“Speaking of girlfriend,” Freddie’s voice trailed off.

  Charlotte turned to face him, her eyes dancing; she knew what he was asking. “That’s not outlined in the contract because they think you’re a real couple. So, if you decide that you want to, you know, consummate your fake engagement, that’s up to the two of you.”

  “She’s a terrible person Charlotte, but you never know,” Freddie smiled wryly.

  “And you’re a man, but Freddie, don’t get wrapped up in this woman.”

  It was Freddie’s turn to laugh. “Come on, Charlotte. She’s the last person on Earth I would ever want to be with.”

  “Just keep it that way,” Charlotte replied. “Now let’s plan your proposal.”

  Ten

  The sun streamed in through the curtains at the Willowrun long-term care facility. Serena stretched her arms and rolled her head back and forth. It wasn’t the first time she had slept in the chair next to her dad’s bed. She rubbed her shoulder and then reached for her dad’s hand. Leaning in close to his ear, she whispered, “I’m getting engaged today.”

  This wasn’t the way it was supposed to be. She should be asking him to walk her down the aisle. Her father remained motionless and Serena kissed him on the cheek. “You’re going to be there for my real wedding, I promise you that.”

  It had been a week since they had signed the Sidney’s paperwork and Serena had transferred her dad to Willowrun. It felt odd knowing that there was a man traveling to the city to propose to her. It wasn’t how she envisioned her engagement, but if it helped her dad, she was willing to give up romantic notions about her proposal.

  She asked to be kept out of the loop on the details for the evening. She figured that would help with her look of surprise. However, the next thing on her to-do list was to get a fresh manicure. A perk to knowing when a man is about to kneel in front of you means that you can be sure your nails are in tip-top shape.

  * * *

  The sun was setting as Freddie pulled up in front of Serena’s building, the orange glow glinted off the tall glass building and into his eyes. He wished he had his sunglasses with him. He pulled out his phone and texted her, “Here.”

  She texted back, “Ok.”

  The instructions said that the proposal needed to be formal and extravagant. For the millionth time, Freddie patted the jacket pocket of the suit he had worn to the premiere, relaxing as he felt the pointy edges of the ring box, he hadn’t lost it yet. The box felt heavy, like a chunk of lead, weighing down his pocket and his entire body.

  Sidney’s had let him pick out the ring. As he stared at the rows of royal blue boxes, he realized that he had no idea what Serena would like. In the showroom lights, the diamonds glittered like they were winking at him, mocking his indecision. He squeezed his eyes shut and imagined holding the hand of his girlfriend, a real girlfriend, and what her ring would look like; then it was easy. That ring would have a thin band and a simple square stone, like the one in the middle of the display case. His decision was made. “That one,” he said, pointing to the biggest and most extravagant ring, the one with three big diamonds surrounded by smaller diamonds, with even more diamonds crusted on the band. The executives had raised their eyebrows at his selection, but after signing more paperwork, Freddie was on his way.

  “What, you can’t even come inside to get me?” she asked as Freddie opened the truck door for her.

  She hopped inside and Freddie walked back around shaking his head. Part of his plan for surviving the next two months was to bite his tongue.

  He started up the engine and said under his breath, “The cameras aren't rolling right now, sweetheart.” He signaled and pulled the truck onto the busy road.

  She shrugged and scrolled through her phone.

  By now, his dislike for Serena was growing stronger with every second they spent together, but he had to admit the woman knew how to dress. Her hair was half pinned up and cascaded down over her tanned shoulders in loose waves. He looked away when she started taking pictures of herself. Whatever guy ends up with her is going to be one lonely man, he thought to himself.

  When Freddie and Charlotte were making the plans for the proposal, Freddie quickly realized that the fake courtship was going to cost him an arm and a leg. He helped Serena out of the truck, handed the keys and a twenty to the valet and the two of them walked hand-in-hand into the restaurant. He caught people whispering as they walked by; to an outsider they likely looked like a celebrity couple in love. Which meant that the façade was working.

