Fake-dating my ex's boss

***** LILY *****

"Up or down?" I asked my reflection in the mirror. The party going on in the hotel's hall was already well underway, but I was still trying to figure out my outfit.

"Up" I decided. Taser, my boyfriend loved my hair up. And he would love the black dress I was in. Everything was to his liking tonight. My hair piled up, simple earrings adorning my ears. My dress wasn't dramatic, the cut was not revealing at all and I was in the lowest heels I had.

I brushed my hand over my darkly dyed hair, missing my natural blonde waves. Taser had joked severally that being blonde made me look like a dumb bimbo. Dark was better.

Besides, it was just hair.

And tonight was more important than that.

We were finally going public with our relationship! I grinned at my reflection as I bounced off the chair and did a small turn.

I could finally rub all my sister's doubts in her face. Myra didn't like my boyfriend. Or my bestfriend, or the way I lived. She didn't like a lot of things about me, but it was deserved. After everything I had done...

The room door opened suddenly, and a girl I was in the same design class with poked her head in.

"It's almost time for the bracelet ceremony!" She yelled before shutting the door.

Fuck, I needed to find Taser and go downstairs. Hopefully Evie was still with Taser's cousin, Camille and would be easy to find.

My best friend had left the room with Camille after she helped me into my dress, but now, I needed her help in choosing a better lip color.

Taser would like the nude, but I loved the red...

Oh what the hell, today was more important than lipstick too.

I applied the nude generously over my lips and tossed both tubes into my purse.

Now I just had to meet my boyfriend so we could head down together.

I stepped out of my room and into the crowded hallway, smiling at the faces I recognized and those I didn't. Everyone was excited.

Mostly for the end of school, but also, for the bracelet giving ceremony aka brace-pass . At the end of the party, everyone would know who was dating who, the couples that had separated, the new ones, hell it was the perfect opportunity to ask the person your interested in out.

I could barely contain my excitement.

My smile grew wider when I spotted Camille with her friends laughing. "Hey roomie." I waved to her friends. "Where's Evie?"

"Oh she's downstairs. She says you should hurry up by the way. You know how pissy she gets when you make her wait."

Nobody understood my best friend better than me. But she was not monopolizing me today. I was getting Taser first.

"Thanks." I chirped and moved past her.

"You're not headed to Taser's room are you, Lily?" Camille asked, stopping me.

"Of course I am. Evie can wait a little bit-"

"But she wants you now, you know how sad she's feeling because she doesn't have a boyfriend for the brace-pass."

Her words made me hesitate. Evie had been acting distant recently, and while I wanted to do everything to make her happy, I also had to put Taser first. Tonight was going to be the first night that someone other than his cousin, my bestie, and my family would know about us, and I didn't want to spend it with him upset. Evie would understand. She had to.

Camille smiled at me, "Don't worry, I'll get him down, just go meet Evie-"

Her words were interrupted by the chant "Bracepass" as guys flooded the hallways and drummed on the doors.

I turned and continued on my way while she was distracted, nearly skipping to his room with joy. I was sure my sister and her husband were down already.

As I reached the door to Taser's room my phone pinged with a new message.

Myra informing me about where she was. She would be easy to find.

I pushed the door open, my eyes still on my phone.

When I finally looked up, I found Taser on his knees, head to the side as he wiped his mouth, and my best friend standing, one leg propped on the bed, her eyes steadily on me.

I blinked severally, waiting for the image in front of me to fade away like a bad smell.

"Shit!" I heard Camille curse behind me.

It is only after she speaks that Evie straightens her leg and pushes her dress down. She brushed her hand over her shoulder and pulled the strap of her dress up, covering her exposed pink nipple.

Oh god. I'm going to be sick

I backed out of the room but collided into Camille.

"Shit." She cursed again, stopping me with her hands. "I'm going downstairs. Hope you can fix this Taser," She muttered.

Several seconds past without a word being uttered. And if someone had spoken, I could not hear them past the pounding in my chest.

I swallowed the bile in my mouth, "Care to explain?" I asked dumbly. Like any word out of their mouths could wipe the image of what I had walked in on.

Taser stood and approached me, a sheepish smile on his face, the one I always thought was cute. "We were just talking, babe. Then Evelyn dropped an earring and I had to help her get it. Right Evie?"

There was a slight dip in his tone, but his eyes never left mine.

"Right." She answered, her usual sarcastic bite to it.

What was happening? Was Taser actually planning on lying his way through this? I eyed my boyfriend, shock on my face.

