by Jamie Knight
I looked down before he could see the blush that was covering my cheeks. Luckily, the lights in the conference room were low since this wasn’t a formal meeting.
“It really is fine if you don’t want to do it. It’s not that bad, really, in the long run. Compared to the real tragedies of life, you know.” I realized that I was stammering. “If I can stare down opposing council, I should be able to handle my grandpa,” I said, trying to not sound like a crushing schoolgirl.
“Opposing counsel doesn’t have Jesus on their side,” Russ pointed out with a wink.
“Fair enough,” I said, unable to keep from laughing.
His grin made my knees weak, and I had to grab the arms of my chair to keep from slipping under the table. Almost lightheaded, I was astounded that I could still feel this way.
“I really would be happy to go to the wedding with you. Help with any subterfuge that might be needed,” the hottie said.
I could hardly believe my ears. Trying to keep my professional composure, I squealed internally — the tightness in my pussy getting even tighter than it was before. This whole fake fiancé idea could actually work out after all. Like it had for the majority of the people I knew.
Plus, Russ was so hot I nearly melted on the spot.
“The wedding’s in two weeks in Santa Rosa,” I said, trying to stay focused.
“Oh, Santa Rosa?” he asked, getting an odd expression. It was like he hated the city.
“Yeah, is that a problem?” I asked, heart sinking.
“Um, no, it should be fine, it is a bit complicated, but I can work it out,” he explained, standing suddenly.
I followed. “It’s okay if you can’t make it.”
“Oh, no, no problem, I said I would be there, and I will. I am a man of my word,” Russ said, crossing towards the door. He reached out and shook my hand one more time. The touch lacked the firmness of before.
“Okay,” I said, not sure.
“I should get back to work,” Russ said, gathering himself.
“Yeah, us too,” I said, taking Vicky by the arm and all but dragging her back to my office, shutting the door behind us.
“I think that went well,” Vicky said as I leaned against the door.
“Your definition must vary radically from mine,” I said, knocking my head back on the hard wood.
“You saw how hot he is, right?” Vicky asked.
“Positively smoldering!” I confirmed.
“And he said he would do it,” Vicky pointed out.
“Yeah but —”
“But what?” Vicky asked, clearly not seeing the downside.
“I don’t know. He just seemed a bit sketchy when he found out it was in Santa Rosa.”
“Maybe he doesn’t like Santa Rosa,” Vicky suggested.
“Yeah, maybe.”
I was pretty sure that wasn’t the problem.
Chapter Four - Russ
If I could literally kick myself, I would have. I didn’t mind agreeing to go to the wedding with Ann. If it got me into the good books of one of the founding members of the firm, more is the better.
Ann was really attractive as well. I wasn’t really sure what I thought she would look like before I met her. I knew what Jim looked like, but siblings don’t always look similar. I really wasn’t expecting her to be as pretty as a model with black chin-length hair and high cheekbones that emphasized her bright green eyes. The dignified suit she was wearing was tailored to show her perfect curves.
I had stood up out of habit but sat back down as quickly as I could so Ann and Vicky wouldn’t see the raging hard-on forming in my pants. It was honestly all I could do to keep my eyes off Ann’s tits as we talked. Every time I did glance over, I couldn’t help but wonder what it would be like to gently suck on them. It didn’t help that they were so big her blouse came apart slightly over them, showing her cleavage underneath.
She was an incredible woman, and part of me really wanted to at least try and make her happy.
In the elevator, I googled how far Santa Rosa was from where we were in L.A.
“Fuck,” I said when I got the results.
I didn’t actually swear that much, at least not out loud but this was an exception. From L.A. to Santa Rosa was just over seven hours by car. It was possible that we would be taking a plane. Ann certainly had the money for a direct flight. Probably in first class. She seemed like the type. I had never flown first class.
A wedding seemed like a bit of a flimsy reason to engage in such deception, particularly when it required being out of town, probably for an entire weekend. But despite what Ann said, I could tell it was important to her to have someone to go with, which was part of why I was so insistent. Even finding out it wasn’t local.
I really wanted to be in her good books. I was already good with Jim. He had hired me after all. I figured if I could get on Ann’s good side, that would be both of the founding partners. Which was also mostly why I was so resolute in sticking to my promise. I really didn’t think Ann would be happy if I let her down, and Jim wouldn’t be over the moon either. It was quite possible that if I backed out, like I was beginning to want to, my career at Howell and Howell might be over before it really had a chance to start.
I hadn’t really become a lawyer out of some burning desire to dispense justice. I knew there were people like that, but they tended to work for legal aid and non-profit NGOs. Even though I respected their dedication and the difference they could make, I had had no such luxury and really needed the money they were paying.
Cold dread growing in the pit of my stomach, I headed back to my comfy office with the too-nice-view, to try and figure out how the hell I was going to pull this off.
“Russ, right?”
Jumping only a couple feet off of the fine rug, I turned around to see a well-tailored, blonde man I recognized as Leo, one of my new coworkers.
“Yeah, Leo?” I replied.
