Fake Dating the A-Lister

My account got hacked.

The scammer worked through my contacts one by one, begging everyone I knew for money.

One of them was my celebrity crush. The message went out under the name I'd saved him as.

Hubby. You up?

He was live on camera when it landed.

Ten years of pretending I didn't love him, gone in a single line.

Chapter 1

I got my account back four minutes too late.

By the time I forced the password reset and logged into an app I hadn't opened since high school, the scammer had already worked down my whole friends list, one loan request at a time. Some people had already paid.

I sat there with an actual pen, writing down the numbers. Who got hit, for how much. That's what I do when my life catches fire. I run the numbers. I was halfway through calculating whether a police report could claw any of it back when a name in the thread stopped my pen cold.

Hubby.

That account had been dead for years and I still knew exactly who it was.

Adrian Vale.

The Adrian Vale. A-list, box office in the hundreds of millions, a Best Actor statue on his shelf that was maybe six weeks old. The kind of famous where you don't bother with the last name.

I swallowed. Took a breath. Opened the thread like it might go off in my hands.

One message. Sent from my account. To his.

Me: [Hubby. You up?]

I have never wanted to throw a phone into the sea so badly in my life.

Of all the contacts on that list. Of all the people a scammer could land on. It went to him.

So I did the thing you do when you're talking yourself off a ledge. He added me back in tenth grade, I told myself. He has no idea who I am. Stars scrub their old accounts the second they blow up, so this one's been a ghost for years. And even if it wasn't, he's Adrian Vale. The man barely sleeps. He is not sitting around reading a decade-old message from a nobody.

I had almost sold myself on it when my best friend called back.

"Babe. The trending page. Now."

Number one was a hashtag with my entire life folded inside it.

AdrianValeSecretlyMarried

There was a little flame icon riding next to it. The kind that means it isn't slowing down, it's picking up speed.

The floor dropped out of my stomach.

I tapped in, and there it was, blown up across every post, four words tall: Hubby. You up?

Because when that message sent, Adrian Vale was live.

The clip was already everywhere. Some talk-show bit. They'd dared him to log into an old account and message someone he'd lost touch with, and his assistant had dug up a profile he hadn't opened in years. The second his screen mirrored to the wall behind him, it slid up over everything.

Hubby. You up?

And that is how I learned what he'd saved me as.

Not my name. A number.

143.

I looked at it. Nothing clicked. Some sorting thing, probably. He'd filed the nobody from high school under a code, quick and clean, the way you label a contact you are never going to call.

The clip caught before his assistant could kill the feed. Fans ripped it, reposted it, ran it into the ground. By the time I refreshed, "Adrian Vale is married" had stopped being a rumor and started being a fact people were fighting about in the replies.

I put my head down on my arms.

I had a master's degree, a rented apartment, and a checking account the scammer had already helped himself to. I did not own a single tool for a day like this.

I'd walked into a stranger's life and set a match to it, on camera, in front of the entire internet. And all I could do was sit there and watch it burn.

Chapter 2

Losing the money was nothing. Torching Adrian Vale's reputation was the part that could end a career.

I don't work in his world and even I could run that math. One fake marriage rumor, one viral clip, and a decade of work goes up in smoke. He didn't know me. He'd been married off to a stranger in front of millions. He had every reason to hate me.

I was still spiraling when the dead app chimed.

I looked down. Top of the thread, that name again.

Hubby: [Can we talk?]

The person typing was Adrian Vale's manager.

She wanted to handle it in person. I gave her my address before I could talk myself out of it, and an hour later my doorbell rang.

I opened the door and couldn't lift my head. I just started apologizing to the floor.

"I'm so sorry, this is all my fault, I got hacked, someone used my account to beg my friends for money and I never thought it would I'm so sorry."

By the end my eyes were burning, because of course I was going to cry about it too.

"It's okay."

The voice was gentle. A warm hand landed on my hair and tipped my chin up until I was looking at a calm, lovely face.

And at the tall figure behind her. Mask, sunglasses, and still the most handsome man I had ever stood three feet from.

I went still. "Are you is that Adrian Vale?"

He gave the smallest nod.

My heart took off without asking me and would not sit back down.

Five of them had come. My one-person living room shrank to the size of a shoebox. I sat on the edge of my own couch like I was a guest in it.

"That account, I really haven't used it in years," I said, tripping over the words. "It was a security hole. That's how the scammer got in."

I made myself look up. "Whatever you need me to do, I'll do it. I'll make it right. I mean it."

The manager smiled. "Relax. We didn't come to collect. We came to ask you a favor."

She said it the way you'd offer someone a coffee.

"How would you feel about being Adrian's girlfriend? For a while. On paper."

I stared at her. My ears had clearly quit on me.

"You did save him as 'Hubby,'" she said, the corner of her mouth going up. "So there's obviously a little something there. Don't you want to know what it's like? A boyfriend. On the house."

