The Paradise Charade

When a high-powered business executive needs a date to save her career, who better to call than the one-night stand she can’t forget?

Brooklyn Mathers hates to lose. So, when she needs to win a big client to keep her business afloat, she’s willing to do anything. Even invite a woman she hasn’t seen in seven years to be her date for a charity gala in an attempt to gain access to the company’s next CEO. The only thing Brooklyn won’t do? Relationships. Not since her college girlfriend ripped her heart out and stomped it to dust on graduation day. Savannah Strauss’s life changed forever seven years ago after a steamy encounter with a stranger at a queer club gave her the courage to come out to her conservative family. Now a teacher who helps LGBTQ+ youth, Savannah still can’t forget that night, or the woman who rocked her world. So when Brooklyn calls out of the blue asking her to be her plus one for a charity event, she can’t resist the chance to reconnect. What could go wrong? How about Brooklyn’s potential client mistaking them for a real couple and insisting they both attend a corporate retreat in Jamaica? But faking being in love for seven days in paradise is hardly the worst thing that could happen. Except Savannah is harboring a secret that could destroy everything, one that connects her to Brooklyn's painful past in ways Brooklyn never imagined and makes any relationship between them strictly taboo. Throw in a fear of water, a fake engagement, and the most annoyingly perfect couple competing for the same account, and it couldn’t get more complicated. That is until Savannah’s entire family ends up in Jamaica for a cousin’s wedding. The closeted cousin who once broke Brooklyn’s heart.

Story added by krystalulm on April 6, 2026