"I know what I saw. You were...you and Evie..." a tightness in my throat settled and refused to leave. My eyes burned, the betrayal sinking in. "Why would you do this to me?"

"I-" Taser sighed, rubbing his eyes wearily. "It just happened, Lilybud. I was under a lot of pressure with the party, and meeting your family- I just panicked and...you know how that feels babe," he rubbed my shoulders fondly and put on a pitiable expression. "I cracked, okay? you know I would never do this to you..."

But you did! My mind screamed. All that came out of my mouth was a stuttering breath.

Evie snorted, drawing my attention. She sat on the edge of the bed, her hands stretched behind her for support. Looking more resentful than guilty. As if I was the problem here.

"Evie." Taser warned, before wrapping his hand around my wrist. My eyes never left hers while she glared at me in contempt. Come to think of it, she had not been in a hurry to cover up the crime.

She wanted me to find them.

I shook Taser off me.

"Evie." I could feel the chasm in my chest grow wider. "You're my best friend." My only friend. I would imagine anyone else in the world doing this but not her. "Why...why would you throw our friendship away for him?" She didn't even like Taser. If they ever hung out, it was because I forced them to. "All of that to be a side piece?" That wasn't Evie...Nothing made sense.

She broke into laughter, the sound rising with every second that passed. I wondered if I had stepped into an upside down reality.

"Side piece?" She giggled as she wiped tears from her eyes.

"Evelyn." Taser warned.

"Who's the side piece?" She continued, ignoring him as she stood. "Sweetheart no."

"Evelyn for fuck sake, stop!" He yelled, then tried to block my view of her. "Let's find somewhere else to talk babe, your friend is clearly drunk."

"Sure." She drawled, waving her hand dismissively. "You could do that Lilybud, or you can stay here and get your explanation."

"If you say another word, we're done. I swear it." Taser hissed. "Let's go, Lily."

My feet moved. My brain immediately going to obedient mode. Just how Taser liked me. I stepped away from him.

"Tell me."

"Me and your 'boyfriend' have been together since high school." She sounded pleased to pass that information, her voice lilting.

"Highschool?" That can't be right. "No, you guys met two years ago. Through me. You didn't-"

"We lied, Lily." Evelyn gloated, "I met Taser long before you. If anyone's the side piece, it's you."

***** LILY *****

Four year ago, I made a mistake that cost me my mother. I couldn't face my sister knowing what i had done. Knowing just how good I was at hurting the people who cared for me, so I did the only thing I knew how to. I ran... and hid.

I met Taser in a bar, a week after I had left Myra to deal with the consequences of my actions. He had been so kind, and I was drunk so I spilled on everything; The letter that led to mum's accident, and further back. A secret I couldn't even tell Myra for fear that she would hate me forever.

He listened to me the whole night and stuck by me eversince.

Then a year later, Evie showed up. The beautiful darkhaired, tall and sarcastic marvel. After she talked to me at our first class together, I knew she would be my best friend forever and introduced her to Taser.

She loved everything I loved, except him, who she hated being around.

I guess that changed... or better, it was never true.

Taser and Evie were in a shouting match and I had somehow found my way into a seat by the dressing table.

"You pretended you didn't know each other?" I could still remember their first meeting. My excitement at having my two favorite people come together. Taser's harmless flirting and Evie's disinterest. But they knew each other. And I stood there grinning like a fool.

"Ding ding Lilybud. Do you want a prize for using your brain?" Evie jested, a taunting smirk on her face, even though tears coated her cheeks. "That day after we 'met' I gave Taser a nice little blowjob in your car while we waited for you to get us lunch."

"Evelyn!-"

"Taser has NEVER been yours!" She screeched. "He has always been mine, till you waltzed into our lives with your rich girl tantrum. And stole him from me. And I had to watch you kiss, and touch, and go on and on about him like he was yours!"

"That's enough!" Taser bellowed and grabbed her arm. He whispered sharply to her ear, and whatever he must've said mellowed her out because she turned on her heel and stormed out, face still tear stained.

"This has to be a joke." Some sick prank that they were playing on me. In a minute she would come back through those doors, laughing as she told me that they got me good. All in time for us to retouch our makeup, head down and join the fun. "The party. Fuck." I breathed, resting my head in my hands. My sister was downstairs waiting for us. Waiting to meet my boyfriend.

"We're going to be late. We should head down." Taser groaned behind me. For a split second, I believed I had imagined his words. It was either that or everything else that happened before was a less bloodied version of a final destination vision.

