Mia and Kate had found a way to bond once they had arrived at Christian's house, unfortunately for Ana it was over how hopeless she was.
"Ana's worn the same Scarlett O'Hara Halloween costume for the past three years. I tried to hide it this year but she found it. And she said if I tried to do it again she'd go as Glen Close in Fatal Attraction and scare off any guys I was trying to chat up." Kate complained, having flung herself on the sofa between shoots. Ana was supposed to have dressed up as little red riding hood but after Kate had showed her the costume last night and how little fabric it was made from she'd decided to go in a different direction. Kate was stood behind her as she sat on a chair, curling her hair as tightly as she could.
Kate was dressed as a generic Halloween styles nurse, you know, the kind that you would never trust as a legitimate medical professional because of the copious amounts of lipstick and cleavage they displayed. Mia was a flapper, wearing a dress that Ana was actually quite jealous of.
"What are you supposed to be?" Mia asked Ana, squinting her eyes as though that would help her to determine it.
"She's the brunette one from Abba." Christian informed her as he walked into the room.
"Yeah, from the Waterloo video!" Ana exclaimed, pleased he'd got the reference. "I wanted to go with an inside joke. I had the skirt and shirt already, Kate spent the morning improving them so they looked more like the video."
"I did state my objection first. Now nobody's going to get what Christian's meant to be." Kate complained. Ana looked at him in the other half of the paired costume Kate had wanted them to be in, dressed as the huntsman from red riding hood. "He just looks like a lumberjack now."
"I think it's better than us being perfectly matched." Christian assured her. "Now we'll have a story to tell. Kate, you should have been the blonde one."
"Oh my God, next year me, you, Elliot, and Kate should go as the whole group, it would be amazing!" She insisted with bright wide eyes, grinning as she imagined it.
"That's the worst idea ever…Let's definitely do it."
"Can you two please stop planning how geeky you're going to be in the future and let me take your pictures?" Kate asked. "Elliot must have finished decorating by now." Kate appeared to be feeling better since she was getting along with Mia which had involved her begging Elliot to put on a Captain America costume because he would look 'just like Chris Evans' (which Ana didn't see at all) and then ordering him to decorate the lounge she was now marching them into. "It looks amazing!" she exclaimed. "Okay so we're going to do a few just these two then some when Mia and Elliot 'arrive'. Remember when you tell people about these pictures Christian you only introduced Ana as a friend, you know to see how Mia and Elliot liked her." He nodded.
Kate snapped a few pictures where they had arms linked around each other; Ana was loathe to admit it but it felt more comfortable than it had at any other point during the day, like she was completely used to it now.
"You guys should really be kissing in one." Mia suggested. "Couples always have a super cheesy picture of themselves kissing in Halloween costumes." Kate nodded in agreement.
"Commit to the role, guys."
"We've already told you we aren't doing that." Ana said irritably. Kate had tried to get them to kiss at every location they'd been to that day and Ana couldn't tell if she was genuinely just that committed to taking the fake pictures or if she was not so subtly trying to force them together. Ana reasoned that it was likely a little of both.
"You need to practice. Don't you think it's going to look weird that you two don't touch at all?"
"We're fine." Ana insisted even though actually she'd been worrying about that all day and was meaning to say something to Christian about it when they were finally left alone by everyone. Kate shook her head.
"You're fine for friends, sure. That," she gestured between them "is not the body language of two people who are going to get married."
"How would you know, you've never had a serious relationship in your life." Ana said, trying not to clench her jaw. This whole day had been completely exhausting. The annoying thing was that she knew Kate was right and she hated when Kate was right. They had the pictures and the engagement ring but their language read friends – screamed it actually, to anyone who was paying attention.
"Stop being grumpy." Kate scolded her.
"One won't hurt, Ana." Christian assured her, earning a glare from her for agreeing with Kate over her, his fake fiancée.
"Fine." she huffed, turning around. She didn't look at him for too long before she pushed her lips against his, she would have chickened out unquestionably. His lips were soft and delicious and she had to stand on her tiptoes a bit to reach them. She hated how nicely they fit together, how she almost forgot where she was when his hand went into her hair to pull her closer. She broke away when she heard the phone camera click and cleared her throat with a little 'ahem', sure she was bright red now.
