Alex & Beth

It started with an innocuous comment during a tea break at work. Alex had recently broken up with his long term partner and joked that he was now available as a plus one for parties and weddings. It was only meant as a joke to try and cover up the loneliness he now felt. The breakup actually happened a few months earlier but he had been too upset and embarrassed to admit it at work.

It hadn't been a particularly bad breakup but the ending of a 6 year relationship had been difficult to deal with. The last one had not ended badly. The decision had been his partner's and he understood her reasoning, however painful that was for himself, he respected her enough to accept her wishes.

Later that evening Alex was decorating his new flat when his phone pinged. This was unusual enough to grab his attention. Putting his paintbrush down he wiped his hands on his t-shirt and picked up the phone. It was a message from Beth, one of his team at work.

Beth: hey Alex, I need a huge favour.

He wondered what she wanted. They had already switched shifts once this week so she could go to a concert instead of doing the late.

Alex: heya, what's up? I'm not switching shifts again.

Figuring this might take a while he gave up on the painting and tidied up.

Beth: It's nothing to do with that. I need a favour this weekend. I have to go to my sister's wedding and everyone is expecting my boyfriend to come.

Alex: You've been single longer than me, why do they think you've got a boyfriend?

Beth: A lie that's totally go out of hand. Please can you help me? You said you could be a plus one?

It took Alex a while to remember he had even made that joke. How could she really have taken him seriously?

Beth: Please Alex, I don't know what else to do. They all already think I'm a failure. If I turn up without a boyfriend I'll be humiliated.

She didn't know what to do? He didn't know either, but at least he could buy himself some time.

Alex: Let me think about it. We'll speak at work.

Beth: Thank you Alex, you're my hero.

He hadn't made a decision yet. He thought her last message was jumping the gun rather. Alex opened a bottle of cider and sat down on his sofa to think. Was it really right for him to pretend to be Beth's boyfriend in front of her family? Surely it wouldn't work? He didn't like the idea of her being humiliated though. Families could be cruel and though he didn't know Beth terribly well what he had overheard at work suggested she did not get along well with her family.

Alex took another swig of cider. He and Beth had a good, flirty relationship at work. She was fun to be around so it could be a laugh. If nothing else it could be like that mini holiday he'd been promising himself. There was an added bonus. Beth was hot. A couple of years younger than him with a nice curvy figure she was smart as well as funny. She was bound to wear a nice dress to the wedding so it wouldn't be hard to pretend he liked her, hell he'd jerked off imagining her enough times... His mind was pretty much made up but he'd let her stew overnight.

-

The phones were already going crazy in the office when Alex arrived. It was going to be another busy day. As much as he wanted to talk with Beth straight away it just wasn't possible. They sat at opposite ends of their bank of desks so couldn't even easily see each other. He figured it would be best to keep this arrangement quiet anyway, he doubted she'd want the whole office to know. By mid afternoon the rush was over. Deciding it was now or never Alex got up for a drink and stopped by Beth's desk. She looked stressed and not just from work.

'Drink?' he asked. He noted that she was wearing a low cut top today, showing off her cleavage, together with a pencil skirt it really made her look all the more sultry. Was that an attempt to woo him?

'I thought you'd never ask,' she said quickly getting up.

They went to the smaller of the two kitchens which, as ever, was empty.

'Well?' she asked as soon as they got inside. 'Please tell me you'll come?'

'This is really fucking weird, you know that right? I was only joking,' Alex said, putting a tea bag in his cup and filling it. 'But, yes, I will come with you. It's madness and probably won't work.'

'Oh thank you Alex,' Beth squealed and hugged him tightly from behind, pushing her breasts into his back. 'You have no idea how much this means to me. I don't know how but I'll pay you back somehow.'

'Lets just get you through his weekend first,' he said, patting her arm until she let go. 'Where are we going anyway?'

'Ambleside in the Lake District,' she said. 'It's my sister Florence's wedding. She's marrying some twat from down south. All my family is going to be there along with most of our friends from school.'

'I take it you aren't looking forward to it then?' Alex asked.

'No. Let's put it this way. She's my sister and I'm not even a bridesmaid. I moved to the other side of the country to get away from my family,' Beth said, making her own coffee. 'Our friends aren't much better. They are all either yummy mummies with a million kids each or business owners in power suits with massive shoulder pads. I'm the odd one would with no kids, renting and working a crappy office job.'