No, that pink nipple was real. The light layer of my best friend's juices on his lips was very real. He was really expecting us to go on like nothing happened.

"Are you crazy?"

"Yes Lily, I am! I'm crazy about you." He knelt in front of my chair, staring up at me with his beautiful blue eyes. His hair had fallen over his eyes like it was prone to do. On an ordinary day, I would run my fingers through it and push it back. All I wanted to do now was pull.

"You know how much I love you, Lily. This thing with Evie, I wanted to stop it, but I felt bad for her, she was so clingy and threatened to kill herself-you know this is what she wants right? She wants to pull us apart. Tonight is everything you've wanted and she's trying to ruin it. Don't let her do that to us. We're stronger than that. " He squeezed my hand supportively and my insides twisted in hurt and disgust.

All these years I let myself be blinded by that night in the bar. Thinking that if he could hear all the deepest darkest parts of me and still want me, then he had to be perfect for me. It never mattered how much of me I had to change to be with him, he had accepted me that night and it was all that mattered to me.

So I let him nag, and throw shaded insults in my way. I let him- I didn't even recognize myself in a mirror. Dark hair, low heels, simple clothes so I wouldn't stand out...

"I lost weight to fit into this." I said to myself in disbelief as I rose. And that would be fine if I did it for myself, but I did it for him! For him to sit there and try to pin two years of cheating on Evie. Fallen earrings my ass.

"Told you it would be a perfect fit if you lost a couple pounds. Now look at you. You should thank me for buying a smaller size." And he did it with my money as well. What the hell happened to me? It felt like I was waking up from a fever dream. My dress felt tighter, the fabric rubbing me in all the wrong ways. Suffocating.

I got up as if in a daze, opened the door and stepped into the empty hallway. Everyone was at the party. Probably giving bracelets to their loyal boyfriends who didn't spend four years lying to them.

"I'm sure we'll still be in time for the ceremony." Taser assured, keeping stride with me. "We'll talk about everything after, I promise. We're in this together."

My anger boiled.

He thought he had me so wrapped around him that I would forgive two fucking years of lies! Of being a complete fool.

Of course he would think that, look at me.

I raised my hand to hair and removed the pins holding it in place, tossing them as I continued to the hall.

Taser played me. Evie played me. His cousin must've been in on this scam too. She tried to stop me from getting to his room.

And he thought I would still be the stupid twat for him. I could play his game. Fool him like he fooled me. Even if it meant being attached to him.

I enter the hall, my eyes immediately falling on the row of girls in the centre of the room, offering or fixing bracelets on the wrists of the guys with them, all wearing silly smiles. I was supposed to be one of them.

"Lily!" I hear a familiar voice call and turn to find my sister weaving through the crowd to get to me. I see the man next to her and stop, stunned.

The invitation I extended was to my sister and her husband, Pierce. But instead of him, she was with Jace.

Jace the last person I would expect to see here, Jace the asshole douchebag from hell.

"That's Jace Whitmore!" I hear Taser hiss excitedly beside me. I can hear the buzz around me already as they get closer.

Then it hits me. Maybe I don't need to stay with Taser to get my pay back.

What I need is his new boss.

Jace.

***** JACE *****

The sound of laughter rang out from my left and I hummed in disapproval.

Why the hell was I here again?

Myra giggled beside me and I turned to look at my friend's grinning face.

"God, you're such a grouch." She teased, the corners of her eyes crinkling.

"Myra, the only words I want to hear from your mouth are 'Oh Jace my savior, thank you for accompanying me to this party instead of working all night like my husband' anything else, zip it."

I had at least three contracts to review with my secretary, let's not forget Michael's proposal for the quaterly convention ....last year's was bad and I had to make sure everything went smoothly this time around. I knew there was something else I was forgetting.

So far I'd run the company for a full year without burning in to the ground, but me and everyone who knew me thought there was still time for that. No one would be surprised if I screwed up.

"Jace."

"What?" I asked, sounding irritated. I noticed a pair of girls whispering to themselves as they glanced my way. One of them smiled in my direction but I turned to Myra, dismissing them.

My second problem. Since I was so "volatile", the board had decided having a wife would somehow make me stable. I was all too aware of my title as an eligible bachelor.

What that meant for me was a bunch of women I had to turn down. Old Jace would never turn a good time down. And I had plenty.

I sighed and tried to focus my attention on the present.

"You know, Pierce actually wanted you to come here today. He says you're overworked."

That fucker.

"He's working right now and that's not an issue." I argued.

