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Claire didn’t deny it. She couldn’t. Not if she was pretending.

She glanced up from her laptop to see Mrs. Sinclair approaching. “Hi, Mrs. Sinclair,” she greeted her.

“Claire.” She grinned at her. “I just loved that boy with you at the gala. You’ll make sure to bring him to our company holiday parties later this year for Thanksgiving and Christmas, right? And please, call me Victoria.”

Claire paused for a moment, regaining her composure. “Yes, ma’am.”

She had spent months trying to earn Victoria Sinclair’s approval. Apparently, all it took to reach first-name status was one successful campaign and an attractive fake boyfriend.

Claire came home from work, completely exhausted. All she wanted was to disappear into her apartment for the rest of the evening.

Of course she ran into Mrs. Evelyn in the hallway. “Claire, sweetie, so good to see you!” She wore a mischievous grin.

Claire smiled, “Hi, Mrs. Evelyn.”

“It’s about time.”

“Mrs. Evelyn—”

“Harold owes me twenty dollars.”

“What?”

“He told me you two would be together by Thanksgiving. I said before.” Mrs. Evelyn walked off, leaving Claire dumbfounded.

She was left with one question: Who was Harold?

She approached Noah’s apartment and banged on his door. He opened the door already looking amused, which only irritated her more. “Hello to you too.”

“We have a problem,” she told him, pushing past him and barging in.

“That bad?” he asked, a teasing look in his eye.

“And who is Harold?”

Noah stared at her. “What? I don’t know a Harold. Now what is the problem?”

“All day, I kept getting questions about how long we’ve been together. Everyone says we’re adorable. Asking when they’ll see you again. Mrs. Sinclair wanted to make sure I’ll be bringing you to the holiday parties this year. Do you hear that? My boss asked about you. And then she told me to call her Victoria.”

“What did you say?”

“Nothing. It’s going to be a lot more awkward to correct them than to let them believe it.”

Noah grinned. “So don’t.”

“What do you mean, don’t?” She narrowed her eyes at him.

“Let them believe it, just for a few weeks. Then we fix it.” He seemed entirely too calm about the situation.

“People are going to expect us to act like a couple.”

“We already spend most evenings together.”

“They’ll expect you to keep bringing me coffee.”

“Tragic.”

“They might see us grocery shopping.”