“Guys, this is the best thing that could have happened to us!”

Oliver was beside himself. Since the “news” had broken across New York City that Max and I were having some sort of fake relationship, he hadn’t stopped beaming with pride as if he was a first time father. It was as if the guy was genuinely proud of himself for being the mastermind behind this…this…shitstorm that I was in the smack dab center of.

“The PR department has been fielding calls all morning. And the marketing department has been given a new project that involves you two! Isn’t that grand news?!”

“That’s great, boss. Sounds like the beginning of free publicity for the show and music to our ears. Am I right, Daphne?”

The little shit elbowed me as if he was genuinely thinking I would be as excited as he was. I turned to Max, his devilish smile and his relaxed attitude was pissing me off by the second. Even though we had gone over this whole disaster already first thing this morning, I was still bitter, dammit. I didn’t really want any of this. All I wanted was a job and the last time I checked that was the only thing I had technically agreed to. But now, thanks to Max, I’m a part of some publicity stunt that has me in the eye of the hurricane.

“Right, Daph?” Max asked again and nudged me one more time.

I nudged him right back with a little more force. As Max said, “Ow,” I answered with, “Right. I’m so excited.”

“Good onya, mate,” Oliver added enthusiastically. The guy had no clue that we had no clue what he meant when he started to talk like that. But he kept right on doing it anyway. “And at tonight’s taping, I need you two to build on that photograph. Let the audience see the two of you all flirty and interested in each other. People will eat it up!”

“That’s the plan, boss,” Max agreed. “Right Daph?”

“Right.”

Figuring the path of least resistance was the way to go, I tried my best to look happy about it and put on the biggest fake smile ever.

“Daphne, now, now, don’t spit the dummy. You need to get on with this tosser,” he pointed to Max. “He’ll sort you right out. It will all be fine, I promise.”

I assumed I was supposed to magically not be concerned with how my personal life looked like to anyone paying attention. And from what Max had told me, a lot of people were paying attention. So far, we had been featured as a “hot item” in all the major newspapers in the city and at least on five gossip websites that he’d been able to track down this morning. The key phrase being “so far.” Because it was only a little bit after ten o’clock in the morning and who knows what other news outlet or gossip hounds had picked up on this story. I was almost afraid to go back to my desk. Hell, I was absolutely terrified of going home because I didn’t have a chance to tell my grandmother yet about any of this. So I could only imagine what The Three Stooges of Queens were cooking up all on their own.

I lowered my head at the thought and muttered, “Lord, help me.”

“What was that?” Max asked quietly.

“Nothing,” I answered. Letting out a long breath, I turned to Oliver. “Okay, so is there anything else to go over this morning?”

“I love the enthusiasm, Daphne!” Oliver shouted. He looked at Max and told him, “See mate, this is the kind of gung-ho attitude this show has been missing! And to answer your question, no, nothing else right now, Daphne. But please make yourselves available to the PR department if they need anything from either of you before the day is through.”

And just like that, we were dismissed. While we were walking through the office, a few people spotted us coming and would whisper amongst themselves, obviously gossiping about our non-existent relationship and us. It made me roll my eyes so far into the back of my head that I could see my own hair. But, I had to stick it out because I promised Max I would. And if there was one thing I could never do, it was go back on my word. Growing up, my abuela had always taught me that all you ever really had were your words, so make them count, own them and live up to them.

Max said, “Come on. Let’s go down the block for a coffee to talk.”

It was the perfect suggestion because I needed to get out of the office and take a breather. This whole thing of having a fake relationship with Max was exhausting. And the thought that I would have to now explain to this my family was yet another level to this whole mess that I hadn’t even taken into account until this morning.

When I left Max last night, I was so pissed off that I ended up going over to Derek’s to cool off for a little bit. Just like I told Max this morning, if it weren’t for Derek’s advice, I would have quit. He told me to take it easy and not rush to any judgments; that maybe I should listen to Max first before I run off the deep end and one, say something I would regret which was almost too late, but more importantly, two, I would be unemployed. That made me laugh, because hell, I would have thought Derek would hire me back. He laughed, too, and told me he would, but only if I put in a good word to Max about him. After leaving Derek’s I went home and straight to bed, not wanting to bother my poor grandmother with anything else yesterday after that crap with my brother, Eddie.

I must have still been preoccupied, because before I knew it we were at the coffeehouse. For once, it seemed as if Max knew that my thoughts were still all over the place and kept quiet. Sneaking a glance at him, he seemed lost in his own thoughts as well; his brow was furrowed and, for a second, he looked around as if recognizing someone just before opening the door for me.
“Get in,” he told me. “Hurry.”

Normally, I would have given him attitude over the way he was telling me what to do. But I got the sense that there was a reason. I jogged into the coffeehouse right ahead of him.