“You remembered my name.” Leo smiled his perfectly straight grin. “How’s your first week going?”
“Weird,” I admitted, desperate just to say it out loud.
“That’s a new one,” Leo said, raising his eyebrows.
“No disagreement here,” I said.
“This I gotta hear,” Leo said, making his way into my office and taking the chair in front of my desk.
“Well, not only am I still working on a case that I carried over from private practice —”
“An oddity to be sure,” Leo agreed.
“Vicky sort of corralled me into a meeting with Ms. Howell, it being highly recommended that I agree to go to a wedding with her and pretend to be her date.”
“Did the word fiancé come up at any point?” Leo asked, raising an eyebrow.
“Yeah, it did, how do you — did you put her up to this?” I stammered.
“Hey, calm down, big guy,” Leo said, holding his hands up in surrender.
“Sorry, I’m just a bit on edge,” I said, trying to calm down.
“Being coerced into a conspiracy of lies and subterfuge will do that,” Leo said, surprisingly understanding.
“I-I don’t think it’s quite that bad. I mean, I understand where Ann is coming from. My family is similarly conservative, and I just figured anything that I can do to get into her good books would be helpful in the long run,” I admitted.
“Nothing wrong with a bit of self-preservation,” Leo said with a shrug.
“Exactly,” I agreed.
“But,” Leo said, prompting me to go on.
“Why are you psychic?” I asked, slightly spooked.
“I’m not, just insightful,” Leo said.
“And humble,” I said.
“Very,” Leo agreed with a big grin.“I’m just not sure what would make her think of me,” I admitted.
“I have a few guesses,” Leo said.
“Yeah, I can guess,” I said.
“Vicky often starts trouble, but she rea
lly does mean well. You’d be surprised how many people here met pretending to be fiancés for social graces. After a while, the firm is going to feel like one big family,” Leo enthused.
“That actually sounds pretty nice,” I admitted despite myself.
I had never really been known to work well with others. There was a reason I had tried private practice when first getting out of law school, which I did at the shockingly young age of twenty-four, starting college a seventeen and taking a two-year undergrad before going on to law school. Despite this asocial history, I kind of liked the idea of working at a firm that felt like a family. It wasn’t really too surprising that there was such a dynamic at Howell and Howell. It had been founded by siblings, after all.
Still, this was unlikely to happen with me. I would work there for sure and try my best to be friendly but more than that didn’t really seem possible, I had too much to protect.
Chapter Five - Ann
The best-laid plans could often go wrong, but we really didn’t have a plan to speak of, which was surprisingly comforting under the circumstances. Russ seemed a bit shocked when he found out the wedding was in Santa Rosa, which to be fair was almost in Oregon. He couldn’t know that I was planning to fly out. Mostly because I hadn’t told him. Despite his hesitation, he had insisted that he wanted to go with me, and I figured it was probably best to go along with the plan. He really was smokin’ hot, and it was more than likely that things would turn out well — and not just with the wedding.
I was buzzing with the excitement that always came with total victory in the battlefield of justice. I couldn’t help feeling a bit righteous. I sat at my desk with a satisfied sigh, letting my case fall where it will.
“Good day, sis?” Vicky asked, coming in with fresh coffee.
“The best,” I said, ignoring her infraction just that once.
“Won, did you?” Vicky asked, putting the coffee on the desk in front of me.
“Epically so,” I said, drinking the drink of the mighty.
“Surprising no one,” Vicky said, playing the role of supplicant well.
“I shouldn’t get too cocky, that’s when people tend to slip up,” I realized.
“So, I hear,” Vicky said with a wink, going back about her work.
With a deep breath, I picked up my phone and dialed, deciding it was time to move things forward.
“Hi, Russ? It’s Ann, can you come up and see me in my office please?”
Out of habit, I checked my hair and makeup in the mirror. I was about to make a pretty big ask and wanted to give him a reason to say yes, even if my reasons were somewhat shallow. Though, to be fair, I had heard about relationships based on worse things than mutual sexual attraction. I knew this all was supposed to be fake, but Russ was just so damn sexy it was easy to forget.
“You wanted to see me?” Russ asked, coming in almost cautiously.
“Yes, please, take a seat,” I said, gesturing to the chair across from me.
Russ sat across from me, still looking a bit nervous like he thought I might fire him or something.
“I was thinking about our plan for the wedding and was wondering if we can take some photos of when you proposed so I’ll have something to show my family,” I said, it not sounding as bad out loud as it did in my head.
“I guess that makes sense,” he said, not exactly sounding sure.
“Wonderful,” I said, mostly just happy he was going along with it.
“Where were you thinking?” Russ asked, bringing up a very good question.
“I hadn’t really thought about it. I just had the idea now,” I admitted.
He nodded, looking out the window as he thought. “Okay, well, there’s the beach of course if that’s not too cliché,” Russ suggested.
“It might be a bit,” I admitted.
“We could drive down to San Francisco and go to the Golden Gate Bridge.”
“Good idea, but I was thinking of doing it today,” I pointed out.
