Review: Something Genuine That Started With Something Fake
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 10 8, 2012
For a short read, this was a very delightful story.  It is part of an anthology of five short stories called Wedding Flirts all by the same author.Samantha is twenty-nine and dreads wedding invitations, but specifically the one that comes almost at the last minute from an old frenemy from high school that used to love one upping her.  Samantha has a cunning roommate who has made the bridesmaid role her calling and dreams of getting into the wedding industry as a coordinator.  She suggests that Sam go out and pay a hot guy to be her date and rub it in Carrie's face.Sam finds Justin working as a waiter where her friend bartends and he needs the money so he accepts the challenge.  Soon Justin has his own reasons for needing this pretense too shortly after he gives his hopeful mother a lie about having a girlfriend to keep her spirits up.The two of them set out to trick various people and discover to their surprise that they both secretly want to keep up the pretense while worried that the real Justin and Samantha aren't what the other is looking for.I found this a sweet, satisfying short story and found the two main characters really worked.  Normally, I have issues with the author either cramming too much or not enough into a short story page count, but this one was well-written and a good read when you just need a pick me up story with not much time for reading something longer.