The Boyfriend Arrangement

This way he was still waiting, but at least he was out of the house and potentially doing something productive in the meantime. Thankfully, Harper showed up a few minutes later. She was looking attractive and fashionable once again with layered lace tops and a long sweater over skinny jeans. Today her dark hair was pulled up into a bun, highlighting the line of her neck and her dangly earrings.

Sebastian was once again struck by the fact that this woman should be able to find a boyfriend easily. He didn’t understand why he was even there pretending to be one. Then again, the same thing could probably be said of him. Life was complicated sometimes.

“Thanks for coming. And thanks for doing all of this,” she said as she settled into her chair across from him.

“No problem. Would you like a drink?”

“Just water for me,” she said with a polite smile. It surprised him. A glass of wine or a martini seemed far more her speed. He didn’t question it, however, and waved down the bartender for her water.

“Are you packed and ready to go?” she asked.

“Mostly. What about you?”

“The same. I feel like I’m not ready, although I can’t imagine what I haven’t packed yet.”

“Don’t forget the slinky lingerie,” Sebastian said. The sudden image of Harper wearing some kind of silk-and-lace chemise came to his mind and made him immediately regret his words. He didn’t need that vision haunting him over their next week together.

“What?” Harper’s eyes were suddenly wide with concern.

“It was a joke,” Sebastian soothed. And that’s what he’d intended it to be, even if a part of him wouldn’t mind if she threw a nice piece or two in there.

“Oh,” she said, visibly relaxing. Apparently the idea of being his girlfriend for real was not nearly as appealing to her as it was in his own mind. “Yeah, no, I’m packing the ugliest pajamas I’ve got.”

“Flannel footie pajamas with a zip front?” he asked.

“Yep. I’ll be dressed as a giant pug dog.”

Interesting. “Trapdoor for convenience?”

“No, just a front zipper, but they do have a tail and a hood with puppy ears and a nose I can pull up.”

“Excellent. Since pugs aren’t my thing, I’m sure the sight of you in that dog outfit will squelch any misplaced attraction that might arise between us.”

“Perhaps I should buy you one, too. I saw one that was basically a poop emoji costume.”

“Not Spider-Man or Deadpool? You went straight for the poop emoji?”

“Yeah, sorry.”

They both laughed for a few moments and the tension dissipated between them. Sebastian was relieved. He didn’t want either of them to be uncomfortable. It would make the week ten times longer than it would be already.

“So tell me everything I should know about you,” Harper began. “I’m your girlfriend, after all, so I need to know all the important things.”

Sebastian tried not to wince at the thought of talking about himself. He hated doing that. He tried to think of what he would share with someone if he were really dating them, but he found he didn’t know the answer to that, either. “I’m from Maine. A small coastal town called Rockport, specifically. I went to MIT. Technically, I’m a mechanical engineer, but I’ve branched out quite a bit after college.”

“I thought you worked for a medical supply company.”

Sebastian frowned. That was probably his fault. He liked to keep the details of his work vague. “Not exactly. BioTech is a medical research and development company. My partner Finn and I develop new medical technology.”

“Your partner? You mean you don’t just work there?”

“Eh, no. We started the company together out of college. I own it.”

Harper frowned, wrinkles creasing her forehead. “Are you serious? I offered you every penny I had in savings to go on this trip and you’re the CEO of a company? You probably make more in an afternoon than I do in a paycheck.”

Sebastian held up his finger in protest. “You offered me the money. I never said I would actually take it. And I’m not going to, of course.”

“So you’re rich. Why didn’t you say something? Like when Quentin asked about your company?”

At that, Sebastian shrugged. “I’m not the kind to flaunt it. Finn is the face of the company. I’m the mad scientist behind the scenes. I’m happy with the anonymity. I’ve seen how being well-known and wealthy has complicated his love life and I’m not interested in that.”

“In a love life?” Harper asked with an arched brow.

“In a complicated love life. Or, hell, maybe a regular one. I work too much for any type of relationship to succeed.”

“But you’re going to drop everything and go with me on a trip to Ireland on short notice?”

Sebastian sat back in his chair and sighed. It would be easy to tell her that he’d had a heart attack and was on mandatory vacation, but he didn’t want to. He didn’t like people knowing his business, especially when it changed how they perceived him. Whether it was knowing he was rich, or sick, or used to be poor...it didn’t matter. He liked private things to stay private. “When you’re the boss, you can do what you want,” he responded instead.

