by Ali Parker
I worked through my doubts on the way up to my room. I needed a boost from Matt, but I wanted to get in touch with Mr. Fraser first. If he didn’t want me going anywhere, I’d have to tell Luke right away. But I already knew the answer before he picked up.
“Mr. Fraser,” I said into the phone.
“Sophia,” he said. We were back on a first name basis. He probably thought his pep talk had worked and I had the story for him.
I hoped he wouldn’t be too disappointed in having to wait a little bit longer.
“I need to tell you something,” I said.
“Yes?” He dragged the word out with skepticism dripping from the syllable.
“I had a meeting with Luke Walters tonight,” I said.
“You did.” It wasn’t a question.
“Yes, and he made me an interesting proposition.” On the way to the hotel, I decided to be transparent with my boss. Lying would only get me into trouble when I was found out. “He needs to get his parents off his back about dating, so he wants me to pretend to be his girlfriend for some banquet this weekend at his home.”
There was a long pause on the other end. I thought the call had dropped when Mr. Fraser finally spoke.
“You’re going to meet the rest of the royal family?” he asked.
“Yes,” I said. “It was the only way he’d give me an interview. If you’re on board with this, I’ll be traveling to his palace this weekend, so the story won’t be complete until at least next week.”
“That’s fine,” Mr. Fraser said. “Actually, it’s more than fine. No other news outlet has broken the story yet. And with Luke in your pocket like this, no one will beat us to the punch.”
I wasn’t sure who was in whose pocket. I wanted to spend more time with Luke for less than professional reasons, even though I’d never admit it to anyone but myself. “So, you’re okay with it?”
“More than okay,” he said. “I’m thrilled that you’ve been able to get this close to the prince. You don’t know what this story will do for us. For you, especially.”
My breathing hitched. Was he confirming that this piece would get me my promotion? I knew I had a chance, but this was more than I expected. Now, I was even more motivated to do the job the best that I could.
“I can’t believe our luck,” he said. “But you better not screw this up.”
“I won’t.”
“No Western woman has ever been in front of the royal family,” he said.
“Seriously?” A sinking weight pressed against my stomach. As much as I was grateful for the opportunity of a lifetime, being the first was a huge responsibility. It was a good thing Luke was going to be with me the whole time.
“Treat this like any other assignment,” Mr. Fraser said. “Do your research on the family and their customs. Ask questions. If Mr. Walters is so interested in making a good impression, then he will probably be more than willing to help. Use him as you would a regular source. He’s your best asset for what you’re about to do.”
I nodded, but I knew he couldn’t see me.
“Make this work,” he said. “And keep your eyes peeled. There may be another story to uncover about this family.”
“I will,” I said. The prospect was enticing. Two stories for the price of one. I could smell a bigger paycheck.
“Best of luck, Sophia. Your career with us is riding on this.”
He hung up.
No pressure then.
I paced around the room several times before swiping my finger over my phone screen. I needed to unload some of the tension in my body.
I dialed Matt, wanting more of a friendly conversation where I could work through my anxiety about this assignment. Luke’s proposition had upped it a notch, and I needed encouragement instead of pressure.
I had almost a week to prepare, but I imagined failing miserably, letting down Luke, Mr. Fraser, and worst of all, myself.
There was my pessimism again. If only my optimistic friend would answer his damn phone.
The call went to voicemail, and the food from dinner churned in my stomach. I needed to relax. A bath would do.
As I started to undress, my phone rang.
I grabbed it and swiped at the screen, briefly seeing Matt’s smiling face before the call connected.
“Sorry about that,” he said. “I was in the middle of another call.”
“No big deal,” I said.
“It sounds like a big deal. What’s up, Soph?”
I raked my hand through my hair, pulling it away from my heated face. “Oh, not much. I just had a prince ask me to be his fake girlfriend to impress his parents, the king and queen. You know, just a regular day.”
“Wait, back up,” Matt said. “Tell me everything.”
I quickly explained the situation to him. While I thought it would calm me down to talk about it, I felt more nervous than ever.
“Let me get this straight,” Matt said. “He’s going to give you the interview after paying for an exotic trip to meet his parents in a palace?”
“Basically,” I said, rolling my shoulders. I wished I had enough money for a massage before going. I certainly needed it.
“Sounds like the opportunity of a lifetime,” he said.
“Mr. Fraser said a Western woman has never been in front of the royal family before.”
“Well, I reckon it’s about time!” he said with the most idiotic cowboy accent.
“Not that kind of western,” I said.
“I know,” he said. “I’m trying to lighten you up a bit. I can hear your teeth grinding from here.”
“I’m not grinding my teeth,” I said.
“Listen, Mr. Walters obviously thinks you’re the woman for the job. You need to trust people when they compliment you.”
“I do,” I said, only half-lying. “This is so important, though. I can’t screw it up.”
“Do you think Luke is going to pull the same thing he did at the restaurant? Bring you there and then not give the interview?”
