TASTES LIKE LOVE

The Faux Ex

As expected, the effect of a few words from the Ice Princess had turned the media into a circus. Everywhere he went, people would stop him, recognizing his face from the various shots and pictures plastered all over the internet. It was not as bad as he expected, it was worse, as even the people coming to his gym seemed to consist of fangirls looking to get a look at his face or haters coming to spread as much negativity as they could.

"Thank God you have a handsome face, imagine if you were ugly," Jared said, watching as Mark made another plate of food for the rush hour. Mark sighed. "I'm not complaining, I just think it would be nice if people would at least not stare so blatantly. Its a little uncomfortable," he said.

"Yes you should NOT complain because somehow these people found out you work here and now the restaurant has a 110% increase in sales. It's been a week! " he said, following Mark around.

"I'm grateful for that, and so I was thinking of getting another chef to help, maybe expand the menu?" he suggested, noting that the workload had also increased drastically.
"Sure thing. Are you ready for the commercial this weekend? I already told them you were going, and that tv show also contacted us about a guest appearance next week. You can make it right?" Jared said, listing their engagements. Mark smiled. "I'll see what I can do, now please Jared get back out there and stop bothering me so I can actually cook," he said, shooing him away.

Alone with his thoughts finally, his mind wandered back to that night, that sinful kiss that was driving him insane. He'd tried to play it cool and not act like it hadn't affected him, but fucking hell, her mouth needed more worshipping. If he hadn't been interrupted like that... would they have been able to stop? He ran a hand down his face, exasperated. Bittersweet as it was, he had to accept one or the other. Either keep the contract, helping her out at an arm's distance, or forget about that damn contract and explore whatever this was he was feeling. Wait a fucking moment. Feelings?? She's attractive, sure. But did he really like her? The last thing he wanted to do was get feelings mixed up in this already hot mess.

His phone vibrated in his pocket, and he washed his hands and pulled it out. It was a message from his mother, asking to meet. He sighed. Looks like the cat is out of the bag then. Somehow he'd forgotten that his mother uses Instagram like everybody else. He marked it as read, not replying to anything for the moment. I'll cross that bridge when I get to it.

He opened his browser app to look at the articles for the inauguration ceremony, and the very first article that met his eyes had him staring in horror. The heading read, "THE ICE PRINCESS CAUGHT IN A PASSIONATE EMBRACE WITH HER CHEF BOYFRIEND," and the picture was of them kissing at her house, clear as day. He clenched his jaw in anger. These jerks didn't even care to blur the pictures!?

He opened his phone app and dialed the contact he'd saved under Princess. It rang once, twice, and then a male voice answered.

"Hello, the office of Lauren Pierce how can I help you?"

"Isn't this Lauren's personal phone?" he asked, confused.

"Oh, it is. This is her assistant, Preston Byers," the voice at the other end said.

"Oh. Can I speak to her then? Is she busy?" he asked, and listened to the movements Byers made for half a minute. The phone changed hands, and a cool, all-business Lauren started with, "Mr. Lee, how can I help you?"
Mr. Lee!???? How can I help you?

"You can't be addressing your boyfriend like that, Princess," he said.

"Mr. Byers knows about the contract, he actually printed it out. I have a meeting in ten minutes, so can we keep this short?" she replied, shocking him with her nonchalance. She was acting like that kiss didn't happen, but then again, what was he expecting? It was just a practice run for their contract, was it not?