Updated Oct 27, 2025 • ~9 min read
Marcello’s was the kind of restaurant where people proposed. Where deals worth millions were made over wine that cost more than Natalie’s monthly rent. Where everyone seemed to know exactly which fork to use, and Natalie definitely did not.
She sat across from Grant at a corner table, candlelight flickering between them, and tried to remember everything Scarlett had told her about being the kind of woman who belonged here.
Sit up straight. Don’t fidget. Smile like you’ve done this a thousand times.
“You’re quiet tonight,” Grant said, setting down his wine glass. His eyes studied her with an intensity that made her skin flush. “Everything okay?”
“Just tired,” Natalie said quickly. Too quickly. She forced herself to relax her shoulders, to lean back in her chair the way Scarlett would—casual, confident. “Long day.”
It wasn’t technically a lie. Transforming into another person was exhausting.
“I know the feeling.” Grant’s expression softened. “I’m sorry I’ve been so buried at work lately. I know the wedding planning has fallen mostly on you.”
Wedding planning. Right. The wedding that Scarlett was supposed to be having in three months. The wedding Natalie was now somehow expected to discuss over seventy-dollar pasta.
“It’s fine,” she said, reaching for her water glass to buy herself time. “Really. I know how important the merger is.”
Grant’s eyebrows lifted slightly—surprise, or maybe approval. “You remembered.”
Had she said something wrong? Natalie scrambled through her memory of Scarlett’s briefings. The merger. Grant’s company, Stone & Rivers Financial, was in the middle of acquiring a smaller firm. Scarlett had mentioned it in passing, said Grant was “boring her to death” with the details.
“Of course I remembered,” Natalie said, hoping her smile looked natural. “You’ve been working on it for months.”
Something shifted in Grant’s expression. He reached across the table and covered her hand with his, his thumb tracing circles on her skin that sent electricity up her arm.
“Thank you,” he said quietly. “For understanding. For being patient with me.” His jaw tightened. “I know I haven’t been the most attentive fiancé lately.”
The guilt hit Natalie like a wave. Here was this man, apologizing for working hard, looking at her—at who he thought was Scarlett—with such genuine gratitude. And she was lying to him with every breath.
“Grant—” she started, not sure what she was going to say.
“I want to do better,” he continued, his grip on her hand tightening. “After the merger closes next month, things will calm down. We’ll have more time together. Real time. I want—” He paused, something vulnerable crossing his face. “I want to know you better. Sometimes I feel like we’ve been so caught up in the wedding plans and the business that we’ve forgotten to just… be together.”
Natalie’s heart hammered against her ribs. This wasn’t the conversation she’d expected. This wasn’t the distant, distracted fiancé Scarlett had described.
“I’d like that,” she heard herself say. Because she would. God help her, she would.
The waiter arrived with their entrees, breaking the moment. Natalie stared down at her plate—some kind of risotto with truffle oil that probably cost more than her car payment—and tried to quiet the war raging inside her chest.
This was Scarlett’s life. Scarlett’s fiancé. Scarlett’s future.
But the way Grant was looking at her across the table, like he was seeing something he’d been searching for, didn’t feel like it belonged to her sister at all.
They walked home because Grant suggested it, and Natalie couldn’t think of a reason Scarlett would refuse. The November air was cold enough to see their breath, and the city lights reflected off the river as they followed the path along the waterfront.
“Do you remember the first time we walked here?” Grant asked, his hands shoved in his coat pockets.
Panic flared in Natalie’s chest. She didn’t know this story. Scarlett hadn’t briefed her on their first walk by the river.
“Remind me,” she said, praying it sounded playful instead of desperate.
Grant glanced at her, a smile tugging at his lips. “You really are tired, aren’t you?” He moved closer, until their shoulders almost touched. “It was our third date. You wore that red dress I said I liked, and you were so nervous you kept talking about some documentary you’d watched about penguins.”
Penguins. Scarlett, talking about penguins.
Natalie bit back the urge to laugh. Her sister wouldn’t watch a nature documentary if someone paid her. But apparently, she’d pretended to for Grant.
What else had Scarlett pretended for him?
“I wasn’t nervous,” Natalie said automatically.
“You were definitely nervous.” Grant’s voice held affection. “You get this tell when you’re nervous. You twist your ring.” He nodded to Natalie’s right hand, where she’d been unconsciously spinning the sapphire ring Scarlett always wore. “Just like you’re doing now.”
