The Billionaire's Fake Marriage: A Single Dad Next Door Romance

by Sarah J. Brooks

  “No. If Alyssa is going to be out of commission for a while, we need to get something sorted out.”

  “What?”

  “You look cheap.”

  My jaw dropped, and I stared at the man in front of me. He'd just told me I looked cheap.

  “Excuse me?” I stammered.

  Who the fuck did he think he was? I didn't care if he was my boss; I was going to break his fucking nose.

  “You look cheap,” he repeated. “You can't sell billion dollar homes in twenty dollar shoes.”

  I stared at him with wide eyes. How could he tell my shoes were twenty dollars? They could have passed for sixty or seventy.

  “I ...” I knew I was supposed to say something but had no clue what to say. So I just stood there.

  “Come on ...” He turned on his heel and headed for the door. I grabbed my purse, chasing after him. Where were we going?

  “I ...”

  “When you get back to the building, come to my office, but first I want you to pick something up for me.” He pulled something out of his pocket and handed it to me. I looked down at a dry cleaning ticket, open-mouthed.

  I was sure Alyssa got his dry cleaning for him. But that was not my job. That was not what I was paid to do; she did it because she thought it would get her closer to her real goal. I swallowed my anger. I could do it just this once, and then he was on his own. And I'd tell him that when I gave him his dry cleaning.

  I nodded before heading towards my car, tossing my purse and the dry cleaning ticket onto the passenger seat and pulling out of the driveway after him.

  It turned out the dry cleaner was on the route to the office, so it wasn't completely out of my way. I still wasn't happy about it, though.

  I made my way into the building, holding the suit I'd picked up for him. I could feel everyone's' eyes on me as I made my way towards Garth's office. I knocked twice before entering.

  Garth looked up from his desk and gave me a smile.

  “Thank you.”

  I had been all ready to tell him he could go fuck himself if he was going to make me pick up his clothes, but that stopped me in my tracks.

  “Oh, and I got you a hot chocolate.” He pointed to the desk where I saw a cup waiting for me in a holder. “I wasn't sure if you liked coffee or tea, so I thought I'd be safe; after all, who doesn't like hot chocolate?”

  “T-thank you.” I closed the distance between us and handed him his dry cleaning.

  He nodded as I took the drink and turned to leave the office.

  “One more thing ...” I froze. “Would you like to take on Alyssa's position while she's away?”

  “I ... yes.” I turned to face him. “A-are you actually offering me her position?”

  “Yes. But ...” He looked me up and down. “There is a condition.”

  My heart dropped into the pit of my stomach. There was no way he could actually be suggesting what I thought he was. This was real life, not porn.

  “What is it?” I asked, almost too scared to hear the answer.

  “You will meet me after work today, then we will talk more about it.”

  Why couldn't we do it now? I opened my mouth to ask, but he stood, grabbing his coffee.

  “If you will excuse me, I have a meeting to attend now.” Without another word, he strode past me and headed out of the office. I stared after him for thirty seconds before realizing I should leave his office.

  I shook my head, trying to wrap my head around his words as I returned to my desk. It wasn't even seconds after I dropped down on my desk that three girls swarmed me.

  “So?” one of them whispered.

  “Yea, what happened?” another asked.

  “Why were you bringing back his dry cleaning?” the third one asked.

  I looked the girls over. The first had long blonde hair; she had been hired when I was. The second was here way before us and seemed to know all the gossip going around. The third, I'd never met before. She had green eyes and fiery red hair that I was jealous of all of a sudden.

  “I had his dry cleaning because he shoved the ticket into my hand before driving off. And before I could tell him to pick it up himself.” My brow furrowed as the girls listened to my every word. “And ... I got a house ready for him to show.” I shrugged. There wasn't a story here.

  They stared at me with wide eyes. “Are you going to keep helping him?”

  “Did you replace Alyssa? Did you know she's not actually sick?” the second one said, her voice dropping to a whisper. The other two girls gasped.

