“I Needed a Fake Girlfriend for the Office Party,” the CEO Muttered—Then She Slid Me a Note That Said “Pick Me”
Chapter 13
Ten years after the first office party, Ethan and Lena returned to the same ballroom.
Carter Group was celebrating another major anniversary.
Ethan stood near the entrance.
His wife walked toward him.
He smiled.
“Ready?”
Lena looked around.
“Does your mother still interrogate everyone?”
“Absolutely.”
“Your grandmother?”
“She’ll probably ask when we’re having another child.”
Lena laughed.
“Some things never change.”
They entered together.
The room was full.
Executives.
Employees.
Investors.
Friends.
Family.
But Ethan wasn’t thinking about the company.
He was thinking about a young woman who had once sat quietly behind a financial desk.
A woman who had volunteered to become his fake girlfriend.
A woman who had slipped him a note because she was brave enough to say what she wanted.
He had believed that night was about appearances.
It wasn’t.
It was about choice.
She chose him.
He chose her.
And they continued choosing each other every day.
Later that night, they stood outside beneath the city lights.
Lena leaned against him.
“Do you ever think about how ridiculous this was?”
“All the time.”
“You needed a fake girlfriend for one party.”
“Yes.”
“And ended up married.”
“Yes.”
She smiled.
“Sounds like a bad business plan.”
“The best one I ever made.”
She laughed.
Ethan kissed her forehead.
There were no cameras.
No reporters.
No board members.
No expectations.
Just them.
Lena looked up.
“You know what I learned?”
“What?”
“Sometimes people enter your life pretending to solve one problem.”
“And?”
“They become the answer to a completely different question.”
Ethan smiled.
“What question?”
She took his hand.
“Who do you want beside you when everything else disappears?”
He looked at her.
“You.”
She smiled.
“Good answer.”
They walked back into the ballroom together.
And somewhere inside the Carter Group’s headquarters, framed in a small box on Ethan’s desk, was a piece of paper.
Old.
Folded.
Nearly worn out.
Two words were still visible.
Pick me.
He had kept it for years.
Because sometimes the smallest moments create the biggest changes.
Sometimes the person you expect to stay for one evening becomes the person you spend your life with.
And sometimes, all it takes is the courage to slide a note across a desk and ask someone to choose you.
