by Lauren Wood
A shower was sounding better every minute and I let the hot water ease the tension in my neck and shoulders. I wish it worked as well for my head. I knew the only thing that was going to make it better, was a good night sleep. This time I was going to be waking up next to a strange man, and in a strange house. Hopefully it didn't end up the way I thought it might, the way I hoped it wouldn't.
The only good thing about how busy a day it was, it made sleep come very easily to me. Even though I had so many things to think about, I didn't think about any of it. I lay down and closed my eyes. I don't remember anything else.
The next morning, I was getting ready and it didn't feel as strange as I thought it would. If I was somewhere else, I would have to work tonight, but I didn't have to now. I could actually stay home and do my homework like I was supposed to do. This could actually be the best thing I had done in a while. That's what I thought anyways, before I saw Scott in the kitchen.
He wasn't alone and I was rather surprised to find that there was actually a cook in the kitchen. How could anyone pay someone to come in at make breakfast for them in the morning? It baffled by mind and I just kind of shook my head to it all.
“Where is the coffee pot?”
He pointed to some sort of contraption and told me that is where I can get my coffee.
“What is it?”
“I don't really know what it's called. It just makes pretty much whatever I want.”
I looked over at it and again I had no idea what I was looking at. It looked more like a cockpit in an airplane, then a coffee pot. There are so many buttons and gadgets and levers.
“Does your cook know how to make coffee?”
“I don't think that he does.”
“Then who makes you coffee in the morning?” Heaven forbid he would make his own.
“Linda. She is around here somewhere. What would you like?”
“I just want a cup of coffee.”
I felt like I was in some strange land that didn't know what a regular coffee was. He was looking at me like I was supposed to spout out some order like I was at a coffee shop. I just drink coffee.
“Okay, once I find her, I’ll have her make you one.”
“Don't you think it's strange that you have a coffee contraption that you don't even know how to use?”
Scott was the one that didn't seem to see the problem with it. I guess this was just how him and his family were. Considering what I had found out about his brother, I wasn't looking forward to meeting anymore of his family. If they were all the same way, I could tell that I wasn’t going to look forward to any family reunions. I told him that I would make it believable, but it was the first time that I wondered if I would be able to.
“I don't know if that is too bad. I have a lot of things in this house that I have no idea how to use.”
The conversation was getting nowhere and instead of waiting around for Linda to come around and make me some coffee, I decided that I would pick one up on the way home. At least if there was a coffee pot there, I could feel human in the morning.
“I'm going to take off and grab some coffee on the way into class. Will I see you this evening?”
“I will be home about ten or eleven. That is usually the time I get home every night.”
“Wow, really? That seems really late.”
He grinned at me. “Now who's playing the wifey?”
“No, I was just saying that seems to be a lot of work for you. Do you ever take a day off?”
The only reason I asked was because today was Saturday. I still had class because there was a couple of professors that preferred Saturday work, but I would think that somebody like him would have at least have his weekends to himself.
“Sometimes I take half off a Sunday a month. But I end up fielding calls all day, so there really is no point.”
“And this is what you want to do for the rest of your life, run your father's company?”
“It is what I have always been meant to do.”
It wasn't the answer I was looking for, but I suspect that it was more truthful. He was pushing so hard for a world, that I don't even think he wanted. I just don't know if he knew that yet or not.
Chapter 108
Scott
She left in a flurry, as she always did, and I was continuing to be left wondering. She said some of the most honest things, cutting straight through all of the noise to get to the heart of the situation. It was an act that I found completely unnerving, but I suspected that she was far more right about things that I like to admit.
Anna also looked very different on her way to school. I don't know why, but I had honestly thought that she always looked the way she did that night at the party. When her hair was piled high on top of her head and she had dark, bedroom eyes painted on. She completely looked the part, but now she looked the part even more. I never knew which way to think about Anna. Was she the student or the stripper?
Now she was the wife. I guess I wasn't supposed to think about her that way anymore. What got me the most, was how I was reacting to living with someone again. Only once, very briefly, had I lived with a woman and it hadn’t turned out well. We had dated for over a year and after moving in together, we broke up within a month. It was strange too start out living with somebody that I barely knew.
My wife.
I had to keep telling myself that because I still couldn't believe it. My fingers constantly played with the ring that was on my finger. It felt fake sometimes and then other times, I could feel the weight of the gold even more.
One thing that I was worried about was talking to Lexie. A few days ago, she had been my whole world and now I was giving it all up. Maybe I wasn't giving up, but I was giving up enough that I wasn't going to fight it. If she didn't want to be with me, I wasn't going to force it. I certainly wasn't going to beg her. None of this was my fault, but she would never believe that.