"Shall we do the ones with all of us now?" she asked, desperate to evade talking about what she'd just done, completely unable to look Christian in the eye. She'd been hoping at the end of this they could go back to being friends but how could they when she knew that sometimes she might remember just how good a kisser he was? God, why had she ever agreed to this?
Kate took Mia and Elliot to the front door to get a few of them on their own and Ana stood a little awkwardly touching her arm.
"Sorry I agreed to that." Christian said. She'd almost forgotten he was still standing there. "I really just thought it would be easier for us both to just agree. They're a bit tenacious when it comes to their ideas." Ana smiled weakly.
"It's fine. Today's just been a lot. And I'm a bit worried that –" Ana was cut off by Mia shouting for them both and she shrugged like what she'd been going to say didn't matter.
They only took a few pictures with all three of them before Kate declared everything was complete and started sorting the pictures into the right order on their phones.
"Elliot says he has to work but Kate and I are going to a bar now, do you two want to come?" Mia asked Christian and Ana excitedly. They shared a look which wondered how two people who had apparently hated each other not three hours earlier were not excitedly going to a bar together.
"Well I need to clear all the decorations out of my lounge…"
"And I think I might stay here and help Christian tidy all the Halloween decorations up, but thanks for the offer." Ana said, sporting the most fake smile she had ever worn. Christian nodded apologetically like he'd have loved to spend the evening with the two of them. They shot off pretty quickly when cleaning up was mentioned, their commitment to the photoshoot clearly only extending to taking the pictures and not sorting things out afterward. "Where do you want me to start with this then?" Ana asked, looking around the fake cobwebs splayed over everything and all the tacy wall decorations Kate had pinned up.
"Oh, don't worry about that, let's have a drink first. Red or white wine."
"White please." Ana said as she followed him into the kitchen. He poured himself an average sized glass and handed her the bottle. She poured close to what he had before thinking the better of it and filling it nearly to the top with wine. He grinned at her but after the stress of the day he wasn't going to question it.
"What were you going to say earlier?"
"I was just thinking… Kate was right earlier, crazy as that might seem." Ana said as she took a sip from the glass she had definitely poured too much wine into. "We don't read as a couple at all."
"We'll just say you're uncomfortable with public displays of affection."
"I'm not talking about suddenly starting making out in front of her, I mean little things that every couple does even the ones that hate being physically affectionate, like… fuck, I don't know… couples touch each other without thinking and sit close and put their arms around each other and give each other loving looks when the other person says something they like… We don't do any of that."
"My other knows I'm not a touchy-feely kind of guy. I promise, it'll be fine." His attempts to reassure her were just exasperating her further.
"Me neither but no couple would get to the point where they were engaged and not do at least some of that stuff, it's not about conscious affection, it's little things that people do without even realising because they love each other." Christian looked like he suddenly realised he was right and they sat silently for a moment. Ana was now absolutely paranoid they would be called out on it when they went to meet his mother.
"Fuck it." Christian said suddenly, taking his phone out. "We're going to the bar with Kate and Mia, we're going to spend the entire night acting like a couple, and you have to commit like this is a part in a movie that's going to win you a fucking Oscar." Ana groaned internally at the thought of spending more time with Mia and Kate than she already had that day but it was admittedly a pretty good idea. Nobody would be looking at them in a bar, too many other people around, they'd hopefully blend like any other couple and for all their faults Kate and Mia were outspoken enough to tell them if they looked forced. She contemplated for a moment exactly how much alcohol she would need to ingest to not be incredibly uncomfortable with this and how hungover she'd be tomorrow.
"Alright, call Mia. I'll go put some lipstick on and try and brush out my semi-perm."
They told Mia and Kate their plan when they got there.
"The point is for us to act like a couple." Christian informed them. "So keep your distance and we'll get your evaluations at the end of the night." It was a nice way around spending any time with them while still getting feedback.
They sat a lot closer than they usually with, tilted so their knees touched slightly. At one point he'd slung an arm around her shoulders and she'd gotten uncontrollable giggles for a few moments which made her even more glad that they were doing this now – she imagined being around his mother and having that reaction to something would have spelled disaster for them both.
"I want to dance."
