by Avery James
The year and a half that Violet had lived with her had been about the most amusing of her life. She had come to visit on a vacation and had simply never left. She had been like a mother to Amy and Callie after their own mother had passed away. And now, she was like an older sister. When they were younger, Amy remembered Violet as being very serious and fashionable. She had never married. She had been to half the countries in the world, and had more stories than seemed possible. She had always had a spark of life, but in her old age, she had mellowed. As her tremendous energy began to wane, she relied upon her wit. Over the past few years, she had become the opposite of her nieces. While they were hardworking and serious, she loved to laugh and joke around on what she called “her final lap.”
“I found it last week when I was going through your belongings looking for anything I could trade for cash.”
“What?” Amy replied.
“Dear, do try to keep up. Your sister ran upstairs and got it for me about an hour ago. I just put it on before she left.”
“Oh.” Amy laughed as she sat down. She reached for the knife and cut herself a slab of cake. “Happy birthday, Violet. I wonder if I should check in to make sure Callie is ok.”
Violet crossed her arms and looked over the bridge of her glasses at Amy. “Your sister said she had it all under control, and told me to make sure that you take the rest of the night off. You girls work too hard. When I was your age...”
“When you were my age, what, Vi?” Amy asked. Vi had a habit of making up stories to suit the occasion, and Amy wasn’t sure she was in the mood. She just wanted to wish her a happy birthday and then head off to bed, but she knew Violet wouldn’t let her get off that easy.
“Hmm?” Violet replied. She appeared to have lost her train of thought. “Is something troubling you, dear? Is it boy trouble?” She leaned over the table again and stared at Amy. After a long silence, Violet cleared her throat. “Well?”
Amy laughed and threw her hands in the air. “I’m not in high school, auntie. Though at times it feels like it.”
“Ahh, I see,” she replied as she reached out her hand and leaned in closer. She lowered her voice and said, “Man troubles. I know just the cure.” Instead of placing her hand over Amy’s, she braced herself and stood up. She walked across the kitchen and grabbed a flower off of the counter. She grabbed a pair of scissors and cut the stem of the flower short before placing it in the glass. Then she grabbed a pitcher and poured what looked like water into the glass, too.
“Take one deep sip, and you’ll feel much better,” Violet said as she handed the glass to Amy. She was always doing things like this, telling Amy about some herbal remedy or another. Amy had learned over the past few months to just play along and do what she said. She grabbed the glass from Violet’s hand and raised it to her lips. A little flower water wasn’t going to make any difference either way.
As soon as she swallowed the first sip, Amy felt a burning sensation roll down her mouth and through her throat. She felt like her eyes bulged out as she said, “Is this gin?”
Violet laughed as she poured herself a glass. “Yes, it is.”
Amy looked at her in disbelief. “What was the flower for?”
“To get you to drink it,” Violet replied. “In all my years, with all the men I have known, I’ve never found a better solution than to forget about them for a bit. If a few drinks in, you’re still thinking about him, you’ll know what to do.”
Amy laughed. “If only it were that simple. I really don’t need to bother you with it.”
“Talk to me,” Violet replied. “You’re usually so boring, and now you’re interesting and you want to leave? What’s his name?” she added with a laugh.
“Ethan,” Amy replied.
“And what did this Ethan do to put you in such a state?”
“He proposed to me.”
“What did he propose?”
“Marriage.”
“To you?”
“Yes, Violet. He asked me to marry him.”
“Did you say yes?”
“I said no.”
“But did you want to say yes?”
Amy shook her head again. “I don’t know, Vi.”
“Do you like him?”
As Violet asked the question, she got up and started searching the kitchen for the remaining gin. She returned to the table a moment later and poured more in the glass.
“Vi, I think I’ve had enough for the night.”
Vi placed the bottle on the table before Amy and crossed her arms in disapproval. “I thought we were celebrating! Lord only knows how many birthdays I have left.”
“Many more I’m sure,” Amy replied.
“Not if you keep breaking my heart.”
“Fine, one more, and then we both need to get some sleep,” Amy said. She could feel the warmth of the alcohol in her veins and in her cheeks. “I can’t actually accept the offer.”
“Give the boy a chance,” Vi said as she tipped the glass back and took a long sip of gin.
“You’re taking the side of someone you’ve never met, a man who asked me to marry him so he can seal a business deal.”
“Sounds like the beginning of a whirlwind romance.”
“It sounds like the beginning of a lawsuit.”
“Is he handsome?”
“Very.”
“Is he funny?”
“Yeah, I think so.”
“Is he good in bed?”
“Violet!”
“Fine, fine, are you secretly in love with him?”
“Violet! No, I am not secretly in love with him. He is one of my clients, and he has been a thorn in my side for years.” Amy wasn’t about to discuss her feelings about Ethan with Violet, but that was exactly what she was afraid of. What if she were in love with him? Love was the wrong word. How could she love someone she didn’t really know? And how could he harbor any feelings for her? She felt like an idiot just for thinking about it. After a long pause, Amy added, “I don’t know, Vi. It’s complicated.”
