One Week Girlfriend (2 page)

“Thanksgiving break is next week,” he starts out and I roll my eyes.

Duh. I’m extra thankful for it too. Means everyone will vacate this town and the bar will be virtually empty, making work a breeze. “Go on.”

“I have to go back home.” He pauses, his gaze cutting away from mine and uneasiness slips down my spine. I have no idea what this has to do with me. “I want you to go with me.”

Okay. That I didn’t expect. “What? Why?”

His gaze meets mine once more. “I want you to pretend to be my girlfriend for a week.”

I gape at him. I feel like a dying fish. Closing my lips, opening them. As if I’m gasping for my last breath, which I sorta feel like I’m doing. “You’re kidding.”

He slowly shakes his head. “I’m not.”

“Why me?”

“I…” He shakes his head and clamps his lips shut, as if he doesn’t want to tell me. “I’ll pay you.”

I cross my arms in front of my chest. They’re elevated from the stupid puffy jacket. I hate it so much but it’s the warmest coat I own. I bet I look like a blimp. “I’m not for sale.”

“Listen, I don’t want to pay you for anything—sexual.” His voice drops an octave and chills scatter all over my skin. The way he said that was sexy, though he didn’t mean to be. “I just need you to pretend to be my girlfriend. We won’t have to share a room or anything like that. I’m not going to try and get in your pants, but we’ll have to look like we’re together, you know what I mean?”

No answer. I want him to continue this so I can remember later how I had Drew freaking Callahan begging me to be his pretend girlfriend. The moment couldn’t get any more surreal than it already is.

“I know you have a life and a job and whatever else that you do. It’ll probably be hard for you to ditch everything and go away with me for a week, but I swear, I’ll make it worth your time.”

He makes me feel cheap with that last remark. Like I’m the whore every guy brags that I am. The exaggerations are out there. The stories so outrageous, I don’t bother denying them. There’s no point. “How much are you talking?”

His gaze locks with mine and I’m trapped. Anticipation curls through me as I wait for his answer.

“Three thousand dollars.”

~* Chapter Two *~

T-Minus 2 days and counting…

For once, I want to know what it feels like to be someone’s first choice.
 
– Fable Maguire

Fable

I still can’t believe I agreed to do this. Three thousand dollars is way too much money to let pass by. And Drew knows it. He had me the moment that staggering number dropped from his perfect lips. Despite my wariness and worry over how the heck I’m going to leave town for a week and not have my world completely fall apart while I’m gone, I said yes without any hesitation.

Guess I’m just too greedy. I can’t let that sort of opportunity go and that makes me feel like crap. Despite how much I tell myself I’m doing it for my family. For my brother, Owen. He’s only thirteen and I hate to see how much of a troublemaker he’s turning into. He’s sweet, he has a good heart but he’s fallen in with a shitty group of boys at school and he’s doing bad stuff like cutting class, minor shoplifting and I know he’s smoked weed a few times. I’ve smelled it on his clothes.

Our mom doesn’t care. I’m the only one who does. And now I’m leaving for a week. He’ll be out of school for only half that time, but that’s enough time for him to get into trouble.

The tug of war going on in my heart is near overwhelming.

“Why you gotta leave?”

I pull the old duffel bag no one’s used in however long from the top shelf of the closet and toss it on my mom’s bed. A cloud of dust puffs up when it lands. “I won’t be gone long.”

“A week, Fable. You’re leaving me here with Mom for seven fucking days.” Owen flops back onto her bed next to the duffel bag and starts coughing from the dust lingering in the air.

“Don’t cuss.” I smack his knee and he rolls over with an exaggerated yelp. “It’s a special job that’s going to pay me a lot of money. We’ll have a good Christmas.”

“I don’t give a shit about Christmas.”

I shoot him a harsh glare and he mumbles a halfhearted sorry. Since when did he feel so comfortable cursing like that in front of me? What happened to the whiny little brother who followed me everywhere as if he worshipped me?