  I tried not to roll my eyes. Gossip wasn't my kind of thing. Actually, I would have loved it if they left me alone.

  I thought about their words. Was I going to replace Alyssa? I had no clue. When it came down to it, it was going to depend on what I was willing to do. My stomach did a backflip. I didn't want to admit that I was considering meeting him. I could just be jumping into scary ass shit, I reminded myself. For all I knew, he just wanted to flesh out the terms after work. He had just gone to a meeting. Maybe he didn’t actually have the time today during work. Was that too much for me to hope for? I blew out a deep breath. What am I supposed to do?

  The rest of the day, I couldn't stop thinking about it. I couldn't stop wondering if it was the right thing to do or not. Half the time, I thought I should go. Just to see what he wanted. The other half of the time, I thought I was crazy for even considering it.

  The day passed so slow—I tried to keep myself busy, but it was no use. Every time I tried, I would just start thinking about meeting up with him.

  There was no winning.

  So I took the day as best I could and passed the time working. Researching homes for clients and forwarding them to the right people.

  The entire time, I could feel eyes on me. I didn't look up to see who it was; I didn't care who wanted to stare at me. I just focused on getting work done. And when quitting time came, I packed up my purse along with everyone else.

  “Ally ...” The redhead from before came over to me. “The girls and I are going to grab some dinner, do you want to come with us?”

  “Uh,” I stared at her with wide eyes. They had never invited me out with them before. “I'm sorry.” I gave them a smile. “I've actually got a commitment after dinner,” I lied.

  If they were suddenly inviting me to dinner, there was a reason. Considering the day I'd had, I could figure it out pretty fast.

  “Oh,” she pouted. “Maybe next time.”

  “For sure,” I lied, watching the three of them head out of the office before I turned back to my purse.

  I double checked that I had everything I needed and checked my pocket three times to make sure I had my phone. I took a deep breath, still not having decided what I was going to do, but it was now or never.

  I looked around. There was no one else there.

  “Ally.”

  His voice made my heart skip several beats, and I spun to face him.

  “Hi,” I managed.

  “So, you decided to stay and hear me out.” He sounded happy more than anything else. I opened my mouth to say something but honestly had no idea what I was supposed to say. “I'm so glad you did. I realize I may have worded myself wrong when we spoke. Come, I'd like to talk to you about it a little more,” he said, leading the way towards his office.

  I followed him, and he looked over his shoulder.

  “I'd like to be clear, I was not trying to pressure you into anything back there.”

  I felt relief wash over me. “So what did you mean?”

  My boss turned to face me. “The truth is, I meant what I said to you earlier. You can't sell billion dollar homes in twenty dollar shoes.” He paused, letting that sink in. “Did you see the way Kerry looked at you today?”

  My cheeks flushed. I nodded. I thought it might have just been in my head.

  “If you're going to show houses with me, then we're going to have to change that.” He almost sounded happy. “Come.”

  He grabbed a
small briefcase and headed out of his office.

  I followed him out of the building.

  “W-where are we going?”

  “You said you wanted to help sell houses with me, right?”

  “Yes.”

  “It's going to be a lot of work.”

  “I know.” But no one got successful by taking an easy way out. “I'm ready for it.”

  A smile touched his lips as he motioned for me to follow him to his car, and we came to a stop in front of a bright blue sports car. My eyes widened as he slid into the driver's seat and stared at me from inside the car, motioning for me to join him.

  My heart raced as I made my way over to the passenger side door, my hand shaking as I reached out, opened the door and slid in.

  “What?” I asked. I wanted to know what was going on. I wanted to know why he wanted me in the car and wanted to know what he was getting at. But all that came out was one word.

  Garth gunned the engine and we headed out of the parking lot.

  “We have a little work to do before you can even get to work.” A chuckle passed through his lips.

  “What?”

  My mind raced, but I was so confused I couldn't even try making anything out of it.

  We turned down a couple streets, but I wasn't paying much attention. Within a couple of minutes, we came to a stop outside of a small shop.

