Emily had everything packed and was ready to move into his house as planned the day before. However, James was preoccupied examining the contract paperwork when Emily placed a cup of coffee from Sip & Dip cafe on his table. 

He was taken aback by her gesture. "Did you get me a cup of coffee?"

“Yeah!” She said as she sat down in front of her desk.

“Why?” He asked her, trying to decipher the hidden meaning behind her actions.

"Because I am naturally a pleasant person who always brings you coffee." She stated with a sweet smile on her face. 

James could feel that Emily was trying to cover something up.

"This is the first time you have ever bought me a cup of coffee." He told her, as a matter of fact.

"Really? I will try to get you more coffee than." She told him with the most genuine smile she could muster.

"Emily, what did you do?" He questioned her, hoping to get a straight reply, which was highly unlikely.

"I did nothing. Consider this a compensation for your treat from last week and for letting me crash at your place. It means a lot to me." 

Emily prayed that James wouldn't look any deeper into it so that she could inform him about her mishap when the moment was right.

"Emily…." He said, scrutinizing her every reaction.

"Jeez, can’t I just do something nice for you without an ulterior motive?" She attempted to outwit him, but James was far too smart.

"You can, but you aren't right now. So, what the hell did you do?" He asked her again as he sipped his perfectly brewed coffee. 

Emily got right to the point with his order. He wasn't even aware that she knew his drink.

She started, "This morning, Cecelia Grams called me."

"And?" James knew Emily screwed something up.

"Well, please don’t get angry at me, but I might have said something I shouldn’t have." Emily tried to choose her words carefully.

“Please don’t tell me that you blew our cover.” He hoped that she didn’t. 

Faking a relationship was the greatest way to get close to her and possibly learn if he might have a future with her. He didn't mind that it was all a ruse to dupe CC Grams because it was only a bonus at the moment.

“No. I didn’t do that, but….” James was relieved that at least that part of his life was on track.

“But what did you do?” He motioned for her to continue.

"I told her that we are living together. Like living in together. You know, as a..." 

However, James completed her sentence. "A couple?" 

"Yup." Emily was trying to comprehend his reaction as he gave her a blank stare. 

James remained deafeningly silent for a few seconds, so Emily attempted to communicate with him. "Don't be mad, please. Listen to me about what happened."

"I am listening." He told her mechanically. He was still trying to process what he had heard.

“Cecelia Grams called me, as I previously stated. She went on and on about a man she thought would be perfect for me, which irritated me to the point that I blurted out that I was already dating someone. She didn’t believe me because she felt I was bluffing, which is something I frequently do in that department. So I tried to convince her that I like the guy I am dating and believe we have a future together, but she began interrogating me, making me nervous. I tried to divert the conversation by informing her about the flood in my apartment. But she's far too clever for me. Even though she was worried about me in the beginning, I assured her that I was fine and had already found a place to crash, but then she asked me why not at my so-called boyfriend’s place if I was so serious about him. So I blurted out, 'We are already living together.’" Emily explained while she waited for James' reaction.

James blinked a few times, trying to digest her words. "You just simply blurted out that we are already living together?"

"Yeah." She pursed her lips anxiously.

"What was Cecelia Grams' reaction to that?" He asked her.

"I don’t know. I immediately hung up the phone." She said, biting her lips.

"You did what now?" He asked her with a raised tone. 

He wasn’t angry at her but was somewhat baffled.

"I know! I know! I am sorry. I thought I had things under control, but then I freaked out. I am so sorry, James." Emily had her eyes closed, afraid to see James' reactions.

"Emily, you just elevated our relationship to a whole new level. We are living together. You are not staying, but living with me. This is going to be a lot harder. What the hell were you thinking?" James tried to explain.

"I was not thinking at that time. I don’t know how the hell I goofed up." Emily gently banged her head onto her desk, trying to get away from James' eyes.

"Emily!" James sighed. "It can, however, happen to the best of us. The only difference is that you would have punched me if it had been me instead of you." He told her.