“No,” I said. “He needs this to get his parents off his back. Besides, if he reneges then I can always expose to his parents that I’m his fake girlfriend. Which I doubt he’d ever do. From the way he described it, his mother is always throwing women at him.”
“How horrible,” Matt said. “She can’t be worse than my own mother, though.”
“Don’t speak ill of the dead. You know that’s not right.”
“Or they’ll come back to haunt you?” he teased.
I couldn’t help but laugh. He had a way of making me feel better. He always had.
“So, what does this prince look like?” he asked.
“Not like a prince at all,” I said. “At least, not how I imagined. He looks like every other suited guy coming out of a multi-billion dollar office, like the ones downtown.”
“Like me?” Matt asked.
“Pretty much.”
“Then you will get along swimmingly,” he said with a smile in his voice.
“He’s different at the same time,” I said, pulling up my memory of him. “He’s dark-skinned, almost like he’s been tanning every day for his whole life. A golden color, though, not a gross orange. His hair is so black and thick, and he doesn’t style it with a ton of gel. It’s enough to give him the ‘I roll out of bed like this’ look. He’s in pretty good shape, at least from what I’ve seen. The way his suits are tailored to him, they fit like a glove. He always looks pristine, which is kind of annoying, but nice to look at. He’s so stubborn, he almost reminds me of myself.”
I took a breath, and there was silence on the other line.
“Matt?”
“I wasn’t sure if you were finished,” Matt said.
“What are you talking about? I thought you wanted to know.”
“For someone who is supposed to be impartial to the subject of her story, you’ve spent an awful amount of time thinking about him.”
“No I haven’t,” I said.
“Please,” Matt said
. “‘His hair is so black and thick.’ Should I go on?”
“I didn’t say that,” I said.
“You like him, don’t you?” he asked in a teasing tone.
“I don’t!” I said, affronted. “You asked what he looked like.”
“Middle Eastern man, dark skin, black hair would have sufficed.”
I chewed on my lip. “You’re not helping me feel any better about this.”
“I’m sorry, Soph. But I’m pretty sure you have it bad for this guy. At least that will help convince his family.”
“I’m hanging up now,” I said and did just that, hearing the echo of Matt’s laughter on the other end before it abruptly cut off.
I dropped my phone on the bed and stared at it. I really needed a bath.
The bathroom had a spa-style tub, and I jacked up the heat and the jets. After soaking for a few minutes, my mind wandered to the conversation with Matt.
If he was right about my attraction to Luke, would that help or hurt my chances of making a good impression? I had to spend time with him this week to prepare for the trip. How was I going to talk to him like a normal person when I had flutters in my stomach whenever I thought of him?
13
Luke
Waking up on Tuesday morning, I wasn’t filled with the same sinking sensation of dread in my stomach. Sophia had agreed to pretend to be my girlfriend. I couldn’t believe that everything had fallen into place like pieces of a puzzle. If I’d never met Sophia, I would have been subjected to Mother and her attempts to set me up again.
I didn’t plan on marrying Sophia, but our “relationship” would get Mother off my back for a little while. I doubted I could convince Sophia to come back to the UK or even Qatar once she returned to Dallas, so I would be living on borrowed time.
That was if we could convince everyone that our relationship was real in the first place.
My feelings for Sophia were strictly platonic, but she was my type. Without dating anyone for some time, I didn’t think I had a type. But the way that she always said what she wanted and made me laugh made me excited to see her again. Of course, she was beautiful. That made it easier for what I intended to do. I didn’t mind looking into her eyes or seeing the way her mouth curved ever so slightly when I turned her down or said something that amused her.
She hadn’t disappointed me yet, so I hoped we’d be able to keep up that streak for three days.
We would be okay as long as I did my absolute best to influence her to keep the essential things in the front of her mind: clothing, attitude, and customs.
Throughout the morning, my mind wandered to Sophia on a regular basis. Each breath I took between answering emails, I thought of Sophia in my family home. I imagined her dressed the way the other women did, accentuating her looks by covering most of her body. Even though I knew what her body looked like, there was something about the traditional dress that heightened the attraction. It was almost like I was privy to a secret.
I shook off that feeling when Justine knocked on my office door around eleven-thirty.
Her chin was down and focused on the tablet in front of her. “I’ve cleared your afternoon as you asked, Mr. Walters. Lunch is scheduled with Ms. Holmes at twelve. I’ve sent the details to your calendar.”
“Thank you, Justine,” I said, standing up. “Forward me anything urgent and call me if there are any issues. While this is a business lunch and meeting, I will be fully available.”
“Very good,” she said.
I hadn’t gone into detail with anyone about my plan with Sophia. The fewer people who knew, the better. Father would never question anyone at the company, and Mother didn’t have the means to. Whatever they saw between Sophia and me at the palace was the only truth they would know. It made the process easier for me.
Over the years that Mother spent trying to fix me up, I wondered why I never thought about it before. I supposed I never came across the right woman. I had never met anyone like Sophia before. Someone who knew I was a prince and wasn’t intimidated to wait in my office for an entire day to speak with me for five minutes.
