by Elle Woods
“It doesn’t sound like your wife’s father meant to hurt her. It sounds like he gave her a beautiful life.”
“It might have been beautiful, but it was lonely. The man gave her things but he rarely gave himself. What she wanted was his love. Every day, I make sure to give my whole heart to her and my children. Without their love, success wouldn’t mean anything to me anyway.”
Dylan couldn’t imagine valuing his worth by the opinions of others. Perhaps it was because he had led such a solitary life, but it was impossible to think that something as frivolous as love could make or break his success and happiness in life. After all, many people never found love and they led successful lives.
Then, an idea came to him. He didn’t need to find love to get himself the job. He just needed to convince Erickson that he had love in his life. If he could just pull off a little white lie about having a girlfriend, then all his problems would be solved.
No, a girlfriend wouldn’t be enough of a commitment. It would have to be a wife. No, that would be too big a stretch. After all, Erickson would likely be hurt he hadn’t been invited to a wedding and Dylan couldn’t think of an excuse for never wearing a wedding ring. A fiancée; that’s what he needed.
“Sir, I’ll admit that I do put work before everything else and you have given me a lot to think about. I would never want my fiancée or our future children to feel the way you say your wife felt when she was young.”
He could see Erickson’s expression change. There was a bit of doubt but it faded quickly to a smile of approval and Dylan felt the tension in his shoulders release. Maybe the man had bought it.
“Why on earth have you never mentioned you had a fiancée? I asked around and nobody had any idea if there was a woman in your life. You don’t even have a picture of her in your office.”
“Well, sir, I've been afraid of appearing as if I wasn’t entirely focused on work when I was here in the office.”
He thought of all the things that coworkers in relationships did that annoyed him and tried to act as they did while speaking of his imaginary fiancée.
“I thought if I talked about her too much or wasted time staring at her picture that I might not be taken seriously. “
“How long have you been engaged?”
“It’s fairly recent.” Recent indeed, he thought to himself, as he tried not to smirk at his own cleverness.
“And how did you meet her?”
“At a fundraiser last year,” he said, realizing that it sounded very generic after the detailed story that he had just been told. “It was at the museum. She has a real passion for the arts and it’s hard not to get swept away when she talks about it.”
“Well, that is wonderful! I’m sorry that I misjudged you, though I would caution you against keeping your work and personal lives so separate. After all, the woman you love should be a part of every piece of your life.”
“I will remember that, sir. Thank you for your advice.”
“In fact, I insist that you bring her over to my house for dinner. My wife would love to meet her and I would love to hear more about the woman who stole your heart.”
“I’m sure that she would love that as well.”
Well, he had certainly done it this time, he thought as he chastised himself. How was he going to get out of this without his boss realizing his lie? He couldn’t say that his relationship had ended before Talbot had seen him with her. If he didn’t find a woman to play the part, he was going to lose it all.
“Well, I have taken up enough of your time. I will have my assistant reach out to yours to find a time for my wife and I to meet this lovely lady of yours.”
He got up and left the office as quickly as he could. What had he gotten himself into? There was nothing he could do but accept the invitation, but this was going to be a problem. Where was he going to find a woman willing to pretend to be his fiancée?
Chapter 2
On the market
Dylan’s thoughts were consumed with what to do about his lie as he drove across town towards one of his rental properties. They were a nice supplemental income to what he got from his job with Talbot. The tenant has fallen behind on her rent again. He planned to make sure she knew that she had one week to get him two months’ rent or he was going to start eviction proceedings. He wasn’t running a charity, after all. Besides, it would do him good to be able to take his frustrations out on someone besides the man who was causing them.
When he got to the building, a brick townhouse, he just shook his head. The woman had covered the stairs and small garden surrounding the walkway with sculptures. They were bright and flamboyant, two things he detested. It was then that he remembered, vaguely, that she was an artist of some kind.
He walked up the stairs, eager to give her a final notice and be done with it. He pounded on the door, which she had painted from the standard white to a shade of mint green with tiny blue flowers around the edges.
“Yes,” she said as she opened the door. He could see the look of disappointment on her face when she realized who it was. She had to know why he was there.
“Ms. Winters.”
“Mr. St. James, good afternoon,” she said as she opened the screen door that separated them. Instead of asking him to come in, she stepped out and joined him on the small porch outside the townhouse. Clearly she did not want him in her space. From the way she had her arms crossed at her chest, she seemed to be bracing herself for a conflict.
“Ms. Winters, I think you know why I’m here,” he said. Though, as he spoke, he really looked at the woman in front of him. She was a very pretty woman. She might even have been beautiful if her curly red hair wasn’t tied back in an old bandana and her clothes and hands weren’t covered in paint. There was even a spot of green on her cheek, though it brought out the deep blue of her eyes. Though he could see remorse in her eyes, it was clear that she was not one to beg for anything as she held her head high.