Alex knew the feeling. That effective described his relationship with his old school friends, though with less shoulder pads.

'Aren't shoulder pads a bit 80s?' he joked.

'You know what I mean,' Beth sighed.

'Well then,' he said. 'I'm going to be the best fake boyfriend you've ever had and we'll get drunk and make fun of the lot of them.'

'Thank you,' Beth laughed. 'I'll email you the details tonight.'

'And I'll see if my suit still fits,' Alex said, patting his stomach. He was approaching that age where a sedentary office job was increasingly bad for his waistline.

'I'm sure you'll be able to squeeze into it,' Beth said smiling. 'You aren't as fat as me.'

'You aren't fat,' Alex retorted, deliberately bumping hips with her. 'You're just fishing for compliments. My girlfriend doesn't do that.'

She laughed. 'Well my boyfriend gives it to me all the time, sometimes twice.' There was a dirty little smirk on her face. 'Come on, we'd better get back they'll be wondering where we are.'

-

True to her word Beth emailed over the details that evening. The wedding was at some fancy hotel near Ambleside on the shores of Lake Windermere. Definitely a nice venue and likely an expensive one. The wedding itself was kicking off early on Saturday morning so they would have to drive over on the Friday evening. Beth already had a room booked for the weekend so that wouldn't be a problem.

A thought that occurred to Alex was that the room would likely be a double, with only one bed, but it was too late to change that, not to mention it would look a bit weird for Beth and her boyfriend to have twin beds. There was no sense worrying about it now. When the time came he would just offer to sleep on the sofa.

Still wanting to keep things secret they didn't talk about it at work on Friday. Beth had already arranged a half day holiday to get her hair done and other stuff that ladies needed to do before a wedding. For his part Alex had called in a favour to use up some lieu time to leave early. It was going to be a long drive, at least three hours if the traffic was kind, so he wanted to set off as early as they could.

Car packed and topped up with petrol Alex drove round to Beth's and helped her load up her suitcase.

'All ready to go?' he asked as they both put their seat belts on.

'As ready as I'll ever be,' Beth replied. 'I can't believe I forked out 60 quid to get my hair and nails done of this. I don't even like my sister.'

'For what it's worth I like it,' Alex said pulling away. He genuinely meant it as well. Beth's blonde hair had been cut short into a pixie cut and highlighted with a splash of red give it a warm glow. 'You look good with short hair.'

Beth shrugged. 'I'm bored of spending ages washing my hair. Not to mention Florence will have the stupidest, longest hair possible. When we were younger she let her hair grow past her arse. I mean what is the fucking point?'

'That does seem weird,' Alex agreed. It was funny to see Beth get so animated, it lit a fire in her eyes that showed her passion.

There was plenty of time over the long car journey for Beth to give him the low down about her family. So he would at least be prepared for mad Aunt Jill, Cousin Shirley's drinking problem and Granda Colin's excessive racism. It seemed that all families had weird relatives.

They also had more than enough time to decide on how they met. While Alex was all in favour of a ludicrously over the top tale involving a chihuahua riding a dancing great dane but Beth shot his idea down because she didn't like dogs. Instead they settled for a more boring, but believable, story of romance following an office party that had been going on for a few months but quietly due to office politics.

With an hour to go Beth looked at her phone and groaned.

'What's the matter?' asked Alex.

'Message from my mum,' she said. 'She would like to take us to dinner when we get there.'

'And that's a bad thing?'

'Of course it is,' Beth said, hammering a fist on the dashboard. 'It's going to be like the bloody Spanish Inquisition.'

'You mean she's going to poke us with soft cushions and force us to sit in comfy chairs?' Alex said seriously.

Beth laughed. 'I wish. It'll be a meal where I'm the sole topic of conversation and how rubbish I am compared to Florence. I'm the older sister but she was always the golden child.'

'Think I'm detecting a hint of sibling rivalry here,' Alex said. The miles were rolling away but they still had a long way to go.

'Hardly rivalry, she won the second she was born,' Beth brooded, after a while she spoke again. 'I'm sorry Alex, I should never have made you do this. I was mad to think we could get away with it. No one will believe our story.'

'Why not? You are too hard on yourself,' he said. 'The only thing unbelievable about this whole story is how I could get a girlfriend as gorgeous as you. I mean it. You'll just have to tell them all that I've got a big cock, am amazing in bed and it makes up for my looks. We'll make this work and if not we can have a spectacular breakup fight on Sunday.'