“Good. Complicated and potentially good is better than simple and bad and boring.” Violet winked at Amy as she knocked back the last of her glass of gin. “Now be a good girl and take him for all he’s worth. This has been a wonderful birthday gift.”
“How has this been a gift?”
“I get to look forward to going to a wedding. You know how much I like weddings.”
“I had no idea. And there won’t be a wedding.”
“We’ll see,” Violet said as she stood up. “Ooh, when you get married, I’ll get to wear a floppy hat.”
“I’m not getting married,” Amy replied. She watched as Violet made her way to the stairs as she headed off to her guestroom.
***
Amy placed the envelope with the prenup on the kitchen table and took another sip of the gin. Her head was buzzing, and she could feel the bags forming under her eyes. When was the last time she had slept? She reached forward and opened the envelope. Ethan had placed a sticky note on the top of the stack of paper. “I knew you’d bring up Chicago.”
Was one night, years back, enough to justify making a giant leap of faith? Amy wanted to find a reason to say yes. She wanted to believe that Ethan had harbored a flame for her for all that time. It was crazy. She knew it was crazy. She had everything she had ever wanted. She had professional success. She had good friends and family members close by. She didn’t need a man in her life. She knew that. But what if she wanted one? Was she allowed to have fun? Was she allowed to relax and give something like this a shot? Then there was the money. All that money. More than she could possibly spend. All the good she could do, the people she could help. She’d never have to worry about Violet or Callie or anyone. She could take care of them.
She looked down at the contract again and picked up her phone. Slowly she ran through her contacts until she found the name she was looking for, then she hit send.
“Amy, what’s wrong?”
“Callie, it�
�s me. I need your help with something.”
“It’s almost midnight,” Callie replied. “Can it wait until the morning, or did Cole screw things up that badly?”
“Oh, he just blew everything else out of the water. Can you meet me in the morning? Say 6 AM? I need you to look over a few contracts.”
“Wait, my sister is actually asking me to use my legal degree?”
“Yeah,” Amy replied.
“Why don’t you ask Rich for help with this? He’s been your lawyer for years.”
“I need you to look at it, and I need you to tell no one about this. This has to stay between you and me, ok? I’m asking for your help.”
“Took you long enough.”
“See you in the morning.”
“Goodnight, Amy.”
Amy hung up and placed the phone back on the table. She stared at it for a long while as she considered what to do next. She tried to remember her advice for clients. Don’t make any decisions when you’ve been drinking. Wait until the morning. It was good advice. Sound advice. Advice she had developed based off of case after case of seeing good men and women make bad choices late at night. She smiled as she reached back down for the phone. It was great advice, she thought as she pressed send again. It was too bad she wasn’t going to follow it.
Amy listened to the silence on the other end of the line for a moment, and then she spoke those two fateful words: “I’m in.”
***
Chapter 4
Callie Haven pulled her hair back into a bun as she stared down at the pile of paper before her. She had expected crates of documents, some kind of impending disaster, really anything other than twenty pages of boilerplate legal text. She looked up at her sister, who was pacing back and forth at the other end of the conference room. Within a minute, she had a good idea of what she was dealing with.
“Amy, this is a prenup.”
“I know.”
“Amy, this is your prenup. I get it. I crossed the line. You’re not married to your job. I’m sorry.”
“This is real. Ethan Cole asked me to marry him last night.”
“I knew it!” Callie shouted. Her voice rose an octave at the end of the sentence. She grabbed the papers, jumped up from her seat and ran over to Amy. “I knew you must have been seeing someone. It was the only thing that made sense. No one works that much. You’re marrying the most eligible bachelor in the country, and I haven’t met him?”
Amy straightened her posture as Callie hugged her. “I’m not, I mean, I wasn’t, I mean, stop hugging me! Ethan and I were not dating. This part doesn’t leave this room.” Amy made eye contact with Callie as she pushed back. “He asked me to marry him for business purposes, and, after reflection, I’ve decided to accept his offer. I just need your help looking over the prenup.”
“You’re getting married?” Callie shouted again. She dropped the papers on the table and jumped forward again to wrap her arms around her sister. “I’m so happy for you. When is the wedding?”
“Today, I think. I just need you to go over all of the paperwork before I brief the rest of the staff.” Amy stared down at the papers on the desk. “I really need you to make sure that thing is bulletproof.”
“When are you going to pick out a dress?” Callie asked.
“I’m not going to,” Amy replied. “This is just business. No need for all of the blushing bride crap, ok?”
“But you’d make a beautiful bride,” Callie replied as she turned to sit at the desk. She scanned through the documents. “There’s nothing here that you should worry about. So, you and Ethan? Do you think your ‘business’ will result in any adorable little tycoons? I bet they’d have his blue eyes.”
“I thought you barely knew who he was.”
“Everyone knows who he is, Amy. You know, if you have second thoughts, I’d be willing to take one for the team.”
“He’d eat you for breakfast,” Amy said.
“So you’re saying he’s good with his tongue?”
“Callie! That’s a client you’re talking about!”
“Isn’t he my brother-in-law now?”
“I guess so,” Amy said. “Either way, I don’t want you to talk about how hot he is.”
