Managing Macie *ON HOLD*

Chapter 7

Macie

"What the hell was that?" Ethan whisper shouted at me. Mr. Dramatic dragged me off to his conference room before I could even finish introducing myself to his mom.

"That was me saving your ass. You're welcome."

"I didn't need saving!"

"Suuuuuuure," I said, making his eye twitch in anger.

"I mean, why the hell would you think that was an ok thing to do?"

"I don't see why you're so angry," I said with a shrug of my shoulders. "Your mom is happy and I paid off my favor. It's a win-win situation."

"Oh no, no, no," Ethan said, chuckling darkly. "You are not my girlfriend and that was not my favor!"

"Of course I'm not your girlfriend! That would be gross. I'm your fake girlfriend."

Ethan made a noise that sounded suspiciously like growling. At least, that's the only word I can think of to describe it.

"No. You. Are. Not," he grit out through a clenched jaw. "Now you are going to go in there and tell my mom that you lied and we will all move on with our lives."

"And let her know that you don't have a girlfriend and that you were lying?" I asked, raising an eyebrow.

Maybe I was being a little harsh, but I didn't like the idea of having that favor hanging over my head and this is an easy way to cash it in.

"No one else has to know," I told Ethan. "Your mom will go home and we will pretend this never happened."

Ethan sighed. "I guess it's not the worst plan ever."

"Then it's settled. Now let's get back in there before your mom starts getting suspicious."

"Fine."

Ethan moved to the door and just as he was about to open it, I grabbed onto his hand. He turned to me and gave me a look of disgust.

"We have to appear believable," I told him.

Ethan rolled his eyes, but held my hand as we walked back to his office.

"I'm so sorry about that Mrs. Miller, Ethan had something important to tell me."

"That's quite alright my dear," she said from the couch she was now sitting on. "And please, call me Emily."

"Alright Emily."

An awkward silence settled over the group and I knew I had to do something. My eye caught the boxes I'd brought up earlier—along with the ones the driver brought up for me.

"Why don't we all try some desserts!" I exclaimed. "There's plenty for everyone."

I rushed over to Ethan's desk and brought the boxes over. I set them on the coffee table and opened them up, offering Ethan and his mom some samples. I presented the chocolate covered strawberries first, and they both seemed to like them. Then came the truffles, the cheesecakes, and the cupcakes.

"So, how was it?" I asked. I was confident that they tasted amazing, but double checking never hurt anyone.

"Amazing!" Mrs. Miller said. "Did you make all of this?"

"Yes I did."

"Macie is a baker," Ethan explained. "She's opening up her own bakery soon."

"That's so exciting!" Mrs. Miller said as she stood up to leave. "Well Macie, I can't wait to get to know you better over this visit."

"I thought you were only here for today," Ethan said nervously.

"That was before I knew you had a girlfriend. Now, I've decided to extend my trip until your Charity Gala. Why make the trip twice when I can just stay and get to know my son's new girlfriend!"

Ethan's face drained of color, but Mrs. Miller didn't seem to notice as she hugged us goodbye and left the office.

Ethan closed his eyes and took three deep breaths as his body started visibly shaking.

This doesn't look good.

I bit my lip anxiously and waited for him to say something.

"This is your fault!" He finally shouted as his eyes shot open.

"I mean, you did say she was only staying for one day," I said jokingly. He didn't take it jokingly.

"Of course this happens to me! Of course! Well, Miss Know it All, what do we do now?"

"I mean, we don't have much of a choice other than to keep up the charade."

"Your whole family will find out," he pointed out.

"They'll be fine." If they believed I was actually dating Ethan. My family knows how I feel about Ethan and it isn't in love. It isn't even in like. Hell, it's barely even tolerate!

"If this goes badly, I'm blaming you," Ethan said.

I nodded my head slowly. "Yeah, ok."

"And this isn't the favor. You owe me since it's actually made my life harder. In fact, now you owe me two."

"Two?!" I exclaimed.

"Two."

"That's ridiculous!"

"If you have a problem with it, you can take it up with your bank account."

"You already gave me the money," I reminded him. "What are you gonna do?"

Ethan smirked. "Tell your family that you needed my help."

"You can't hold that over my head forever!" I shouted at him.

"Sure I can."

"Dick," I grumbled, low enough for him to not hear.

"So, two favors then?"

I just stuck up my middle finger at him and stormed out of the office.

"I'll take that as a yes!" He called out after me, making me livid. I clenched my jaw shut all the way home and only let out my scream once I was behind the closed doors of my apartment.

"What happened? What's wrong?" Trisha asked, jumping into the room in full battle mode.

"Ethan Miller is what's wrong!" I said. "I tried to make it so I wouldn't have to do his favor, but now I have to do two!"

"How on earth did you manage that?"

I told Trisha the whole story and even though I could tell she thought what I had done was stupid, she didn't say that. Instead, she listened until the end and gave me exactly what I needed to hear in that moment.

"Stupid. Ethan. Miller."

And even stupider Macie Cole.