  Garth turned to me. “We have to get you some new clothes,” he said, switching off the ignition and hopping out.

  He headed onto the sidewalk, and I jumped out after him. What did he mean new clothes? I had stuff I could wear. Without a word, Garth took my arm and guided me into the store we were parked in front of. I took a deep breath, looking around. Everything was so nice. My head tilted to the left; I could look around a little. Just a little, and maybe buy a couple new pieces. But I had bills that needed to get paid.

  “Mr. Adams!” A woman plastered a wide smile over her face. “How are you doing today?”

  “I'm well, thank you. My friend and I are just in need of a little help from you.”

  “Is that so?” Her eyes sparkled as she looked me up and down, her smile widening. “I'm sure I can find her something suitable.”

  “Hey!” I didn't try to hide the offense in my voice. “I look just fine, thank you very much.” My arms crossed over my chest as I raised an eyebrow.

  The woman stared at me, taken aback. “Oh, I didn't mean—I just ...” She scrambled to fix her mistake. “It's just you could look so much ... with better quality clothes you could give off a whole new look. Something less ...” She fell silent as if realizing she should have even started a new sentence.

  I raised an eyebrow, staring at her. “Less what?” I challenged.

  Garth blew out a deep breath. He didn't look pleased. I didn't give a shit.

  I waited for the woman to say it. She didn't.

  I snorted. “Thank you, but I look just fine. I don't need someone like you trying to sell me your bullshit.”

  My heels squeaked as I turned and headed out of the building. I was willing to see Garth's point; if I was going to sell things to people who spent $100 on an appetizer, then I needed to look the part. But, I was not willing to deal with people like her.

  It took everything I had not to stomp out of the shop like a toddler throwing a hissy fit.

  “Ally!” Garth called after me.

  I grabbed my cell phone, ready to call a cab.

  “Ally,” Garth said beside me; he touched my shoulder. “Ally, please.”

  “No ...” I pulled away from him, cutting him off. “If working for you means I have to deal with someone like her, someone who doesn't think I'm good enough because of my clothes, I won't do it. I won't.”

  “We can go to someone else.”

  I stared at him. He didn't get it. I blew out a deep breath of frustration. “I can't. Okay. I'm not going to deal with people like that, and I can't. I can't afford half the clothes in that place.” I pointed towards it halfheartedly. “I wear twenty dollar shoes because I can't afford more expensive shoes. Trust me, I don't wear them for the blisters they give me.”

  A smile spread across his cheeks as he stared at me.

  “What?” I snapped.

  He just stared at me. Smiling the entire time.

  “See, that's what I like about you.” I stared at him, and he gestured toward me. “Come on, we can go somewhere else.” I opened my mouth to protest, but he touched my arm. “Don't worry, I'll pay.”

  I stared at him with wide eyes. “What are you saying?”

  “Consider it a business expense.”

  I stared at him with wide eyes. Why was he doing this for me? I was about to ask, but maybe I didn't want to know the answer, so I nodded.

  “Alright, fine. But I'm not going back in there.” Mostly because of the hissy fit I'd thrown. But girls like that were a dime a dozen around here. They were the kind of girls Alyssa wanted to be like. The kind that didn't care about how they got the money as long as they could afford whatever they wanted.

  “Fair enough, come on.” He motioned towards the car. “I have somewhere else we can go.”

  “Fine, but if she tries to tell me I look cheap, I'll fucking smack her.” I muttered the last part, but Garth must have heard it. He chuckled.

  The other place wasn't that far away, but by the time we got there, I felt sick. I wanted to puke as I stepped out of the car.

  The idea of him buying my clothes ... I'm not sure what it was; it just felt so wrong, but I couldn't let this chance pass me by. I mean, who would turn down the chance to have new clothes and move up in their line of work?

  Not me.

  I followed my boss into the store and looked around.

  “Mr. Adams!” Another girl plastered on a smile as she hurried toward us.

  “Hi.”