She shook her head. “I can’t believe you didn’t say anything until just now. What if I hadn’t asked? Would you have waited until someone recognized you on the plane and I looked like a fool for not knowing my boyfriend is a millionaire?”

“Of course not! I would’ve told you. And you’re one to point fingers, Harper. You’re keeping plenty of secrets yourself.”

She straightened in her chair and narrowed her gaze at him. “What is that supposed to mean?”

“I saw you walk out of Neiman Marcus with your friends. Then you ditched them and came back ten minutes later to return everything you’d bought. What is that about? It’s not buyer’s remorse, I’m pretty certain.”

Harper’s lips twisted in thought as she considered her answer. “I’m trying to save money.”

Sebastian looked at her with a pointed expression on his face. There was more to it than just frugality, of that he was sure. He’d done his research since they’d met. Her family owned Orion Computers. She lived in a really nice apartment on the Upper East Side. But she only had two grand in her savings account? That didn’t add up in his mind.

His silence prompted her to keep talking. “I’m having a bit of a cash flow shortage. I’m embarrassed about it, so I haven’t told anyone, even my friends and family. Until I get things straightened out, I’m trying to be smart about my money, but I have to keep up appearances.”

“Like blowing a fortune on designer clothes and then immediately returning them?”

“Yes.”

“Don’t they notice you never wear them after you buy them?”

She shook her head. “You need a map to get through my closet. Things disappear in there, never to resurface.”

Sebastian nodded thoughtfully. “Sounds like a complicated charade to keep up. Pretending to have a boyfriend should be a piece of cake.”

“Well, thankfully it’s a short-term thing. I should be back on my feet soon and then no one needs to know I lied about it. And as for you and me...well, I’m sure we will have a sad, but not unexpected, breakup not long after we get back from the trip. Not so soon as to be suspicious, but we can’t wait too long or people might start inviting us to things as a couple here in town.”

“Sounds tragic. I’m already sad.”

Harper looked at him with a smile. “I’m enjoying your sarcastic sense of humor. We might actually be able to pull this off.”

“I think so, too. Of course, over time I think you’re going to become too clingy for me and we’re going to want different things from our relationship.”

She groaned. “Ugh. You sound like Quentin. Don’t do that or we’ll have to just break up now.”

Sebastian laughed. “So since we’re going to be around that guy, should I know what happened between you two?”

Harper winced at the thought. “That is a story that would require something stronger than water to talk about.”

“A cocktail then? My treat,” Sebastian added. He waved over the bartender. It wasn’t until then that it occurred to him she might be drinking water out of necessity, not desire.

“That’s sweet of you. A Cosmo, please.”

Once the man returned with the dark pink beverage, Harper took a sip and sighed. “We were together for three years and we’ve been broken up for two. We met at a party and we really seemed to hit it off. Things went well between us, but I noticed that it didn’t seem to be going anywhere. We’d stalled out at the point where most people take the next step.”

“He didn’t want anything serious?”

“I thought we were already serious, but I suppose that was my mistake. I was thinking we were on track to get engaged, moving in together...do all the things that other couples around me were doing. But he was always working. Or said he was. He’s an attorney and kept insisting he had to put in the long hours if he was going to make partner. I thought it was because he wanted to build a solid future for us, but the truth was that he was perfectly content where we were.”

“He was seeing other women.”

“Bingo. While I was officially his girlfriend in the public eye, I found out there were three of us he was keeping on the hook. He used long hours at work as his excuse to run around town with different women, and I didn’t even question it. I don’t know if he couldn’t decide and thought that he’d eventually know which one he wanted, or if he just liked keeping that many balls up in the air at once. But eventually I found out about the others and broke it off. When I confronted him, all he said was that he just wasn’t ready for a commitment.”

Sebastian frowned. “He told you the other day that he’s engaged now, didn’t he?”

Harper’s posture deflated slightly in her chair and he found he hated that. He wanted to punch Quentin in the face for taking such a beautiful, confident woman and leaving her broken.

