Little White Lies: A Beguiled Story

Clarissa turned the key in the door to her small, one bedroom apartment. She pushed open the door, threw her two bags on the floor in front of the door and kicked off her shoes.

The two hour drive back from Whitmore Suites had not been fun. Nan, gossip queen that she is, kept pressing her for more “juicy” information about Mason and their love life, and Bella, at the wheel, had been silent; glaring straight ahead the entire, and refusing to speak a single word to the small blonde in the back seat for the first thirty minutes. When she finally did, it was with a sharp, reprimanding tone.

“I can’t believe you didn’t tell me about this, Clarissa. Do you know what could have happened if you wrote that article and then it got out that the two of you were dating—no—engaged? Not only would you have lost your job—because I would have been forced to fire you—but the magazine would have lost credibility.”

Claire had never felt so bad, or guilty, about anything in her life. She’d almost come forward and told Bella and Claire the truth about her situation with Mase, but then she remembered his threat and had settled with another weak apology.

Beguiled Magazine would be in even more trouble if it got out that she’d been faking her engagement and Nan and Bella helped her, even if it was inadvertently.

Sighing, Claire shut the door behind her and dragged her feet across the floor to her small living room and fell face first onto the couch. She was just happy to be home and away from Mason and the guilt she felt at lying to her friends.

Suddenly, she groaned and then released a scream into the couch cushion.

How in the world did she even get in this situation? She wasn’t the type of person to sleep around and she certainly wasn’t they type of person to get so drunk she couldn’t even remember the events of the night before.

Had something been slipped into her drink or, in her boredom, had she simply just ignored her alcohol intake?

Closing her eyes, she curled into a ball and tried, really tried, to remember everything that happened last night.

Okay.

First, Nan was bored just sitting in the room getting ready for the interview with Mr. Whitmore, so she talked Claire and Bella into going downstairs to the bar to relax and take a break. That had gone fine until a guy who had obviously had too much to drink came over and started hitting on Bella. Bella, irritated, left. By then Claire had just finished her first martini; she wasn’t even tipsy.

After Bella left, Claire and Nan just talked and laughed for the better part of an hour before Nan saw a guy she was convinced was her ex-boyfriend from high school, the one she’d lost her virginity to, and gone running after him. Claire had told her to be careful and not do anything stupid (she laughed at that memory; she should have told herself that). At that time, Claire was working on her third martini and just beginning to feel a little buzzed. She remembered thinking after she finished her drink she’d go upstairs and go to bed, not wanting to be too hung over during the interview in the morning.

That plan hadn’t really worked out. Just as she was about to leave, the bartender slid a glass in front of her filled with a lime green liquid. When she told him she hadn’t ordered it, he told her a gentleman had bought it for her, but wouldn’t tell her who. He said it was called a flying…something or other. Having never seen or heard of the drink before, Claire was curious so she took a sip. It was good, so she drank the rest of the glass.

Everything after that was a little hazy and only came in small flashes. She may or may not have gotten another one, but she did remember talking to some guy. But it wasn’t Mase. She pushed him away from her. The next thing she remembered was making out in an elevator with Mason and then laughing as she was thrown onto a bed.

She couldn’t recall anything after that, but she assumed it was all R-rate and wasn’t sure if she wanted to remember anyway.

Her phone ringing tore her from her thoughts. She rolled off the couch and ran to grab her phone from her purse, which she'd thrown on the floor with her luggage after walking in the door.

It was her mother.

“Hey, Mom.”

“Is there something you’d like to tell me, Clarissa?”

Claire blinked in surprise. Her mom sounded angry.

“No. Should there be?” She asked cautiously.

Claire could practically see the scowl on her mother's face as the older woman released an angry breath. “I don't know; should you want to tell me you're involved with one of the country's most eligible bachelors?”

Crap! Claire knew she'd forgotten to do something important.

“I-I didn't tell you about that?”

“No,” her mother snaps. “Would you like to know how I found out?” She doesn't give Claire a chance to respond. “The Yahoo! news feed. Do you have any idea how that makes me feel? The only reason I found about this relationship is because I got on the computer to check my email.”

