And Yet. . .

Chapter 3

"Absolutely not."

Elliott would've laughed in Rose's face, watching as her expression went from hopeful to instantly irritated, if it weren't for the fact that her request had caught him off guard. He hadn't known what to expect after pretending to be her boyfriend for a grand total of thirty seconds in front of her mother—which he has yet to tease Rose about—but it certainly hadn't been this. He hadn't expected for Rose to corner him in the break room of their office as he's making himself his second cup of coffee of the day and ask him to continue that short façade and turn it into a three-and-a-half-day escapade. She was out of her damn mind.

Rose pursed her lip, left hand on her hip while her right rested against the counter. Her green eyes were bright with determination, and yet under the bright lights of the break room, Elliott noticed the pink tinge of her cheeks that was darker than her natural hue. He fought a smirk from appearing; she was just as bothered by asking him as he was. As amusing and surprising as her request was, the absolute last thing Elliott wanted to do was attend a fucking wedding.

"Come on, Elliott," Rose groaned, her eyebrows scrunching together. He remained leaning against the counter diagonal of her, arms crossed over his chest, waiting for his coffee to finish brewing. "You'd be doing a really nice thing."

"I do nice things all the time," he shot back, tone dry as he quirked an eyebrow. "None of which include pretending to be someone's boyfriend to fool their family."

Rose shrugged, and if Elliott were to guess, she was border lining helpless at this point. "Desperate times?" she tried before clicking her tongue in frustration. Honestly, she looked way too worked up about this situation than Elliott thought necessary. Why couldn't she just tell her mom he couldn't make it? Or, better yet, that their fake relationship went through a fake break up? "My mom's not a woman anyone says no to, alright? And she's basically decided that you're coming." She let out a sigh at Elliott's unimpressed gaze, running her hands through her wavy brown hair. "Look, I know you don't like me—" Elliott's lips parted, bizarrely feeling the need to disagree with her statement. He pressed his mouth shut, frowning at himself as Rose continued without noticing. "But you'd really be helping me out with this. I'll, I don't know, buy you lunch for a whole month if you do this for me."

His eyebrows shot up as he watched her, taking in the desperation she was trying and failing to hide in the green of her eyes. Elliott didn't know why this was so important to her; was she just trying to go along with her mother's false observations to save face, like he had originally thought, or was there something more to it? To have Rose Knight beg for him to do something—out of the bedroom, at least—wasn't something Elliott was accustomed to. And he would be lying if he said it didn't itch at his curiosity.

Pretending to be in a relationship with her, to be her boyfriend, wasn't troubling Elliott as much as one would expect. Despite his lack of interest in being with someone for anything more than a couple of orgasms, it wasn't the relationship part that was bothering him. It would be fake, and Elliott was positive he would be able to differentiate between reality and pretend. If he was going to do this, both he and Rose would have to actually try and make sure they pulled it off, since they had too much of a habit of biting each other's heads off. Elliott wasn't a fan of relationships, and maybe pretending to be in one would hit too close to home, but he had to believe he was better than that.

What itched at him was the thought of this being a wedding weekend, ultimately leading to a wedding he'd have to attend. Sure, he wouldn't know anyone but the bride's sister, but Elliott had a feeling being at anyone's wedding was going to prove to be at least a little bit difficult. He wouldn't have been thinking like that if he hadn't just attended his best friend's wedding two months ago—where he was the best man, nonetheless. After doing his duties, Elliott had gotten so drunk with the mindset of trying to forget he was at a wedding. It had worked, and the severe hangover the next day had been worth it. He loved watching Michael get married, but standing up there, watching them exchange vows and rings and a kiss, it had all been a reminder of a life he thought he was going to have, and was bitterly snatched away from him.