Just Convenience

Chapter 7

Emma's POV:

I barged into Melanie's room without knocking as soon as I got home. "What the fuck!?" Melanie yelled, startled. She was sitting on her bed, watching a movie in the dark on her computer, and was now blinking against the hallway's light.

"Sorry, I just really need to talk," I said, sitting on the end of her bed.

Closing her laptop, she sat up, "What's up?" I handed her my phone with the pictures of Peyton and my selfies. She scrolled through the photos, her eyes progressively getting wider, her mouth progressively dropping open. "Holy shit!" she exclaimed.

"I know, and now everyone at work thinks that Peyton and I are dating."

"You guys look like you are dating," she held up my phone with the last picture of him kissing my neck, "This looks like you are dating." I blushed, pulling one of the many blankets on Melanie's bed over me, covering my face. "How did you convince him?" she asked, and I peeked out from underneath the blanket.

"We made an agreement," I said softly. "He was the guy Miles had me meet yesterday at the pizza place." I explained, "His mom is on his back about having a girlfriend, so we made a deal." Melanie nodded, continuing to look at my phone.

"So what's the agreement?" she asked, and I shrugged, even though I knew the answer.

"We are fake dating," I said softly, and Melanie burst out in a fit of laughter. "What! It's not funny!"

"It is funny because this looks nothing like fake dating! This looks like dating dating, so no wonder everyone thinks you are dating!"

"It all happened so quickly. I didn't think everyone would find out that we were 'dating' until, like... I don't know, later? But then today, he asked me to go with him to lunch, which I agreed to, which led the entire building to see Peyton and me together. Then!" I said, taking a deep breath, "At lunch, the paparazzi found us and started taking pictures, which was fair—he is a fucking hot CEO of an uprising magazine company, and his family is big in the industry as second-rate celebrities. The thing is, there is already an article out about it with those pictures!" I took another deep breath, covering my face again before continuing, "Then, because the entire building had already seen us together, we walked in holding hands to make it more realistic - I don't know what was going through our heads - and he brought me to my desk. So now Louise thinks I'm like a bitch because I told her that there was nothing between us, and then later today, we enter holding hands?" I sunk lower onto her bed and covered my head farther with pillows. "It's too much. I don't think I can do this."

"It is moving quite quickly, but you did tell Lorine that you and Peyton have been dating for over a month at this point," Melanie pointed out.

"Yes, but that doesn't make me feel any better about this whole situation," I said quietly. Melanie started to rub my back softly, and I couldn't help but imagine Peyton being the one to rub my back. How big his hands were, how strong they were... I felt my cheeks heat up and buried deeper into the blankets and pillows.

Maybe I could just disappear? Call into work tomorrow and every day afterward so I never have to face my team again.

"I'm sorry," Melanie murmured, and I felt like I wanted to cry.

"I know this is an agreement between the two of us, but I can't help but think that this is just some twisted joke like high school." I confessed, "He is too popular, handsome, way out of my league, just like Stephen was."

"Is that what's bothering you?" Melanie asked, and I nodded. She sighed, "What Katie and Stephen did was horrible, and Stephen should be in prison right now for his part. Peyton, though, doesn't seem like the type of person to do something like that."