  The maitre’d pulled out the chair for Serena. Freddie looked around, noting the restaurant was definitely not his scene. There were crisp white tablecloths, more forks than he knew what to do with, a pianist playing classical music, and the menu wasn’t even in English.

  Serena took photos of the table setting, photos of the menu, photos of her hand holding her glass, and almost as an afterthought, she asked their server to take a picture of her and Freddie. As they held up their champagne flutes, he’d never felt more like a fraud in his life.

  The portion sizes were miniscule with the food piled so intricately on his plate, he didn't even know how to approach eating it. Even after dessert, he was still starving. When Serena excused herself to go to the ladies’ room, he pulled out the piece of paper he had kept folded into his jacket pocket to consult the schedule.

  Well, part one is almost done, he thought to himself grimly. He folded the paper back up and placed it back in his pocket. He didn't feel nervous, the whole thing just felt like a chore.

  He paid the very expensive bill and as the two of them were leaving the restaurant, the horse-drawn carriage pulled up in front, perfectly on time. Serena pulled out her phone and recorded the arrival of their ride.

  “Milady,” Freddie smiled for the video and crooked his arm for Serena. She smiled and accepted, but when the camera turned off, she let go and her face fell flat and emotionless. She was going through the motions too.

  As the horses clip-clopped through the city streets, Freddy glanced at Serena. Her hair was blowing in the wind, and he knew that she looked beautiful, but in the way that catalog models look beautiful. Pretty to look at, fun to imagine, but in reality, flat – creatures who should stay where they look best - on paper.

  He felt her shiver and he took off his suit jacket to wrap around her shoulders. She turned to him and smiled. “Thank you, Fred.”

  It was a mystery to Freddie why women liked horses and carriages so much. The ride was slow, boring, and a little bit stinky. Serena was back on her phone again, so Freddie stared up at the night sky and searched for the stars that weren’t there. The light pollution from the city made sure of that. Why does anyone live here? He wondered for the millionth time that day.

  Serena seemed lost in thought, her gaze trained on the rear end of the horse. The contract read that the proposal needed to happen in a public place that was highly populated. When he really proposed, to his real fiancée, it would be intimate and private, not a public spectacle.

  Their carriage driver pulled up in front of the Limton building, the tallest in the city. Freddie sighed, hopped out, and reached for Serena’s hand. The two of them strode past the lineup for the observation deck, the tourists gaped at the glamorous couple as they bypassed the line and were escorted directly into the elevator.

  As the elevator doors closed, Freddie and Serena mutually let their hands fall apart. Freddie watched the numbers as they climbed to the top of the building. Serena’s gaze was focused on the seam between the two doors.

  “Is everything okay?” Freddie asked.

  Serena blinked her eyes and snapped her gaze to him, “Yes, why?”

  “You seem distracted.”

  “Oh, it’s just, there’s a lot of stuff going on right now.”

  Serena’s voice was soft and even.

  “You mean more than being on time for your scheduled engagement?”

  He caught the slight upturn of Serena’s lips as she hid her smile. “Thank you for doing this.”

  “It’s helping me too,” Freddie said. “So, thank you.”

  The elevator dinged as they reached the penthouse level. Freddie took Serena’s hand in his, and for the first time her cold fish hand squeezed back, and this time it was a little bit warmer.

  The stagnant smoggy air had sunk to street level, and when they stepped outside, they were met with a crisp evening breeze. Freddie could’ve sworn he smelled the apple blossoms all the way from the valley. The moon had climbed high into the sky, and was one day away from being full, the jagged peaks of the mountains glowed in its light.

  “Look at the mountains,” she gasped.

  “You’ve never been up here?” Freddie asked. The Limton building observation deck was on all the tourist brochures as a must-do sight-seeing event, and tonight the deck was at its capacity as tourists milled around checking out the moon.

  “No, I haven’t,” she replied. She stepped to the edge of the deck and bent to peer through the big metal binoculars. “Where is Chance Rapids?” she asked.

