. Could she have possibly picked a worse time?

  Again, Josh's reply had been too low for her to make out, but the woman's response didn't make it hard to guess what he had said.

  “Don't ever contact me again, Josh. In fact, lose my number. Fuck you!” and then the door had slammed shut.

  When Josh returned to the kitchen, she noticed, for the first time, his disheveled hair and the fact that the top button to his jeans was conspicuously undone, but he didn't say anything about it. She flushed.

  “What happened, Ser?”

  She had hated that nickname at first. After meeting as children, he had decided that the second half of her name was somehow redundant, and had taken to calling her “Ser” instead. Over the years she had grown fond of it, and as soon as she heard it, the whole saga of the past few days came pouring out of her mouth.

  He immediately offered his second bedroom to her. He told her to make herself comfortable and just to relax, and that he was going to help her figure this out.

  And that was how she came to wake up with her second wineover in the space of a week, and absolutely no idea what to do next.

  Chapter Five

  It was one week later, and not much had changed. Josh had kindly offered for her to move in with him for now, saying she could pay whatever she could afford toward the rent. She had taken him up on the offer, not having anywhere else to go.

  Without her parents' support, design school was out of the question until she could save up money for registration and maybe get a loan.

  Katie had been sneaking her things from the house during her visits, so her small bedroom at Josh's was now very cluttered. She'd asked her sister to hold off on bringing more stuff.

  She'd decided that she was definitely going to pursue a career in fashion. Her pride simply wouldn't allow her to back down after everything that had happened. The only way she could do that right now though, was by getting a job in retail. So she'd spent the past week applying for every position she could find and moping around the apartment.

  She didn't have much, but she did have some savings, her personal expenses having been mostly a non-issue when she lived at home. So she'd insisted on paying Josh some money toward the rent, and had stocked up on groceries. She'd been conscientious enough to replace the two bottles of wine she'd had during her two mini-breakdowns.

  She figured she would be okay for a while, as long as she stopped shopping, unlikely though that was, and spent her money wisely. Still, she didn't have enough saved up for design school, and that goal would be impossible if she didn't get a job.

  Mary had arrived home from her trip yesterday, furious that Serena hadn't called her immediately and had made cheering her up her mission in life. For this week, anyway.

  Last night she had come over and they had watched chick flicks, followed by bad action movies while eating popcorn, ice cream, and way too many other snacks until they'd fallen asleep on the couch.

  Mary had phoned her a little while ago to tell her to get dressed up. “We're going dancing!” she had proclaimed triumphantly for some reason, and had flatout refused to take no for an answer.

  “You're done sitting in that apartment, just waiting for life to happen to you. We're going to make it happen tonight. For tonight, your life is going to be drinking too many cocktails, shaking your gorgeous ass to some rockin' tunes, and hopefully making some bad decisions that we can regret tomorrow morning!” Mary's enthusiasm had been irrepressible, so she had agreed.

  She wasn't that into clubbing, and it was definitely something she didn't do often, but Mary was right. She needed this, needed to get out of this funk.

  Besides, she was out of snacks after her pity party with Mary last night, and she'd consumed enough sugar to last several lifetimes, so a repeat performance didn't sound too appealing. Also, if she didn't show up to the club to meet Mary and friends, she knew Mary would just come and literally drag her out of the apartment. So with a last look in the mirror, she grabbed her purse and hailed a cab for the club.

  She spotted Mary and two of her girlfriends waiting in line to get in. She had met Mary's college friends once or twice before, and they had seemed nice enough. The noise coming from the inside of the club was deafening though. She wondered if they sold earplugs inside...

  “I love this song! Don’t you love this song?” Mary exclaimed, and started doing a little dance right there on the sidewalk.

  “Uhm, who sings it again?” She chose the safe option; she was pretty sure she hadn't heard it before, and from what she could hear right now, she didn't love it.

  All three girls around her looked at her like she had suddenly sprouted a pair of horns. She considered subtly rubbing her forehead to check before they yelled, “Misery, dude!” almost in unison.

  “Right, of course.” She still had no idea who they were talking about. She thought maybe she'd heard the name mentioned on the radio before, but this kind of music was definitely not what was listened to in her parents' house.

  Classical, yes. On rare occasions, pop. But rock? If that's even what this was, absolutely not.

  They chatted a bit before the blonde one – Ashley, she thought – squealed “there he is” and dragged them to the front of the line. A new bouncer had taken up position at the door and seemed to recognize her, unclipping the rope for them as they moved closer, ushering them through.

  “Her brother's a bartender here!” Mary yelled over her shoulder to Serena as they entered the din of the club, her voice already almost completely drowned out by the deafening music.

  “She must've asked him to ask the bouncer to let us in!” she yelled as she threw her hands over her head and started dancing her way toward the bar.

