The Decoy Girlfriend(34)
“What’s wrong with a guy who articulates himself well?”
Freya rolls my eyes. “Believe me, I could enumerate the ways.”
“I would love to argue more about this with you, but it’s almost nine, so I’m going to open the store and then get started on our online order mailouts.” As Stori walks away, she turns around and yells, “And get rid of Randy’s name tag! I swear, you’re going to get in actual trouble one day!”
Once Stori disappears into the storeroom, Freya taps open her manuscript.
Unlike her usual writing days, today there’s a happy hum in her fingertips—she’s ready to type. Even though Stori would love to know that Freya has a new book idea, she’s keeping it to herself, just in case it doesn’t go anywhere. She’s used to several months of failed starts, but after meeting Mandi, she’s finally unearthed a story she’s excited about.
Ironically enough, seeing Mandi with a pair of scissors yesterday had jump-started her imagination in an unexpected, pseudo-murdery way. Even though she was already exhausted from their quiz session, Freya stayed up half the night pulling together a new pitch: a young adult thriller about a teen starlet who ropes a look-alike runaway into taking her place at a performing arts academy on the Upper East Side for sinister reasons, not least of which are the two bad boys who are currently pursuing her.
The similarities to her own situation aren’t lost on her, but she’s in no position to turn down inspiration when it strikes. Not only is the timing serendipitous, this one just feels right, already half formed in her mind, title and all: Kill to Be You.
It’s a bit strange to have a spark of story so new and precious to safeguard. Even if it goes nowhere, at least she’s doing something this morning instead of typing “THE END” just to feel something. Which, sadly, has been happening more often lately.
Freya keeps typing as the morning meanders slowly into afternoon, right around the time post-lunch she starts getting bored and drowsy. She knows how lucky she is to work here, and the last thing she wants is for Emma and Cliff to catch her sleeping on the job, but Freya wouldn’t mind a continuation of last night’s dream, which had drifted into hazy memory all too quickly. All she remembers is Taft was there.
And now he’s very much here.
“You!” Freya finds herself accusing him for the second time in as many days.
His lips twitch. “You really have to work on your customer service.”
Her eyes slink from a curl messily draped over his forehead to the drinks in his hand. “Kinda like how you should work on your listening skills. You brought another iced coffee in here? Seriously?”
He’s unrepentant. “Technically, I brought two. And I still don’t see a sign up, Randy.”
“You’re lucky I don’t have the power to ban you for life.” But she accepts the coffee with a blush. “Thanks. How did you get in here without me noticing, anyway?”
He gives the bookshop a quick once-over. “Is there somewhere we can talk privately?”
The store isn’t crowded, just a mother-daughter pair out in the bookgarten and an elderly man who buys and reads a new book every time his wife drops him off to run errands.
“Um, I can step away from the register, but I can’t leave the floor.” She hesitates. “We could go into the stacks?”
He nods and follows Freya among the shelves, where they’re hidden from any prying eyes.
Today he’s dressed in a gray V-neck tee that looks like it would be soft to the touch, and well-fitting jeans that sit snug on his hips and taper down the length of his long legs. Freya passes dozens of guys dressed like him on the street every day, but no one could ever mistake Taft for being commonplace.
With the tall bookshelves bracketing them, he feels impossibly close. Butterflies stir low in her belly, wings fluttering faster and harder with every second.
“So, why are we skulking around like two teenagers about to make out in a library?” she asks.
Taft’s entire body jerks. “That’s not what we’re doing,” he says hoarsely, tightening his fingers around the coffee cup. “Wait, are you speaking from experience? In an actual library?”
She crosses her arms. “I’m not telling you that. I could have been talking in hypotheticals.”
“Yeah, but you weren’t.” His tone is mildly scandalized. He sets his cup on the shelf ledge, and she follows suit. “You’re an author. Shouldn’t a library be, like, your holy ground?”
A laugh startles out of Freya. Please, there’s no way he’s such a Boy Scout. She’s seen the indecent things he’s done with his mouth during on-screen kisses. And it’s no secret that Mandi is a fan of PDA.
She raises an eyebrow. “I’m sure you and your girlfriend have gone further than kissing in way more public places than this. Besides, I’m only your decoy girlfriend, remember? We don’t actually need to discuss our exes. Pretty sure they don’t run in the same social circles.”
His lips part as though he’s about to argue, but then he clenches his jaw. “We have a birthday party to attend tonight, and Mandi overlooked something. If we don’t resolve it, it’s going to give you away before we even get started. So that’s why I’m here.”
Freya tenses. Not only does she have to move into Taft’s place tonight, but they have to do their first appearance together, too? Mandi did warn her that their managers wanted to move fast on the action items, but in no way does Freya feel ready for the lion’s den.