Jannes took to the stage to accept his award, and his eyes still had that wide, startled quality as he stepped up to the microphone. He thanked his manager and his agent, the award organisers. And then, after a split-second hesitation: ‘And Lara, for everything she is to me.’
She stood staring at him, her face frozen in surprise. When he kissed her on the cheek and laced his fingers through hers as he came back to the table, her thoughts were too much in disarray to come up with a coherent question. Until she remembered that this was all for show. He was just sticking to their story, proving once again that he really was the best friend a woman could wish for—far too good to risk losing over something as superficial as how he looked in a wet shirt. She fixed a smile on her face and sat back beside Jannes, her hand still in his, aware of the photographer just to one side.
This was fine. This was simple. This was the reason she’d taken a fake date to Pip’s wedding: because she was choosing a life where she didn’t have to guess and second-guess people’s feelings. Where she didn’t have to worry about the fact that second-guessing people’s feelings usually led to them getting hurt. She already knew that Jannes was faking his feelings for her, exactly as they had agreed. Which really should have made her feel better. Grounded. But somehow, just...didn’t. She shook herself. It turned out that fake relationships were sometimes confusing, complicated, too. But still, compared to the real thing—she thought about the way her father had treated her, and her mother, and Pip’s mother, and decided that a fake relationship was the lesser of two evils.
She stuck to Jannes’s side as the party wound down, as he accepted congratulations and handshakes and slaps on the back from all directions. Lara felt a swell of pride seeing everything that Jannes had achieved. There was no denying that he deserved the award he’d been presented with that night.
He turned to her finally, when he’d shaken almost every hand in the room.
‘Mr Henriksson, I can show you to your room if you’re ready,’ the hotel manager said, coming over to shake Jannes’s hand. Lara wondered if he was glancing at his phone to ward off the awkwardness that had suddenly popped up between them at the mention of the hotel rooms arranged by the awards organisers. ‘Congratulations on your award,’ the hotel manager went on, beaming at them. ‘We’ve upgraded you to our best suite.’
Lara was on the verge of asking about her own room when she remembered about their pretence. The whole point of her being there was to convince everyone that they were a couple. Separate rooms was going to undo all their hard work, so she squeezed Jannes’s hand and followed the hotel manager to the lifts.
When they closed the door of their suite behind them, she looked up at Jannes and burst out laughing. What else could she do? This had started with her agreeing to pretend to be Jannes’s girlfriend for a few hours and had so far escalated to a family wedding, a ballroom and now the honeymoon suite of a luxury hotel.
‘Wow. This is...’ Jannes started, before his voice trailed off. Lara glanced up at him and smiled at the pink flush of his freckled cheeks.
‘Extravagant?’ Lara suggested.
‘That’s one word for it,’ Jannes said in a low voice that suggested there were several other words that he could think of.
She burst out laughing, because it was the only thing she could think of to break the tension.
‘So,’ Lara went on, when her laughter eventually petered out. ‘Um...what do we do here?’
Jannes looked around him at the extravagant suite with its four-poster bed and freestanding copper bathtub. Lashings of rose petals and crystal and polished wood. ‘Lara, I’m so sorry,’ he said. ‘It never occurred to me to say something about the sleeping arrangements—I should have checked.’
‘Relax, Jannes. It’s just one night,’ Lara said, turning on the spot to take in the whole of the room. ‘We don’t need to turn this into a big deal.’
‘You’re right. I’ll just sleep on the sofa,’ Jannes offered.
She laughed. ‘You’re at least a foot longer than the sofa,’ she pointed out. ‘And it’s velvet. You’ll slip right off in your sleep. There’s really no need. I’m sure I can be trusted to spend tonight in a king-size bed with you without trying to jump your bones.’
He laughed at that, but she could still hear the tension in his voice. No wonder, because jumping his bones was exactly what she wanted to do right now, and her and Jannes were good enough friends that she wouldn’t be at all surprised if he knew it.
‘It’s not you I’m worried about,’ she could have sworn she heard him murmur. No way was she calling him out on that—that would be way too dangerous. Better altogether just to ignore it.
‘Come on, Jannes. We’re friends. Let’s not make a big deal out of this. It’s not like there’s any danger of something happening between us.’
* * *
Well, not now there wasn’t. When she made it so clear that she wasn’t interested. There had been times that evening when having Lara by his side had felt so right, so uncomplicated, that it made him start to question all the reasons why he was so sure that seeing if there might be something more than friendship there between them was a good idea. But there was no point letting his thoughts wander in that direction. Even if Lara did see him as more than a friend, he wasn’t going to risk her walking away from him by suggesting that having her in his life as a friend didn’t always feel quite...enough. And he wasn’t going to risk losing her by letting them get closer, and then pushing her away. He couldn’t lose her—it wasn’t worth the risk.
‘So,’ he said, hand rubbing at the back of his neck. ‘What do you want to do for the rest of the night? Are you tired? I’m still a bit wired from all...that.’
A knock at the door interrupted the awkward moment, and a hotel employee came in, pushing a cart with a bucket of champagne and two tall crystal glasses.
Lara thanked him and took out the card propped up against the ice bucket. Well, there were worse things than room service and a movie and free champagne.
‘Telly in bed?’ she suggested. ‘And open this?’
‘Absolutely,’ Jannes said, holding up the glasses while she popped the cork.
She poured the champagne and then took a full glass, lifting it towards Jannes in a toast. ‘To...us?’ she suggested, hoping that Jannes could hear the heavy irony in her voice.
‘To us,’ he agreed with a smile, clinking their glasses together.
* * *