  They'd only been here a few minutes, but Serena really hoped she could buy earplugs somewhere in the club. Although she was pretty sure she'd be deaf in no time, and then it wouldn't matter anymore.

  Ashley was already at the bar, and grabbed them each a beer before pulling them out on to the crowded dance floor. At first, Serena felt a little awkward, but she soon lost herself in the music and electric atmosphere and actually started to enjoy herself. She closed her eyes and just let her body move the way it wanted to, her long dark hair swinging across her back.

  Time slowed for her, measured in beers. She drank slower than the other girls, but it felt like only seconds had passed as her eyes snapped open when Ashley pulled her third beer from her hand, a wild look in her eyes.

  “Guys!” She could barely hear Ashley over the music, but managed to sort of make out what she was saying as she held out a piece of paper with an address written on it in her hand. “We've been flagged for a fucking mystery party!” The other girls looked like they might faint.

  She had no idea what a “mystery party” was, but she followed them out of the club anyway. No way was she st
aying behind by herself in there.

  Her ears were ringing as they spilled out of the club onto the curb, although she was quite sure she'd sustained mild hearing damage. She figured she should probably resign herself to the fact that they might never stop ringing, judging by the feel of things.

  “What's a mystery party?” she asked Mary in what she hoped was a quiet voice.

  Mary knew her parents and how overprotective they were, so she hoped Mary wouldn't judge her for her ignorance. She was worried about what the other girls might think, since they didn't know her nearly as well, but they were so busy celebrating that she doubted they'd heard her question, even though her voice hadn't been as quiet as she'd intended.

  “Not a mystery party, a Misery party! Like the band, Misery? The one we were talking about earlier, the one whose songs we were dancing to inside? Biggest rock band on the planet right now? Any of this ringing a bell?”

  It didn't, but she wasn't about to let Mary know that.

  She thought Mary would understand that she wouldn't know what a mystery party was, but she doubted that Mary would understand not being familiar with Misery or why they were going to their party. “Oh, wow! Awesome!” she exclaimed, hoping that was the appropriate response. She piled into the cab Ashley had hailed.

  Now, staring up at the huge mansion that was before them, she wasn't so sure she really wanted to be here. However, Mary and the other girls were already practically running for the house, and there was no way she was staying out here alone, so she reluctantly followed them inside.

  Chapter Six

  Great. She was alone. Exactly what she hadn't wanted.

  Ashley and the other girl – whose name Serena really couldn't remember – had pretty much made a run for the gigantic infinity pool and jumped in fully clothed as soon as they had arrived.

  Mary had wandered around with her at first, but had been invited to dance by a really cute guy. At least she'd had the decency to shoot Serena an apologetic look before following him to the dance floor.

  The sprawling lawns behind the huge walls and the gate they arrived through were divided by a driveway that seemed wide enough for a jumbo jet to land. Maybe that's what rock stars did. Maybe they took jumbo jets everywhere...

  The drive led directly to an impressive set of double doors, which were wide open as people spilled out of them freely. Once inside, Serena had gotten her first look at the opulence of the place. The mansion had a floating staircase she thought couldn't possibly lead to more house. Although it must have, because from the outside she had counted three stories.

  Directly behind the great room was a patio the size of her parents' house. Well, maybe that was a slight exaggeration, but not by much. At the very end was a pool that contained at least thirty people at the moment.

  The partygoers were all beautiful people who made her feel extraordinarily out of place.

  Loud music blared from unseen speakers, and every kind of alcohol she could immediately think of was being passed around.

  She had walked through the house after having lost Mary to the dance floor, taking in the spectacular clothing worn by all the beautiful people. Her mouth dried up a little as she took in all the luxurious designer duds around her, as far as the eye could see.

  Men and women were dressed equally impressively by her count.

  She had even spotted one girl earlier wearing a dress that, to the best of her knowledge, was only going to be available in the most exclusive designer boutiques next month. Gah!

  In her marveling over the varied designer garb of the attendees, she walked into a wall. She really hoped no one noticed. Luckily, she was out of the main party area and had been keeping to less populated areas.

  This wall, however, smelled really good. And it seemed to have... moved a little, on impact?

  Not a wall, she realized, a man. A man with the greenest eyes she had ever seen, smooth dark wavy hair cascading down to his shoulders, and a face that was just... ah, staring at her with a mixture of concern and mild irritation.

  She could feel the heat spreading from her cheeks and lighting up her face as she blushed like a complete idiot, frozen in place.

  “I’m so sorry, I wasn’t paying attention. To walking anyway. I’m so sorry. Are you okay?”

  The irritation on his face gave way to something else, or at least, she thought it did. She didn't know this man from a bar of soap, so who was she to analyze his facial expressions?

