*Kendall's POV*

I don't even know what I'm doing. I was just working at Forever 21 this morning when I asked a person if they needed anything, just gave me a full-onceover and then called someone on the phone. They she asked to talk to my boss and I was scared to death I did something wrong.

"I'm sorry, for whatever I did." I said when she stopped talking to my boss.

"No, you did everything right, Kendall." How did she know my name? Oh right, I was wearing a nametag. "You see, I work with Modest! Management. And we could use a girl like you. No tattoos, good clothes, decent job, nice personality." How did they get all that from me offering to help to her?

"For what?"

"Have you heard of One Direction?"

Of course I have. It's the hugest boyband ever. Not like they look like a boyband anymore. 4 of them have tattoos and they've all been caught drinking and smoking cigarettes or weed while playing really pop songs. Not exactly my scene.

"Yes..."

"I take it you don't like them?" She asked, giving me a knowing smirk.

"No offense, but they're not really my genre."

"None taken. But could you help us out? We'll pay generously and you get to travel with one of the biggest boybands in the world." She enticed.

Honestly, she had me at money. Because I just moved here from America after deciding I wanted to live in London rather than go to college and I was running low on decent cash.

So that's how I ended up here. In a conference room, waiting for The Liam Payne to show up and for me to be his potential-publicity girlfriend. I heard the business people hint he was hungover so I'm getting nervous.

When he shows up (totally tattooed on his torso up to his neck) and they start talking, I notice the kind of harshness of their tones and it makes me uncomfortable. Then Liam says something about his kidneys, which makes me pay better attention.

Eventually, Hank gestures to me. And I try my best to smile and wave, even though his tattoos distract me. I just don't understand those huge ones like that. It'll be a pain in the ass to get them removed when he realizes they were a bad idea.

"This is my new girlfriend?" Liam points to me, but doesn't look at me for a second time.

"Yep. You've been dating her for a month now and you're ready for things to be public." The one who made me sign the contract (that gave me a generous amount of money), Hillary, says.

I interrupt. "We just met."

"It's part of the story, dollface." Liam explains, his voice isn't rude but it's kind of condescending so I press my lips together to stop from saying anything bad or mean.

"First you'll follow her on Twitter-"

I interrupt again. "I don't have a Twitter."

"That's better actually." One of the other businessmen, Gary, interjects. "Then we won't have to deal with the Twitter hate."

I gulp. Twitter hate? What exactly was I getting into?

"Maybe we should leave them to it." Hillary suggests, giving me a look. "To decide the details. It is their story after all. We'll be back in five minutes." Then she holds up her five fingers as if to emphasize this.

"So do you do anything fun or are you just a wet blanket?" Liam asks when the final business man leaves the room.

I purse my lips in annoyance, then reply. "Look, I really need this money so if you could just put in some semblance of an effort I would greatly appreciate it."

He gives me a look. "Do you work anywhere?"

"Forever 21."

"We met there then." He sits down and puts his legs on the table. Before I can tell him to take them down, he keeps talking. "You didn't recognize me and I liked the challenge. Plus you're cute. We met two weeks before we started dating and I came to all your shifts asking you out. And you finally said yes a month ago. Our first date was eating dinner at your favorite restaurant and now we just chill and hang out at home most of the time."

I feel my cheeks warm. Because the fact he came up with all that off the top of his head is kind of romantic. "How did you know all my shifts?"

He gets this really cocky grin. "Because I'm Liam Goddamn Payne."

And then I lose any hope for this guy. I sigh. "The story's fine. My favorite restaurant is Nando's, so I hope that fits with the story."

"Sure it can. You'll get along fine with Niall then." He pauses for a very uncomfortable minute. "So why are you here, American?"

"What do you mean?"

"Well, why aren't you in America?"

"I just didn't want to live there anymore. And London seemed like a good place." He stares at me, and he can tell I'm lying.

Since he's asking questions he doesn't have the business of asking, I decide to do the same. "So who's Danielle?"

He's more up front about being pissed off at my question. "Don't fucking ask about her."

My eyes go wide and then I look down at my dress's skirt in order to keep breathing. I don't like it when people swear at me.

Luckily, the people come back in. They tell us the basic ground rules.

No swearing. No drinking in excess (preferably not at all). No smoking. Hold hands in public, occasionally kiss. No makeouts. Avoid or be nice to paparazzi. Other rules too, but I don't pay as much attention.

I'm going to have to pretend to date a boy band member who's covered in tattoos, who swears, smokes, drinks and probably does a whole bunch of other bad things.

This is not going to be fun.