"He's working now because he spent the whole week with us."

'Us' being their three kids, strange grandmother, and her sister. The reason I was at this party.

"Where's your sister?" I didn't like saying her name, the way it rolled off my tongue like a praise made my brain itch in a bad way.

"I texted her a few minutes ago."

"Great. The sooner she gives her ring to her boyfriend, the less time I have to spend here."

"It's a promise bracelet."

I shot her another irritated look.

"Jeez, what is it about the job that makes you all so cranky?" She rolled her eyes and focused on the party. "Oh look, there she is."

Myra grabbed my shoulder and pointed at the far right, towards the entrance. I heard my name being whispered.

Fun. More people were noticing me. Or was it Myra? The woman had managed to tame the city's meanest and richest man, four years after their wedding and they were still the talk of town.

Her sister stood, dark hair loose around her shoulders in a black dress that showed her silhouette. Her eyes were towards the group of girls giving their bracelets.

I don't know what it was but something felt off.

I followed Myra silently, steeling myself for the meeting with Lily. She and I never got along. Not after what I did to her, but I preferred it that way. I would break someone like her.

Myra shouted her name and it surprisingly carried through in the loud room. It was then that I noticed her boyfriend next to her. The guy who was dumb enough to date her and not want to be public with her. Lily didn't deserve a fucker like him. But she wanted him. So much that she got Myra to talk to me about placing him as an intern in my firm.

Lily smiled, a spark in her eye. She grinned at Myra and hugged her, a look quite different from what she had when we first saw her, on her face.

"Mr Whitmore, it is such an honor to meet you in person, I can't wait to officially be a part of the company after my internship." Dumb boyfriend started.

I grunted, my eyes still on Lily. The question of his employment was based on his performance. If he thought Lily was an easy in, he was wrong.

She separated from her sister and looked at me. But instead of the usual disdain, there was something else...

And she was smiling at me. Cheek dimples and all. I ignored the foreign feeling in my chest and narrowed my eyes at her.

Lily only rolled her eyes before she came closer and wrapped her arms around me.

Wait, this was a hug.

I looked down at the top of her head, my body completely rigid, then glanced at her sister who looked just as surprised.

"What the fuc-"

"Jace..." she whispered breathily, and fuck if that didn't fry my brain further. She pulled back slightly, one hand still halfway around me and the other on my arm. "I just want to let you know that I've thought about your offer."

"Lily, what are you doing?" Her boyfriend hissed, looking around us. I became aware that we had attracted a lot more attention.

It is on my tongue to ask Lily why the hell she was still holding on, when I feel her short nails dig into my arm.

Painfully.

I look down again, and find a plea in her eyes. Is she begging? Begging for what?

my offer...

"Uhh... and what do you think about my offer?"

She laughed giddily like she was excited to reveal the news and I wondered about the decisions that brought me here.

"Yes!" She said loudly. I'm sure the room was completely silent. "I will be your girlfriend!"

Hwhat?

"Now hold on-" Myra starts to speak but Lily grabbed her hand quickly.

"I'm so sorry, I never told you, but Jace had asked me out a while ago. And he's been incessant about it. I told him I would give him an answer tonight so, there it is. I think I want to give us a chance." She didn't say it loud enough for everyone to hear, but her boyfriend and a couple others must've heard.

I was sure Myra is also in a death grip, because she said, "oh...darling that's...that's wonderful." I guess being actors in the past was paying off for both of us.

Lily released our arms and dug into her purse for something. Seconds later, she was armed with a bracelet.

The murmurs around us increased as she slipped the little bracelet onto my wrist. was this her elaborate way of breaking up with him? I knew Lily was dramatic but to rope us into it. So childish. I imagined dealing with the press after this.

"There" she said when she was done and everyone erupted into cheers and clapping.

Her boyfriend grabbed her hand and pulled her, and I fought the urge to smack him.

"What are you doing? What do you mean by you're his girlfriend?! We were supposed to-"

"Timothy, would you like to do this here, or somewhere more private." She whispered back.

His eyes darted to mine briefly. And whatever he saw made him drop his arm. He cleared his throat and straightened his suit. "Private."

Lily hugged her sister and me at the same time, awkwardly. "I'm so sorry, I promise I'll explain later. But we should leave soon, I'll meet you in the lot."

"Lily-" Myra started but she was gone. "I guess we should do as she says.

"You should go to the car, I'll be there with Lily." Myra nodded once, before I started weaving through the crowd in the direction Lily had gone.