CHAPTER THREE

NADIA’s POV.

A knock came on my door and it pushed open, it was Bridget.

“Dinner is served,” she announced, her face stoic and expressionless.

“I will be there shortly.” I told her and she nodded before making her way out of the room. I hadn’t seen Damian since I entered my room almost two hours ago but his words were still fresh in my head.

He wanted me to be his pretend girlfriend. Damian was famous and he had a lot of people on his list, he could call anyone to do that for him but he chose me.

No matter how much I thought about it, it made no sense to me.

I pulled my body off the bed and made my way out of the room. By the time I got to the dining room, Damian was already seated and he had his attention on the phone, he didn’t even bother to look up when he saw me.

“We made a lot of dishes,” Bridget said, “you can make your pick.” She further added.

“Thank you ma’am” I replied before helping myself to the chicken soup and some bacon. It was when I had the first spoon that I realized how hungry I actually was—haven’t had anything to eat since this morning.

After I was done eating, I chugged down a glass of fruit juice before I finally looked up, Damian was staring at me and he had an amused expression on his face.

“What?”

“You eat like you were starved of food in your past life.”

“I haven’t had anything to eat since morning.” I told him.

“Your apartment mate did not make any food for you?”

“Really?” I rolled my eyes. Was he trying to be sarcastic right now?

“Are you being serious right now?”

“I only asked a question.”

“Leave Zane out of our conversation,”

“Protective much?”

“Damian!” I angrily banged my fist on the table, he was so annoying and I was sure he was well aware of that.

“I’m going out later, wanna come?”

“Why are you acting like we are acquainted?”

“If you are going to be my pretend girlfriend then I might as well start now.”

“I haven’t even agreed.”

He smirked but he didn’t say anything, “call me if you need me.”

With that, he made his way out of the dining room leaving me to my thoughts. He was acting like a lunatic right now, I couldn’t even fathom what was going on in his head.

My phone rang at that moment and I saw Eva’s name pop up. I immediately answered, I was about to lose my fucking mind.

“You ended the call and you didn’t bother to call back.” She said from the other end of the line, I could literally imagine a pout on her lips, “really, Nadia.”

“I’m sorry.” I apologized, “a lot was going on at the moment, I had to take a moment to breathe.”

“Why? What happened?” Her tone was laced with concern. One thing with Eva was how much she cared about me and how far she was willing to go for me, she never missed a chance to make me feel loved.

“Say something, Nadia.” She cajoled, “what happened?”

“Zane asked me to leave the house,” I told her.

“What?” She half yelled, “why? Did you do something?”

“He said his girlfriend wants to stay for a few days and he reminded me of how I paid only three hundred dollars for an apartment worth so much more. I had to leave and get a place before I could call you.”

“That fucker!” She sucked her teeth, “how could he do this to you when it’s a few days to exams? What does he want you to do?”

“Well, I was able to get a new place to stay for a couple of days before I can figure out what’s going on.”

“Where are you staying?”

“Damian Blackwood” I called out his name and for a few seconds, Eva was silent. I knew she was trying to remember where she had heard that name.

“Wait. Damian Blackwood?”

“Hmmm,” I nodded and went ahead to tell her everything and about the part that he wanted me to be his pretend girlfriend.

Eva was silent for a few minutes, she was dumbfounded.

“What the heck!” She exclaimed after a few minutes, “how is that even possible? How—

“I also don’t know and I’m a bit confused. The exams are a few days away and I can’t afford to be homeless right now and being his pretend girlfriend is not something I even want to consider.”

“That’s insane!” She exclaimed again and I heaved a sigh.

“So what’s the plan now? Are you going to agree to it?”

“I can’t.” I told her, “I am in love with Zane and you know that.”

“Well. He doesn’t know and he asked you to leave the house. If you ask me, I would tell you to go for it, it’s not a big deal. Just six months.”

“I hate Damian Blackwood.”

“That’s why it will be easier, you don’t fall in love and you get paid.”

Eva was not getting the whole point. My parents would have my head if they found out I was doing something like that.

I could already imagine what my mother would say.

“This was not the way you were raised, Nadia. What do you think the family would say when they hear you are fake dating a white boy.”

I cringed at the thought of that, I couldn’t hear that.

“You should totally think about it,” Eva said again, pulling me out of my train of thought, “who knows?”

“What?”

“Damian is hot okay and he is a billionaire heir. I’m sure Aunt Neeha won’t have an issue with that.”

I rolled my eyes again, Eva was taking this too lightly.

“I will talk to you later.”

Before she could reply, I ended the call and pulled myself off the chair. That was when I turned around to see Bridget behind me, my heart skipped a beat.

“Sorry. I didn't see you there” I told her but she only nodded and moved out of the way.

I went back to my room and slumped on the bed. This was way harder than I thought. What would Zane think if I actually agreed to fake date Damian? The two of them hated each other.

“Fuck, no!” I hissed as I closed my eyes. This was not how I expected my love story to go at all. In as much as I didn’t want to marry an Indian groom, fake dating Damian Blackwood was no better.

“It’s just six months.” A voice said in my head.

“That’s six months of my life.” I muttered to myself.

“Well, what could go wrong?”

“Everything!” I mumbled again.

“You are overthinking it.” The voice said again and it felt like I was about to go mad.

What the actual fuck!

As if on cue, my phone rang and Zane's name popped up, I immediately clicked on the receive button and his deep husky voice filtered through.

“I can see you have already left.” He said.

“Hmm”

“Good but you should stay away from Damian Blackwood.” He continued, “I saw you entering his car. Damian is no good, he eats girls like you for breakfast.”

Is that what he was supposed to tell me? He couldn’t even ask me where I was or how I was faring—how roomatey.

“You won’t even ask where I am?”

“You are a big girl, Nadia,” he replied, “you can figure it out.”

He ended the call and I sat there with my phone still pressed against my ears, he was a total jerk.

A jerk I was fucking in love with.