The Chemistry of Love(29)

“This relationship of theirs isn’t going to last. They’ve only been together for a couple of months. We would just be helping to speed things along.”

“My grandparents dated for six weeks, got married, and have been together for almost fifty years. It can happen.”

“How many decades ago was that?” he countered. “The world was different then.”

“Fine.” Whether or not people could be happily married after knowing each other for only a short amount of time was irrelevant to this discussion. “You should know that I’m a terrible liar. I have an obvious tell. It’s that everyone knows when I’m lying.”

“I’m excellent at it,” he said.

“I don’t know if that’s something you should be proud of.”

“Unfortunately, it was necessary.” A shadow passed over his face, but he tried to smile through it. “That’s easy enough to take care of. We’ll actually date. Like, today for example. I asked you to lunch; you came.” He reached into his back pocket and pulled out a wallet. He grabbed a hundred-dollar bill and put it on the table. “And now I’ve paid for our food. All of which makes this an official date. And we can spend time together and keep ‘dating.’ Being comfortable with one another, getting to know each other, that will help sell all of this. It will feel real and not like a lie.”

I threw up both of my hands. Was he going to argue with every point I made? “There’s no guarantee of success here. There are too many variables. It’s unpredictable.”

“What’s the alternative?” he asked. “You do nothing—you know the inevitable outcome. A hundred percent odds that you don’t get to be with Craig. But if you do something, go along with my plan, you could potentially affect the end result for the better. This is your chance to conduct a real-life experiment. Find out whether or not I’m right.”

I still wasn’t quite sold, but he was making a good amount of headway. “I don’t like things I can’t control.”

“Nobody does. Although there is something to be said about injecting a little chaos into your life to change things up. We could have some fun together. And in the end, you could wind up with the guy you’re in love with.”

He made that chaos sound enticing. I tried my last protest. “I need to spend time looking for a new job. I don’t really have the time to pretend to date you.”

“I actually have a solution for that. KRT Limited can bring you on as a consultant. I checked, and they haven’t used their full consultant budget for Minx this year, and we’ll lose that money if we don’t hire someone.”

“You want me to consult on how to ruin Craig’s relationship?”

“No. We can talk about makeup and facial products. You are a cosmetic chemist, after all. And our consultants get paid a flat fee instead of an hourly rate.” Then he named a figure that was three times my previous annual salary.

I couldn’t help it. I gasped. “Why is it so much?”

“Consultants get paid more for their expertise and because we don’t have to pay benefits, given that it’s a short-term arrangement,” he said.

Wow. It was a lot of money. I could replace all the appliances in the kitchen that had been born before I had. It would also mean that I could buy that high-shear mixer. The red one. My precious.

To stop any further objection, he added, “You would technically be employed by KRT, so there wouldn’t be any conflict with us ‘dating.’” There was a tone to his words that indicated it wouldn’t have mattered to Minx if he was my boss.

At least he didn’t remind me again that the company didn’t have a nonfraternization rule. That would have annoyed me.

And if I’d had any dignity, I would have told him no. That he could keep his fancy job that paid a ridiculous amount of money and the opportunity to win over the man I was in love with, no matter how improbable it all seemed.

Unfortunately, dignity had never been my strong suit.

“All I would have to do is hang out with you?” I asked.

“It would be a bit more involved than that, but essentially yes.”

I tried to bring up that fantasy I had of Craig, and for a few seconds, I saw his face as we walked, holding hands, but it kept shifting to Marco. I don’t know what that was about, but I wanted what I’d initially imagined. Craig and me together, having our happily ever after.

“Do you want Craig?” he asked, almost as if he could see my thoughts.

“More than almost anything,” I admitted.

“Then give this a chance. We can both get what we want.”

This was all so bonkers. My grandma would have so much to say about it if she knew. That kind of made me want to do it.

He must have sensed my resolve weakening. He said, “You can’t think about this like you’re trying to hurt people. You want to be with Craig, and you think he would be happy with you. My company stays safe. We would all be happy.”

“Not Leighton.”

“Leighton could move on to finding her next victim. I don’t think she’d be too heartbroken.”

Besides the Leighton stuff—he was right. This was a perspective I hadn’t considered yet. How this might be a beneficial thing for both Craig and me. This could mean me ending up with the man of my dreams. Why would I miss out on that opportunity? Marco was also spot-on about changing the outcome of my current situation. If I didn’t do something, I would have zero chance with Craig because he was going to marry someone else.