“Ms. Holmes will be expecting you soon,” Justine said in her best effort to gently coax me out of my thoughts.
“Very well,” I said, clearing my throat. I buttoned my jacket, concealing the slight tightness in my crotch at the thought of seeing Sophia again.
The day was blustery, so I didn’t expect Sophia to be waiting outside for me when I arrived at her hotel. But when I parked at the curb, she stepped out of the front doors of the hotel and rushed over to me. She wore jeans and a pea coat with a little gray hat covering her head. Her cheeks were already red. I wasn’t sure if it was from windburn or nerves. I hoped it was the latter. It would make me feel a little better about feeling the same way.
“Hey,” she said, getting into the car.
I blasted the heat, turning the vent in her direction. “Hi.”
“I am so not used to this weather,” she said.
“Luckily, my home is closer to Dallas weather than here,” I said as I pulled the car onto the road again.
“That’s a relief,” she said, shivering.
I had the urge to put my arm around her and pull her close to warm her, but I silenced it. We weren’t there yet. We only had to fool my family, so anything done outside of that might ruin our relationship before it fake started. I didn’t want to give the wrong impression that I was interested in her outside of the business aspect.
It was a tricky situation, and I hoped I would be able to navigate it smoothly. I was giving up a personal interview for the opportunity, and I wanted to suck everything I could out of it in my favor for that trade.
“Where are we going?” she asked.
“To a pub for lunch,” I said. “I’m off for the rest of the afternoon, so I thought we could have a quick meal before going shopping.”
“Have you done this before?” she asked.
“I go to pubs all the time,” I said.
“No,” she said, laughing. “Shopping with women.”
“Oh,” I said. “That. Not recently.”
“Are there a lot of places in this area that offer clothes for your country?”
“I’m not interested in turning you into one of them,” I said. “Some Western women travel to Qatar all the time. You don’t have to wear the traditional dress; you just have to respect the customs of the faith. You can still have your own style.”
“Really?” she asked.
“Yes,” I said. “For the banquet, I’m sure Mother will request that you dress in something more formal, but for the day to day, all that is required is keeping a more modest look about you.”
“Luke, I’m willing to do what it takes to get this interview,” she said.
I clenched my jaw only slightly. This was what I wanted. A fake relationship. But why did her words affect me negatively? I didn’t expect her to fall for me or for us to ride off into the sunset. Our missions were aligned, so why wasn’t I happier?
As if she realized how her words sounded and how they affected me, she quickly added, “And for you to get your parents off your back.”
I smiled, hoping to crack through the dour feeling in the pit of my stomach. Mother would see right through our relationship if I couldn’t get a grip on myself.
“I’m assuming your boss is on board?” I asked.
“He is,” she said, her hands tightly clasped together in her lap. “He said I’m the first Western woman to visit with the royal family.”
I considered that. “I suppose you are.”
“That’s a little nuts,” she said, glancing out the window.
“Are you nervous?” I asked, hoping that she wouldn’t consider backing out now. Even though I hadn’t told Mother the name of my “girlfriend,” I knew it would be a tough sell to find another one in that short amount of time.
“A little,” she said. “But if I wasn’t, then I wouldn’t be human.”
“I suppose not,�
� I said, pulling into the parking lot for the pub. “You know I’m here for any questions you might have.”
“I know,” she said. “But I think we should set the basis for our relationship first.”
“You do?”
“Yes,” she said. “I’m sure your parents will have a lot of questions. We need to nail down the smallest details.”
It was something I hadn’t thought of much. Instead, I focused on making Sophia look presentable so Mother wouldn’t have a reason to dislike her straight away. The idea that we had to make this relationship up from scratch lodged in the very back of my mind.
“Like what?” I asked, pulling into a space.
“Like how we met,” she said.
“I suppose I can’t tell her you stalked me to my workplace,” I said.
Sophia’s jaw dropped. “I didn’t stalk you. I made an appointment.”
“And you sneaked in when my secretary went to get coffee.”
She pressed her lips together, but I saw the slight tremble indicating that she was trying hard not to laugh.
I couldn’t help but laugh as I got out of the car.
Throughout lunch, Sophia and I talked about our fake relationship. We’d met at a pub when she was visiting the UK to cover a story. She thought it was best to stick with the truth as much as possible.
“The fewer lies we tell, the easier the story will be to keep,” she’d said.
Since our “relationship” was so new, we kept it long distance when she traveled back home to Dallas. Mother wouldn’t care to hear if we were like other couples and stayed with each other on a regular basis. Besides, it wouldn’t fit in with her job.
While I knew Father would be wary of a reporter in the palace, if we sold our relationship in the right way, then there would be no reason for him to think that Sophia was only interested in me for a scoop.
After lunch, we headed to a boutique that Justine had located in the downtown area. They had stock for women who traveled to warmer countries, even when it wasn’t particularly warm outside here.