It nagged at me though. It nagged at me so much, that I tried my best to push her out of my mind completely. I blocked her number on my phone and on all social media. I basically pretended that she didn't exist. I knew back in my mind, that I was going to bite me in the ass one day, but this was how I was dealing with it at the moment.
I got to work to find my father was already there. He wasn’t one for pop-ups just like he wasn’t one to call me randomly to see how I was doing either. Every breath he took and every movement that he made had a reason and a purpose. He wanted me to be that way as well, but I wasn't as disciplined as he was.
“Father. Good morning, I didn't expect to see you here.”
“If you would have been here on time, you would have beat me here. You should always beat the sun to work.”
It was something that had said since I was little. Like four or five years old. I never really had anything to say to it, I had just done it. Every single day, beat the sun to work, but today there was a little color out of the windows when I looked to the view of the city. I had not beat the sun today and I knew that it was because of my conversation and then melancholy stroll through the house with Anna.
“Married life is different dad. It takes a little longer to get out the door. I will make the adjustments to my schedule accordingly. I will just have to leave earlier.”
I said the words because I knew that's what he wanted to hear. He didn't want an excuse and he didn't want any sort of reason why I wasn’t on time as he thought I should be. All he wanted was the correction made and the results that he desired. It really didn't matter how or why a person got there. As long as they did what he wanted them to do.
“Good so I want to talk to you about some company issues. I know that you and your brother have been at each other’s throats about the company, but it is you that I want to run it. Jeff is not of the business mindset and you are. He's full of excuses and I can't have that. I won't let all that I've worked for, go down the drain. I wanted to believe that you could run it together, but I can see now that will never happen.”
For a moment, what Anna said to me rang true and it’s kind of bothered me a little bit, because I never thought about it like that before. My father had pitted me and my brother against each other. Now he was lamenting like it was something that it just happened, like it occurred in nature, but that wasn't the way it was at all. We were not Cain and Abel, made to naturally destroy each other. Me and Jeff used to be very close. It was about the time that we both got out of college, that my father decided to bring up who was going to get the company. He had hounded us both about it ever since.
“Anything is possible father. One day me and Jeff may be able to work together.”
“Do you really think so?”
“I do.”
He should have smiled. It was good news that we as brothers would get along one day, but my father wasn't happy. Maybe he did want us to fight for his affection. It just didn’t make much sense.
“Well married life must be very different for you, than it was for me Scott. I certainly didn't get this unabashed hope when I was married. None of the times that I was married.”
“Anna certainly has me seeing things in a new light.”
“Well it is a good thing that you met her then. I didn't know that your thoughts were so clouded before.”
We were silent for a moment and I took a seat behind the desk. I don't really know what he was doing here. I barely ever seen him at any other meetings, it didn't matter how important it was. My dad had checked out several years ago and I have been picking up the pieces ever since. Why was he here now? Fishing?
“Anna has been good for me.”
“And Lexie?”
“I haven't seen her or talked to her.”
“Do you not think that is a bridge that you should mend? If not for yourself and your relationship, then at least for the family ties that come with the business. Sometimes we have to smile and apologize, even when we don't agree.”
That was something I knew well, considering who my father was.
“I am giving her some time to cool off first. She will not be very useful right now. Once she has calmed down and realized that it's for the best, I'm sure that we can mend those broken ties.”
“Good. So, I want to meet your wife. It is easy to see that she has an influence on you and I want to thank her. I needed you to get your head out of your ass a little bit and it seems like having a wife is doing just that.”
Another smile I didn't mean was forced out to my face. I really didn't know sometimes, if he said things like that because he was trying to piss me off or if he was just that stupid. I wasn’t a wild horse to be tamed, so that I could be ridden. For a moment, I wanted to tell him the truth. I wasn't really married, and it certainly had nothing to do with Anna, why I was changing my mind. She did help me to see things a little differently, but no more.
“Come over tonight for dinner. If you really want to meet Anna, I'm sure that you could make that work.”
My father had not to come over for dinner and I could see that he wanted to immediately balk at the invite out of learned response. He would say no nicely, eloquently even, but at the end of the day, he wouldn't come. I thought I was calling his bluff, but then he agreed. I can't believe that he agreed.
“Sure, I will be there around six?”
“Dad I never get home until about ten.”
“Make an exception.”
It was laughable that he wanted me to leave work before six o'clock. Just like I was supposed to beat the sun to work, I was supposed to chase after it once it was gone. It is expected to work at night.
“Will do. I will give a call Anna and we will see you later this evening.”
Dad smiled at me, and I cursed him silently. What was he up to?
Chapter 109
Anna
“What do you mean your father is coming over?
“It just has to be done. He wants to meet you and I have a feeling that he wants to see if this marriage is real.”