“I’m so sorry, Mr. St. James. I just need a little more time. As you know, I’m an artist and my income can be very seasonal. I have a big show coming up. I’ll sell enough work to pay you back everything that I owe you.”
“I am afraid you don’t have time.”
“I have lived here for 3 years and I’ve never missed a payment.”
“And I am a businessman. You were a good tenant. Now you are a woman who is significantly behind on her rent.”
He could see her frustration but she kept a calm façade. It occurred to him that he must have had a similar look on his face when Talbot was lecturing him.
“I just need another 2 months. I will be able to pay you everything then. I can even give you interest at that point.”
“You have never needed special consideration before.”
“I had to buy supplies. The canvases and paint alone cost more than my rent. I have my first really big show coming up. The Queller Gallery has offered me a one-woman show. It is a huge moment in my career but they want the show to be entirely new art.It will take you longer to find a new tenant than it would to work with me and you will get all the money that I owe you, plus any additional fees. I will sell enough to be set for the next year.”
“There is no guarantee of that.”
“I can guarantee that it will cost you more to evict me than it will to wait for a few months for the money. Please. I have to get ready for this show. I can’t lose my home and my studio. If I do, I will never recover in time. Please, Mr. St. James. There must be some kind of agreement that would make us both happy.”
DING! A light bulb went off in his head. Perhaps she could help him with his issue at work. She might be the only one who could. He stood there and truly saw her for the first time, a woman with a singular devotion to her work that matched his own. She was desperate enough to do anything to be able to focus on her work and prepare for her show. That might make her just desperate enough to be open to pretending to be his fiancée.
“Ms. Winters, tell me, have you studied ar
t history in addition to painting?”
She looked at him as if he were absolutely mad. It was, he knew, a strange question to ask at a time like this, but he needed to know if she could live up to the lie he had told about his mysterious fiancée.
“I don’t see what that has to do with anything. I am a working artist. If you are implying that I give it up to become a professor or something, that isn’t any of your business.”
“Indulge me and answer my question.”
She sighed and rolled her eyes before saying, “Yes, I have a dual degree in Art History and Studio Art. Does that give you what you need to know?”
“Maybe. Tell me, you could make a better living teaching. You just said that yourself. Why do you continue to focus on making your own art?”
“I don’t see how this is any of your business.”
She was no longer even attempting to hide her emotions. She was angry and it was radiating off of her. Ironically, it made her look quite lovely because the emotion behind it was so genuine and pure.
“Well, as the man you owe thousands of dollars to, I think it may be my business. Answer me and I may just be able to solve both of our problems. You can prepare for your show and wipe your debt to me in the bargain.”
She looked at him skeptically, as if she had not really expected him to take her up on her request that they come to some kind of arrangement.
“I’m not doing anything illegal or amoral.”
He had to stifle a laugh at her exclamation. Clearly, his tenant didn’t think too highly of him. Of course it wasn’t hard to blame her when only moments ago he had been threatening to put her out on the street.
“I don’t expect you to. I don’t have any interest in asking you to do anything that makes you uncomfortable. ”
“Then what is it you have in mind? I can’t imagine what I could do for you that would wipe away the back rent I owe. That’s a lot of money. Unless you have a painting you need, I’m not sure that I can be of much good to you. And you don’t strike me as the type who would enjoy my art anyway.”
She was definitely pretty enough for anyone to believe she was his fiancée. Of course, she was so creative and free-spirited that people might doubt their compatibility. But they only had to get through one dinner at his boss’s house. Even if she had to pop by the office a few times to make it believable, nobody there would really spend enough time with her to know just how incompatible they really were. To be honest, few of them knew enough about him to know what his type might be anyway. Yes, this plan just might work.
“You haven’t answered my question. Why are you so committed to your art?” He wasn’t sure why the answer was so important to him, but his curiosity demanded an answer.
“Because it is the single greatest thing in my life. All I have ever wanted is to be a great artist. To achieve that, it has to be my focus. I have to put it before anything and anyone. That’s why I can’t take a crummy second job to cover what I owe you. I can’t be distracted by it right now. This show is my big shot. I am going to have all the most important art critics and collectors in the city looking at my work. This could launch my career. I sell enough now to get by, but this will get me noticed by the people who really matter. I want my work to be remembered. I need it to mean something.”
That was just the answer he was hoping to hear. Her devotion to her art rivaled his devotion to his career. She would help him if it meant she got the time and resources she needed for her show. He could feel it in his bones.
“I have gotten myself into a bit of a situation at work.”
“I told you, I won’t do anything illegal.”
“I don’t need you to do anything illegal. But I do need you to do something unconventional.”
She eyes him as though she suspected he was going as ask her to smuggle drugs across the border or commit a murder for him.
“What do you need me to do?”
“Well, I think that it would be best if I explain how I got myself in this situation before I tell you exactly what I need from you. Frankly, I could use a drink while I tell this tale.”