'Don't be daft I could totally see myself being with you...someone like you,' Beth said mumbling the last bit and wriggling in her seat. 'Anyway we'll just have get there and get it over with.'

She fell into a brooding silence for the rest of the drive. Alex was equally nervous. He was not naturally at home in groups of new people and this weekend was going to nothing but strangers. He was vaguely reassured by the idea that he'd probably never meet any of them ever again. With that said it still felt a little wrong deceiving so many people, even if it was for a good cause.

-

Alex was still mulling over the best way to approach the weekend when he pulled off the road and down the long driveway to the lake side hotel. There was no denying the location and venue were beautiful. The hotel had a grand Victorian style which could easily be mistaken for a stately home from that time. There was even valet parking which he considered rather extreme for his battered old Vauxhall Corsa.

The elegance continued inside but to an even more lavish degree. Marble and gilt was everywhere to the extent that it was an assault on the eyes.

'Greetings and welcome to Hotel Oliant,' said the lady at the reception desk, she wore a bright red uniform with a needlessly over the top neckerchief. 'How may I be of assistance?'

'We'd like to check into our room,' Beth said. 'It's in the name of Beth Mackenzie.'

'Your name is Bethany, you should use it properly,' barked an austere voice across the lobby.

Alex saw Beth's face twitch.

'Mother, how delightful to see you again,' Beth said, putting on a not very convincing smile and turning to face her mother.

'I'll just take the key,' Alex said to the receptionist, whose industrial grade cheeriness was unfazed.

'There you go, sir, Room 26, which has a rather beautiful view out over the lake,' said the receptionist. 'I'll have the porter take your bags up.'

Alex nodded a thank you as he slipped the keycard into his pocket.

'You are late Bethany. We have been waiting to have supper,' Mrs Mackenzie said with the love and affection of a Rottweiler. 'It's no wonder that you never achieve anything with such poor timekeeping.'

Alex liked to think that he was a fairly easy going type of guy who saw the best in everyone. Looking at Mrs Mackenzie he struggled to see any good. She was obviously a foul tempered woman with a face that had the same emotional range as a granite wall. For a little while he had been wavering about this weekend but now he was resolved.

'I'm terribly sorry Mrs Mackenzie that's my fault,' he said coming up beside Beth, taking her hand and giving it a squeeze. 'Beth wanted to set off sooner but I was stuck in an important client meeting. It is difficult to let two senior members of staff leave early on the same day, no matter how important the event is.'

Mrs Mackenzie gave him a cold stare, though he doubted they came at any other temperature, before speaking. 'So you are this Alexander, Bethany has mentioned?'

'Indeed so, and a pleasure to meet you, Alex Dott,' he said, offering a hand to shake which she did reluctantly.

'Where's father?' Beth asked.

'Propping up the bar waiting for you two,' Mrs Mackenzie said. 'Come on before he drinks himself into even greater stupidity.'

Alex squeezed Beth's hand again and leant in to whisper in her ear. 'I told you we'd make this work. I'm not letting an old battleaxe like her win.'

'Thank you,' she replied before kissing him on the cheek.

They hurried to catch up so as not to be accused to being late again.

Introductions with Mr Mackenzie were short and perfunctory. He seemed to Alex and affable sort of man who clearly lived in fear of his wife. Quite what brought these two seemingly very different people together to start a family Alex did not know.

Alex tried to keep the mood light by making jokes, which both Beth and her father appreciated, but it was an uphill struggle against Mrs Mackenzie. He also tried to reassure Beth as much as possible without being too obvious, patting her hand and squeezing her knee under the table. She was, however, drinking her wine quite quickly, which the waiter always kept it topped up, he guessed as some sort of defensive reaction.

Once all the food was eaten the conversation reached the elephant in the room. Alex and Beth.

'So, Alexander, how long have you and Bethany been together?' Mrs Mackenzie asked, glass of wine in hand and taking a long drink. Both mother and daughter were hitting it hard.

'It must be coming up to three months now, right darling?' he said, giving Beth a chance to confirm that. 'Naturally I've known her longer than that though. When she first started in the office I helped to train her and even then I could tell that she was something special. I was in a relationship at the time so we were just friends. My relationship ended six months ago and I took it quite hard. Beth was a great friend in helping me through those tough times.'

