You found yourself enjoying Brian’s family a great deal. It was also too easy to fall into the characters you were playing. Brian was ever so charming, and you found your knowledge to be helpful more than once.

“You were fellow students?” Nodding at his grandmother, she clapped her hands together. “And now you work in the same office?”

“We’re on different teams,” you corrected, and Brian chuckled.

“It makes it worthwhile not being in the same department. Can you guess how little work I’d get done if we sat across from each other?”

You genuinely blushed, and your reaction was enough to send the elder into elated giggles.

“I never thought I’d see the day when my boy here would come home with a girl. And here you were in front of him this whole time, Y/N.”

“Good things are worth the time to develop,” you commented, and she approved immensely.

Taking your elbow in his palm gently, Brian leaned into your side. “I was blind for too long. Just imagine if we had started dating when we were younger.”

“Perhaps we wouldn’t have lasted until now,” you offered, and Brian pouted, completely in his element.

Even his grandmother was hanging off the suave confidence that permeated off him. “No way. I couldn’t see myself letting you go.”

“Oh goodness! Young love. It’ll be you two going down the aisle next then.”

“Who knows, Grandma. Maybe it will be,” Brian offered with a wink, and you merely grinned, trying not to imagine Brian in a tux as you walked towards him in a bridal gown.

Everything was so easy when you were talking. It felt genuine, mostly because you were reacting how you would if this was real. You were having a hard time convincing yourself of the agreement, though. Especially after every warm touch that made you gaze up at Brian with complete adoration.

You had everyone believing you were an actual couple by the end of the night.

“You were amazing!”

“It wasn’t hard,” you replied, trying not to smile at Brian’s warm compliment.

“The way you had my mother in love with you was spectacular. She’s not even like that to her son-in-law!”

“It helps to have a great partner in crime.”

Brian grinned as he took his eyes off the road briefly to look in your direction. “We really do work well together, don’t we?”

---

 

It was that mindset you carried through the following week for another family gathering and then to dinner at his parents’ home the week after. By now, you felt as if you were all too familiar with these people and had a genuine interest in them all.   

“I’m so happy my son found you, Y/N,” his mother enthused, and you smiled politely, nodding along with her as you handed her plates for the pie she was cutting up.

“I’m lucky to have him.”

“No, I’m the lucky one,” Brian announced, entering the kitchen where you had gone to help dish up dessert. He grinned at you, and you mirrored the gesture effortlessly. “I couldn’t wait.”

“For dessert?” his mother inquired, and Brian shook his head.

Coming over to your side, he slung an arm over your shoulders and then ducked his head down to graze your cheek with his lips. You weren’t sure what was said next, vaguely aware of the playful slap his mother gave him.

You couldn’t believe Brian had just kissed you.

Of course, it was something you had both discussed in the beginning. You had to look like a loved-up pair in front of his family. You were on the same page regarding the skinship so far. Brian was rather affectionate, and you hadn’t minded holding hands with him or having his arm around you most of the time.

However, you weren’t quite prepared for anything further. You hadn’t imagined it outside of fantasies, anyway.

“You okay?” he breathed into your ear a moment later, and you broke out of your reverie, glancing up at him. Brian smirked.

“Huh?”

“You’re too cute,” he announced, reaching around you for the plates waiting to be taken out to the dining room.

“Hey, I can take those!”

“Nonsense, I have hands,” Brian teased as you followed him back out, taking a seat next to him at the table again.

And one of those hands of his ended up resting on your thigh under the table a moment later.

You didn’t know how to respond. You were convinced that Brian was just playing along still. Even though you hoped this level of attention was stemming from something else.

Like him realising just how well you could work together in real life.

By the time you farewelled his parents, you were entirely wound up, unsure of how to take Brian’s reactions outside. He still had an arm around your shoulders as he walked you out to his car, and once seated in the passenger seat, Brian didn’t move to start the car immediately.

“Are you okay, Y/N?”

“Yes, of course.”

“I thought I had pushed you too far. You looked shell-shocked.”

“Well, I wasn’t expecting it.”

“Did you not like it?” Brian asked cautiously, and you shook your head immediately.

“No, I… I did.”

“I was hoping you’d say that. I enjoyed myself tonight.”

And without any further warning, Brian leaned over and captured your lips in a soft kiss. You didn’t freeze up this time, moving into the embrace by wrapping your arm around his neck. Brian groaned and then pulled away from the kiss, eying you differently now.

His gaze was smouldering.

“We uh, better stop making out in front of your family’s apartment building, don’t you think?” you offered as a way to break the building tension.

Brian chuckled. “And reconvene this somewhere else?”

You wondered if it was a joke or an invitation. Staring at the man, you became reckless, reaching out to place your hand on his thigh a moment later. Brian turned to look at you, his lips slowly curling up with the heated expression within his eyes.

“You know, Y/N, maybe we could add to this arrangement of ours.”

“How so?”

“Mine or yours?” he asked, and you stopped blinking, realising the neediness in his tone.

Brian was going to take you somewhere you had only been in your dreams. Mentioning his apartment sounded best, you remained on tenterhooks on the drive over, all rationale now lost on you.

And when Brian’s mouth and hands coveted you once more, you were certain the piece of paper in your desk’s drawer at home no longer mattered.

You were kissing the man you had loved for ten years. And he yearned your body entirely. You gave it to him multiple times that night until you laid exhausted beside him in his bed.

Today had been possibly the best day of your life.

Until Brian turned to look at you, fully satisfied. “Y/N, I think we need to add to our contract. How do you feel about us adding this benefit to our fake relationship?”