“Oh, I have to see Mr. Thorne,” I replied, trying to keep my face neutral. I’d probably look like I was hiding something, but that would fit in nicely with the fictional progression of our relationship.
“You’ve been spending a lot of time in his office lately,” Florence observed, her eyes glued on her computer screen. “I swear to God, if GreatReads doesn’t stop sending me these notification emails…how many times do I have to turn them off?”
“See you,” I called over my shoulder as I hurried off, convincingly playing the part of a woman who’s embarrassed to be carrying on with her boss. It wasn’t too much of a stretch.
Daniel was smiling when I walked into his office. Well, that was a first.
His lawyer was in the corner, looking put-upon as usual. There was no doubt in my mind that he objected to every part of this plan - but he was objecting all the way to the bank, it seemed. I knew how he felt.
“Good morning, Maddy. Please, have a seat.” He gestured to a chair that was facing his desk. There was a rather nice fountain pen sitting conspicuously on the polished wood, waiting for me. I sat down and picked it up. It could have been a fifty dollar pen or a five thousand dollar pen - what was the difference, really? - but considering its owner, I had a pretty good idea which one was more likely.
“You like it?” Daniel wanted to know, noticing me studying the pen. I looked up, startled.
“Uh, yeah,” I said. “I…yeah, I do.” Really, I had been focusing on absolutely anything except the reality of what I was about to do, but sure, the pen was nice.
“Keep it,” he said. “It’s yours.”
“Oh, no, I couldn’t. I’ll lose it.”
“What’s mine is yours, Maddy. You’d better get used to that idea.”
I swallowed with difficulty. I felt like my throat was closing up, but I forced myself to take a deep breath as he pushed a series of papers towards me and pointed to the spots where I was meant to sign. He signed after me, with an elegant flourish, and then handed the whole thing over to his lawyer.
“Thank you,” he said, reaching across the desk to shake my hand. Which seemed like an odd gesture, considering the intimacy of our arrangement, but I took it. “You won’t regret your decision, I promise.”
“You can’t possibly promise that,” I replied, smiling. “But you’re welcome.”
I was useless for the rest of the day, flitting from project to project and accomplishing nothing. I could tell that Florence noticed, but she managed to restrain herself from commenting on it until after lunch.
“What’s up with you? You look like you’re a million miles away.”
“I’m fine,” I replied quickly. Too quickly. My ears were burning. Good. “Just feeling a little under the weather today, I guess.”
“Sure,” said Florence. She wasn’t convinced, which was fine by me. I tried to imagine her knowing smile when the news “got out.” Ugh. Somehow, it hadn’t occurred to me until now that I was going to have to endure inane congratulations from everyone in the office - about half of which, I knew, would be coming through gritted teeth. Every woman in the company carried at least a little torch for Daniel, if only because of his bank account. Oh God, what if they wanted to throw me an engagement party? I didn’t think I could handle hours of their eyes staring into me like daggers, and their faces contorting into forced smiles every time I looked at them. There was so much about this arrangement that I hadn’t even considered. How was I going to tell my parents? Was I going to tell my parents?
I sighed. My relationship with my parents was complicated. I preferred not to think about it too much, but this situation was forcing me to consider things I’d been ignoring for a long time. Like - who was I going to invite to the wedding? Or would we just have a small ceremony at City Hall? He probably wanted to get things over with as quickly as possible. Which was fine with me, as long as he provided the witnesses. Aside from my casual acquaintances at work, I hadn’t really made any friends since I’d moved here. All of my close friends from college and high school were off living their own lives, and aside from the occasional online chat, I never spoke to them anymore.
My head was swimming when I climbed into the town car at the end of the day, and I barely answered the driver when he spoke to me. Realistically, I knew Daniel would help me figure out a way to deal with any issues that came up. He was highly motivated to ensure the success of our little scheme. But I was still going to worry.
I felt like a zombie for the rest of the night, but of course I couldn’t sleep when I finally crawled into bed. When I finally drifted off to sleep, it happened so gradually that I shifted seamlessly from meandering thoughts into a dream.