by Claire Angel
“YOU ARE WHAT?!” Angela roared, pushing Erika to the side and striding toward me. “WE AREN’T EVEN DIVORCED YET, AND YOU’RE ALREADY ENGAGED AGAIN?! HOW COULD YOU DO THAT TO M?, YOU LIER, CHEATER-”
But Angela’s rampage was interrupted when Erika stepped on the back of Angela’s sheet and the whole thing unravelled off of her. She was now standing completely naked in front of me and Erika.
Immediately, Angela tried to cover herself up as best as she could with her hands, and then screamed at the top of her lungs. She fled into the bedroom, slammed the door, and then shouted, “WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU? YOU TWO DESERVE EACH OTHER!”
I looked over at Erika, who was trying to contain her laughter. When she finally looked up at me, though, she did not look impressed. “You slept with her last night?” she asked when I could see little pain in her eyes.
The fog from last night was finally starting to lift and I could remember a little bit of what had happened. I remembered Angela calling me, telling me that she wanted me back, and me repeatedly saying no to her. And then I remember getting home, seeing her already in the bedroom naked and then... refusing to sleep with her. I had then blacked out for the rest of the night and slept until I’d heard Erika pounding on the door this morning.
“No,” I said resolutely, now absolutely certain of what had happened. I then recounted to Erika what I had just recalled, but she did not look convinced.
“I’m sure you think that’s what happened, but alcohol can screw with your memory, Xavier,” Erika said disappointedly. “You should not be drinking in excess.”
I just nodded. I looked at Erika, still confused. “You just told my ex-wife that we’re engaged,” I reminded her. “Why did you-”
“I only said that to infuriate her. We’re not actually going to do it,” Erika said, as though it was the most obvious thing in the world. “Besides, she’ll probably forgot about it by tomorrow when she will move on to her next scheme to ruin you.”
I gave her a look and responded, “I wouldn’t be so sure about that.” But I needn’t have said that, as Hurricane Angela burst through the bedroom door right then.
However, Angela no longer looked enraged or embarrassed. Instead, she looked... smug? “I suppose I should congratulate the two of you, then,” she said pompously. “When is the wedding?”
I looked to Erika, who now looked slightly more worried than she had before. But she didn’t let Angela see that, instead she instantly replied, “In a month or two. So you’d better get your divorce finalized in that time, or there will be trouble.”
A month?! My thoughts screamed in my head. Why she is making this worse and worse?!
Angela was now looking at Erika with her brows raised, as if she had expected Erika to be unable to call her bluff. “Well, then,” Angela purred, “I’ll look forward to receiving the invitation. See you in a month.” And then, without another word or a backward glance, Angela disappeared out the front door.
I looked to Erika and Erika looked back at me as we both started speaking at the same time.
“Why did you say we were going to get married in a month?!” I shouted at her.
“Why did you sleep with your ex-wife who’s doing everything she can to screw you out of all of your money?!” she screamed at me. I didn’t know when we got so comfortable that we were shouting at each other.
We glared at each other for a moment, and then Erika finally decided to answer first. “Because,” she explained, coming and sitting down on the couch in the living room, “that was the biggest thing I could think to hit Angela with. I didn’t think she’d actually make us go through with it!”
I started laughing somewhat maniacally. “You didn’t think that my crazy, vile, insane ex-wife would hold you to your word when you said you were going to marry me? And then you made it worse by saying that our wedding was going to be in a month?! What were you thinking?!”
“If we’re going to beat Angela at her own game,” Erika explained, crossing her arms in front of her, “then we needed something huge to bargain with. In the moment, I thought that if she thought you and I were merging our companies together through marriage, she might back off trying to ruin you. And while I’m not thrilled by the prospect of marrying you, I still think that it’s your best option.”
I stared blankly at Erika. “You think that me marrying you, even though neither you nor I want to get married to each other, would be the best way to get back at my backstabbing ex-wife?”
Erika shrugged. “We wouldn’t actually be getting married,” she revealed. “We would just have to make it look like we were. All the news outlets would cover it, your stocks would soar, and Angela would be the most jealous ex-wife on the planet, but unable to do you any more damage. So, why not? Why don’t we have a fake wedding to get your ex-wife and your brother off your back? And if we two joined hands, we could take our business to a different level in about six months.” I had met Erika only few months ago, and she was already become a multi-millionaire. I knew she was going to be a billionaire soon.
I sat down in the chair across from Erika, exasperated. “No,” I said clearly, “and if you don’t understand why I’m saying no, then you and I having a fake marriage is an atrocious idea. You don’t even trust me enough to tell you the truth about last night, which was that I didn’t have sex with her!”
Erika rolled her eyes. “Ok, ok,” she said, putting her hands up in front of her in surrender. “I believe that you didn’t have sex with Angela last night. But don’t you agree that this is an ingenious plan, and such a simple one at that, too?”
I shook my head vehemently. “No,” I said even more firmly this time. “Faking a wedding is not the most ingenious way to get back at my ex-wife and brother. There are so many easier things we could do! Like... like...” I tried to think of something, anything that would be as destructive to Angela and Baron as getting married to Erika, but I was coming up blank. I was not making my case very well.