Claire winced and hung her head in defeat. She was never going to hear the end of this; her mother was going to hold this over her head until the day she died.

“Look, Mom, I’m sorry I didn’t tell you about the engagement but it was—”

“Engagement!” Her mother shrieked, cutting Clarissa off. “What engagement? I just read a little blurb about how you and Mason Whitmore are in a relationship. You can’t possibly have been dating him long enough to be engaged. I haven’t even met him yet!”

Claire scowled, seriously considering telling her mother that the whole relationship was a hoax, the engagement would be over in a few weeks; there was no reason for her to freak out.

The words are on the tip of her tongue when she remembers Mason’s threat and she lets out a defeated sigh. She can’t risk her career—and possible the careers of Nan and Bella—by telling anyone about her sham of a relationship; especially not someone who gossiped as much as her mother.

So she settled for apologizing profusely as her mother continued yelling at her “for being so insensitive.”

The tirade lasted for a little less than ten minutes before Claire’s phone started to die. Happily, she told her mom she’d have to call her back.

“Fine. But don’t think you’re getting out of this so easily.” Claire could picture her mother standing with her hands firmly on her hips and stern look on her face. “I expect to see you here for dinner tonight, Clarissa. I’d much rather speak with you about this in person anyway.”

She bit back the childish groan bubbling in the back of her throat. All she wanted was to lie on the couch and wallow in guilt and self-pity. Was that really too much to ask for?

“Clarissa!” Her mother snapped.

Apparently it was. “Okay, Mom. I’ll be there.”

After hanging up the phone she threw it on the ground and left it there to die, moping back over to the couch.

She curled into a ball and pulled the throw blanket on the back of the couch down to cover her. She didn’t want to go to dinner with her mother and grandmother.

Her mom would probably just yell at her the whole time and make her feel guilty, while Gigi hounded her for in-depth details on her relationship with Mason. She didn’t feel like listening to her mother, and she didn’t have in-depth details on her relationship with Mason; they were very superficial details, created in less than ten minutes a few hours ago.

Claire was just beginning to feel herself drift to sleep when a banging on her door jarred her awake. She ignored it for a few moments, hoping the person would just leave.

No such luck.

“Claire, I know you’re in there!” her cousin Geoff called from the other side of the door, knocking even harder.

She scowled and rolled off the couch. She'd barely unlocked the door when her cousin shouldered himself into the apartment, nearly tripping over the bags near the door.

“I've been calling you for the past thirty minutes,” he snapped once she closed the door and turned to face him. “Why haven't you answered your phone?”

“It's dead,” she said, pointing to the Blackberry on the floor. She brushed past him headed back towards the couch where she curled back into a ball under the blanket. “By the way, thanks for interrupting my nap.”

Geoff pulls the blanket off of Claire and glares down at her. “We need to talk.”

The small blonde let out a loud groan. “I don't need you to yell at me for keeping my relationship with Mason top secret. I'm already going to be getting enough of that tonight.” She popped up into a sitting position and glowered at him. “Besides, we haven't spoken in nearly two months. You have no right to be angry with me about this.”

Geoff arched a brunet brow.

“And who's fault is it that we stopped talking?”

Claire broke eye contact guiltily.

She'd stopped talking to him because she found out that he'd known that an ex of hers, who also happened to be a good friend of his, was cheating on her for the majority of their relationship and never said anything. Looking back on it now, she knows she shouldn't have gotten so mad; she and Brett had been broken up for nearly nine months. But the fact that Geoff had known and hadn't done anything...

She shook the thoughts from her mind, not wanting the anger she could feel boiling come to the surface. Instead, she began playing with a strand of hair and spoke meekly: “You still should have told me.”

Geoff rolled his eyes and finally sat beside his cousin.

“You know I wanted to, Claire. I really did. It was just hard.” He ran a hand through his hair. “Brett was like a brother to me; I've known him since I was two and he was there for me when my Mom died.” He let out a frustrated sigh. “And you're my baby cousin, might as well be my little sister; I didn't want to see you get hurt. But when you two started dating, I promised myself I would stay out of it no matter what happened. I didn't want to be caught in the middle of anything.” He gave her a weak smile. “But I did break his jaw when I found out what was going on.”

