Faking Ms. Right (Dirty Martini Running Club #1)(40)

But I stopped myself from insisting. Clenched my teeth and looked at her hand for a few seconds. She stood frozen, her arm outstretched, her eyes on my face.

I cleared my throat and moved past her into the kitchen. It didn’t matter if she took it off to go running. It wasn’t real. She wasn’t my girlfriend, or my fiancée. She was just Everly, my assistant.

Except she wasn’t. She was a hell of a lot more, and I didn’t know what the fuck I was going to do about that.





17





Everly





The bar was crowded, with a playful energy filling the air. People milled around in small groups while an endless stream of anti-love songs played in the background. Crossed-out hearts hung from the ceiling and papered the side of the bar, an ode to tonight’s theme—Stupid Cupid Saturday.

I sat at a tall table, already sipping a martini—dirty tonight—and tapped my high-heeled foot to a cover of “Love Stinks.” Nora and Hazel had arrived after me and were at the bar, ordering their drinks. I was so glad we were having a girls’ night. I hadn’t seen them in a couple of weeks and with everything that had been going on, I wanted some normalcy. Saturday night out with the girls was perfect.

They made their way through the crowd to our table. Nora’s hair was down, the thick waves framing her face. She wore a short black dress and the cutest red heels—the ensemble looked magnificent on her. Hazel was dressed in a cardigan over a blouse and pencil skirt. Adorable, in a Hazel sort of way. She adjusted her glasses as she and Nora each took a seat, setting their martinis on the table.

“What in the hell is that?” Nora asked, pointing at my ring.

I sighed. I’d considered leaving the ring at home, but the look Shepherd had given me when I’d told him I’d taken it off for my run had been so odd. He’d looked mad—sort of. Or maybe confused. It was hard to tell with him, and he hadn’t said anything else. But I’d slipped it back on before I’d left, feeling like I should probably wear it when I went out. Even though it would mean fessing up to my friends about my fake-engagement debacle.

“It’s an engagement ring,” I said. “A fake engagement ring.”

Nora visibly relaxed. “Oh, I see. It’s not real. I was going to say, holy shit that rock is enormous.”

“Oh, no—the diamond is real.”

Her eyes widened and she stared at the monstrosity on my hand. “What?”

“I mean the engagement is fake. Obviously I’m not marrying Shepherd. But it’s a real diamond.”

“We’re coming back to the part where you’re pretending to be engaged now, because obviously you need to tell us what the fuck that’s about,” Nora said. “But look at that thing. He bought that? It’s not on loan or something?”

“No, he bought it.”

Hazel lifted my hand to inspect the ring up close. “That’s quite the investment in an engagement that isn’t real.”

“It’s ridiculous,” I said. “I don’t know how people wear things like this all the time. It keeps catching on everything.”

“A worthy sacrifice,” Nora said, her voice awed. “It’s gorgeous.”

I pulled it off my finger and held it out to her. “Want to try it on?”

“Do I ever.” Nora smiled as she slipped the ring on. She held out her hand, manicured fingers splayed. “Oh yes.”

“Should you start dropping hints to Max?” I asked, grinning at her. “An engagement ring looks good on you.”

Nora glared at me and switched the ring to her right hand. “No thanks. We broke up anyway.”

“Oh, I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be,” she said, tilting her head to admire the ring. “He was pretty, and his dick wasn’t bad, but I just wasn’t that into him.”

“But Everly,” Hazel said, “why did he buy you an engagement ring? Was the ruse not convincing enough?”

“No, it was. But I kind of blurted out to Svetlana that Shepherd proposed.”

“Why?”

I sighed again. “She came over while Shepherd was taking Richard to an appointment. I invited her in to wait and we ended up talking. She said she wanted to warn me about Shepherd. That I didn’t know what I was getting into by dating him.”

Nora rolled her eyes. “I’m sure she only had your best interests at heart.”

“Hardly. That woman hates me. Anyway, she said Shepherd doesn’t do commitment.” I made air quotes. “And that he just uses people. She said he’s cold and ruthless, and he’ll cast me aside when he’s done with me. It made me so mad. Shepherd isn’t like that. It’s true he doesn’t usually date women for long, but look at the women he dates. They’re like her. He’s the one constantly being used, not them.”

“So you tried to counter her argument by claiming to be engaged,” Hazel said.

“Obviously I had to prove her wrong.”

“Well, this must certainly have shut her up,” Nora said, pulling the ring from her finger. She handed it back to me and I put it on.

“I didn’t want to get one this large, but Shepherd pointed out that it’s what she would want. She saw me with it the other night and I have to admit, the look on her face was hilarious.”