"You'll break your ankle in those heels." Christian warned her. She was a lot tipsier than he was at this point since as well as the drinks he'd bought for them both she had downed the glass of wine she had back at his apartment and done two rounds of shots with Mia and Kate while he'd been in the bathroom. "Besides, I don't dance."
"Couples do though!" she reminded him with a grin like she'd found the best loophole in the world even though it was just an obvious statement. "It'll be fun!"
He leant in close like he was going to kiss her neck at one point and she just about melted. She was completely lost in a haze of whiskey and coke and music which thudded through her body and him pressed comfortably against her as they danced more and more confidently together. She was just about to say something about how she felt like they'd have much less of a problem on Friday when she was sure she saw somebody take a picture of them.
"Was that a camera flash?" she asked a little worriedly. He laughed and spun her around so she was facing him now.
"Relax, it'll be Kate or Mia, nobody else is taking a picture of us. It's nothing to worry about." he assured her. She knew it was delusional to allow him to sway her way of thinking, knowing her luck they'd be plastered on the front of some newspaper by tomorrow morning and she'd have to face all the whispers at work about screwing the boss – not that people didn't already think that about them sometimes.
"That's easy for you to say. You're used to your privacy being invaded."
"Stop being paranoid." He laced his hands with hers and she forgot instantly what she'd been complaining about. "Let's get another drink, yeah?" She nodded and he led her by their still linked hands back to their table. Being as Kate and Mia hadn't intervened yet, Ana assumed they must have been doing a pretty good job of acting like a couple.
Ana awoke the next morning in a very unfamiliar room when the latter part of the night flooded back to her. Mia and Kate had left, neither of them having much residual motor skills after the amount of alcohol they'd ingested. Kate had fiddled around with her bag which Ana had thought was weird but she didn't think to say anything. When they left Ana realised she no longer had keys and, gentleman that he was, Christian had offered her a spare bedroom. At least she assumed it was spare. Yes they'd spent the whole night acting like a couple and yes, she was loathe to admit it but she had actually enjoyed it but she hoped the line had been drawn at them actually sleeping next to each other. That felt like an unnecessary line to cross. The other side of the bed looked mercifully untouched and Ana reached out to grab her phone off the end table next to the bed. One new message.
Kate Kavanaugh 07:18: Welcome to the world of being tabloid news! At least you can't see your face!
Ana opened the attachment to an article 'Christian Grey Engaged to Mystery Brunette?' Her hair was about the only recognisable thing in the picture as luckily her head was tilted so all her features were hidden. Christian was easily visible, as was the engagement ring on her finger which she knew she shouldn't have worn out. It was all Christian's fault for getting her a ring she felt unable to part with for more than a few seconds.
Christian was already awake in the kitchen when she went down and the bright lights made her wince. She'd definitely had a bit too much to drink the night before, it was the second time that week she'd gone into work hungover. She'd only been 'engaged' to her boss a few days and she was already ridding herself of any notions of professionalism.
"There was a photographer there last night." Ana said triumphantly, glad she had been right even if her photo had been taken and it was only by pure luck they had managed not to capture her face in the picture. She handed Christian her phone so he could see the pictures that Kate had sent her the link to, he looked almost amused rather than annoyed.
"At least they didn't get any of us staging those photos yesterday, that would have looked a lot worse. " he told her.
"I'm only pointing it out because we should be more careful, I really don't want this to become a whole thing – imagine the nightmare we'd have at work - and I forget how famous you are around here and that you being overly handsy with a girl at a bar wearing a ring is going to actually be newsworthy. It's really lucky they missed my face, Christian, it could have easily gone the other way and that would have caused a lot more problems." He ignored the majority of what she said in favour of the one remark that had bothered him.
"Overly handsy?" he asked, sounding almost offended. She tapped on the screen with her nail to a picture where she was pulled right into him and his hands were splayed over the front of her body. "It's a misleading picture."
"Camera doesn't lie." Ana kept her tone jovial so he'd know she didn't really mind – last thing she wanted him to think was that she was going to dump some kind of lawsuit on him when she'd just been making a bad joke. He caught her tone and grinned at her, taking a sip of his coffee before he shrugged and looked at her with mischievous eyes.
"You weren't complaining last night."