Chapter 2

Olivia paced back and forth in her bedroom, biting gently on her artificial fingernails, a habit she had whenever she had something on her mind.

"You should have kept quiet Liv, you should have just kept your stupid mouth shut!" she rambled by herself, mentally cursing at her stupid pride for pushing her into a situation she would find difficult to get herself out of.

She still couldn't believe she had let herself get cornered by her parents into claiming that she was in a relationship out of desperation when she didn't even remember the last time she met up with a man. Now, she had to find the perfect boyfriend to appease her parents and get them off her back or else she'd end up marrying that no good brat, Tom Hardy.

To make things worse for her, her parent's had asked that they met with her mysterious boyfriend since deep down, they also didn't believe her just like she didn't even believe her own dumb lie.

"Stupid! Stupid! You're stupid Olivia!" she yelled at herself in frustration, as she raked her hair with her fingers.

"I have two days to fix this mess and find an idiot that'll play the role of a good boyfriend. Just two days Olivia and who will it be?" she muttered to herself, wondering who could play the part well without making any mistakes in front of her parents.

Since she had pretty much lived an antisocial life, she couldn't exactly boast of having any male friends to help her out.

She suddenly wished she had not lied to them about having a boyfriend and had come up with a better lie because the more she thought about the many men she had as admirers, the more she realised how disgusted she was by all of them. She couldn't even bring herself to imagine faking a relationship with any of them since none of them could ever fit her anyway.

"Who should I just go with?" she thought to herself, clenching her right fist and gently hitting her forehead with her fist.

The mere thought of marrying Tom had made her feel like throwing up and she could honestly see herself jumping into the ocean without a valid reason instead of marrying a man like Tom, who had a very unpleasant reputation especially when it came to his drinking habits and the women around him.

"Bingo!" she blurted out suddenly as the idea of a blind date suddenly popped into her head. She realised that the best and only way to get herself a suitable person to fake the role of her boyfriend would be by setting up blind dates to secretly inspect for a good choice.

****

Olivia sat patiently in the restaurant she had set up for her date. She had worn a pants suit unlike other girls who would wear dresses to impress their dates and she had on her huge glasses and a matching fedora hat just to hide her face since she couldn't afford to be recognized by anyone, to avoid any false rumors and unwanted media attention.

She glanced at her wristwatch and cursed under her breath when she realised that she had been waiting for her blind date for over fifteen minutes now.

She wasn't one to tolerate tardiness and a man who can't keep time to her was already a complete no.

She noticed a familiar face coming towards her and she immediately hid her face and adjusted the hat on her head to avoid being recognised.

When she finally raised her head up, her eyes met with a chubby looking man dressed in an overall that made him look like he worked in a garage.

"Are you Olivia?" he asked with a weird smile on his face that irritated and creeped Olivia out.

"Yes, I am," she replied dryly, wondering how he knew who she was and why in the world he was even standing in front of her.

He suddenly adjusted his glasses and cleared his throat before stretching his right hand for a handshake.

"Nice to meet you Olivia. I'm Steven and I'm your date for today," he introduced himself with a proud grin on his face and Olivia could slowly feel her stomach churn in disgust.

She had the sudden urge to throw up her breakfast as she stared at him in utter disappointment.

When she had asked her assistant and friend Ciara to set her up on a blind date, she actually expected to see someone that would at least fit her standard physical to an extent. Unfortunately, the man in front of her looked absolutely nothing like her type at all.

The fact that he had showed up on a date dressed like a mechanic was already a big no for her cause she could never be with a man that had zero fashion sense. Another thing that irritated her was the fact that he looked all sweaty and gross like he had run a marathon and she did not like men that sweat too much.

Not wanting to seem rude and badly behaved, she took his hand in hers and at that moment, she wished she just kept her poor hands to herself.

His palm was extremely sweaty and sticky and when he had finally let go of the handshake, she quickly put her to the side of the table and wiped off his sweat with a handkerchief from her purse and placed the handkerchief away on the empty seat beside her.

Thinking that would be the worst of everything was another mistake she had made as Steven completely proved that there was absolutely no way she could ever propose a relationship to a man like him.

The only thing he spoke about was his job as a manager in a bakery and about how he loved to bake bread and pastries. He also spoke about his favourite hobby which was cleaning dirty places, especially toilets. Whenever she tried asking him questions, he would rudely cut her off and even go as far as raising his voice slightly to demand that she simply listened to him.

She has tried controlling herself by remaining calm and pretending to listen to him in order to avoid flaring up and bringing any unwanted attention to herself but after an hour of listening to him rant on and on about himself, she finally lost her cool completely.

"Can you shut up already?" she muttered through gritted teeth.

"I'm sorry, what did you say?" he asked in confusion, wondering what could have gotten into her.

"I said, can you shut up already?" she repeated herself again, this time, sounding a lot harsher and not bothering to hide the disgust on her face.

"Mr Steve whatever your last name is, it was really nice meeting you and all but I sincerely hope that I never have to cross paths with you ever again. Have a good afternoon and please, try to take care of yourself. This much sweating can't possibly be normal," she spat out spitefully before getting up from her seat.

She placed some cash on the table to pay for both their drinks before rushing out of the restaurant and back to get a car.

***

"Another day, another stupid blind date," Olivia muttered to herself as she finally arrived at the agreed restaurant, hoping that this date wouldn't turn out to be like the last one she had.

She could not imagine herself having to sit through a date where the man wouldn't stop talking about himself and about his weird and embarrassing hobbies. The fact that her first ever blind date was traumatising really bothered her but since she was desperate, she had no other choice but to come out for the second one.

"You have no other choice Olivia, it's either you do this or marry that idiot Tom. Let's find a fake boyfriend successfully today and dump him after tomorrow," she mutters to herself as encouragement.

She adjusted her hat again so no one would recognise her as she walked into the restaurant.

A small smile formed on her face when she realised that the table she had reserved was already occupied, probably with the man she had agreed to meet with.

"At least he's punctual," she muttered to herself.

"Hello," She greeted calmly and politely, getting the attention of the man who was waiting for her.

He raised his head up to look at her. "Are you Olivia?" he asked as his brows raised up slightly, hoping he was correct.

"Yes, I am," she replied.

Unlike the man yesterday, the one in front of her looked way more presentable.

"You must be Damon, am I right?" She asked to confirm and he nodded his head positive in confirmation.

He got up from his seat and went to the other side of the table to help her pull her seat and Olivia smiled a little in appreciation.

"Thanks," she said as she watched him walk back to the other side and sit down.

"Shall we order?" he asked.

"Sure thing," she replied with a nod.

Olivia felt relieved by the fact that her second date had been going pretty well so far. Their conversation was pretty light and he seemed like a funny and sensible person until suddenly, he asked a question that she was not expecting to hear..

"So Olivia, when are we getting married?" he questioned out of nowhere and Olivia's jaw immediately dropped to the floor.