Behind Closed Doors

Roxanna sat down with Gabe’s new “girlfriend.” The girl sitting next to her, Delia, was a pastry chef who currently worked for a small shop called A Baker’s Dozen. Roxanna had talked to her, and she knew that this was the perfect girl to pretend to be Gabe’s girlfriend. She was kind and generous, and the press would fall in love with her immediately.

Gabe was supposed to meet her in about fifteen minutes, so Roxanna decided to go over everything with Delia again. “Recite the rules,” Roxanna demanded.

“Are you joking?” Delia asked. “We’ve went over them probably ten times. I know the rules.”

“Okay, but I need to know that you know. So, please recite them.”

“Fine,” Delia said with a smile. “This is a fake relationship. I am not going out with Gabe for real. It is all for the press. I understand that he’s going to be hooking up with girls every night. I am not going to go run to the press to tell them what is going on.”

“And the most important rule?” Roxanna asked.

“I’m not going to fall in love with Gabe,” Delia said. She couldn’t believe that she had to recite the rules. She knew them, as Roxanna had said them so many times to her.

And she couldn’t figure out why the last rule was so important. There was no way she was going to fall in love with Gabe Saporta. First of all, he slept with a different girl every night. He lived the ultimate bachelor lifestyle, and he had no desire to change his ways. So why did Roxanna think she was going to fall for him?

“Okay, good,” Roxanna said. “Gabe should be here soon. Why don’t you just have a seat in there, and I’ll come get you when he’s ready, okay?” Roxanna pointed to the conjoining room, and Delia made her way in there and sat down.

Ten minutes later, Gabe walked through the front door and saw Roxanna sitting at the table. “I thought my new girlfriend was going to be here,” he said to her as he threw his coat on the seat next to her.

“She’s in there,” Roxanna told him pointing in the other room. “I want you guys to go out and get to know each other.”

“Okay. I can do that. She does know the rules, doesn’t she?” Gabe asked.

“Yes, she knows everything,” Roxanna promised. “Now, go show the press that you’re not such a bad guy,” Roxanna said pushing Gabe into the other room.

As he walked in, he saw a brown-haired girl sitting on the couch reading a text message on her phone. She hadn’t noticed Gabe walk in, so he decided this was a good time to get a good look at her.

He looked her up and down and noticed that she was actually really attractive. He was surprised. He had thought that when Roxanna had said a “nice, wholesome girl” that she would pick some quiet, plain-Jane girl. But here on the couch sat a nice looking girl. Maybe Roxanna really did deserve that raise after all.

“Hey,” Gabe said, getting the girl’s attention. She looked up from her phone and quickly put it away.

She stood up, extending her hand. “Hi, I’m Delia,” she told him.

Gabe shook her hand while introducing himself. “I’m Gabe, but I’m sure you already knew that.”

“Yes, I did,” Delia said politely.

“Well, you feel like going out?”

“Of course,” she said smiling as she grabbed her jacket off of the couch.

Gabe took her down to one of the fancier restaurants in town. This way, he knew that the paparazzi would see them as they left, but they could still have their privacy at the restaurant in order to learn more about each other without anyone hearing.

After they had sat down and ordered their food, Gabe decided to start asking the questions. “So,” he said. “What do you do for a living?”

“I’m a pastry chef at a store downtown called A Baker’s Dozen,” Delia replied. “I’ve been working there for about three years, but I’m hoping to open my own store someday.”

“How old are you?” Gabe asked. She looked pretty young, not that he had a problem with that. As long as she was over eighteen, he didn’t really care that much. If she wasn't legal yet, the press would never stop.

“Twenty-three,” she replied. “Why?”

“You look younger than that.”

“I don’t know if I should take that as a compliment or not,” Delia admitted.

“It works for you. So, you can take it as a compliment.”

“Okay,” Delia said as their food arrived.

After a few minutes, Gabe decided to ask the question that had been on his mind all night. “Why did you decide to do this? I mean why did you decide to fake date me?”

“Roxanna asked me to, and I said yes,” Delia replied, taking a bite of her salad. Gabe was surprised to find out that she, like him, was a vegetarian, too.

“So you decide to pretend to date me because some stupid publicist asked you to?” Gabe asked skeptically.

“I decided to pretend to date you because my sister asked me to,” Delia replied.

Gabe suddenly looked up at her. “Your sister?” he asked with his eyes wide.

“Yeah,” Delia said. “Roxanna’s my sister.”