'So you are just using her as a rebound shag?' Mrs Mackenzie said harshly. 'I trust you are using protection.'

'Mother!' Beth said shocked.

'I assure you Mrs Mackenzie. There is no rebounding here,' Alex said keeping his anger in check. 'Beth offered me her friendship and compassion when I was hurting. It showed me how much of a caring person she is. I didn't stand a chance, there was no way I couldn't fall for her.'

'And yet you are not public about your new relationship?' Mrs Mackenzie said jabbing a finger at him. 'Are you ashamed?'

'Mother, I said, we can't be open about it at work,' Beth said, composing herself and knocking back more wine. Her face was flushed. 'There's office politics involved. They discourage staff being together because they believe it just causes problems. We have to be discreet.'

'Well I can understand that,' Mr Mackenzie cut in. 'One second you've got two productive members of staff then they have a row at home. Now you've got two staff that are distracted and working inefficiently. No way to run a business. Clearly you've got a smart man in charge.'

'Indeed,' Alex said, no agreeing with a single word said. 'When the time is right then of course we can be more open. The very last thing I would want to cause is any embarrassment to Beth at work. She is too valuable a member of the team.' It looked as though Mrs Mackenzie was about to speak again but Alex cut her off. 'It's getting late and we've had a long journey. I understand we need to be up bright and early in the morning so we'd best be getting to our room. If you'll please excuse us.'

'Fine go but remember this Bethany, don't ruin this wedding,' Mrs Mackenzie said as a parting shot. 'We've had enough for your antics.'

With no further ado Alex got up and pulled Beth's chair out for her. They thanked their waiter and left. However Beth stopped them in the entrance to the restaurant. Out of earshot but still in sight of her parents.

'Sorry about this,' she said before leaning in and kissing him on the lips.

Alex was taken by surprised by tried not to show it. The touch of her lips was divine; he could feel her warmth, it made his heart leap and his cock twitch. It had been a very long time since anyone had kissed him passionately and he enjoyed every moment of it. Sadly it was short lived.

'No need to be sorry about that,' he said, giving her a smile.

She giggled. 'I knew she'd watch us out like a hawk. Give the old prude a show the prove we are serious.'

'That was serious kiss all right,' he said, hoping she didn't notice the semi in his trousers. 'Lets find our room. I think its on the top floor.'

The hotel's interior was a bit of rabbit warren but eventually they found room 26 and it was indeed on the top floor, two doors down from the bridal suite. The room itself was beautiful and wouldn't have looked out of place in an interior design magazine.

'There's only one bed so I'll sleep on the sofa,' Alex said, coming in an turning on the lamps.

'Have you seen this bed?' Beth said, flopping back onto it. She lifted her t-shirt to scratch her stomach. 'It's fucking huge. You could fit three people in here with room to spare, it's like it was made for orgies. I'm not forcing you to sleep on a sofa when you've been so nice to me.' Beth rolled onto her side and stared at him. She was idly tracing circles around her belly button. 'Did you mean what you told my mother. About me being caring and compassionate and helping you?'

He wasn't sure whether she meant to or not but the way she was laying, the line of her body and the light reflecting off her eyes had an incredible sensual feel to them. She really did look beautiful right now.

'Of course I meant it,' he said, perching on the edge of the sofa. 'I was a bit of a mess for a little while there, if you recall, and you were very supportive even if you didn't mean to be. I'm very grateful for that. I've never really known how to repay you.'

'Good,' she said a warm smile on her face. 'I couldn't stand seeing you upset all the time. You deserve to be happy Alex.'

That smile lit up her face in a way that warmed Alex's heart. He had the sudden urge to be with her on the bed. To kiss her and so much more. Had he been braver or perhaps drunker then maybe he would have. Instead he nervously got to his feet.

'Thank you,' he mumbled. 'I'll just get ready for bed in the bathroom.'

Alex splashed water over his face, trying not to think of Beth's breasts straining against her t-shirt and hoping that his erection would subside quickly. It was true that he'd originally envisioned perving over Beth in her wedding outfit but he never thought this was would be an issue. To find her so achingly attractive just lounging on a bed in jeans and a t-shirt. He wasn't convinced she was interested in him as anything other than a friend. Sure they had kissed earlier but that obviously just for show. He didn't want to risk the embarrassment of rejection not when they had to share a bed.