by Eva Luxe
But I’m doing it anyway, because it’s better than staring at my phone. I know letting her make her own choice is the right thing to do, I just wish she would hurry up and do it already. Is that so awful of me?
These are the things I wonder as I head downtown towards the restaurant (a small Italian bistro) that Amelia asked me to meet her and her family at.
Walking in the door, I spot a familiar face - and one I’m surprised to see. “Rosa? What are you doing here?”
“Nice to see you again too, Brent.” Rosa deadpans. “It’s Amelia’s celebration dinner, and I’m her best friend. Are you really that surprised to see me here?” I shake my head. “Come on, we’re in the back room.”
I follow Rosa through the main dining room and down a hall towards an ornately carved oak door. She opens it, and gestures for me to go inside first.
I cross the threshold, and in the soft lighting, I see that there are people waiting for me. And they’re all standing. An older couple, who I assume are Amelia’s parents, plus two more families with adults our age shepherding young children - her brother and sister. And in front of all of them is…Amelia. Wearing the same gorgeous dress she had on the night we met.
“Amil? What’s going on?” I ask.
“What’s going on,” she says, “Is that I have something to say, and I want you to listen, all right?” There’s a quiet strength in her voice that’s been missing the last few times we talked.
“Okay…” I stand quietly in the doorway as she steps closer.
“I lied.” Amelia says. “About this dinner, and about you. We’re here to celebrate - I hope - but that depends on you. Just like so much has, ever since I met you. It feels like years, and being without you this last week felt like years too. I don’t want to spend any more years without you. You’re right, Brent. This - whatever this is, with us? It’s real. It’s so real it scares me, and it’s way easier to hide in my doubts and insecurities and not face it. But I’m not doing that anymore. I’m…I’m better than that.”
Amelia comes even closer, and she’s smiling now. “So, I just have one more question for you, Brent. Will you marry me?”
Amelia drops to one knee and holds up the ring she’d been hiding in the palm of her hand.
All of a sudden, I’m crying and smiling at the same time. “Of course I will, Amil!” I drop to my knees and embrace her, then reach into my own pocket for something I’ve been carrying around for far too long: her ring.
“I have a little confession of my own,” I say, “I’ve been carrying this in my pocket since the day after we went on that wedding venue tour. That’s the day I knew there could be something special between us.”
Amelia smiles back at me. “That makes two of us.”
Epilogue – Amelia
8 Weeks Later
I burst into Brent’s dressing room, holding my white dress up so I won’t trip over it. “Brent!”
He turns from where he’s fixing his tie in the mirror. “Hey! The groom’s not supposed to see the bride before the wedding! It’s tradition!”
“Oh yeah? And what about us is traditional, really?” I laugh, and he joins in.
“True. What is it?” he asks, taking my hand.
“Oh, just some news to make this day even better.” I say, “I just saw Rosa, and she told me Jason and Violet got fired from the firm!”
“What? Really?!” Brent smiles. “That’s great, but…how? Did you kill someone? Blackmail someone? Because if you had some big secret plan and didn’t include me, I’m going to be upset.”
“It wasn’t me at all!” I laugh. “Remember Cindy, the new receptionist I told you about?”
Brent nods. “I met her. She’s really sweet.”
“Yeah, unless you try to sleep with her in the copy room.”
“What?!”
“Yeah…turns out I wasn’t the only one that Jason tried to double-dip on. He came on to Cindy…aggressively, and she hit him so hard with a ream of paper that he has two black eyes. Styles heard about it, and fired him on the spot!”
“And Violet?”
“Oh! She got so mad when she heard what happened, she went after Jason in the hallway. Full on Thunderdome-style throwdown, apparently. Didn’t end well for either of them.”
Brent grins, then kisses me. “If that isn’t the nicest cherry on top of the day, I don’t know what will be.”
I press myself against him. “We still have some time before the ceremony. I can think of something…”
Brent wraps his arms around my waist. “You really think we have time?” I answer him with another deep kiss.
BAM. The dressing room door bursts open, revealing Rosa in her bridesmaid’s dress. “There you are! Quit riding your fiancée long enough to make it official, would you?! Everyone’s waiting!” With that, she’s off down the hallway.
“Well, I guess that’s it then.” I sigh. “Rosa’s word is law.”
“Hang on,” Brent says. “Is that how it’s going to be once we’re married, too?”
I just look at him, the love of my life, and laugh.
A little while later, I’m walking down the aisle of the winery at Crystal Plaza. I can’t believe that Brent and I are getting married at the place we jokingly visited together. But it all seems very fitting.
Rosa’s up there, and the foster child that she and Sam brought in is standing beside her as our flower girl. She’s five years old and simply adorable. And Rosa is happy to be her foster mom. It turns out she knows how to be responsible, when it counts. Maybe I was just afraid to let my carefree friend turn into the mother she wanted to become. Before taking my vows with Brent, I vow silently to never doubt Rosa again and always cheer her on.