"Oh, that I would have. I wish it were you." She told him glumly.

"Of course, you'd want that. But we need to figure this out." While trying to come up with a way out of this issue, James tried to reassure her with his words.

"How?" She asked, her gaze fixed on his, hoping that he would have a promising solution.

"First and foremost, whatever we plan, we have to inform Justin and Fiona about it. Secondly, now we would need to get our stories straight so that we don’t goof up." James tried to contemplate a plan. 

He got up from his desk and proceeded to get the white board, which he placed in a position where Emily could see it to jot down key points of their so-called relationship.

"Okay… But are you sure whatever we decide will convince them?" She was now uncertain about their plan.

"I hope it does, Emily," James said.

"We are living together when we have not even been dating for a year," Emily spoke her thoughts aloud.

"Emily, Love is a bizarre concept. It isn't aware of time or waits for the right moment. It just happens. So it doesn’t matter at what stage in our relationship we decided to live with each other. Take a look at Justin and Fiona, for instance. They fell in love after they got married. In terms of that, we are in a way better position." He told her, looking at her intently, to which she gave a slight nod.

"So, now that we're living together, first things first. How long?" Emily asked her.

"Just a week before the flooding fiasco? You were in the middle of moving in with me, but coincidentally, the accident occurred." James said. 

He didn't want to lie far from the truth. One lie is always followed by thousands which lead to millions and then infinite. Once it starts, there is no stopping it.

"Sounds logical enough." Emily agreed. "I wish we were staying at mine." She said suddenly. 

She hadn’t even moved to his place, and she was already missing her home.

"Why not mine? My place is pretty nice too." James asked.

"I have never been to your place. So, I wouldn’t know." Emily stated.

"Well, now you will," James said.

He also hoped that she liked his place.

"Yeah, just for the record. I am not thrilled about shifting to your place.”

“What if we were actually dating? What about then?” James asked her, trying to understand her better.

“What about it? Even if we were dating, why would I leave my place to stay at yours? I am not the type of girl who would sell her condo to live with a guy. That is just not me. I am way too practical for that kind of stuff." Emily explained.

James furrowed his eyebrows. "Way too practical? I don’t understand."

"Yes," Emily clarified. "What if things don’t work out? Then where the hell will I go?"

James couldn’t exactly understand Emily. "Em, I am sure that no person is cruel enough just to abandon someone or leave them on the streets after a breakup. That is something I would never do."

"People can take you by surprise. When one person doesn’t think twice before abandoning their marriage, then the relationship before marriage doesn’t even hold a candle against it." Emily's words were out of spite. 

At this point, James realized Emily's scars were more profound and had something to do with her father's absence from the picture.

"I agree. But every relationship is different. I am not saying you are wrong, but sometimes people can surprise you in the most pleasant way possible. However, in our case, this is hardly a short-term arrangement. You have to stay with me longer than we anticipated." James pointed out the obvious factor.

"I know. But will it even work?" She asked him.

"It will, Emily. We will tell CC Grams that when Justin and Fiona got married, we felt that it was about time to take our relationship one step further. As it is, we've been spending a lot of time at each other's houses lately."

"Okay. But can we shift to mine once my home is fixed?" Emily suggested with hope, but James gave her a ‘Are you stupid?’ look.

"Fine!" 

At the very least, she had to try. 

"Um, James?"

"Yeah?" He asked.

"Since I will be temporarily shifting at your place, I was thinking that if you are okay, I would tell dad that he can go ahead with the renovations like he wanted to." Emily didn’t want to take undue advantage of the situation, but it was an excellent opportunity for her dad to make the desired changes.

"Umm, sure. No issues." James shrugged casually.

"You sure, right? It could take a long time. Actually, I have dust allergies, and dad wanted to make some modifications, but he was hesitant since he didn't want to take any chances with my health." Emily elaborated.