“See?” Erika said, “It’s a perfectly harmless plan. We will have a big ceremony and reception, so everybody can see we’re getting married, and then reap the rewards that come from it. We just keep things platonic between us, which we would be doing from now on anyway, even if you hadn’t slept with Angela.”
I groaned and tipped my head back. “I DIDN’T SLEEP WITH HER!” I shouted at the ceiling, and I could hear Erika laughing.
“I know, I know,” she said, and then became serious. “But after seeing you walk out of your bedroom with her this morning, it’s going to be a long time before I can fully trust you again. But I do trust that you didn’t sleep with her, I just like teasing you about it.”
I lifted my head up and looked Erika in the eyes. I was still a little furious at her, but there was something about her face that made me want to forgive her instantly.
I thought about the marriage proposal more, and the more I considered it, the better it sounded. It really wouldn’t be that hard to trick Angela and Baron into thinking Erika and I were getting married, and the press would have a heyday with it, which would mean good things for both of our businesses.
After having considered it for a few more minutes, I finally gave in. I sighed, went over to the kitchen table, and grabbed the cage that had been on the top of the wine cork last night. I took the wire and twisted it into a ring shape, and then got down on one knee in front of Erika. “Fine. Erika Heatherington, will you help me enact revenge on my brother and ex-wife while also creating great financial gain for both of our companies... and marry me?”
Erika clapped her hand over her mouth like she was really being proposed to, and then squealed in a very fake way and said, “Oh, Xavie! Nothing would make me happier!”
She flung her arms around me, knocking the wire ring out of my hand and knocking the wind out of me. She knew what she had done right away because of the ghastly noise I made, and so she immediately got off of me. When she did, she rubbed my back whil
e I coughed and tried to get some air back in my lungs.
“Sorry about that,” she said seriously. “I swear I wasn’t trying to kill you before I even got the chance to fake marry you.”
I laughed a little, and then said, “You made me drop the ring, to boot.”
Erika’s eyes widened. “Oh, no. That was such a cute stupid touch! Here, I’ll look for it.”
Erika bent down and started crawling on her hands and knees trying to find it. I felt like an idiot just standing up there like that so I got down and joined her, looking beneath the couch and over in the corner beneath the curtains. This was one of the few times I wished I had a smaller living room, because trying to find this tiny thing in this massive space was proving to be far more challenging than it needed to be.
Having had no luck, I turned back toward the centre of the room and looked beneath the coffee table. To my relief, I saw the wire ring lying there, so I called to Erika, “Found it!”
But as I pulled my hand back from having grabbed it, I moved my head to the side to see if Erika had heard me and I discovered that she was right beside me. Our lips were inches from each other, and I could smell her perfume on her neck. She smelled like warm apples, and it made me want to pull her in close to me and kiss her. But when our eyes met, hers quickly darted away.
“Thanks,” she said quietly, taking the ring and putting it in her pocket. “I’m not going to put it on because I’m afraid it will stab me, what with the wires jutting out of it and all, but I’ll keep it as a memory.” She gave me a polite, albeit pitiful smile as we both stood up.
“I’m glad to hear that,” I said quietly. I knew that she had said that she didn’t want to go back to the way we were before Angela had been here because she wasn’t sure she could trust me yet, but I thought there was no harm in checking again. “You don’t happen to want to...” I trailed off and pointed toward the bedroom.
Erika gave me yet another sad look. “I... no, not now,” she said regretfully. “Just... give me some time. I’m happy to be your fake fiancée, but... I can’t be your real girlfriend.” I nodded. I still didn’t quite understand why she was rejecting me, but I decided to respect her wishes.
“So... I guess I’ll see you later then?” I said, not realizing how pathetic I sounded until the words were out of my mouth. How had I gone from being a self-sufficient billionaire who didn’t care what anyone thought of me to being a man who said things like ‘see you later then’? I was disgusted with myself.
Erika, however, seemed happy with that. “Yeah,” she replied contentedly, grabbing her bag that she’d left by the front door. “We can pick out centrepieces together or something like that.”
I chuckled as she opened the front door and hesitated in the doorway for a moment. She looked as though she wanted to say something, but after a moment, the look was gone. “See you soon... fiancée,” she said, giving me a kiss on the cheek and then heading for her car. As I watched her go, I felt like the biggest idiot in the world. I was engaged to the woman I was falling in love with... but I couldn’t have her.
Chapter 9
Erika
Over the next few days after Xavier and I decided to plan our fake wedding, I couldn’t get the thought of him out of my head. But yes, we didn’t get intimate, I really wanted to, but I just couldn’t as the thought of him still being married still bothered me.
Also, I did trust that he and Angela hadn’t slept together, but there was something about that whole situation that just... rubbed me the wrong way. I needed to take some time and see where things went between us.
Xavier and I now had to fake an engagement and eventually a wedding. I knew it was not going to be easy to stay away from him as I would be intimately tied to this man for at least the next six months. But he was the one who had said initially that he had wanted to take things slow, so why couldn’t he see where I was coming from.