  “What can I do for you?”

  Garth gestured toward me. “I have a friend in need of a few new garments.”

  The girl looked me up and down, her head tilting to the right, and then she held her hand out to me. “Dee.”

  “Ally.” I shook her hand, and the girl turned her attention to Garth again.

  “Why don't you go have a seat, Ally and I are going to do a little bit of shopping, then we will try some stuff on.”

  “Perfect, you're a lifesaver.”

  The girl beamed as she led me to the back of the room. “You work for Mr. Adams?”

  “Yes.”

  She nodded. “Alright, so you'll want stuff you can move around in without a fight.” Her hands traced over the fabric as she looked. She pulled a couple shirts out. “What one do you like better?”

  In her left hand was a red shirt, simple, but it had a little sparkle around the neckline. In the right hand, she held a black shirt with a high, oriental style, neckline. I pointed to it. The girl nodded, putting the red one back. “Alright, and skirts ...” She grabbed two again. One was a knee length, gray. A line skirt. The other was a black pencil skirt.

  “I like the gray, but I like the design of the pencil skirt better.”

  “Alrighty.” The girl nodded. She sized me up. I was sure she was taking in what I wore. My cheeks flushed.

  “I know,” I said without thinking it through. “I've already been told a couple times today that I look cheap.”

  Her jaw dropped. “He didn't ...” she whispered, staring at me with wide eyes. “Oh, my gosh, he did.”

  She shook her head, going through the rack and pulled out a blue top with a black rose at the smallest point of the waist. The second she grabbed was yellow. I dismissed it the second I saw the color.

  “Geeze, boys do not know what they're not supposed to say to a girl.”

  “It wasn't just him,” I said looking through the clothes. I tried to ignore the price tag on them as I pulled out a blue blazer. The girl studied it.

  “No. You have a short frame. You'll want something more like this ...” She flipped through the clothing and pulled out a blaze
r almost identical, but shorter. My brow furrowed. I wasn't so sure I liked it but decided to give the girl a shot; after all, it was her job to know what she was talking about.

  “Alright. I'll try it.”

  “You said it wasn't just him?” I could tell she was prying. I didn't mind.

  “Another girl at another store ... pretty much said it. Well, I didn't give her time to before I left,” I admitted, my cheeks flushing.

  The girl beside me laughed. “Good.” She beamed. “Some of the girls who work in these stores are ... twits.” She looked around to make sure she hadn't been overheard.

  I snorted.

  She looked me over. “I get where you're coming from. The cheap shoes, the cheaper shirt ...” She gave me a soft smile. “Sometimes, you can't afford quality, so you go for the next best shot.”

  I nodded. “I can't afford it, but if I don't buy it, I can't get the job that allows me to.”

  She looked sad for a fraction of a second as she nodded. “Anyways, let's get you into a couple outfits. I'll pair them up for you, and while you're trying them on, I'll keep looking.” She led the way towards the change room. I caught Garth's eye, and he gave me a smile.

  “I'm just going to be looking around the store so press that,” She pointed to a button. “If you need anything.”

  “Thank you.”

  She had paired a couple of outfits up for me without me even realizing it. After handing them to me, she closed the door behind herself, leaving me alone.

  I stared down at the first outfit. A gray pair of pants and the blue shirt I'd picked out.

  I changed into them and stepped out of the change room. Garth stared at me, and I took a deep breath, trying to stay relaxed.

  “Does this look good enough?” I didn't mean it to come out as snarky as it did.

  “I like it.”

  My cheeks burned as he stared at me. “So it’s good enough?” I raised an eyebrow.

  “Yes.” He laughed.

  “Oh, my gosh,” I turned my attention to Dee as she came towards us, a whole stack of clothes in her hand. “You look so cute.” She dropped the clothes on a free seat beside Garth and came over to me. “You know …” She turned around and headed towards the other end of the store. I stared after her. She grabbed two pairs of shoes and came back to me. “Have you ever worn good quality shoes?”