The Agency

XLI. settle

They both stared at each other, each of them trying to catch their breaths.

Alex was confused. The thing he wanted most in the world for such a long time had finally happened and he thought that she shared his feelings. The way she pushed him away...it was like she was only trying to placate him so he would forget about her.

Why couldn't she understand that none of her tactics would work? If she thought that kissing him was going to make him go away, she was an idiot. He did not know that the feelings that he held for her could get any more intense but they did. He was addicted to her. How could he even begin to forget a kiss like that? He couldn't imagine dying without being able to be in her arms, them tangling together, their breaths as one, ever again.

"Why'd you stop?" He shouted, exasperated and frustrated.

"We can't do this." She murmured, shaking her head.

"Why not?"

"What about Stephanie?"

He rolled his eyes. "Are you serious? Fuck Stephanie."

Virginie laughed breathlessly. "I'm sure you do."

Alex stopped. "Do you think that I have feelings for her?" He nearly wanted to laugh at the preposterous thought but he didn't want to embarrass Virginie. The point of a fake relationship is to make people think that it's real. But he would think that Virginie, one of the people who knew him best, would realize that he was faking it.

"You say that like it's a crazy idea. She's your girlfriend, after all." Virginie crossed her arms and turned away from him with a huff. "I don't know what you feel for me but you do have a girlfriend and I would never want to get in the way of your―"

He couldn't help it, he chuckled a little. "Fake girlfriend."

Virginie rolled her eyes. "Don't you think I know that?" She sighed and turned back around to face him. "Are you sure it's still fake? I see the way you look at her. The way you embrace her. That's not fake. That's real."

Don't notice how I look at you when I do all of that? It's you that I'm thinking of, not her. My feelings for you are real. All he could do was laugh. He didn't know how else to react.

She slapped his shoulder. "This isn't the time to be playing games. You think my feelings are funny? You can't go and kiss someone like that and then―"

He snorted. "If memory serves, you're the one who pushed your tongue in my mouth. So I think you were the one who was doing the majority of the kissing," he reminded, raising an eyebrow.

"You ass! You know that's not the point. Be serious for a second. Is there something that you're not telling me?"
"I don't like Stephanie like that. Yes, I do care for her, but not romantically." He sighed, putting his hands in his pockets. He didn't want to say this because it was going to be embarrassing but it had to be done. "The only reason why I agreed to her ridiculous proposal in the first place was because of you."

She looked taken aback. "What exactly was this proposal?"

He rolled his eyes. He didn't want to have to go through this again. The fact that he had agreed to it was something that he often tried to forget. "I told you about this already. Don't you remember?"

"Refresh my memory then."

"As I had told you before, my first date with Stephanie was just because of a bet. I was not and I am not interested in her in any capacity. Once we arrived at the gala, there were paparazzi all around us and they were asking her questions like we were already a couple. I questioned her about it after the fact and she asked whether I would be interested in being her fake boyfriend for a little while. I'm not sure what her motivations were but I know mine were not selfless because the added...um...incentive."