Free His Hired Girlfriend by Alexia Praks Page B

told him so
numerous times via their e-mails. He blames his impatience for
this. He wanted her to come as soon as possible and booked her
flights for her before she even agreed. Now he wonders again for
the hundredth time why he was so eager for her to come to New
York.
    His heart skips a beat. Oh, yeah, you rascal, you know exactly why. You missed her
so much that you couldn’t stop e-mailing her every day. In fact, he e-mailed her every
chance he had. Not to mention he even visited her Facebook page
just to see her profile picture and see what she was up to. He
was that pathetic.
    “ How’s Jacob?” he asks,
suddenly feeling guilty at the thought of dragging her away from
her father.
    “ He’s recovering well,” she replies, thinking about that
dreadful week her dad had his heart transplant. In the waiting bay,
she hugged him and wished him luck while her mom cried and prayed
the procedure would go well. Then the anesthetist wheeled him off
into the theatre, and she and her mom waited in dread for five long
hours. She sighed with relief when her dad ended up in the ward
instead of ICU because that meant the procedure went well. But her
relief was short-lived when they found out a day later her dad
contracted pneumonia from the bacteria Streptococcus pneumoniae . The doctor informed her it was quite common for an
elderly man with a low immune system to be infected with it. They
gave him strong antibiotics, and within a week he recovered. Now
he’s home and taking things easy.
    “ Thanks, by the
way.”
    “ What for?”
    “ For the money. Without it, Dad wouldn’t have been able to
have his surgery.”
    Jay couldn’t help but grin
from ear to ear.
    Alex sees this and laughs. “You’re so cute when you smile,”
she comments. And silently adds— too bad you’re gay. “They are suspicious I have to go away.”
    “ Huh?” He is still
grinning and thinking about her last comment.
    “ I told my family that I’m
going overseas, New York City to be precise, to do some more
training. I lied to them.”
    Jay glances sideways at
her. “You could just tell them the truth.”
    “ I can’t do that. I can’t
tell them that I’m pretending to be your girlfriend, and now I’m
coming to New York to meet your family.”
    Jay laughs. She frowns at
him.
    “ Sorry,” he says cheekily.
“You could have just told them you are my real girlfriend and that
you are coming to meet my parents.”
    “ But we are not in a real
relationship. I mean you’re not my real boyfriend. You’re
gay.”
    Good point. He totally
forgot about that. Shit! Lies upon lies. He wonders which is worse;
lying to his family that Alex is his girlfriend or lying to Alex
that he is gay. No! He has to put that out of his mind. He has to
think about what’s going to happen when Alex meets his family, when
Alex meets Beth.
    “ Alex?”
    “ Huh?”
    “ We need to clear
something up.”
    “ Clear what up?” Alex
replies sleepily.
    “ Us.”
    She glances at him.
“Us?”
    “ Yeah, us. We need to be
clear about our story.”
    Alex nods in understanding. “Oh, you mean you and me? How
we met and stuff like that?”
    “ Uh-huh.” Jay nods, his
foot pressing down on the brake pedal as the car comes to a red
light.
    “ Right. Go on
then.”
    “ First of all, we have to
be really close,” he says. The light changes to green, and he steps
on the accelerator. “What I mean is we want to make people think we
are in a serious relationship.”
    “ Yes, I know.”
    “ Good,” Jay says, making a
right turn. “Secondly, to do this, you’ll have to start talking to
me more intimately. Like words of endearment.”
    “ Endearment?”
    “ Yes, like sweetheart,
honey. You know? Endearment.”
    “ Right.”
    “ Now I’m going to tell you
a bit more about my family.”
    “ Okay ,” Alex says
sleepily. The sound of the car engine humming is like a lullaby to
her ears, and she closes her eyes.
    “ Okay , we’ll start
with my dad then. His name is