Page 582 of Manhattan Bossholes

I was about to protest when she stood up quickly, laughing like I’d said something hilarious. She looked in her bag and walked toward me, deliberately catching herself on the leg of my chair and falling directly into my lap.

“Oh my goodness, I’m so clumsy,” she laughed, letting her hand snake behind my neck to play with my hair.

This felt way too real, and it wasn’t even nine o’clock.

“Ha ha,” I managed, sounding wooden. “Yes, you are…sweetie.”

She gave me a quick kiss on the cheek and hopped up. “We need to get to work, honey. You made us late this morning, you naughty boy,” she pretended to pout.

Fuck. This was going to be way harder than I’d anticipated.

“Uh, yup, let’s go.”

Felicity linked her arm through mine as we headed for the door.

“Hi, excuse me?”

We turned to find the two girls standing behind us, phones at the ready.

“Hi there,” Felicity said warmly.

“Are you…CamLicity?” the shorter one asked.

Felicity let out a peal of laughter that echoed around the coffee shop. “You caught us! Yes, we are.”

“Would it be okay if we took a picture?” the other girl asked tentatively.

“Well,” I began, “you’ve been recording us the whole time, so I’m surprised you even bothered to ask⁠—”

“Cam!” Felicity squeezed my arm and gave me a look. She turned to the girls. “Of course you can.”

She repositioned us so we were in front of the door without anyone visible behind us and dropped her head to my shoulder. The girls snapped a few photos, thanked us, and scurried away.

We walked out into the early spring sunshine, and she slipped away once we were around the corner from the coffee shop, glaring at me.

“You have a lot to learn, mister, and we’re taking the next thirty minutes to go through a primer. Hanwell Park, now.”

She stomped down the sidewalk. This public fake romance thing was going to be way more challenging than I’d realized.

10

FELICITY

“Oooh, your boyfriend beat us here,” Nina bumped her shoulder into mine as we walked into Frankie’s Tavern, the latest dive bar where Tyler was performing.

Meeting Cameron at the bar for Tyler’s gig was a perfect way to soft-launch our public couplehood after our accidental date at the coffee shop a few days prior. The photos and videos the girls had posted had set the #RingingintheRomance tag on fire, and interest in us was gaining even more traction. That said, I couldn’t imagine a rundown bar being a hang-out spot for romance fangirls. I’d dressed with care just in case anyone noticed us—but I also had back-up plans for other places where we could be “caught” together if there ended up not being any content from tonight.

Nina and I wound our way through the crowd to the table, and I tried to ignore the butterflies in my chest as we got closer, because Cameron was bringing the smolder tonight. He’d opted to skip his usual uniform of a suit and tie and was in a simple black t-shirt and jeans, although the way the shirt fit him was anything but “simple.” I was treated to biceps and forearms that made me wonder if he spent all his free time at the gym.

His eyes lit up when he spotted us, and he jumped to his feet. For a second, his excitement at seeing me almost felt real.

“Hey. Hi, uh, sweetheart,” he said in a strained voice, glancing around to see if anyone was watching.

I laughed softly. The man needed to learn how to lean into pretending to like me. Clearly, it was a stretch for him.

“Hey, babe,” I said, going up on my tiptoes to give him a quick kiss on the cheek.

It was the second time I’d been in close contact with Cameron, a no-big-deal peck that was the equivalent of what I’d give my grandfather, yet it still rocked me to my core. He had this aura around him, a warmth almost, that made me want to nuzzle closer to him. And the way he smelled? Incredible. I’d gotten hints of it when we were trapped in the elevator together, but going in for the kiss gave me a full hit of his spicy scent. And unlike those guys who bathed in cologne, he wore just enough to make you want to lean in closer. I wished I could park my nose against his neck and breathe him in for a couple of hours.