MELISSA'S POV
“What?” I said, blinking hard like maybe I heard wrong.
Do I need hearing aids? Am I hearing something else?
Marco smiled again. Like he was pitching the next big Netflix deal.
“I said… the company wants you two to fake date.”
I laughed. Out loud. And it was not a pretty laugh.
“You’re joking.”
“I’m not.”
“You’re insane.”
“Also not.”
I stood up immediately.
“Nope. I’m not doing that.”
“Melissa—”
“Don’t ‘Melissa’ me.”
Xavier hadn’t even reacted. He just sat there, elbow on the armrest, hand over his mouth, like he was trying to disappear into the chair.
I pointed at him. “Say something. This is your mess too.”
He shrugged, still too calm. “Don’t look at me. I just got dragged in here.”
“Dragged? You looked very present during that shoot yesterday.”
“Because