Natalie’s hand stilled. “Maybe I’m always nervous around you.”
The words slipped out before she could stop them. Too honest. Too real.
Grant stopped walking. They were under a streetlight, the glow catching the angles of his face as he turned to look at her fully.
“Are you?” His voice had dropped, gone softer. “Nervous around me?”
Yes. But not for the reasons he thought.
“Sometimes,” Natalie admitted. The truth felt dangerous and thrilling at the same time.
“Why?” Grant stepped closer, eliminating the careful distance she’d been maintaining. “Scarlett, we’re getting married in three months. You shouldn’t be nervous with me. You should feel—” He paused, searching for the word. “Safe. Comfortable.”
“Maybe I don’t want to feel comfortable,” Natalie whispered.
Where were these words coming from? This wasn’t her. This wasn’t the plan. She was supposed to smile, nod, play the part.
But Grant was looking at her like he’d never really seen her before, and something in Natalie cracked wide open.
“What do you want to feel?” His hand came up, fingers brushing a strand of hair away from her face. The touch was feather-light, devastating.
I want to feel like this, she thought. Like I’m someone worth looking at this way.
“I don’t know,” she said instead, but her voice shook with the lie.
Grant’s thumb traced her jawline, and Natalie’s breath caught. They were too close. This was too much. She should step back, laugh it off, suggest they keep walking.
But she couldn’t move.
“You’re different tonight,” Grant murmured. His eyes searched hers, confused but not suspicious. Not yet. “I can’t figure out what it is, but something’s… different.”
Terror and longing warred in Natalie’s chest. “Different good or different bad?”
“Different like I can’t stop looking at you.” His other hand came up to cup her face, tilting her chin up. “Different like I want to cancel our reservation tomorrow night and just stay home with you. Different like—”
He stopped himself, jaw clenching.
“Like what?” Natalie barely recognized her own voice.
“Like I’m seeing you for the first time,” Grant admitted. “And it’s terrifying because we’re supposed to get married, and I should already know everything about you, but right now you feel like a stranger. A stranger I—”
He didn’t finish the sentence. Didn’t need to.
The air between them crackled with something Natalie had never experienced before. Want. Need. The kind of attraction that made smart people do stupid things.
Grant leaned in, and this time it wasn’t the quick kiss from earlier. This time, his intention was clear in the way his hands cradled her face, in the way his gaze dropped to her lips and stayed there.
This time, he was going to really kiss her.
And Natalie was going to let him. She was going to kiss her sister’s fiancé and she wasn’t going to stop it because every cell in her body was screaming yes even though her brain knew it was wrong.
His lips were an inch from hers when his phone rang.
The shrill sound shattered the moment like a brick through glass. Grant jerked back, blinking like he was waking from a dream. He pulled his phone from his pocket, and Natalie watched his expression shift from dazed to focused.
“It’s Dominic,” he said, his voice rough. “I should—”
“Take it,” Natalie managed. Her legs felt weak. Her hands were shaking.
Grant answered the call, stepping a few feet away to talk business. Something about the merger, about documents that needed reviewing tonight.
Natalie wrapped her arms around herself and tried to remember how to breathe.
She’d almost kissed him. Really kissed him.
And the worst part—the part that made her want to sink into the river and never surface—was that she wanted to. Not because she was playing Scarlett. Not because she was pretending.
Because for those few seconds, she’d forgotten she was supposed to be anyone but herself.
Grant returned, slipping his phone back into his pocket. “I’m sorry. I have to head to the office.”
“Now?” The disappointment in her voice was real, and that scared her more than anything.
“Yeah.” He looked genuinely regretful. “This deal is at a critical point. I’ll probably be there until midnight.” He stepped closer again, but the spell from before was broken. Now there was just awkwardness hanging between them. “Rain check on the rest of our walk?”
Natalie nodded, not trusting her voice.
Grant pressed a quick kiss to her forehead—safe, brotherly, nothing like what had almost happened—and squeezed her hand. “Get some rest. You really do seem exhausted.”
She watched him hail a cab, watched him disappear into the night, leaving her alone under the streetlight.
Her phone buzzed. A text from Scarlett: How’s it going? He buying it?
Natalie stared at the message, then at her own reflection in the river below.
He was buying it, all right.
The question was: what was Natalie buying into?
She typed back: Fine. Everything’s fine.
Then she started the walk back to the penthouse alone, knowing that nothing about this was fine at all.
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