"It is perfectly fine. You can stay with me as long as you want." He told her. 

In fact, the renovation is no less than a blessing in disguise. However, he didn’t know that Bob owned the apartment where Emily resides.

“Thank you, James!" Emily said, but he could still see that she was hesitant to move in with him.

"Emily, just visit my place once. I promise you, it is nice. You might even like it. You can change anything you wish to. I won’t stop you from doing so. But please stop overthinking." James really wanted Em to be entirely on board with staying with him. 

Maybe this might turn out to be a positive step forward for them.

"Okay." Emily's response surprised him. 

He hadn't anticipated her agreeing so quickly. He was embracing the thought of her restraint.

"This quickly?" He asked her.

"It feels like this place means a lot to you. Or it's your unfed ego, where you think a guy couldn’t shift at a woman's place." Emily rolled her eyes at the last thought.

"What! No! It is nothing like that. It's just that it's my home."

Emily scowled as he finished his sentence.

"I bought this house with my own money. It is not extravagant or anything. It is simply a reminder and reward for my hardships and accomplishments."

"You mean to say that you cannot shift because you cannot let go of it? What if we get married and have kids, but your home is too small for us? Then what will you do?" Emily asked him curiously.

"Well, obviously, we would need to shift to a bigger place. But I won’t sell it. I would rather put it on rent. It will be a great investment."

"Really? Well, I won't be selling mine either. What if our relationship ended up in divorce? I would need a backup home for my kids and me." She told him.

"Emily, getting a divorce from me is not an easy thing to do. I don’t let go of my things or the person I love this easily. And by the way, our children." James pointed out. 

"But they will remain with me." She told him with a frown.

"Why not with me?" He asked.

"Because, if we were getting a divorce, I would have lost my trust and faith in you, so why would I let my kids stay with you?"

"Em, everything is not black and white. But we will come to that later. By the way, how many kids?" He asked her, intrigued. 

It is rather interesting to know about her future plans.

"Two kids. A boy and a girl. But then again, I also don't care about gender. Why do you want only boys?" 

"You know, sometimes I feel like you think all guys are male chauvinist pigs. I like to believe that I am a fairly decent guy." James was sure that Emily had serious commitment issues.

Emily changed the subject since she didn't want to talk about it anymore. She knew that James was more than a fine guy, but she wasn't ready to admit it out loud just yet. 

"When did we start dating?"

"When we returned from Seopol? After meeting Bob, I got a whole new perspective on you, so I asked you out. You were skeptical at first, but I was persistent. So, in the end, you couldn’t resist my charm and said yes." James suggested. 

"Couldn’t resist your charm? As if. But whatever. We can swing the story from there." She told him. 

After a few more discussions, they wrapped up their back story. 

"Emily, whatever we say to CC Grams, we have to inform each other immediately." Emily nodded, as they could not risk screwing this up.

"I understand. What about the office?” She asked him.

"What about it?" 

"What are we supposed to tell them? I mean, someone or the other is going to find our equation odd." Emily explained her worry. 

A female dating her senior is not looked upon in a positive light.

"Are you okay with them thinking we are dating? I don’t trust CC Grams not to come here to check on us. She is way too unpredictable," James asked her carefully.

"I don’t know. I don’t want them to misunderstand me for something I am not." Emily said, but the focus was on something else.

"Em, I am here to back you up. We don’t need to act like a couple or tell them anything at all. We will behave as we normally do. If someone asks us or speculates their thoughts aloud, we just won’t react. That's why I asked if you are okay when others think we are dating. Emily, I promise you that I won’t let anyone question your character." He was dead serious about this. 

There will be no character assassination of her under his watch. He will be damned if anyone tries to slander her.

"Okay," Emily told him, looking at him straight in the eyes. 

Every day, James surprises her with his warm personality. Where the hell did this person come from, and why can't all men be like him?

James felt relieved that, for the time being, everything was settled. Maybe their ruse might actually work out for the better.