The Boyfriend Arrangement. Andrea Laurence

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      The women around the coffee table nodded. “Everything is ready. Just a few more things to throw in the luggage before we go. We’re leaving the twins with Oliver’s dad,” Lucy said. “That’s the biggest stressor for me. I haven’t been away from them since they were born, but there’s no way I’m flying overseas with twins at that age.

      “Knox is older than the twins, so I’m hoping he does okay on the flight. It will be his first,” Violet explained. “I couldn’t leave him behind, though. It seems wrong to marry his father without having him there.”

      “Of course. I’m sure he’ll do great. Georgette is staying with my parents, but they’ll have her nanny with them, so I’m not worried.” Emma turned to Harper. “What about you? Are you ready to go? At least you don’t have men and kids to wrangle before the trip. I almost forget what it’s like to just have to worry about myself.”

      “Yep,” Harper said. She took a deep breath and prepared herself to tell the story she’d come up with after talking to Sebastian. Her intention was to tell them as little as possible, but she knew she had to fill the girls in on her new beau before the trip. They were the only ones who would really care. If she sold the story to them, everyone else would take it at face value.

      Including Quentin. Hopefully. If he didn’t buy it, there was no point in continuing the ruse. This whole ridiculous scheme was designed with the sole purpose of making him believe she had someone in her life. That she wasn’t pathetically single and still pining for him. Because she was anything but pining. She was glad to have Quentin out of her life. He was just too egomaniacal to see her single status as anything other than a reflection of her wishing they were still together.

      Selling it to her friends wouldn’t be so easy, though.

      “I’ve got the dress, the passport and...uh...the boyfriend all ready to go.” She said the words quickly and then waited for the inevitable response.

      Emma, Violet and Lucy all paused as anticipated and turned to look at her. The questions came too fast and furiously for her to respond to any of them.

      “What?”

      “Your boyfriend?”

      “Am I missing something, here?”

      Harper winced and nodded when they finally quieted down. “Yeah, um, his name is Sebastian.” She got up to refill her wine and stall the conversation a moment. She was going to need some alcohol to get through this conversation. When she came back into the room from the kitchen, the girls were sitting frozen in place with expectant looks on their faces. “He’s the guy I’ve been seeing for a few months.”

      “Months?” Violet wailed. “You’ve been seeing a guy for months and didn’t think to mention it to us?”

      “You guys have all been busy with your own lives. Babies, weddings...” Harper explained. “And, to be honest, I didn’t want to jinx it. It wasn’t that serious at first and I got tired of mentioning guys to you all and then we didn’t get past the third date. Things were going well, so I wasn’t ready to talk about him yet. Just in case.”

      “And now you’re ready to talk? ’Cause you’re sure as hell going to give us every detail,” Lucy sassed.

      Harper shrugged. Not really, but the time had come to spill some information if she was going to pull this off. “I guess I have to if I want to bring him on the trip.”

      “I noticed you RSVP’d for two, but you left off the guest’s name,” Violet said. “I was wondering what that meant.”

      “Yeah, I was hopeful that things would work out for him to come,” Harper continued to lie, noting that after pretending she had money for a decade, pretending to have a boyfriend wasn’t as hard as she’d thought it would be. “But if it fell apart between us, I thought I might bring a friend. Or no one. But things are great and so Sebastian is coming. I’ll give you his information to add to the travel manifest.”

      “I’m eager to meet him,” Emma said. “And intrigued. You haven’t really had much luck dating since you and Quentin broke up. Where did you two meet? He’s not one of your Tinder finds, is he?”

      “Oh, no. Those were a mess. I actually met Sebastian at one of the hospital fund-raisers this winter. The one raising money for the orthopedics center, I think.” That, at least, wasn’t a lie. They had met there. They just hadn’t started dating. “He works with medical equipment. He can tell you more about all that. Anyway, we hit it off and he asked me to dinner. Things have just sort of progressed from there.”

      “Wait,” Violet said, sitting at attention on the sofa. “We were all at that fund-raiser. Do we know him? Sebastian who?”

      “Sebastian West.” Harper was suddenly nervous that maybe they did know him. She and Sebastian hadn’t gotten together to talk yet, so she ran the risk of getting caught not knowing something obvious about him if any of the girls knew who he was. Quentin had recognized his name and company, so it was a possibility.

      Thankfully none of them perked up at hearing his full name. “I doubt any of you know him. He spends more time working than socializing. He’s super smart. I’m excited for you all to meet him.” She grinned wide and hoped she was selling her story.

      “We’re all excited,” Violet echoed as her eyes narrowed at Harper in suspicion. “I can’t wait for Monday.”

      Harper took a large sip of her wine and nodded with feigned enthusiasm. “Me neither.”

       Three

      Sunday evening Sebastian arrived at the bar a full fifteen minutes before he was supposed to meet Harper. He wasn’t particularly anxious about their meeting, but he couldn’t stand just sitting around his apartment any longer. He’d sat there for the last two days trying to fill the hours. Without work, he found he had far too many minutes on his hands.

      He’d spent as long as he could packing and preparing for the trip. He’d taken his clothes and his tuxedo to the cleaner. He’d carefully collected his toiletries and underthings, but that had taken only a few hours out of his newfound free time.

      Sebastian had tried reading a book. He’d watched some television. Both had bored him after a short while. By Sunday afternoon he’d had nothing to do but pace around his apartment and wish away the hours. He wasn’t sure how he’d get through the next two weeks if he hadn’t met Harper and had this trip to Ireland fall into his lap. He might just go insane. How was that supposed to improve his health? Mentally weak but physically strong? What good was that?

      When his watch showed it was almost time to meet Harper, he’d rushed out the door. He’d taken a table in a quiet corner, ordered himself a gin and tonic with lime—ignoring doctor’s orders—and awaited her arrival with his notebook open to read over some notes. He carried it almost everywhere he went, writing down ideas and schematics when they popped into his head. He’d learned the hard way that he could lose the spark of inspiration if he didn’t immediately capture it.

      This way he was still waiting, but at least he was out of the house and potentially СКАЧАТЬ