Chapter 1: The Last Job
"Oh, not again," Twenty-five-year-old Fiona Lopez murmured when her alarm went off that Thursday morning.
Why are alarms so loud and irritating? Fiona mused.
Not bothering to open her eyes, Fiona waved her hand over her bed in an attempt to turn off her ringing alarm. But just when she had succeeded, her eyes fluttered open and she sat up immediately when the realization of why she had set an alarm hit her.
She was supposed to be getting ready to leave for the agency.
The moment she picked up her phone and realized that she had less than two hours to get to the agency, she immediately got off the bed to quickly freshen up.
Thankfully, she had packed her bags immediately after she received the job the previous night. Her last job as a hired girlfriend.
Fiona had taken up a job offer at an hire a girlfriend agency six months ago after her mother was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and needed treatments urgently.
Thanks to that, Fiona had been taking care of the medical bills and now that the treatment and surgery were over, Fiona was more than happy to quit the job.
Her mother would be discharged soon and since she was yet to receive any call from the companies she had submitted her credentials to, she had had to take up this job so she would have some cash to take care of herself and her mother until she secured a job.
Because of the huge sum of money she usually got from the agency whenever jobs were assigned to her, she would have loved to continue working there especially since she wasn't doing anything wrong.
But her mother....
The last thing Fiona wanted was for her mother to return from the hospital to learn that she had been playing fake girlfriend for people just to foot her hospital bills.
She would be too broken and Fiona didn't want that. Hence after this job, she would quit and concentrate on looking for a better decent job. Fiona mused as she freshened up happily.
A few minutes later, she stepped out of the bathroom and headed to her closet to pick up the dress she had picked out the previous night.
Without wasting much time, Fiona dressed up, applied minimal makeup on her face, and loosened her long wavy chestnut brown hair which she had previously packed in a ponytail.
She brushed her hair and with one last look in the mirror to be sure she was looking perfectly okay, Fiona dashed out, her purse in one hand and her small luggage box in the other as she headed for the agency where her fake boyfriend to be would pick her up.
***********
"What are you doing here?" Derek Hemsworth asked his best friend and employer, Liam Parker when he stepped out of his office and saw Liam walking in.
"What do you mean by what am I doing here? Last I checked, it's still a work day," Liam said and Derek raised a brow as he followed Liam to his office.
"Aren't you supposed to be at the agency where you're to pick up your hired girlfriend?" Derek asked, and Liam frowned as he turned to look at Derek.
"Girlfriend? What girlfriend?" he asked, his brows pulling together in a confused frown.
Derek laughed, thinking Liam was probably joking. When he didn't see the humor in Liam's eyes, Derek frowned.
"Wait, don't tell me you forgot. Weren't you the one crying about not wanting your mom to set you up with Cora? How can you forget?" he asked and immediately, Liam recalled everything that led to that.
His mother had tried setting up a date between himself and his childhood friend, Cora, who had just returned to the country after ten years of being away.
In a bid to evade the arrangement since he wasn't ready for any of that relationship stuff after what happened with his previous relationship, he had lied about having a girlfriend.
Who knew his mom would compel him to bring the girl home by the weekend or go on that date with Cora?
In order to make his lie true and also get his mom off his back about marriage, he had told Derek to help him out without involving any girl from his past.
Derek, being left with no choice had gone ahead to hire a girlfriend at the hire a girlfriend agency.
"Okay. Fine, since you made all the arrangements, aren't you supposed to go pick her up, too?" Liam asked as he took his seat by his desk, and Derek shook his head.
"I'm sorry bro but it doesn't work that way....."
"Do you work there part-time? Because how do you know their policy and mode of operation?" Liam cut in, and Derek shook his head.
"You won't be asking me this if you read the note I sent about the agency," he said and Liam's eyes widened.
"Note? There's a note?" he asked but when Derek shot him a glare, he sighed.
"Okay, fine. What do I need to do?" Liam asked, and Derek exhaled deeply.
"Finally! You have to go pick her up at the agency...."
"Seriously, why do I have to and not you or the driver?" Liam asked again, and Derek sighed in exasperation.
"Because you are their actual client. It's a policy of theirs that their clients must pick their workers from the agency. That way, in case something happens, they have a face amd not just a name," Derek explained.
"Still doesn't make sense to me."
Derek nodded in agreement. "Doesn't have to make sense to you. It's their policy. What you should be doing is getting out there to pick her up. It's past the scheduled time," Derek reminded, and Liam sighed.
"Yeah. I need to hurry up and come back for my meeting. I have a meeting in the next two hours," Liam said, and Derek looked at him thoughtfully.
"What about the personal assistant you said you wanted? Haven't gotten the best candidate or you don't need one anymore?"
"Of course I do. Now that you mentioned it, I wonder why Paul is yet to find me a good one. I should go talk....."
"Don't worry. Head over to the agency. I'll discuss with Paul or better still, talk about it when you return," Derek suggested as he looked at his wristwatch for the umpteenth time.
"Fine. See you later then," he said and headed out with Derek following behind him even though they weren't headed in the same direction.
He received the agency's location from Derek just before he could get to his car and he chuckled when he saw it.
Although it was just an arrangement, he hoped that whoever the agency was assigning to him would be pretty enough to be able to fool his mother since he knew she knew his type of women. He mused as he got into his car and drove off.
Liam's attention was taken off the road when his phone started to ring with a call from his secretary. What could Paul be calling him for? His meeting wasn't until two hours from now. He mused as he tried connecting his phone to the car's Bluetooth speaker.
He had only taken his eyes off the road for a few seconds but that was all it took to give him the worst scare of his life.
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