“Yes,” she said softly. “He’s bringing her on the trip. You see why I can’t go alone? I just can’t face him and his fiancée in the state I am in. I’m almost thirty. I’m happy with my life on most days, but I have to admit that I’m not at all where I expected to be at this point. I’m sure everyone else looks at me and thinks I’m the sad, single one in the group.”

Sebastian understood. He knew what it was like to be judged by people. While Harper had worked hard to keep up appearances, he’d simply buried his head in his research and tried to block out the rest of the world. It had served him pretty well. Eventually, though, he’d known his avoidance mechanisms would fall apart. His had fallen apart when he’d hit the floor in cardiac arrest. Hers might all come crashing down when her delicately structured pyramid of falsehoods took a hit. He hoped he wouldn’t be the reason it fell.

“I will strive to be the imaginary boyfriend you’ve always dreamed of having someday.”

* * *

“You go up first,” Sebastian said as they stood on the tarmac together. “I prefer to sit in the aisle seat if you don’t mind.”

Harper nodded and climbed the steps ahead of him to board the private plane. The minute she stepped on and turned the corner, she realized the Boeing Business Jet that Violet’s father, Loukas Niarchos, had chartered for the flight wasn’t going to be like any plane she’d been on before. Instead of a first-class cabin, she found herself walking through a lounge with a bar, seating areas with couches and swivel chairs, flat-panel televisions and a variety of tables. To the left there was a doorway leading to an executive office where she could see Loukas already chatting on the phone, his laptop open.

A flight attendant greeted them with a smile and directed them through the lounge into the next room to the right. There they found what could be either a conference room or a dining table that sat twenty for a meal. Each chair was plush camel-colored leather with a seat belt if it was necessary. Harper got the feeling the kind of people who chartered flights on this plane wouldn’t tolerate turbulence.

“This is like being on Air Force One,” Sebastian muttered into her ear as they walked through a narrow hallway past a fully appointed bedroom suite, two full-size bathrooms with showers, and a galley kitchen currently manned by two more smiling flight attendants. “Is this how you’re used to traveling?”

Harper shook her head. “No. I’m used to boring old first class unless I’m traveling with family on the Orion corporate jet. That’s nice, but it only seats eight. And there’s no bedroom. Or office. Or cocktail lounge. My family is normal rich, not filthy rich.”

Sebastian chuckled and nudged her forward. “Good. I don’t think I could handle a filthy-rich girlfriend. I’m glad this is a first for us both.”

At that point, the plane finally opened up into a traditional seating area. Appointed like a large, first-class cabin, there were six seats in each row. They were in sets of two, divided by two wide aisles. Each seat had its own television screen, blanket, pillow, and controls that allowed its occupant to lay fully flat for sleeping on the overnight flight. A flute of champagne and a chocolate-covered strawberry stenciled with the letters V&A in edible gold awaited each guest at their seat as well as a handwritten card in calligraphy with each person’s name.

Violet was certainly out to throw a memorable wedding, if nothing else.

They’d been assigned row thirteen of sixteen, seats A and B, so she made her way down the right aisle through the crowd of familiar faces. They were nearly the last to board, so the area was bustling with activity as guests settled in. Quentin hadn’t been kidding when he’d said this wedding was the event of the year. People salivated over the idea of receiving a coveted invitation, but the guest list had been kept down to less than a hundred by virtue of the plane and the wedding venue.

Even then, Harper still knew almost everyone on the plane. A few friends and family of Violet’s fiancé, Aidan, were unfamiliar to her, but there were far more of Violet’s circle than anyone. She smiled and waved politely as she pressed on, even when she saw Quentin in the back row on the far left. He was sitting beside an attractive brunette who seemed a little young for him, but Harper was trying not to let her bitterness color her opinion.

“Here we go,” she said as she stopped at their row. Emma and Jonah were seated across the aisle from them in the center section, and Harper could see Emma was already heavily appraising Sebastian from her seat. She tried not to focus on that, instead stowing her bag and her coat in the overhead bin to clear the aisle for others to board.

“Introductions!” Emma said before Harper could even slide into the row to sit.

She pasted on a bright smile and turned their way. “Sebastian, these are my good friends Jonah and Emma Flynn. I work for Jonah’s gaming software company, FlynnSoft. You guys, this is my boyfriend, Sebastian West.”

