Marrying My Neighbor by Roxy Reid

Author:Roxy Reid [Reid, Roxy]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2020-07-13T16:00:00+00:00

The TV station is busy. The people who work in front of the camera are perfectly made-up and dressed in bright, professional clothes. The people who work behind the camera are dressed in dark, informal, vaguely sloppy clothes. Everyone gives off an air of focused efficiency.

After we check in, a tall female intern drops us off in a room with snacks, water, two chairs, a TV, and a large mirror.

“You’re on in half an hour. I’ll come to get you before that. Also, sign these,” the intern says, thrusting clipboards at each of us.

It’s a waver giving them permission to use footage of us. I sign quickly and hand it back to the intern. Sean ignores the intern and reads the entire waver. The room fills with an awkward silence while he reads. Maybe I only feel awkward because I’m about to go on TV and lie to everyone about my perfect relationship.

I smile brightly at the intern. “So, how long have you worked here?” I ask.

“A couple of months. My uncle was supposed to get me an internship at TechDelish, but he got laid off when their stock crashed. He lost his house.” She throws Sean a dirty look.

I wince. TechDelish was a restaurant delivery app that seemed untouchable until Sean’s app predicted they were overvalued. A month later, they revealed they were practically bankrupt.

Sean ignores us and finishes reading the waver. Once done, he scrawls his signature and passes the clipboard over to the intern. The intern turns on her heel and marches out without saying anything else to us.

I start to get a bad feeling about the interview. I assumed they wanted Sean as a puff piece. Handsome tech millionaire gets married, that sort of thing. But what if Sean was right? What if they’re using me to put him in the hot seat?

“Does that happen often?” I ask Sean.

He shrugs. “Comes with the territory. We thought about calling my app The Messenger.”

I blink at that non-sequitur, and then it clicks. “As in, don’t shoot the messenger?’”

His smile flashes, quick and irreverent. “The investors wanted a more serious name. I was overruled.”

I can’t help it. I smile in response. I also realize Sean doesn’t live quite as charmed a life as I think he does. Half the people he loves are an ocean away. Random people feel like they can come up and blame him for all the bad things that happen when big companies fail. I know he has friends over here, but most of them are work friends. I used to be the only one of his friends who’d never ask him for anything.

Now, here I am, asking him to fake our marriage for six months. Maybe a year.

I walk to Sean and kiss him. I’m gentle with him. I feel his breathing slow. I touch his face with one hand, feeling all the strength there. I ease away, and Sean’s eyes flutter open slowly, like he’s surprised to find himself at a TV station.

“What was that for?” he asks, his voice low and rough.

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