Hired a Gigolo Got a Billionaire (Zoey and Christian) novel Chapter 363

Chapter 363

Madeline’s POV

“How about we have dinner at the main restaurant tonight?” Apollo suggested while we were still finishing getting ready after the pool incident. “I’m tired of room service.”

You’re tired of room service?” I laughed, adjusting my dress and watching him in the mirror. “Who are you, and what did you do with the man who ordered Kensington wine like it was water?”

“Touché,” he smiled, stepping up behind me in the mirror to fix the necklace around my neck. His fingers brushed lightly against the nape of my neck, sending a shiver down my spine. “But sometimes it’s good to see other people, don’t you think? Interact with the real world.”

“The real world?” I repeated, turning to face him. “I thought we’d agreed this place was our alternate reality.”

“Maybe it was time to test how our alternate reality behaved around other people,” he replied, and there was something in his tone I couldn’t quite name.

The main restaurant was elegant without being pretentious, with tables arranged on different levels to offer privacy while still allowing a stunning view of the ocean. The lighting was soft, creating a romantic but relaxed atmosphere, and I could hear subtle instrumental music blending with the sound of the waves.

We were being led to our table when an excited voice called out, “Hey! You’re the couple we saw snorkeling earlier today!”

I turned and spotted a young Verdanian couple I recognized from the morning activity. They were seated at a table for four. She was blonde and smiling, he was dark-haired and easygoing. Both radiated that contagious newlywed energy that made them want to share their happiness with the world.

“It is you!” the woman waved enthusiastically. “What an incredible coincidence! Would you like to join us? We don’t want to intrude on your romance, but it’d be wonderful to have Verdanian company.”

I looked at Apollo, expecting him to politely decline. Instead, he surprised me by shrugging with a genuine smile.

“Why not?” he agreed. “We’d love that.’

We learned their names were Julia and Raphael, both from Belmonte, on their honeymoon after two years of dating and six months engaged. She worked in digital marketing, he was a civil engineer, and they had that easy simplicity of people who knew each other well and loved each other without complications.

“And you?” Julia asked after we ordered our main courses, her eyes bright with curiosity. “How did you meet? You have unbelievable chemistry. You can tell from a mile away that you’re completely in love.”

A spike of panic hit me. How was I supposed to explain our situation without sounding like we’d just escaped a psychiatric ward?

“Well…” I began, my mind freezing completely, until Apollo stepped in with impressive ease.

“We met in Greece,” he said without hesitation, like he’d rehearsed the story for months. “That’s where the nicknames come from, in case you’re wondering. We’ve called each other that ever since. Aphrodite was touring ancient temples, photographing ruins and I…” he smiled, “I was trying to impress a beautiful tourist I’d just seen arguing about mythology with the local guide.”

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I stared at him,

Prised, but his expression was so convincing that for a second I almost believed the story myself. I quickly joined in.

“He came out of nowhere offering to be my personal guide,” I added, warming to the fantasy. “Said he knew all the stories of the Greek gods better than any official guide.”

“And did he?” Raphael asked, clearly entertained and already invested.

“Some of them,” Apollo laughed, and it sounded so genuine it even fooled me. “But I made most of it up along the way. Lucky for me, she’s terrible at Greek mythology, so she didn’t catch me lying outright.”

“Hey!” I protested, laughing and giving his arm a light tap. “I’m not terrible at mythology. I’m terrible at math. Always have been.”

“That is absolutely true,” he agreed, giving me a conspiratorial wink. “But she’s brilliant at classical literature. Knows all the Greek and Roman poets by heart. Can recite Sappho like a prayer.

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“And he never relaxes,” I shot back, fully committing to the characters we were creating. “Even in Greece, he was always checking work emails, answering urgent calls. I had to literally hide his phone to get him to pay attention to the ruins.”

“What do you do?” Julia asked, leaning forward with genuine interest.

“Family business,” Apollo replied vaguely, with the tone of someone used to giving very little away. “Import, export. Nothing very exciting.”

“And you, Aphrodite?” Raphael asked.

“Literature,” I lied quickly. “I teach, and sometimes I write a few things. Nothing very commercial.”

“How romantic,” Julia sighed. “A businessman and a literature teacher who met among Greek ruins. It’s like a Nicholas Sparks novel.”

“She never mentions that she’s afraid of deep water,” Apollo added, giving me a fond look that made me forget for a moment that we were only acting. “That’s why it was so impressive seeing her snorkeling today.”

“I’m not afraid of water,” I protested. “I’m afraid of not being able to swim back. Completely different things.”

“Of course it is,” he agreed, with an indulgent smile that made me want to kiss him and punch him at the same time.

“So cute,” Julia smiled. “You two are absolutely perfect together. You can tell you complement each other, that each of you brings something the other needs. It’s the kind of love you see in old movies, you know?”

The comment caught me completely off guard. I looked at Apollo and found him watching me with an expression I couldn’t fully read. There was amusement there, yes, but also something deeper. More dangerous. As if, for a moment, he’d forgotten we were only pretending too.

The conversation carried on naturally until the end of dinner, flowing easily among the four of us. Julia and Raphael talked about their simple beach wedding, about families who’d adored each other from the very first meeting, about plans to buy a house in the countryside of Belmonte and have kids in a few years. It was comforting to hear a real, linear love story without complications. They’d met on a dating app, gone on a few casual dates that slowly turned serious, moved in together, adopted a cat, gotten engaged on a trip to the

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Northeast. No dramatic escapes. No secret identities. No insane agreements about withholding personal information.

It was so… normal. So health.

When they finally said goodbye to return to their bungalow after exchanging contacts and promising to meet up) once we were back in Verdania, I found myself absentmindedly swirling the half-full wineglass, lost in thought

out how easy it had been to pretend to be someone else, to create a different story, a past without trauma.

“It’s nice to pretend to be someone else,” I murmured, more to myself than to him. “Sometimes I wish I could be a completely different person every day.”

“Why?” Apollo asked, and his voice had lost every trace of the playful, relaxed tone he’d had moments before.

“I don’t know,” I shrugged, still swirling the wine. “To be someone without a complicated past. Just that.”

He watched me in silence for a long moment, and I could tell by his eyes that the game was over. There were no more mischievous smiles or clever provocations. Only seriousness, and something dangerously close to genuine

concern.

“I want to use my question,” he said at last, his voice low but steady.

My stomach dropped. The question he’d saved. The personal information I owed him.

“Go ahead,” I replied, trying to sound braver than I felt.

He leaned forward slightly, resting his elbows on the table, his blue eyes locked on mine with an intensity that made my heart race and my mouth go dry.

“What happened that made you run from your wedding?”

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