Claire raised both eyebrows in surprise.

“That was you? What happened to being a pacifist?”

He shrugged and sent her a grin.

“Well, that ideology doesn't extend towards people who hurt my favorite little cousin. I may not have said anything, but that doesn't mean I didn't do anything.”

Claire changed position so she was resting her head on Geoff's shoulder.

“Thanks for that.”

He wrapped his arm around her and squeezed her shoulder.

“Of course. I had to protect your honor,” he teased before turning serious. “Which brings me to why I came over.”

Claire groaned, loudly and childishly, and pulled away from her cousin.

“Why? I don't want to talk about it, and Mom and Gigi are going to yell at me about it in a couple of hours anyway. I don't need a lecture from you too.”

He frowned.

“Yeah, I'm going to be there.” He smiled at the glare she sent him. “I figured it would be easier for me to get my two cents now. We both know I won't have a chance to say anything later.”

Claire just sighs in annoyance. She was really hoping she would be able to avoid even thinking about Mason Whitmore and the situation he got her in for the next few hours; she just wanted to relax and pretend this wasn't happening.

But of course, everyone else had other plans.

Geoff ignored her obvious irritation and asked her a question that caught her completely off guard: “Why are you pretending to be in a relationship with Mason Whitmore?”

All color drained from Claire's face as she pulled away from her cousin to look at him with wide eyes.

“What?”

“You heard me,” he said calmly.

Claire stared at her cousin, opening and closing her mouth like a fish out of water for a few moments before she finally found her voice.

“Why would I pretend to be engaged to Mason?” she asked in what she hoped was an enraged tone, but was actually more of a strangled whisper.

His eyes widened at the word 'engaged,' but he didn't say anything about it when he spoke. “That's what I'd like to know.”

She frowned at him.

“What makes you think I'm lying?”

It was Geoff's turn to scowl in irritation. Claire was obviously avoiding his question.

“When I suggested he have you interview him instead of Trish Larson, he'd never even heard of you.”

Claire's brow furrowed. Mase had only asked to have her interview him because of Geoff? How did Geoff even know Mason?

“I've been working for his company for a little over a year, Clarissa,” he sighed when she asked him. “I told you when I got the job.”

Claire didn't remember that at all. She tells him this and he just rolls his eyes.

“Of course you don't,” he says dryly. “You never pay attention to what's going on in my life.”

She rolls her eyes at his response. Her cousin could be so dramatic sometimes. She ignored the snarky voice at the back of her mind telling her she didn't have any room to talk; after all, she was acting like a baby because she'd been roped into pretending to be engaged to one of the country's most eligible bachelors.

“Anyway,” Geoff continued, “when I told him about you, he had no idea who you were. And last year when I told you about landing the job, the only thing you knew about him was what the media was putting out.”

“Well, we've been trying to keep our relationship kind of secretive. Mase thought the added stress of having the press constantly on our tail would ruin our relationship. Besides, I didn't meet Mase until after Brett and I broke up.”

Geoff shook his head and let out an irritated sigh.

“That doesn't make any sense, because having a steady relationship is exactly the kind of press Mase needs, and he knows this. Besides, you're a terrible liar. You never would have been able to hide something like this for very long.”

Before she could stop herself, Claire was nodding in agreement. He was right. She was a terrible liar, and even worse at keeping secrets. There was no way she'd be able to hide a relationship for a week, let alone seven months.

Geoff smirked at her.

“So you're not denying it anymore?”

Biting her lip, Claire just shrugged. It really wouldn't be so bad to have someone else know what was coming on. And, it would make it easier to keep the secret if she had someone other than Mason to speak with about these things.

“No. I'm not denying it anymore,” she mumbled, turning her face into his shoulder.

He squeezed her shoulder.

“So, you wanna tell me what's going on?”

“Do you promise not to tell anyone? “

“I'm not going to risk your reputation and your job, and it's part of my job to help Mason avoid scandals like this. Plus he's a good friend of mine.” He kissed the top her head. “Don't worry. I can keep a secret.”

She leaned back and offered him a sarcastic smile.

“That makes one of us.”