“And what sort of special job pays you so much money for such a short amount of time?” The sarcasm in his voice is clear. He’s too young—no, not really, I’m just fooling myself—but I hope he doesn’t think I’m off prostituting myself.

I sure feel like I am.

My brain scrambles as I try to come up with an excuse. I can’t tell Owen what I’m really doing. I didn’t tell him how much money I was making. He just knows it’s a lot. Didn’t tell my mom either, not that she cares. I haven’t seen her in well over twenty-four hours, but she has a new boyfriend so I’m sure she’s with him. “I’m going to be a nanny for a family while they go on vacation for Thanksgiving break. They have three kids.”

The lie falls easily from my lips and that scares me.

Owen starts to laugh, the jerk. “You’re going to be a nanny? You hate kids!”

“I do not.” I so do. “The family’s really nice.” I have no idea if the Callahans are nice. “And I get to stay in a huge mansion.”

Drew told me his family lives in Carmel. I’ve never been there, but I’ve heard of it. I did a little Google research at the library and saw photos. The place looks amazing. Expensive.

Scary.

“You won’t want to leave, I guess.” Owen sits up, runs his finger across the top of the duffel bag, leaving a streak in the dust. “You’re going to look like a broke bitch, showing up with this shitty bag.”

“Did you just call me a broke bitch?” I can’t be offended because what he says is the truth. I’m going to look ridiculous with my meager wardrobe and my torn and dusty duffel bag. His family will laugh at me. Drew will probably laugh at me. Then he’ll press a fifty in the palm of my hand and drop me off at the bus station because he’ll realize quick I make the shittiest fake girlfriend ever.

“Maybe.” Owen smirks. “I hope you leaving is worth it.”

Dread consumes me for the quickest moment, but I shove it away. “It will be, I promise.”

“What if Mom disappears?” For a second, I get a glimpse of the old Owen. The little boy who depends on me, who treats me like his mom since ours is so unreliable.

“She won’t.” I already talked to her and I’ll talk to her again before I leave. She needs constant hounding, like I’m the mother and she’s the kid. “I’ll make her swear to come home every night.”

“You better. Or I’ll be calling you and begging
you
to come home.” The smirk is back. “I might call you a broke bitch again and you’ll get so mad, you have to come here just to kick my ass.”

That’s it. Reaching for him, I start tickling his sides, my fingers digging into his ribs, the sound of his laughter filling me with happiness. “Stop,” he pants between fits of laughter. “Get off me!”

I can almost forget how crappy our life is in this one single, silly moment.

Almost.

Drew

“You’re bringing someone home.” My dad puts his hand over the receiver but I can still hear him. “Adele, Drew is bringing someone home for Thanksgiving.”

I wince. No way did I want my dad to blab to my stepmom, especially when I’m still on the phone with him. She’d find out sooner or later but I hoped for later.

“What’s her name?” I hear her voice. She doesn’t sound pleased. That makes everything inside me clench up.

“Fable,” I tell my dad without being prompted.

My dad is quiet for so long I think he’s hung up, but then I hear Adele whispering in the background. “Well, Andy? What’s her name?”

She sounds like a jealous shrew. She probably is.

“Is that a nickname or what?” my dad asks me.

“It’s her real name.” I have no explanation for it either. Hell, I hardly know Fable Maguire. She’s a townie. She’s twenty years old, she has a little brother and she works at a bar.

Fable also has pretty pale blonde hair, green eyes and nice tits. But I’m not going to tell my dad that. I’m sure he’ll figure it out on his own.

Muffled tones come across again and I know he’s telling Adele Fable’s name. I hear her laugh. She’s such a bitch. I hate Adele. My mom died when I was like two. I don’t remember her and I wish I did. My dad started dating Adele when I was eight and married her when I was eleven.