“Duck your head a little bit towards me,” Max added. “And whatever you do, don’t turn around until I say so, okay?”

“Okay, now you’re freaking me out. What’s going on?”

Max leaned down and whispered in my ear. “A photographer spotted us. But I think we lost him.”

“Are you serious?”

“Yep. Just give it a few more seconds.”

Since I was tucked almost completely into Max’s chest and body, and even though I was supposed to be worried about this photog taking our picture, I found myself sniffing Max instead. And what was worse was that I found myself enjoying him…technically, his smell, but kind of the same thing. My lord, did he smell delicious. He was like a blend of sandalwood and summer spice, all mixed up and bottled to perfection. As Max continued to shield me from whoever it was we were trying to avoid, I moved a little bit closer and took a ridiculously long sniff that I thought could be heard over the noise of the coffeehouse. But I couldn’t help myself because, oh my God, whether it was a brand of cologne or just Max, it was perfect to me and I would have easily kept sniffing him all day.

“Okay, we’re good now,” he said. He attempted to move, but I was in the middle of another big whiff with my eyes closed, fully engrossed in eau de Max. “Daphne, are you sniffing me right now?”

“Um, yeah. Sorry. I know that’s kind of weird, but in my defense you smell heavenly.”

“Thanks.” He chuckled and the vibration of that reverberated through me as I was still all up on him like white on rice. “Daph, you can back up now. The photographer…we lost him.”

Feeling extra stupid, I took a huge step back away from him and did what I always do when I’m embarrassed; talk loud and fast. “Oh, good! That’s great that we lost him! Thanks, Max!”

“Slow down there, slick. If you want, you can keep sniffing me and anything else, if you know what I mean?” He waggled his eyebrow as if to prove his point home with me. I got it. And as much as I was a little bit curious…wait, stop. Nope. I wasn’t supposed to want anything like that with Max. We were partners—reluctant partners at best—so, no, I wouldn’t need anything else from him in that department. Ever. The end.

“Ew, gross! Why would I want to do that with you?”

“Right, sure. Okay, so now that we’ve got that out of the way, how about we go over our plans for tonight’s taping, as well as maybe go over what just happened since I have a feeling it’s going to keep happening to us.”

Max was grinning from ear to ear, and his demeanor was so cocky, way more than usual, which was saying something. Because Max was easily the cockiest man I had ever met and his head was growing with every passing second.

Was he right? Of course he was. Yes, we needed to talk about how photogs were following us to take our pics. Yes, we needed to come up with a working script for tonight’s taping. But hell to the no if he thought he could discuss any of those things with me while his head blew up even bigger than it already was. Which I didn’t think was possible, but there you go.

“You know what? I’m just going to head back home for the day if that’s okay with you.” I said not planning on waiting for his okay at all. “But, I’ll meet you at the club tonight, like a half hour before our usual start time to go over everything.”

“Really? Is that how you’re going to handle this?” he asked with a smirk. “Real mature, Daphne.”

“I don’t know what you mean, Max.” My hand dove in to my purse grab my sunglasses. Putting them on quickly, I felt a little less exposed to Max and to the photogs out there, in case there were any. “I’m totally fine. It’s just a lot has happened from last night to today and that guy following us. I need to go home and decompress. But don’t worry, Max, I’ll be good to go later tonight. See you then.”

Maybe he said goodbye, I wouldn’t know, because I was already pressing through the customers of the coffeehouse to get out of there. And thankfully, he hadn’t called me on my bullshit. Honestly, I wouldn’t know what I would have said if he had. Because I was fully aware of how ridiculous I had been with him and how stupid I was reacting.

But he stayed quiet and let me have my moment of utter stupidity. And as I got to the front of the coffeehouse, there was Max watching through the window when I hit my hurried stride and was going full idiot. A smirk was on his face as he watched me with those dark eyes of his, tracking my every move while I was running away from him down the sidewalk. And dammit all to hell, once again I found that I liked the sensation of knowing his eyes were on me. It infuriated me even more that the further I got away from his stare, the more I missed the feeling of his eyes on me.

Jesus, what was happening to me?

Was I falling for Max and his stupid cocky charm that women raved about?

No! I was not that woman. I refused to believe it. Nope, not this woman. That could not be what was going on. These thoughts turned over and over in my mind, while I walked through the streets of New York looking for the nearest subway entrance. Maybe it was just how stressed I’d been over the show, my family, and now the photographer and gossip stories about Max and me. It had to be a combination of all of it. Plus, it was just sniffing for chrissakes! So what? He smelled good. Big deal. Good for him.

Yeah, that’s it. That’s my story and I was going to stick with it. If Max wanted to think I was running away from him for any other reasons, let him. It wouldn’t bother me one bit. And who knows? Maybe one day I would stop running.

But not today, I thought to myself sprinting to the subway that was now in my sights to make my escape.