  Freddie leaned over Serena and adjusted the binoculars to face north. “Do you see that jagged peak – the tall one that looks like a cookie that’s someone taken a bite out of?”

  “I do,” she giggled. “It totally looks like bite marks in a cookie,”

  “That’s Sugar Peak, the tallest in the mountain range. Chance Rapids is at the base.”

  “It must be beautiful there.”

  Freddie could feel Serena’s back expanding and contracting as she inhaled and exhaled, taking in the view. He’d grown up in Chance Rapids and had never looked at the town from an outsider’s perspective. “You know what? It is beautiful. It’s not without its faults though.”

  Serena stood up and Freddie’s arm slipped from the binoculars to her shoulder. She turned to face him, “Things aren’t always as pretty and shiny as they seem, are they?”

  Freddie didn’t know what she meant. Was she referring to herself? Man, women are confusing, he thought. It seemed like a trap. “Um. Right,” he said. He drew her away from the edge and escorted her around the corner of the building. Red velvet ropes surrounded a single table draped in a red checkered tablecloth, a silver candelabra with seven candles burning brightly in the center. As they approached, a violinist stepped out of the shadows and started to play. Freddie could feel all the eyes on the observation tower turn to stare at them, all of a sudden, the couple was a lot more interesting than the city skyline.

  Freddie pulled out a chair for Serena and as he took his seat opposite her, a tuxedo-clad waiter arrived with two slices of cheesecake, a bottle of champagne, and some chocolate covered strawberries.

  The waiter popped the cork and filled their glasses. The light from the candles danced in Serena’s eyes and she smiled widely at Freddie as they clinked their glasses together. In his peripheral vision, Freddie could see the eerie blue glow produced by cell phones as the crowd recorded their moment.

  “Do you feel like you’re on stage?” he whispered through his forced smile.

  “Just go with it,” she whisper-smiled back.

  Freddie picked up a strawberry and fed it to Serena, the berries were in season and the sweet juice ran down his thick fingers as she took a bite. She picked up a strawberry and proceeded to feed it to Freddie.

  Anywhere else, with anyone else, this would’ve been a huge turn on, but now he empathized with the monkeys at the zoo.

  He cleared his throat and stood up. He walked to the far side of Serena so that his voice would carry loud enough for the crowd to hear what he was about to say.

  Serena looked up at Freddie, her eyes wide with expectation, and his heart started to hammer against his ribcage. Real or not, asking someone to marry you wasn’t as easy as Freddie had thought it would be. Murmurs from the crowd grew louder and as Freddie knelt on one knee, he heard its collective gasp.

  “Serena, from the moment I met you, I knew that you were the one. No one has ever made me feel the way you do.”

  That part was true. She frustrated the hell out of him. He pulled the royal blue box out of his jacket pocket, his hands shaking as he creaked the box open, presenting Serena with the huge ring. “Serena Cruise. Will you marry me?”

  Serena brought her hands to her mouth, and with great exaggeration, she nodded her head yes. Then she said it out loud, “Yes.”

  Freddie pulled the ring out and slid it on her finger. Sidney’s knew her ring size, so it fit perfectly.

  The crowd went wild, screaming and hooting as Serena stood up.

  Freddie pulled her in tightly to him and he squeezed his eyes shut to protect them from the camera flashes as they kissed. When he opened his eyes, he saw tears were streaming down Serena’s face.

  He whispered in her ear, “You should win an Oscar.”

  “It was perfect,” she whispered back.

  They turned to the crowd and waved. Their waiter had passed out sparklers and the night was aglow as they made their exit.

  Freddie had done it. He was fake engaged to Serena Cruise.

  Eleven

  Serena rolled out of bed and padded into her bathroom. She splashed some cold water on her face and the unfamiliar sparkle of the diamond ring on her left hand caught her eye. She held out her hand. It definitely wasn’t a ring she would’ve picked for herself; it was huge and sparkly – hard to miss.