“Do you think that he suspects something?”
“I wouldn't doubt that my brother put something in his head. Jeff is not going to stop until he gets the company, or I do. Until then, there's no line he won’t cross.”
I didn't like the sound of that at all, but there was really nothing I could say. He was so determined to prove this to his father, so I was just going to have to go along with it. I was certainly going to have to do better than I had with Ernest. As soon as he had asked me what was going on, I had clammed up. I couldn't do that tonight with his father.
“So, what do you want me to cook? Do you have anything in particular that you like or he likes?”
“The cook will take care of that. You don't have to do anything. I mean I would appreciate it if you were here, but that's about it. Just a smile would be nice. It might be hard to do with my dad, but if you could just try, I would appreciate it.”
Considering what was going on I was rather surprised that is request were so small. He didn't seem too worry about it much at all. Yesterday he had been very worried about it.
“Are you sure that there is nothing I can do? Something that I should know?”
“To be honest, I don't really know him very well. I don't know what he's going to be looking for, because he's never really been around. The fact that he even asked to see you was rather surprising to me.”
The fact that it was surprising was kind of sad to me. Why wouldn't he be interested in his son’s life?
“Okay, I will be here when you guys get home. What time is dinner?”
“I guess around six. I know I'm usually not home at that time, but he was insisting. And he is the company after all.”
“You don't have to explain anything to me. That is what I am here for, remember?”
He thanked me and was off the phone rather quickly. I wanted to ask him some questions or at least get a few pointers on how to make his dad happy, but it wasn't the time for it. I don't know if he was busy or what was going on, but he didn't want to talk. He cut me off and say goodbye and that was at.
I kept thinking if he was my real husband, I certainly wouldn't deal with this nonsense. He was very up and down, and I never knew where I stood with him. It was rather confusing. Scott was confusing and I don't know if it was going to get any better with time. I think that’s just how he is.
It didn't take me long to realize that I didn't have anything to wear. Not that would be nice enough for a dinner like this to impress his father. A lot of the clothing I had was rather skimpy and I didn't think that it would be a good choice, considering how they felt about strippers.
I was concerned if he was going to ask me questions like, why was I stripper. Why I had chosen this instead of something else. There was always questions, and I got a lot of comments about how I looked like such a nice girl. But all that really meant was that I wasn't a nice girl, I just appeared to be. I don't know why, but it drove me absolutely crazy.
Since I had a little bit of time left, I went towards the outside parking lot and realized that I didn't even have my car with me. I had come here in a hired car that had been sent to pick me up.
I looked around for a few minutes and saw Ernest over by a closed garage door. I needed to get to a store and find something to wear or this was going to be a disaster. I certainly could meet his father and jeans and a T-shirt.
“Ernest do you think there is a way you could take me to the store? I need to buy something to wear for tonight. Scott called and said his dad was coming over for dinner.”
“His dad? Are you sure that's what he said?”
Again, I felt sad that it was such a surprise to everyone that his father was coming. It wasn’t exaggerated by Scott, they really did have that bad of a relationship. I don't know why that bothered me so much.
“Yeah, his dad. He wants to meet me, and I have nothing to wear.”
“Well then, we will have to make sure that we find you something. Although I do imagine that pretty much anything you wear is going to look great.”
>
I waved him off and told him to stop buttering me up. He was a lot different when Scott was around. I preferred the lighter side of Ernest.
“So where would we go?”
He opened the garage door and it revealed four cars parked next to each other. They all looked new, but old at the same time and I couldn't imagine riding in any of them.
“Pick one.”
“I don't think we should. Don't you have the black town car around here somewhere?”
“Scott took off in it earlier. He probably won't bring it back until whatever time you said dinner was. This is what we have in stock, so which one would you like to drive?”
“I can't really.”
“All of these are yours, Miss Donovan.”
I knew that what he said was true, but every time I heard it, it sounded a little stranger. I couldn't imagine all of this being mine.
But it wasn’t. It was my husband’s and I had to keep reminding myself that this was only temporary. We weren’t in love. This was just some crazy agreement that we’d come up with. Nothing more.
Then why did it feel like more?
Chapter 110
Scott
I spent most of the day in meetings. I had been ignoring the calls from Lexie. She had called several times, from one of her friends’ numbers, but as soon as I realized it was her, I blocked that number as well. I didn't know what to say to her. It was most likely best that she just moved on. I was married to someone else after all.
Jeff called several times, but I didn't want to talk to him either. He had started all of this for his own reasons and I don't know if I was going to be able to forgive him this time. So many times before, I’d just forgiven him for everything, but it didn't feel right. Now it felt complicated and even though I was used to how Jeff was, it felt like this time he went way over the line. This wasn't just some prank, this was my life.