Talking about this with him standing right there made me want to go straight through the floorboards. "That was that was a long time ago."

I stole a glance at Adrian, who still had not said one word. "And I swear I haven't opened that account in years, or I'd have changed it."

"It's fine." She waved it off. "We'll pay you for your time. The one condition is that you never tell a living soul it isn't real."

The room went to static. Little sparks crawled in at the edges of my vision.

So let me get the numbers straight. This morning I detonated a movie star's career. Tonight his people were in my living room, offering to pay me to date the one man I'd spent ten years being too scared to say hello to.

"The contract's already drawn up. If you're in, we can sign tonight."

A look from her, and the girl at her side slid two copies out of a bag.

I swallowed.

And then, for a reason I still can't give you, I looked at Adrian Vale, who had stood silent through every second of this, and I asked him.

"Do you want to?"

The mask was still on. Hair loose across his forehead, only those eyes showing.

Those unfair, unforgettable eyes.

And right now, they were on me.

Chapter 3

My heart was pounding again and I couldn't do a thing about it.

He said the first words I'd heard from him in ten years, and his voice was exactly as good as I remembered.

"I'm in."

I signed my name on the contract without hesitating.

There was genuinely no reason not to. Date the man I'd been in love with for ten years, and get paid for it. Where in the world do you find a deal like that?

The assistant took down my number and bank details while his manager, Camille, pulled out her phone. "Let's trade contacts. We're partners now."

I added everyone in the room. Adrian too.

I was still stuck on the number thing, so when he typed in what he was saving me as, I snuck a look.

A single capital A.

What a strange filing system. Numbers on the old app, a letter on this one. Was this just how it went for a nobody in a star's phone? I honestly couldn't work it out.

With him watching, I typed in what I was saving him as. Adrian Vale. Every letter in its place.

"Oh," Camille added, "do you want us to handle the hacking situation? That's our lawyer. Any questions, go to him."

I shook my head fast. "I've got it."

"The transfer's done," the assistant said, half a question.

"Good." Camille stood. "Then we'll get out of your hair. Check your account. That first deposit's a retainer, the rest comes monthly."

"Pleasure working with you." She held out her hand.

I grabbed it. "Pleasure, pleasure, yes."

I shook hands with all five of them and walked them to the door.

Adrian went last. He stopped in the doorway and looked back at me. "Wren."

"Yeah?" Something in my chest rippled.

"Pleasure working with you," he said.

That voice again.

Maybe he'd scrambled something loose in my head, because I didn't give the polite line back. What came out was just true. "Yeah. It really will be."

His eyes curved. Then he turned and left.

I shut the door with my heart still going.

It took me a while to come down. When I finally did, I went back to the coffee table to deal with the mess, picked up my phone, and looked at the balance.

A hundred grand. Sitting in my account.

I blinked. Checked it three times. Still a hundred grand.

Hit after hit, all day, until I could barely think. Was this a winning lottery ticket? Since when did every good thing in the world land on one person, and that person was me?

Once I'd settled enough to finish the tally: seven friends had sent money, people I'd drifted from, out of touch enough to buy the story. About ten thousand, all told. I paid back every one. Some refused it. Some wanted the scoop on Adrian Vale. I answered neither.

I lay back on the couch and let out a breath. Handled, I thought. Finally.

I'd just closed my eyes when my best friend called for the third time that day.

"Babe. You two went official!"

I opened his profile.

Adrian Vale's page was nothing but ad campaigns and movie promos, same as always. Except now, pinned to the top, one new post.

Adrian Vale, verified: She's my girlfriend. Please stop speculating.

My heart slammed against my ribs.

Chapter 4

I was the whole reason this was happening, and somehow it was like watching it from another zip code.

I opened the comments, morbidly curious.

Commenters:

[hubby?? no. NO. I have called you hubby in your DMs a hundred times and you never once claimed me like that]

[something's off here. didn't he say that account was ancient? and it just happens to ping mid-livestream? this reeks of a promo stunt for the new movie. wait for the twist]

[143. you guys. 143. one letter, four letters, three letters. he saved her as I LOVE YOU and I am deceased]

[why confirm THIS one so fast? man's been linked to half the industry and never said a single word]

I tapped that last one to read the replies.

[because this time it's real]

[every other time some woman forced the story. my theory? he got jealous and went on live to plant his flag]

[my ship. him and Ivy. it's sinking and I'm going down with it]

I closed the app and marveled, quietly, at how much these people could build out of nothing.

My best friend didn't get it either. "Wasn't this a hack? How are you two dating now? Have you been secretly seeing Adrian Vale behind my back?"

"I signed a contract," I said. "Saying anything now is a breach."

She got there in one jump. "Fake dating. Look at you, playing in the big leagues."

"What do you mean, big leagues?"

"Adrian. Obviously. Did you see how he saved you? Babe. He's clearly into you too."

"Absolutely not," I said. "That's a reach and you know it."

