Plus One is a Lucky Number

Sophie turned in her seat and Adam kept his eyes on the road. Occasionally he glanced and smiled at her. It was working; she was relaxing.

“I hope you don’t mind me being nosy, but … ” Sophie stopped.

His eyes narrowed. “What?”

“I don’t mean this to sound as bad as it does, but you’re an account manager … and this car … ?”

Adam relaxed. “Not exactly standard issue company car?”

“No.”

“Long story. Might tell you one day. Might not.” He winked and tapped his nose. “It’s a secret.”

“What? You’d have to kill me after?” she said, giggling, then sobered.

Adam noticed her anxious expression, and chuckled. “Sophie, you’re safe. I promise. I wouldn’t hurt you – James would murder me for a start.” He wanted to put her at ease.

He decided to stick with work topics. “Hey, the other week, I was in Bracknell stripping down one of our old QB13’s.”

“Oh, now you are showing your age,” she said, unable to hide a smile. “They’re an old model, way before my time.”

“I was on the shop floor making them.” He narrowed his eyes. “And I’m not that old. I’m thirty-three.”

“Oh, definitely old,” she said, sarcasm lacing her words.

“Experienced.” In many things. Adam liked the fact she was flirting.

Sophie coughed and sobered, her cheeks flushed. “So why were you st-stripping it down?”

He pretended he hadn’t heard her stutter over the word stripping. “Well, it was either that, or they’d have to wait three days for our engineer,” he said. Had Adam taken it too far flirting back, or did he look like he was bragging? Shit, he felt like he was treading on eggshells. He wanted her to loosen up, get to know him, even like him. It felt important.

Of course it was important; they needed to at least get on this weekend to be remotely believable.

“Why?” she asked.

“He was on holiday.” Adam grinned. “And our other engineers were busy with other projects.”

“When things go wrong, they go wrong at once.”

“Exactly. We couldn’t get anyone else there sooner.”

She giggled. “I can’t believe you got your hands dirty.”

“Me neither. But I didn’t want to break our service agreement.”

“Ah, yes, very costly,” she agreed.

“Yes. And I wanted them to purchase the new QB20s. Wasn’t going to be likely if they had to halt their manufacturing line for three days.” Adam chuckled, and Sophie laughed with him. Yeah, and he’d won the contract.

And maybe he was worrying about nothing. They’d become comfortable with one another inside the car, all tension had ebbed away. But what would happen once they set foot on the grounds of the hotel, meeting Sophie’s friends and family? Adam’s stomach churned. Then he’d really have to turn up the charm. A whole different experience awaited them. Would he be believable enough for her? Or would they see through him?

No, he’d be fine. She was pretty, after all – not much pretending required there. But he would be pretending. Sophie didn’t seem like his usual girlfriends. And they worked under the same roof. He needed to tread carefully. Do enough to keep her friends at bay, but not too much to send mixed messages to Sophie.

“So who’s getting married?” Adam couldn’t believe he hadn’t asked this question.

“Oh, a second cousin of mine.”

“Family?” Adam’s eyes widened, he nearly swerved the car. “Are your parents going?”

“No.” She shook her head, and chuckled. “They’ll be on holiday.” Relief waved over Adam and he relaxed.

Adam pulled into the services around eleven o’clock, suggesting an early lunch. They’d been on the road three hours, and his stomach growled, reminding him he’d skipped breakfast.

They stood in silence, waiting to be seated in the small roadside restaurant on the A303. They were shown to a table and their orders taken.

“So what does your father do?” Adam asked.

“Pardon?” Sophie looked at him, frowning.

“What does your father do? And your mother? Where do they live?” Adam asked as the waitress arrived with their meals. Sophie smiled her thanks at the waitress, then met Adam’s gaze. Her dark brown eyes flitting with worry.

“Why do you want to know about my family?” Sophie’s voice was hesitant.

“Well, have I met them or not? We need to decide.”

“Oh, right. I didn’t think of that, either.” Sophie sighed, resting on her elbows.

Neither had James when he’d come up with this harebrained idea – ‘just pretend you’re her boyfriend.’ Adam started making a mental list of the things he was going to ‘thank’ James for when he returned.

He waited, patiently, watching her deep in thought. She frowned, fiddling with a paper napkin.

“Is it easier if you haven’t met them?” she said.

“Probably. Not really a lie then, is it?” Better to keep this fabrication to a minimum. Believable too, if they had only been seeing each other a few weeks.

Sophie agreed.

“But I might need some background about your family,” Adam said. “I mean, it’s not like you wouldn’t have talked to me about them.”

Sophie picked up her fork and sighed. “Okay, I’ll fill you in.”

As they ate, Adam listened to Sophie explain she’d grown up in Cornwall, and her parents were still living there, although currently on holiday. They had booked a once in a lifetime trip before the wedding had been announced.

“They’re probably in Hawaii as we speak,” Sophie said, after sipping her coffee. “Sunday, I think they fly to New Zealand.”

“Nice.”

“They decided to retire last year. They owned a couple of restaurants but sold up last autumn,” Sophie said. “So, what about your parents?”