“Right,” Russ replied, putting his thinking cap back on.
“A restaurant?” I suggested.
“Classic, should I have the ring hidden in the desert?”
“Why would we do that?” I asked.
“I don’t know, it is just something I heard about once.”
“Sounds dangerous,” I admitted.
“Yeah, now that you mention it,” Russ agreed.
“Let’s just put a pin in that one,” I said, trying to be charitable.
“Right,” Russ concurred.
“I think a standard one knee and ring will do the trick,” I told him.
“I can do that,” Russ said, his expression contradicting his words.
“Which brings us to which restaurant,” I said, mostly to myself.
“You would know better than me,” Russ pointed out, reminding me that he was new to town.
“Yes, of course. The Blue Room?”
“That one I know, mostly by reputation,” Russ said.
“That makes sense,” I said.
“Isn’t that —”
“The most expensive restaurant in Hollywood?” I asked.
“Yeah,” Russ confirmed.
“Indeed, it is,” I said.
He frowned and looked a little pale. “I don’t have that much money right now, I just got into town and —”
“It’s not a problem. I’ll pay, you are doing me a favor after all,” I said.
“Okay, if you need it, I’ll do it, but I need to get back to work soon, okay?”
The fact that he wanted to leave so quickly started to ruin the joy I was feeling about our plan. I wanted to believe that Russ was okay with all this, but there were little indications that he wasn’t. Maybe he wasn’t as attracted to me as I was to him.
“Okay, I-I’ll make the reservation and email you what time to meet me,” I said, picking up the office phone.
Russ went back to his office and I dialed the Blue Room hoping Lanna would be on shift. Powerful as I was, I only had so many contacts, and the place usually had a week-long waiting list for reservations.
“Hello?” Lanna said, picking up.
“Hi, it’s Ann,” I said, the relief washing over me in an awesome wave.
“I need a table for dinner,” I said.
“Today?” Lanna asked, almost mystified.
“Yeah,” I said, realizing deep down just how silly this all sounded.
“I’ll see what I can do. Can I call you back?” she asked.
“Of course,” I said, trying to be reasonable.
I hung up letting out a deep breath and buzzed for Vic. I was really beginning to question the plan. I really didn’t want to go to the wedding without a date and I didn’t want to let my cousin down by not going at all. I had been there for every other major event in her for life from baptism to graduation and it seemed wrong to abandon her at that point.
I just couldn’t shake the idea that I was pushing Russ a bit too hard. Like he might feel like he was being manipulated. I did have a position of relative of power over him, after all.
“You rang?” Vicky said, doing her best Lurch impression.
“Indeed, I did,” laughing despite myself, “please sit down.”
“Uh oh,” Vicky said, sitting in the chair across from me.
“Uh oh? What, uh oh?”
“I know that look,” Vicky said.
“Oh,” I said, trying to readjust my expression.
“What’s up, buttercup?” Vicky asked.
“I think I might be pressuring Russ on the whole fake fiancé thing.”
“What makes you say that?” Vicky asked.
“He seems really uncomfortable. He is doing me a favor, and I’m really happy for his help, but he doesn’t seem really comfortable with it.”
“That’s just because he’s shy,” Vicky said.
“You think?” I asked.
The redhead nodded. “Sure, e
ven Leo says so.”
“Okay,” I said, taking her word for it, though not quite able to shake the uneasy feeling.
Right on cue, Lanna called back to tell me she’d booked us a table for dinner that evening. Things were moving forward, just as I had planned.
Chapter Six - Ann
The Blue Room had a parking lot, of course, but it was mostly up to fate whether you got a spot in it. Even those with reservations, more often than not, ended up parking on the street. The sidewalk in front was lined with luxury cars blocks long in both directions, like a giant metal snake.
I pulled into a spot thanking my lucky stars the fortunes had decided to smile down upon me. Checking my make-up in the mirror, I got out, careful not to ding the door of the BMW parked next to me, the cars packed in like sardines, and walked confidently towards the front of the restaurant.
I could hear the violin music from the string quartet as soon as I cleared the doors into the reception area. Like a vampire from the ether, the host was there, in all his tuxedoed elegance.
“Name?” he inquired, with a distinct English accent, that made me think of the butler in a murder mystery.
“Howell,” I said as primly as I could.
I was certainly dressed the part in a little black number I had bought for the last date I had been on before having Drew. It made me feel really sexy and, despite being pretty revealing, was still appropriate attire.
“Right this way, please,” The host said, pulling two menus from under his podium, quick as you please.
Once at the table, the host pulled out my chair for me, pushing it gingerly back in.
“Would you like to see the wine list?” the host asked.
“No, thank you,” I replied as politely as possible.
“Very good,” the host said, disappearing back to from whence he came.
I looked over the menu, careful of not overindulging myself. There was really nothing I couldn’t afford. Odd as it might seem, that was part of the problem. Too few choices were, of course, oppressive. By the same token, however, too much choice could be paralyzing. Forever caught in a feedback loop of second-guessing.