Chapter 2:

Emma:

My heart is still pounding furiously, and with the way his eyes sweep over me, pure rage overcomes my shyness. What’s wrong with me? This man is my mortal enemy and yet he’s still making my heart skip.

“I need your answer right now.” I swallow, not making my voice wobble. 

“What?” he asks, blinking rapidly. “Fake boyfriend, you say?” I can’t tell if he is mocking me or not, but either still, I hate the feeling of being helpless, of relying on him for help but I have no choice. This is my gaming company and I can’t let anything happen to it.

For years, I have watched my friends, my parents, my siblings- including my twin brother tell me indirectly that running this game company is just like a ‘hobby’, so I will do anything to prove them wrong, including getting on my knees and begging Jeremy Hart to be my fake boyfriend.

“Emma, what are you even saying? You can’t just barge into my office and demand that we become-”

“You owe me, Jeremy.” I bite out the words, feeling the hurt ooze out of every part of my body. “An investor won’t invest in my upcoming games because I am not settled down. Let me rephrase that, they won’t give me their money because I am still single. I panicked and said that I was dating you and now he wants to have dinner with us, both.”

I watch as he frowns, but doesn’t say anything.

“You owe me.” I repeat. “This is how you are going to repay me after you stole my game.”

His eyes turn soft. “Emma, please just listen to me-”

“I don’t want to hear it.” When Jeremy cornered me in the ceremony years ago, I didn’t give him a chance to respond, in fact, it took all the holding back to not swing my purse across his face. I still don’t need his excuses on why he stole my game and made an empire out of it.

It nitpicks me though, knowing Jeremy, he still would have built his gaming empire even without Erevos, he has the smarts and everything.

“A year.” I start talking. “We just have to pretend to date for one year while I round off this investor thing and bring my game to launch. I am not asking much of you. We have to live in the same house though because the reporters are going to start getting fishy. We need to do some interviews. A little bit of acting like couples to satisfy the public, and a couple of photos to post on our social media. Nothing special, so will you do it?”

I look earnestly in his eyes, pleading for him to accept.

“Emma.” He says softly and I shut my eyes tightly, hating all of this.

“I need a yes or no.” I say tightly. “Now.”

“Yes.” He replies without hesitation, making me widen my eyes. “I will do it. Under one condition.”

“What is it?” The Harts family built a billion-dollar empire, Jeremy is well to do, so I don’t think he’s going to ask me about money or anything like that but then again, knowing Jeremy, he’s always spontaneous.

“Let’s create a game together.” The moment he says it, everything in me goes cold.

“Don’t even.” I glare so hard, and my hands start trembling. If he thinks I am going to do this whole creating a game thing together, then he’s joking. 

“That’s my only condition.” He puts his hand in his pockets and levels me with a cool enough glare. This is business Jeremy, I wonder if this is the tone he uses for all his investors and employees.

It can’t be so bad, all I have to do is create a game with him and that’s the end. In just one year, I can survive this, I can live through this.

“Okay.” I breathe out evenly. “Let’s do it.”

He pads across the floor and now, he is standing in front of me. Jeremy is tall, a solid six three, but now I feel so small in his presence. 

He touches my hand gently. “Thank you for giving me another chance, Em.”

My blood runs cold and I bolt away from him like I’ve just been scalded, my heart resumes its abnormal thrumming. “Let me correct that for you, dear Jeremy, I am not giving you another chance and I never will.” My voice trembles slightly, not from fear, but from the heartbreak that never healed.

He takes a step back, his jaw tightening. “I didn’t-”

I see the flicker of pain in his eyes and for a second, I regret what I said but then I remember the nights I cried until I couldn’t breathe.

Good, I tell myself, he deserves this, he deserves every bit of it.

“You want honesty?” I whisper, stepping closer, just enough for him to feel the anger radiating out of me. “You make me sick, the sight of you, the sound of your voice, it still gets to me and I hate it. I hate that even now, when I am supposed to hate you, my body still remembers what it felt like to love you. It disgusts me.”

His hand twitches, like he wants to reach out but I pull away, my body is trembling. 

“Don’t touch me.” I snap angrily, and he steps back. “I still bloody hate you. This is just a one year stuff, after that, we can go back to hating each other and we can toss each other away like you did to me.”

The silence that follows is deafening, his jaw tightens, his mouth slightly open like he wants to say something, but he doesn’t. I hate that he is the only one that can bring out this side of me.

I turn and walk towards the door, still trying to even out my breaths. “Oh and, my assistant is going to take care of the social media posts.” I turn the knob and exit his office, I am sure that Kathy will have already posted the announcement of our relationship on social media. My phone starts pinging, countless messages, missed calls from my friends asking me what the heck is going on, I am sure they would have seen the post Kate made a while ago.

I bring out my phone from my purse when I arrive at the lobby and log into my social media handle, as expected the internet is blowing with my recent announcement of my new relationship posted by Kathy in my account.

The caption read: ‘Breaking news, Emma Roberts is officially off the market and yes, he’s that Jeremy Harts.’ Countless hearts emojis, hashtags about love finding its purpose. There are tons of notifications appearing on my screen, gossip blogs, and group chats exploding.

Feeling eyes on me, I turn and the employees hurriedly avert their eyes, and continue looking on their phones. Even the receptionist is looking at me with wide eyes; I guess they have all seen the post.

I just stare at the screen, wondering whether he has seen it. I can’t gamble my heart on the line, this is a no feelings attached engagement between Jeremy and I. 

I can’t end up opening my heart to the same man who crushed it. As I leave his company, I still can’t erase the sensational feeling I felt when he touched my arm.