We texted back and forth almost constantly in the coming days, devising a plan that would surely get the press’ attention. What we decided on was this: the first thing we were going to do was make a grand entrance together at an important party. Then, once the media was in a flurry over that, we were going to be seen a few different places that were obviously places one would go to procure things for a wedding. And then, we were going to go to our chosen venue and have the press follow us there. It was the perfect plan, and both Xavier and I were thoroughly pleased with it.
The party that we ended up attending was a friend of Xavier’s birthday party. When we showed up together, I make sure to cling to his arm with my gaudy fake engagement ring, and the moment the first person saw it, I knew our deal was sealed. We had paparazzi trying to come up to us every time we’d go in or out of the front doors (which we made sure to do a lot), and eventually we let them get a few words out of us regarding our engagement.
When I woke up the next morning, I had fifty-six missed calls on my phone, and all of them were from Natalie.
“YOU’RE ENGAGED TO XAVIER FRANKLIN AND YOU DIDN’T THINK TO TELL ME?!” She screamed in my ear the moment she picked up the phone.
“Nat, calm down, calm down,” I tried to tell her, but she was too furious to listen to me.
“HEATHERINGTON, WE’VE BEEN BEST FRIENDS SINCE BEFORE WE COULD WALK, WHAT WERE YOU THINKING?!”
I sighed. “If you would let me get a word in edge-wise, then I would explain everything to you and it wouldn’t be as much of a big deal as you’re making it out to be!” I shouted back.
There was silence on the other end of the line. And then, “Fine. You have one minute to tell me what’s going on,” Natalie demanded.
I chuckled and then launched into the re-telling of everything that had transpired between Xavier and I in the last few days. As I was explaining things to her, I began realizing how crazy everything sounded, but when I finished, I had managed to convince myself once again that everything was going to work out as it was supposed to. Natalie, however, was not as convinced.
“So you’re telling me,” she clarified, “that even though you’re not really going to be marrying Xavier, you’re going to tie yourself to him for the foreseeable future, and because he might have had sex with his witch of an ex-wife, you’re swearing up and down that you’re not going to ‘become intimate’ as you say, with him?!”
“Well I trust that he didn’t sleep with his ex-wife if he said he didn’t,” I assured her, “but that doesn’t change how I feel. Xavier was right when he said we should take things slowly, so”-
“So, you’re just going to marry him and see how things go from there?” Natalie asked sarcastically. “Erika, this is a truly terrible idea, and I don’t understand why a perfectly sane person such as yourself would agree to going along with it.”
“Because,” I said insistently, “while I don’t want to rush things with Xavier, I know that I do have feelings for him. And he is in dire need of help right now, and I think I might be the only person who could really help him. So frankly, no matter what you’re going to say, I’m going to go ahead with this plan. I... I just hope you understand why I’m doing it.”
There was silence once again on the other end of the line and for a moment I was worried that Natalie had hung up. But then I heard her sigh, and I realized that she was just taking a moment to think.
“I... I do understand why,” Natalie responded hesitantly, “I’m just worried that you haven’t thought of all of the ramifications that your actions could have. But if you say you’re prepared for it, then you’re prepared for it, and who am I to tell you not to go ahead with it, right?”
My heart swelled with Natalie’s support. “Thanks, Nat,” I said appreciatively. “I hear that you don’t totally support what I’m doing, but I am so thankful that you’re still here for me.”
Natalie chuckled on the other end of the like. “You’re always coming up with crazy ideas like this one, so I’m used to it by now,” she replied jokingly. I thanked her once a
gain, we chatted for a few more minutes, and then we hung up.
I had to meet Xavier for the preparations for the wedding. I got ready and Xavier picked me up. And we went around town so that we would be seen together stopping in at a few places related to the wedding. We first met our wedding planner on a popular patio in the heart of the city, and I noticed more than a few camera flashes coming from the bushes. Good, I thought to myself, this means that our plan is working!
Then we went to the bakery where all of the rich and famous get their wedding cakes and tested out a few flavours. So far, this was one of the most delicious scandals I had ever been a part of. Not that I’d been a part of many... or any before. But the cake was delicious.
And then, Xavier said that we were headed somewhere secret. I looked at him curiously and said, “Does it have something to do with the wedding?”
By then I noticed that we were heading outside of the city limits. I looked out my window and started seeing the high-rises and billboards falling away to reveal the lush, abundant countryside that lay just beyond the city.
“In a way, yes,” Xavier said, smoothing out his pants as he spoke. Was it just me or did he suddenly seem... nervous?
“Okay...” I said hesitantly. “Is it a good or a bad thing?”
Xavier laughed at this. The sound of his laugh still made butterflies appear in my stomach, and his smile was so cute that I just wanted to kiss him so badly. “Don’t be so nervous,” he reassured me. “I might not be telling you where we’re going, but I hope you’ll like it.”
I nodded and kept my eyes on the countryside for the next twenty minutes. I hadn’t been out here in so long, and I felt myself relaxing more and more as we got away from the hustle and bustle. But I still fixated on where it was we could possibly be going. Maybe there’s a special venue way out here? I wondered. Or maybe we’re going to do a fake engagement photo shoot? That would be too funny!