Jonah stuck out his hand and the two men exchanged a firm handshake. “Good to meet you both,” Sebastian said. “Harper has told me how much she enjoys her job at FlynnSoft. I’m sure that reflects well on you, Jonah.”

She tried not to look impressed and instead turned toward her seat. It wasn’t until that moment that she noticed a small, white envelope on the window seat. She picked the envelope up and settled in so Sebastian could take his place at her side. She looked around, wondering who might’ve put it on her seat, but no one seemed to be looking or paying any attention to her. There weren’t envelopes like this one on the other seats. Just one for her, with her name written on the front in nondescript block letters.

While Sebastian put his bag in the overhead bin, Harper opened the envelope and pulled out the single page inside. It was handwritten, and relatively short, but it delivered a huge impact.

I know your little secret. If you don’t want everyone to find out the truth and risk your big inheritance, you’ll do exactly what I say. Once we arrive in Ireland, you’ll go to the bank and withdraw a hundred thousand dollars. Then you’ll leave it in an envelope at the front desk of the hotel for “B. Mayler” by dinnertime tomorrow. Miss the deadline and I’m going to make a big problem for you, Harper.

She read the words a dozen times, trying to make sense of it all, but there was no way to make sense of what she was seeing. Her heart was pounding in her ears, deafening her to anything but the sound of her internal panic. The fantastic plane and everyone on it faded into the background.

This was blackmail. She was being blackmailed.

How was that even possible?

Harper had been so careful about her secret. Aside from sharing some of it with Sebastian yesterday, no one, not her closest friends or family, knew the truth. Not even her brother or father knew about her financial difficulties. She’d kept it quiet for over eight years, working hard to make ends meet until the next payment came and she didn’t have to fake it any longer. Sebastian had been the first to question her curious behavior, and it hadn’t seemed to hurt to share a little information with him considering her birthday was right around the corner.

But someone had found out her secret, and that was a big problem.

Her grandfather on her mother’s side of the family had set up a thirty-million-dollar trust fund for both her and her brother when they were born. It included a two-million-dollar payment on their eighteenth birthdays followed by a twenty-eight-million-dollar payment on their thirtieth birthdays. Harper’s thirtieth was only a few weeks away now. She could see the light at the end of the tunnel. She should be coasting to the finish line, but her foolish youthful behavior had put everything at risk.

After her father ran into financial troubles with his gold-digging second wife, her grandfather had added a new provision to the grandchildren’s trusts—if it was discovered that they had been financially irresponsible with their first payments, there would be no second payment. Ever-responsible Oliver had had no problem managing his money and had made his own fortune many times over. He hardly needed the second payment by the time his thirtieth birthday came around. But not Harper. By the time the provision was added, her frivolous lifestyle had already helped her blow through most of the first two million.

When she found out about the addendum, she’d realized she had to keep her situation a secret. Her grandfather couldn’t find out or she’d risk the money she desperately needed. That second payment would put an end to her charade. She wouldn’t have to eat ramen noodles for weeks to pay her massive building fee at the beginning of the year. She wouldn’t have to return everything she bought and scour the thrift stores for designer finds to keep up her facade of a spoiled heiress. Harper wouldn’t blow this new money—she wasn’t a naive child any longer—but it would be nice not to have to pretend she had more than two grand in her savings account.

Thankfully that two thousand dollars she’d earmarked for Sebastian could stay put. It was all she had aside from her FlynnSoft 401K with its stiff withdrawal penalties. Where was she going to come up with a hundred thousand dollars by tomorrow? In a month, easy. But now...it was an impossible task.

“Are you okay?”

Harper quickly folded the letter closed and shoved it back into the envelope. She looked over at Sebastian, who had settled into his seat and buckled up. “I’m fine,” she said. “Just reading over something.”

“You look like the plane is about to crash,” he noted. “You’re white as a sheet. Since they haven’t even closed the cabin door yet, I was concerned.”

“Flying isn’t my favorite thing,” she lied, and slipped the note into her purse. “Even on a fancy jet like this. My doctor gave me some pills and I hope to wake up in Ireland before I know it.”

“Sleep? And miss a minute of this luxurious travel?” Sebastian picked up his crystal champagne flute. “Shall we toast before you slip into a drug-induced coma?”

Harper picked up her drink and fought to keep her hand from trembling with nerves. “What should we drink to?”

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