“I could use a drink myself.” She shot a look at him over her shoulder. “Besides, I feel like I should be sitting down whenever you tell me this plan of yours.”
With that, she reached back and opened the door, leading him into the home. He hadn’t spent any real time there since purchasing it. There were handymen to deal with repairs and a realtor who found him tenants. He wasn’t sure what he was expecting to see when he entered, but what he found took his breath away. The living room had been converted into a gallery of sorts, with several plush velvet sofas positioned in the middle. The white walls were covered floor to ceiling in her artwork, canvases dripping with bold colors and dramatic lines. It was superior work. Even he could tell that.
“Are you a whiskey man?” she asked as she walked towards the bar cart in the corner.
“Yes,” he replied. “ Is this where you paint?”
“No, that room is not nearly this neat. This is the room where I bring clients who are interested in purchasing my art. It is my own little sales gallery.”
“Why did you choose this room?”
“Well, it is where the bar is. Besides, you are about to try and sell me something so this seemed like the right place.”
He could not help but smile at her reasoning as she handed him his glass. She took hers to the couch opposite him and took her seat, still eying him suspiciously.
“I think you know that I have another job in addition to the properties that I own.”
She simply nodded. She watched him like a bird preparing to take flight at the slightest provocation.
“I am in line to take over as CEO of the company, but my boss has this crazy notion that I am too focused on the job. He’s considering giving the job to someone else. Given what you have told me about your art, I think that you can probably understand how frustrating that is.”
“I can,” she said as she sipped her whiskey. “I just don’t know what I can do to help with it. Do you want me to tell him you’re a kind and benevolent landlord?”
He looked up and almost choked on his drink when he saw her smirking at him. “Not exactly. I need you to pretend to be my fiancée. He had thought of doing more to prepare her before he asked, but in truth he wanted to see how she would react to such an outlandish request. Her eyes went wide as she studied him, waiting for him to tell her it was all a joke. When he said nothing, she lifted her glass and downed the whole thing in two gulps.
“Your fiancée?” she asked him.
“Yes, my boss thinks that without something more in my personal life, I’ll never be the kind of leader he thinks I should be. I just need to convince him I have a fiancée long enough for him to give me the job. After that, I’ll wait a bit and tell him my fiancée left me.”
In fact, telling everyone that she had left him might work to his advantage. People would avoid talking to him about her because they would assume the memories were painful to him. That way, he wouldn’t even need to lie much after announcing their split.
“You think that anybody will believe that we’re engaged? We’re nothing alike.”
“True, but I painted myself into a corner. I told him we met at a museum fundraiser. I made a point of saying she had a great passion for the arts.”
“I bet you have never even been to an art museum.”
He bristled at the fact that she thought that she knew him so well. Who was she to call him out on such things? Dylan forced himself to be calm though. After all, he needed her.
“That isn’t true. I went to a very expensive corporate fundraiser hosted there a few years ago.”
“Bet you didn’t even set foot in one of the galleries.” She leaned back and raised her eyebrows.
“They put the liquor bar in the Modern Art gallery. I was forced to walk through there to get a decent drink.”
At that, her face lost all of the tension and she lit up with a s
mile that was soon followed with a waterfall of giggles. She couldn’t contain her humor. It was the most beautiful noise he had ever heard. Spending more time with this woman, even as a ruse, would be much more enjoyable than he had initially thought.
“You poor man, forced to look at art in order to get the drink necessary to make it through such a stuffy event.”
“My thoughts exactly,” he countered, unable to keep himself from joining in her laughter.
“So, you want me to pretend to be your fiancée and in exchange you will cover my rent?”
“I will forgive the back rent you owe and I’ll cover the next two months.”
He could tell that she was seriously considering his offer. He could feel relief wash over him. Only an hour ago he had been sure he had created an unsolvable problem. Now, the answer was right in front of him in the form of a beautiful woman. Others would envy when they saw her on his arm.
“And what exactly do I have to do for such a generous thing?”
“Go to dinner with the old man and his wife. It might be nice if you stopped by the office a few times just to make it seem believable.”
“How long will it have to last?”
“Until he gives me the job. It should be less than two months. Do you think that you can keep up the charade for that long?”
“I’m not the one who will have a problem with it. All I will have to do is go to a few parties and make small talk. It is the same thing I have to do at gallery openings to network.”
“And you think I will?”
“You are a businessman to your core. You aren’t a man who is given to love and romance.”
“And you have a great love in your life who has taught you this?”
“Are you asking if I’m single?” He stayed silent. “My great love is my work.”
“So is mine.”
She sighed and looked at him as if he was truly foolish. Then, she stood and crossed the room to take the seat next to him.
“For this to work, you’re going to have to treat our charade like it’s your job. These people don’t know me but they know you. You’ll have a harder time fooling your coworkers unless you treat this lie with the same dedication you do everything else related to your job and this promotion.”