I've loved Adrian Vale since I was fifteen. I watched him go from the boy every girl at school stared at to a face the whole country knows. If the boy at school was already out of reach, the movie star was a star in the literal sense, the kind you point at in the sky and never touch. So I kept it where I keep everything. Down. Quiet. Unsaid. Saying it out loud would've been the punchline to a joke about a girl who didn't know her place.

"Just wait," she said, dead certain.

I blinked at her, unconvinced.

Then she pivoted. "What are you doing about the hack?"

"Paid everyone back. Not filing a report. If they catch the scammer, the whole thing comes apart."

"Mm." She circled straight back. "So. How does it feel to be Adrian Vale's girlfriend?"

"I'm not his girlfriend," I said, on reflex.

"Babe. What are you defending? You are, right now, his girlfriend."

She leaned in, deadly serious. "The universe just dropped this man in your lap. Fate walked him to your door and bolted him to you. If you don't grab this with both hands, I am going to genuinely lose respect for you."

"But I"

"You're incredible. You deserve him. Trust me. You're the best girl I know."

I pulled in a breath. And for the first time in ten years, the thing I decided wasn't I can't.

"Okay," I said. "I will."

The first job as Adrian Vale's fake girlfriend was making eyes at him in the parking garage under his building.

After the announcement, the internet had opinions. Whole accounts had spun up just to dissect Adrian Vale's first-ever public relationship frame by frame. To shut it down, Camille decided to answer with evidence. She'd already tipped off the paparazzi. All Adrian and I had to do was play a couple in the honeymoon phase and let them catch a few close, cozy shots.

That day, he came to pick me up himself.

All I had to do was act like I was in love with him.

I'd had ten years of practice.

Chapter 5

Black cap, plain white tee, faded jeans. On anyone else it would have been nothing. On him it looked like money, the kind of simple that isn't simple at all.

I tugged at the hem of my T-shirt dress. "Is this okay?"

Camille had told me to keep it ordinary. Nothing done up.

His eyes moved over me for a second. "You look beautiful."

I bit back a smile and got in the car.

We drove toward his building. I was tense the whole way, and the second we pulled into the garage it peaked so hard I almost couldn't make myself open the door.

His hand, warm and dry, tapped the back of mine where it sat on my knee.

"You're just visiting a friend's place," he said. "Don't think about anything else."

I nodded hard.

Outside the car, I leaned against the door and waited while he pulled a couple of grocery bags from the trunk. Props, prepped in advance, so the photos would look lived-in.

He came around with a bag in one hand, looked at me for a beat, and sighed. "You didn't even bring a mask?"

Then he took the cap off his own head and fit it onto mine. His knuckle grazed the edge of my jaw on the way down. There, then gone.

For a second the whole world was the inside of that cap. His warmth still in it. His smell. My head went light in slow waves.

He took my hand. "I already wore the mask," he said, low. "You're not getting that one."

He walked me forward and my brain stayed somewhere back by the car.

Was this it. Was this the part where we started.

He was fast. Ten years of trophies and he'd earned every one, because how did the actresses across from him not lose it on the spot? Two minutes in and I was about to spontaneously combust.

I forgot, completely, that I was supposed to be acting too. I just let him lead me, dizzy the whole way.

Then he stopped. Set the bag down on the concrete. And crouched in front of me.

I looked down, alarmed, and there he was on one knee, head bent, tying the lace that had come loose on my shoe. His fingers brushed my ankle as he looped it, and for a beat I forgot how breathing worked.

The garage was dead quiet. I could have sworn I heard shutters going off somewhere, fast.

Convenient time for a lace to come undone, I thought.

He finished, stood without letting his eyes drift anywhere they shouldn't, and smiled with them instead. "You're like a little kid. Good thing you didn't fall."

I pressed a hand over my sprinting heart.

We finally made it through the gauntlet, and I followed him inside.

Turns out visiting really did mean visiting. He carried the groceries to the kitchen and said he'd feed me before he drove me home.

Padding the timeline, I figured. Walk in and walk right back out and it looks staged. Which, fine, it was. But that's exactly how you get caught.

He cooked. All of it, start to finish, while I did nothing but sit there and watch him move around the kitchen.

Adrian Vale cooking was its own separate problem. I looked at this man and thought, I am never getting out of this. Not in this life.

So I did the brave thing, the thing my best friend told me to do. I went on the offensive.

"Do you have a girlfriend?"

"No," he said.

Then, "But there's someone I like."

The little flame I'd just felt catch dropped by half.

I ate the rest of the meal in a strange split down the middle, half happy, half not.

Partway through, he took a call, then turned to me with news that was neither good nor bad.

"There's another outlet camped downstairs," he said. "You might have to stay the night."

I understood him instantly.

Chapter 6

If I left after a little while and another outlet ran it, this already-shaky romance would get dragged straight back into the fire.

Couples in the honeymoon phase don't sleep in separate places. Everyone knows that.

"If you don't want to," he said, "you don't have to stay."

"I