Nikki’s up front too, dressed in a pantsuit and vest as the Best Woman. And there’s Brent, beaming a happy smile at me. For a long time now, we’d been pretending we were actually going to get married, but here we are actually doing it.
When it comes time to say our vows, all I can do is look into his handsome eyes and feel so happy that he’s mine. He’s helped me work through a lot of things, and accepted me as I am. I hope I’ve done the same for him.
We talk about this in our vows, and smile at each other the whole way through. And then at the end, Brent says this:
“I promise to always sample wedding cake with you.”
Then he winks and whispers into my ear, “And off of you.”
The minister pronounces us husband and wife, Rosa and Nikki and all our guests cheer, and just like that, we’re real married, after pretending to be engaged for so long. I’m so glad it’s official. I can’t wait for my husband to fulfill his promise of licking icing off me. And for everything else the future has in store for us.
The end.
Thank you for reading and for your support.
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Love, Eva
Bride Wanted: A Billionaire Fake Fiancé Romance
Copyright © 2018 by Eva Luxe and Juliana Conners. All Rights Reserved.
Published by Sizzling Hot Reads.
Chapter 1 – Sam
The sun was shining brightly into my office, on what would otherwise look like a good day. But something was weighing heavily on my mind. Something was wrong. I couldn’t put a finger on it, and I went through countless amounts of paper work to find it. Nothing. Hmm.
I ran a hand through my thick hair, and then down my trim stomach. At least I was fortunate enough to still have these physical attributes, I thought, trying t
o cheer myself up.
Maybe this success just had me feeling cautious. It wasn’t all that long ago that I’d been in a car accident and then a fucking coma, after all— and at one point the doctors didn’t think I was going to make it. I ended up proving them wrong, but when I came out I was barely able to walk again for a long time.
Now I was a wealthy business man with my own company that specialized in business consultation with a touch of tech qualities. We were owning the market, and it was a growing one, too.
It only made sense that I would be questioning my success, after my near death. I had to remind myself that everything was going just fine. More than fine, in fact. Things were going fucking great.
Benson, my business partner and friend, was great at the consultation part of the business, and I was good at the finance part. After I had received the money from my injury years ago, I put it to good use.
Of course, that was all done with some help from Willow’s new husband.
“Sam!” Benson sang, swinging into the door, his jacket swaying around much like his tie. I leaned back in my chair, amused at his happiness. “Sam, I got the best news ever, we just struck it big, we struck it big!” he sung again.
He did a small dance over to my small liquor cabinet and pulled out the best whiskey I had, followed by two shot glasses.
“It has to be good if you’re cracking open the whiskey at noon,” I said, leaning onto my desk. I studied him closely. He was more than happy, he was elated, on cloud nine. This meant one thing with Benson: the promise of money. A shit load of it.
“What is it? Anticipation is fatal these days,” I said, grinning.
Benson slid the two shot glasses onto my desk and sloshed the brown sour liquid into them. The smell quickly wafted up and a flash went through my head.
“Why do I drink such evil liquid? The man who hit me was drunk…?”
“Drink up, old pal. We’re rich as hell now!” Benson exclaimed, downing his shot.
I pushed mine aside, swallowing at the haunted thoughts that still followed me ever since the car crash. Benson raised a brow and reached for it.
“More for me.” He downed the shot and sat back with a wider smile than any I’d ever seen on him. Anymore and he was going to break his own damn face.
“Now out with it. What’s with the good mood?” I asked, glancing at the clock and my computer for new emails. I had things to get done today but Benson appeared to be trying everything in his power to hinder those plans.
Benson leaned over in his seat. His face got serious as if he was about to tell me the world’s biggest secret. “Remember John Gallock?”
“Yes, one of the oldest billionaires in town… what about him?”
“He’s coming with us!” Benson shot out of his seat, slamming his hands on my desk. “Merging his business with ours, in the form of a bunch of contracts he’s letting us take over.”
“Coming with us? Via contracts?” I repeated. “Wait, back up. Give me the full details.” I felt myself rising out of my seat too.
Benson whipped around and pumped his fist. “A two hundred billion dollar contract is gonna be ours!” he cheered.
“Two hundred billion dollars? But you said ‘gonna’… Is he coming with us or not?”
Benson turned to me. “Yes! He’s coming in two weeks to sign it.”
I rubbed my forehead. It was as if the wind had been knocked out of me. It wasn’t like our company struggled with gaining contracts. But this was a windfall. This was going to boost our reputation and popularity wildly. This time we were going to turn down contracts because of high demand.
Wait until Willow heard about this. Both her and her husband would be ecstatic.
Only thing was… I wished that I had someone of my own to run home and tell. Benson had his girlfriend, Willow had her husband, and me? Who did I have? I was single, an eligible bachelor.
But who would want to marry a man who walked with a fucking cane? Gold diggers maybe. But I wasn’t going to be one of those lonely types who was outwardly willing to pay for company. I was starving for the real thing. However, this disability of mine was in the way. Not even good looks on my part was helping me out.