  “Yeah, I'm okay. Are you?” he asked, in the most beautiful, deep melodic voice she had ever heard. Now that she'd had a chance to look at him for a second, she realized that he looked vaguely familiar. Had they met before?

  “Yeah, I'm okay. I'm so sorry. I just don't know anyone here. My friends disappeared into the pool and the crowd, and then I was just admiring what everyone was wearing and trying to find somewhere...” She stopped then, realizing she was rambling and that he definitely wouldn't be interested in what she was doing.

  “Don't know anyone here, huh?” He actually looked a little bit amused now. There she went again, analyzing a stranger's facial expressions. Idiot. He seemed to have emphasized the “any” part of the word anyone, and it dawned on her that she had mentioned, in the same sentence no less, that she had lost her friends. So technically, she did know someone. Three someones, to be exact.

  “Uh, I’m sorry. I meant I don’t know anyone other than my three lost friends.”

  “That so?”

  “Yup. And I managed to lose all three just about thirty seconds after we got here. I’m Serena, by the way. Sorry again. I’ll look where I’m going from now on. Maybe just crash in the corner until my friends find me to avoid causing any more damage to anyone,” she rambled on again.

  “Rhys. It's nice to meet you. Serena, was it?” He seemed to be waiting for something, though she didn't know what, so she just nodded to confirm her name.

  “How'd you end up here, Serena? You don't seem like the kind of girl that usually ends up at these parties.” He extended his hand toward her, and she automatically reached out to shake it.

  She should have probably felt insulted at his insinuation about the type of girl she was, but she wasn't.

  Her entire being was too busy being focused on the warm hand in hers and the buzz that was spreading like fire through her entire body. Although she didn't see any actual sparks flying from their joined hands, at least she finally understood the analogy.

  “Nice to meet you, Rhys.” She reminded herself to stop staring at those mesmerizing eyes, his strong jawline, the black lines of a tattoo that disappeared under his black V-neck shirt...

  “So,” she grudgingly let go of his hand and forced herself to stop her borderline pervy inspection of him. “How'd you end up here?”

  “I get around,” he replied with a curious smile on his face. A smile that could probably drop the panties of every beautiful girl at the party in ten seconds flat. She might not have been one of the beautiful people at the party, but her panties definitely felt ready to drop. Pathetic, she knew.

  “Okay, Mr. Get Around. What’s this band like? In your official capacity as someone who gets around, are they all they're cracked up to be? And if this is their party, where are they, anyway?”

  This time, he actually let out an easy laugh before he answered, ”They're around, I guess. So, I take it you're not a fan?”

  “Not really. I mean, I don’t think so. I mostly listened to classical music growing up. Lately, I’ve been venturing into pop a bit but I haven’t really quite made it all the way to rock yet.”

  He laughed again. Though she wasn't sure why he was laughing, she wanted to figure it out and make him laugh as much as she could, for as long as she could. She was pretty sure there was no better sight – or sound, for that matter – anywhere on this, or any other planet, than this man laughing.

  “Okay, if you want to know if Misery is all it's cracked up to be, come with me.” He grabbed her hand without waiting for an answer and led
her up the floating staircase, still chuckling as they climbed all the way to the top floor. Serena thrilled a little at the return of the full body buzzing sensation that had started up again once he took her hand in his.

  It was quieter up here, but there were still people roaming around on the second floor. The sounds coming from some of the rooms they passed gave her a pretty good idea of where the band was. He didn't hesitate as he led her confidently up the stairs to the third story.

  Once there, he led her to a door at the very end of the hallway. It was pretty much just the two of them now. “You're sure we're allowed to be up here?” she asked skeptically.

  “Yeah, sure, the guys are – uh – friends of mine.” His face wore an amused expression as he murmured the words.

  He stepped through the door he had opened like he owned the place, and she followed him into a small, sparsely decorated room.

  He'd seemed confident enough on the climb up and no one had stopped or questioned him, so she guessed it was okay to be here. Still though, she felt like she was invading someone's privacy.

  She looked around, taking in her surroundings. The room had glass walls on two sides, revealing a view that sucked the air straight out of her lungs.

  Apart from the door they had entered through, there was another closed one that seemed to lead to an adjoining room behind this one. The room was decorated with a thick rug, a couple of couches, a coffee table, a stereo system that looked state of the art, and lots of crumpled balls of paper covering most of the surfaces.

  He was watching her as she took in the room and marveled over the views, but by the time she returned her attention to him fully, he was fiddling with the stereo.

  “Come on, make yourself comfortable and listen to this.” He motioned to one of the comfortable, understated-looking couches and took a seat opposite from her, next to the stereo. Every about this house screamed opulence, except for this room. It seemed to be some kind of sanctuary from the looks of it, lived in by a real person.