  The evening had gone perfectly. Serena hoped that when she got engaged for real, her fiancé would whisk her off her feet and they would spend the night in a sweaty entanglement of sheets and orgasms.

  That’s not what happened – last night her fake fiancé ran for the hills the first chance he got.

  As she toweled off her hair, she scrolled through her photos from the evening. It couldn’t have looked more perfect. She had thousands of notifications and messages from well-wishers. More than she could ever hope to respond to.

  But with thousands of messages in her inbox, Serena had never felt more alone. She didn’t have any close friends. Sure she had many acquaintances but she didn’t have that person. The one that you call when you have news so exciting, you could burst. The person who would answer your call at four a.m.

  Her family had been those people. Sitting on the edge of her bed wrapped in her towel, she thought about how she would do anything to get her sister and mom back. It only made sense that she would get married to a man she barely knew to get her dad back.

  * * *

  Freddie heard a sharp rap on the door. His ladder was obstructing the front door where he saw Charlotte and Logan waiting. He shoved the screwdriver into his toolbelt and clambered down and moved the ladder out of the way.

  “Good morning,” Charlotte said.

  “Morning,” Freddie replied. The ladder clattered as he dragged it back into place so he could finish installing the ceiling fan.

  “Morning, Sunshine,” Logan said. “You look like shit.”

  “Thanks,” Freddie muttered.

  “Big party last night?”

  Freddie shot a glance at Charlotte. She pursed her lips at him, kissed Logan on the cheek, and patted his ass before heading into her office.

  “Something like that,” Freddie replied. “I got in late.”

  He had dropped Serena off and driven straight back to Chance Rapids. He hated driving the mountain pass at night this time of year because of the wildlife. More than one of his friends had hit a deer, but his real fear was the moose. With their reflection-less eyes, hitting one of them didn’t go well for anyone involved and the last thing he needed was to have to repair his truck. Again.

  “You want to come to Josh and Megan’s for dinner tonight?” Logan asked, his gaze trained on his girlfriend’s pencil-skirted behind as she walked away. “Megan is making burgers.”

  Freddie’s mouth started watering. Megan Johnson’s dinner parties had become so legendary, she could give Martha Stewart a run for her money.

  “I wish. I have to go back to the city.” Freddie sighed and clambered down the ladder. “Say hi to Megan and Josh for me, and sneak some of the burgers into your pocket for me.”

  Charlotte returned to the front of the office; her neck craned to look up at the ceiling fan. “It looks great. Thanks, Fred.”

  “Freddie can’t make it tonight,” Logan said to Charlotte.

  “It’s okay,” Freddie yelled, his voice echoing through the big building. “Logan’s going to stick some burgers in your handbag. Bring your biggest one.”

  “There’s no way I’m sticking Megan’s butter filled burgers in any bag of mine. Babe, we might have to move the dinner party to our place on Friday. I just booked an appointment for tonight.”

  Works for me. I’ve gotta go, Char.” Logan kissed Charlotte on the cheek. “I’ve got an early practice on Friday, so if that works for Meg, that works for me.”

  “I’ll call her and see,” Charlotte replied.

  Logan pulled Charlotte in tightly and nuzzled into her neck. She giggled.

  “Ugh. Get a room you two,” Freddie groaned.

  Logan stepped awkwardly around the ladder and squished his massive body through the doorway. Freddie turned to see Charlotte watching him with an amused look on her face. “He’s superstitious, like all hockey players. There’s no way he’d walk under this ladder.”

  Charlotte smiled, “I didn’t know that about him.” She sat down on one of the construction sawhorses. “I see it went well.”

  Freddie sat down beside her and took a sip of coffee from his thermos. “What?”

  “The proposal, you idiot.”

  “Right. That.” He sipped again.

  “She posted a million photos and videos.” Charlotte held up her phone and shook it. “The photographer that was planted got some great footage.”

  “Let me see it,” Freddie said.

  “You mean that you don’t follow your own fiancée on social media?”