“I never said anything about how hot he is, just that he seems like he knows how to please a woman.”
Amy put her hands over her ears. “Who are you and what have you done with my innocent baby sister?” she asked with a laugh.
“I buried her outside the beltway right after you hired me,” Callie joked.
“You’re funny when you don’t get much sleep,” Amy replied.
“Who said I got any sleep last night?” Callie said.
“Stop! No more!” Amy shrieked. She rubbed her hands over her face as she tried not to smile. Maybe Callie was a bit wittier than she gave her credit for. That would serve her well in dealing with the clients. After she composed herself, she asked, “So what’s the deal with Whitman? Who or what did the senator screw up?”
“It’s nothing,” Callie replied. “I have it under control. Not even a scandal. He wanted us to help him run some puff piece about protecting birds near his summer home.”
“Ok,” Amy said. “Just make sure to keep me in the loop on this one. Did Rich or Laura seem to think anything was strange about it?”
“No. Everything seemed to check out.”
“Ok,” Amy looked up at the clock. She wanted to run out and buy coffee and donuts for the staff before she broke the news to them that she’d be taking the next two weeks off to spend time with her husband. Of course, she’d also have to tell them that she was getting married that afternoon. “I’ll be back in half an hour. Have senior staff ready in the conference room when I get back. And, don’t say a word about what’s going on or I’ll have you answering phones for the next year.”
***
By the time Amy returned with coffee and assorted deep-fried breakfast foods, the entire staff of her small office had assembled in the conference room. As she placed the donuts and crullers down on the table, she could sense the anticipation in the room.
“Ok. I’ll ask. What the hell is going on?” Rich asked as he motioned for the box of donuts. Amy slid it over to him, and he flipped it open. “Jelly? What kind of trouble are we in here?” He thought back to all the times Amy had eased bad news with sugary or fatty foods. There was the pizza before two sleepless weeks; there was the barbeque spread for when she had everyone work through the Fourth of July weekend, bags of candy before all-nighters where they saved the ass of some politician or CEO. Because he assumed the worst, Rich reached forward and grabbed a jelly donut. “Might as well make it count,” he said.
Amy smiled nervously at Rich and Laura and she motioned for Callie and Jen to join them as they grabbed food and poured themselves cups of coffee. “I have a big announcement to make,” Amy started. “This one is going to come as a bit of a shock to all of you.” She watched the anticipation growing on their faces. She just knew that this was going to knock Rich over. “I’m getting married.”
“Get out,” Rich said.
“What?!” Laura half shouted.
They both turned to look at each other in disbelief. “What’s really going on?” they asked in unison.
“I’m getting married,” Amy said again.
“To your desk?” Rich asked.
Amy laughed. “To Ethan Cole.”
“No shit.” A smile spread across Rich’s face. “I should have known. How long have you two been…” He leaned forward and slightly nodded as he tried to ask his question in the most delicate way possible. Laura elbowed him in the ribs before he could finish. “… an item?”
“On and off for a few years now. We both decided it was for the best to keep this quiet. News of this doesn’t leave this room.”
“Can we see the ring?” Laura asked.
The ring. Amy hadn’t thought of that. Of course she’d need a ring. Why hadn’t she thought of that? “Like I said, we’re trying t
o keep this quiet. One little slip up and the press will descend on us like the low life predators they are. I don’t want to take a chance until after we’re married.”
“Ok,” Rich said with a laugh as he grabbed a second jelly donut. “So when’s the big day?”
“Today,” Amy replied.
“Are we invited?” he asked.
Laura leaned over and elbowed him again.
Rich coughed. “I mean, oh. Congratulations. What happened to the whole no personal involvement with clients thing?” As he finished his question, he blocked Laura’s elbow as it came at him for the third time. Instead, she slapped his arm. “Ow!” he yelped. “Ok. Ok. None of my business.”
Amy smiled. She knew there was a reason she had kept Laura around for all these years. “We’re getting married in judge’s chambers.”
“Romantic,” Rich said. He turned and looked at Laura as if to apologize.
“Quiet,” Amy replied. “This news doesn’t leave this room. If anyone finds out, it will be a tabloid mess. And we are in the business of squashing scandals, not starting them. No one outside this room can know about this.”
“What about him?” Rich asked as he pointed out to the waiting area.
“Who?” Amy asked as she looked over her shoulder to find Ethan waving. He was wearing a light gray suit and had flowers in his hand. “Shit,” she said under her breath. “I mean… I’ll be right back.” She looked at the grin on his face. He was enjoying himself a bit too much, she thought.
She turned and headed out into the hall to find out why Ethan had shown up in her office. The plan had been to meet later in the morning. By force of habit, she extended her hand to greet him, and he surprised her by wrapping his arms around her and leaning her back as he hugged. “Remember, we’re in love,” he said before kissing her cheek. Amy could feel that rough bit of stubble on Ethan’s chin. It offset the warmth and tenderness of that kiss on the cheek. She hated to admit it, but she liked it when he held her like that.
She looked at him for a moment and then thought, what the hell. She turned and met his kiss and felt a thrill run up and down her spine as she sealed her lips against his. Note to self, she thought, try this again.