Adele is really the only mom I’ve ever had, and I don’t want her. She knows it too.

“Well, bring your little Fable to stay with us, she’s more than welcome.” Dad pauses, and I tense up, afraid of what he might ask next. “You’re not one to have a steady girlfriend.”

“This one’s different.” More like the opposite of any girl they expect me to be with. In my eyes, this makes Fable just about as perfect as can be.

“Are you in love with her?” Dad lowers his voice. “Adele wants to know.”

Anger boils inside me. Like it’s any of her business. “I don’t know. What’s love anyway?”

“You sound like a complete cynic.”

Learning from the best did that to a person. My dad’s pretty standoffish. I can’t remember the last time I’ve seen him kiss or hug Adele. He certainly doesn’t kiss or hug me, not that I’d let him.

“Yeah well, we’ve been dating for a while, but I don’t know.” I shrug, remember he can’t see me and I feel like an idiot.

“You’ve never mentioned her before.”

“What is this, the third degree?” I’m starting to sweat only because I’m lying. I haven’t talked to Fable all day and it’s Thursday night. We leave Saturday afternoon. We need to get together and get our stories straight, though I suppose we’ll have plenty of time during the four hour drive to get the details hammered in.

My throat goes dry at the idea of being with Fable in my truck alone for four hours. What will we talk about? I don’t know her and I’m going to take her to my dad’s house and pretend that we’re together. We have to act like we’re a real couple.

What the hell did I set myself up for?

“I’m just curious. We’ll find out all the details when you two get here, I’m sure. Saturday night, right?”

“Yeah.” I swallow hard. “Saturday night.”

“We should be out at yet another country club function. You still have your key?”

“I do.” Damn it, I really don’t want to go back. Bad shit happened there. I’ve avoided that place like the plague for a while now. We’ve gone out of town for the holidays the last couple of years, spending Thanksgiving or Christmas in Hawaii at my dad’s timeshare. Or I stay at school because of football practice or whatever lie I can come up with that keeps me away from them for a little bit longer.

Tough life, I know. From the outside, my family looks perfect. Well, as perfect as a family can be with one dead mother and one dead sister. A fucked up stepmother and a cold as hell father.

Yeah. Real perfect.

That my dad insisted I come home this Thanksgiving sucks. Last time we talked, he told me he’s tired of all of us avoiding the house during the holidays. We need to make new memories.

I don’t want to make any memories. Not there. Not with Adele.

“We’ll see you then.” I can hear my dad walking, his feet echoing against the tile floor, as if he was getting out of earshot of Adele. “This Thanksgiving will be good, son. You’ll see. The weather’s supposed to be nice and your mother seems much healthier.”

“She’s not my mother,” I say through clenched teeth.

“What?”

“Adele’s not my mom.”

“She’s the only mother you’ve ever really had.” Great. Now he’s offended. “Why can’t you just accept her? My God, she’s been part of your life for so long.”

The most fucked up part of my life, not that I can reveal that to my dad. If he didn’t figure everything out then, he sure as hell couldn’t conceive of it now.

“I don’t like how easily you forget my real mom. I don’t ever want to forget her,” I say vehemently.

He remains silent for a while and I stare out the window but see nothing. It’s dark, raining lightly and the wind is at it again, whipping the bare branches of the trees that dot the open courtyard of the apartment complex I live in back and forth. I can see them swaying in the darkness.

People think my life is so amazing. It’s fucking not. I study hard and play harder because it helps me forget. I have friends, but not really. Most of the time, I’m alone. Like now. I’m sitting in my room in the dark. Talking to my dad and wishing like hell I could tell him the truth.

But I can’t. I’m trapped. I need a buffer to get me through what could end up being one of the worst weeks of my life. Thank God for Fable. She has no clue how much she’s helping me.

She can never know either.

~* Chapter Three *~

Travel Day (doesn’t count)

Only a fool trips on what’s behind him.
 
– Unknown