Marrying My Fake Boyfriend

Chapter 6

“Cherrelle? Hello, Cherrelle?”

Cherrelle jerked out of her thoughts when she saw a hand waving in front of her face. Starting up, she blinked and her friend’s face came into view. “Sorry, what?”

“Are you okay?” Sarah frowned at her. “You’ve been out of sorts the last few days.”

Cherrelle sighed and sat back. They were on the couch in her office, going through preparations for the bride and bridesmaids’ dresses. But Cherrelle’s mind had been wandering. She couldn’t keep it on one thing for very long.

And she knew the exact cause of this.

“I guess I’m a little rundown.” She gave Sarah a tired smile. “Things have been getting on top of me.”

“I know the feeling.” Sarah put down the folder she had been holding and leaned forward. “But you’ve got more than things getting on top of you. What’s wrong?”

Cherrelle wanted to tell Sarah. She really did. But she didn’t want to be laughed at. With her tiredness playing into it, she was worried she would burst into tears if Sarah mocked her. She swallowed. “You’ll think it’s silly.”

“Try me.” Sarah didn’t blink. Cherrelle knew she told Sarah everything. She was the sister Cherrelle had always wanted. She closed her eyes briefly.

“I’ve screwed up big time, Sarah. I wasn’t supposed to have feelings for someone who’s only doing this for money.”

“What are you saying?” Then Sarah’s expression cleared as she understood. “You’re having feelings for Brad?”

“Yes.” Cherrelle snorted disparagingly at her foolishness. “The most stupid thing I’ve ever done.”

“If you don’t include saying you had a boyfriend to your parents when you didn’t.”

“Stop rubbing that one in.” Cherrelle sighed. Thinking about her feelings for Brad had her emotions all over the place. She was confused. “But Brad only took my offer because he was desperate for the money. He’s not interested in me like that.”

A few days after she had transferred the money over, Brad had told Cherrelle that he had paid off all of his debts and got his business going again. Things were going well for him and he was grateful for her help. Cherrelle had been pleased to help. Then she had expected him to walk away now he had what he wanted. But he hadn’t and they had carried on playing the charade of being man and wife.

It had been great. Brad was good fun to be with and was in tune with her. To say the least, they had clicked. Cherrelle felt like she didn’t have to put on a mask for him, that she could be herself without any worries of being looked at differently. Brad accepted her, warts and all.

It wasn’t good for her heart, but he was like an addiction; if she stayed away, she kept thinking about him, and when she was with him, all she could think about was breaking the no-s*x rule. It was dangerous and she was getting conflicted.

“You two spend a lot of time together,” Sarah said. “I’d say Brad has some feelings for you as well.”

“He’s just a good actor,” Cherrelle said miserably.

“Cherrelle, I’d kill for a guy to look at me the way Brad looks at you. Trust me, he has feelings for you.”

Cherrelle wished she could believe that. But things like that didn’t happen to her; she wasn’t that lucky that a man would see past her money and see the real person. She put her head in her hands.

“What am I going to do, Sarah? I can’t tell him. If you’re wrong, he’s going to run the other way.”

“Or maybe he won’t. You won’t know until you find out.” Sarah sat back and crossed her legs under her. “And I don’t think he’s hanging about for the money. True, he had financial difficulties, but he doesn’t borrow from people lightly.”

“You’re sure it’s not the money?” Cherrelle asked hopefully.

“Since you gave him the $100 grand, has he asked for more money?”

“No.” Cherrelle was definite about that. “I even offered to give him some more to help his business along again, but he turned me down flat. Said he could deal with it himself.”

That had been one of their few arguments, but, in the end, Cherrelle had conceded that Brad was right. He could deal with it himself and he wasn’t going to rely on Cherrelle’s money, especially when they didn’t know when the charade they were playing would end.

“There you are, then. He’s doing this for you, not for the money.”

Before Cherrelle could respond, the door opened and her young personal assistant popped her red head around the door.

“Yes, Cameron?”

“Mr. Colney’s on the line.” Cameron didn’t look happy to be giving this news to her. “I know you said you didn’t want to be disturbed, but this is the fifth time in the last hour that he’s called.”

Cherrelle sighed. The man had been insufferable since news that she was having a big wedding had got out. Her mother’s friend in the magazine had run the article first and then it had spread like wildfire that Cherrelle was getting married. Jason had then started on visiting her, telling her that she was making a mistake. Cherrelle had ordered that he wasn’t welcome in the building, but then he began to call her. There was only so much she could avoid before she went mad and answered his calls.

Better to deal with him and get rid of him quicker. She stood and went to her desk.

“Put him through and then put a block on his number as soon as I hang up.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

Cameron left and Cherrelle sat at her desk. A moment later, the phone rang and Cherrelle put him on loudspeaker. “What do you want, Jason?”

“So, you’re really going through with this facade?” Jason’s voice was scathing. “You’re going to give your parents a wedding with Ben.”

Cherrelle rolled her eyes. She was sure Jason deliberately said Brad’s name wrong to annoy her. It worked. “His name is Brad. And yes. Ma and Pa wanted a white wedding, and we said we’d get married again to keep them happy.”

“On the date when you were supposed to marry me.”

Sarah raised an eyebrow at that, but Cherrelle shook her head. She would explain later. “Not my problem. And I’ve told you countless times we were never getting married. It’s been a month of telling you that we will never become husband and wife. I would’ve thought it had sunk in by now.”

“That’s because I want you and I won’t settle for anything less.”

Cherrelle heard a snort and saw Sarah covering up a laugh. It was laughable, but Cherrelle was not in a laughing mood.

“You are an idiot,” she snapped. “And I know you want my company, not me. I’ve seen the messages you’ve sent your friends.” Having a best friend who was also a hacker had been useful in spying on anyone they wanted to look at. Invasive, but Cherrelle was past caring when it came to Jason. “I’m just a black bi*ch you can make bend to your will once I have your name and you have my company. No thanks, Jason. I’m not marrying a bigoted racist to be degraded like that. No one is getting my company, not even Brad.”

“And you think he’ll not clean you out?”