mean?”
I sat there, momentarily stunned.
Since my apartment was on the second floor, I stepped onto the balcony and glanced outside.
+25 BONUS
Chapter 12
Aaron stood there, phone in hand, looking up just as I leaned over the railing.
Our eyes met.
“Come down,” his clear, cool voice carried up to me.
“What are you doing here, Mr. Ford?” I called back, already hurrying to the door. By the time I made it downstairs, I was slightly out of breath.
“Get in the car,” he said, gesturing to the passenger door he had just opened for me.
It was the first time I’d ever sat in the front seat of Aaron’s car, and to be honest, I felt a little intimidated. But there wasn’t much choice because he’d specifically opened the door for me.
“Mr. Ford, I really think I should clear this up publicly,” I said as he calmly pulled onto the road, eyes fixed ahead as though he wasn’t the man currently dominating the top of the trending news.
“Call me Aaron or something else. Just don’t call me ‘Mr. Ford.“”
I blinked, caught completely off guard.
What?
For a second, I froze.
“Are we having the same conversation here?” I thought.
Did he want me to call him Mr. Chairman instead? Was he secretly plotting to seize control of the boardroom at such a young age?
“Uh… Aaron? But I still think-”
“Good. Just think of it as practice,” he interrupted smoothly.
“Practice for what?” I asked, thoroughly bewildered.
Aaron kept his hands steady on the wheel, his gaze fixed on the road, but there was a faint trace of amusement in his expression.
“Practice for when you’ll need to pretend to be my girlfriend.”
Fifteen minutes later, I sat stiffly across from a sharply dressed man in a tailored suit, my face frozen as we stared at each other in mutual confusion.
“That’s the situation,” the man in the suit explained matter–of–factly as if this were the most sensible plan imaginable. “The media attention is intense, and Ford Enterprises is in the middle of bidding for a major project. Like it or not, a scandal like this could affect the outcome.‘
“Stop. Just stop,” I wanted to scream out loud, but I held back my thoughts.
“Okay, I get all that,” I said, frowning as I turned to look at Aaron, who was sitting calmly beside me. “But what does pretending to be your girlfriend have to do with any of this?”
“Come on, Miss Lowe,” the man in the suit said with a cheerful smile. “The only way to turn this around quickly is for you and Mr. Ford to fake a public relationship. It’ll shift the narrative and minimize the damage to the project bid.”
Aaron glanced at me, his expression composed and unreadable.
“This was likely orchestrated by a competitor. Even three days of bad press could be enough to influence the
2/3
+25 BONUS
Chapter 12
outcome of the bid.”
Under the weight of his steady gaze, the refusal I’d been about to blurt out caught in my throat and wouldn’t come
out.
Guilt pressed down on me, hard.
“Nicolas, you absolute idiot. Even at the end, you’re still dragging me down with you!” I cursed internally.
Thirty minutes later, I found myself at a Ford Enterprises press conference, standing stiffly as Aaron wrapped an arm around my waist like we’d rehearsed it a hundred times.
Was this what they called “corporate efficiency“?
The speed of it all was ridiculous. Absolutely, mind–blowingly ridiculous.
い