I felt my body posture slump. Benson did a double take and frowned. He already knew about my wants, too. He hardly even talked about his own relationship around me, afraid that he might insult or hurt me. Even right now, he seemed to be reading my mind.
“Sam, I know you wish you had a family to share your financial success with. But it’s gonna be okay. You’ll have a family one day. Any girl in their right mind would be happy to marry into all this money, not to mention those dashing good looks all the ladies always go on about. Your dark hair and dark eyes and toned body and blah blah blah. So, love will come. Just wait and see. In the meantime, you can always dry your tears with a big fat hundred dollar bill,” he told me, slapping me on the back.
“Yeah, but I want more than that.” I reached for my cane at the speed of a slug. Days like this that were bright and joyful weren’t all too joyful for me.
The sun shifted in the sky, casting a more saturated hue over the room than the bright white that had been here before. I had such a good view in this office. If only I had someone to share it with. I forced a smile on my face, so that Benson didn’t get too worried.
“So, two hundred billion dollars. That’s a lot. Two weeks should be enough time to—” a thought hit me… “Wait. You said John Gallock, right?” I scratched my chin. That name was familiar. I dug through my memory to see if anything would turn up.
Benson was tense, not even moving. “Yeah. Gallock. Look, don’t worry about it. He’s good for it—”
“No, I think I do remember him.” I raised my eyes to Benson. Shit. “John Gallock is that man who so-called funds one of the biggest churches in this town…”
Benson lifted up his hands and motioned for me to stop. “Come on, he isn’t—”
“And, the last I heard,” I walked over to Benson, balancing on my cane, “he only funds things where the CEOs are married. Hitched. A bright happy couple. He’s all about family values. And forcing other people to have his same values, if they want any of his money.”
Benson shot me an awkward smile. “About that…” he stammered, looking for a way out of this. Oh no. Hell no.
“Benson! What the hell did you say to that man to get him to come to us?!”
“Well, come on. There are many fine women you can grab for a quick—”
“A one-marriage-stand? Those don’t exist. That won’t work!” I yelled.
Damn it, why did he have to be so slimy sometimes? Benson was a good friend, but he was too sneaky for my liking.
“How the hell am I going to find a temporary wife?” I hissed.
Benson straightened his shoulder and exhaled. “Oh, come on. You know me well enough to know I’ve got it all figured out…”
Great. Leave it to Benson to create a problem for me, and then try to solve it. I had a feeling that whatever he had in mind for me was going to be fucking insane.
Chapter 2 – Wendy
Rent was due. Rent was not being paid. Nor was there any money to pay the overdue rent.
What was Daddy thinking? I always had to go behind his back and check on these things. It was like he didn’t mind being evicted or something. As long as I lived with him though, rent was going to be paid whether he liked it or not. I was used to taking care of him.
Papers, papers everywhere. I was sitting in the middle of my bed in my small ass room. The mattress sat on the floor since box springs were for the wealthy. At least that was what I thought when I looked at the price. Even something like eighty bucks was a lot when you were struggling to make ends meet for your family.
I didn’t have any brothers or sisters to help us out, either. Dad and I were on our own. Too bad I didn’t get much help from him, either. He was just spinning his wheels in what looked like a severe bout of depression ever since he had lost his program
ming job a while back. . My best friend Holly sometimes helped us out but she wasn’t family.
Daddy used to be the shit. But the man had let himself go. Now he moped around the apartment feeling sorry for himself, not giving a shit about anything.
Sometimes, I thought he didn’t give a shit about me either.
But that was too much of a thought to comprehend. I was sure Daddy still loved me— he was just too miserable to show it.
Tossing more papers around to read later, I took out my laptop and logged onto my father’s online bank account.
“Let’s see, there should be enough in here for—” Those big red numbers were bolded. And I didn’t like the amount either. “Overdrawn by seven hundred dollars?!” I shrieked. “Dad!”
Come on! We still needed to eat! I thought, huffing and puffing. How were we even going to buy food?!
I jumped off my bed and stomped down the small hallway. Opening his door, I saw that he was dead asleep, snoring peacefully in bed. That was the only time he didn’t seem miserable.
I sighed and slowly closed the door. I knew Dad didn’t need the added drama. But I’d be lying if I didn’t admit that I wanted to wake him up and yell at him.
Where did he blow past that money to put us seven hundred dollars down the hole?
Gambling?
Drinking?
I couldn’t exactly see him doing drugs. I bit my thumbnail and settled back down on the bed. I had to think of something quick.
“Maybe I can just pull a gig or two, get the money up and we’ll be okay… for another month.”
I pulled up the local paper online, searched classifieds and saw a few low paying jobs.
Waitressing? Nah, I’d be better off stripping…
Hmm.
I pulled myself off the mattress again and looked at my body. Nice curves, and I was athletic and limber.
The image of those red numbers was still burned completely into my head. All the strippers in the movies I’d seen weren’t poor. Yeah, they may’ve lived in some cruddy places, but they were saving up for better.