Seven Day Wife (Fake Marriage Office Romance)

by Mia Faye

  “But what about Grace?”

  “Meredith hasn’t gotten around to telling people about Wyatt’s condition. There’s a lot going on at work, so I think she’s trying to get everything in order first. She’ll tell them when she’s ready. Although, knowing Grace, she’s probably figured it out already.”

  “Well, that was quite a story you told back then. I almost believed you, even though I knew for a fact it was bullshit.”

  “You weren’t too bad yourself, ‘honey.’”

  “Stop it.”

  “Come on; we should get back before they think we’ve gone to do it in the bathroom.”

  Chapter 12

  Cameron

  “Hey, Emma. Over here.”

  Emma whipped around, clearly surprised to see me, and then she ran up and threw herself into my arms. I hugged her tightly, noting with satisfaction that she had gotten much heavier. She pulled away, looked into my face as if to confirm that it was really me, and then she buried her head in my chest once more and reached as far around me as she could with her little arms.

  “How are you doing, kiddo?” I asked her when she eventually let go.

  “I thought I was in trouble!” she said. “They just said to come outside; I didn’t know it was you.”

  “That’s right. I wanted to surprise you.”

  “I missed you, Daddy.” Her voice was small and a little wounded. I pulled her in and hugged her once more.

  “I know, baby. I missed you too. I’m sorry I couldn’t make it for our Six Flags date last time.”

  “Mommy said you were busy.”

  Knowing Vicki, she had probably told her much more.

  “Well, I’m here now. Do you have your things?”

  She nodded happily, lifting a heavy-looking bag and shaking it in my face. A dull, rattling sound came from the depths of the bag.

  “What do you have in there, rocks?” I asked her.

  “Pebbles,” she said. “For a science project.”

  I smiled, but it felt a little tight. Maybe Vicki had a point. I needed to try harder to be in Emma’s life. I had no idea what was going on with her, and that wasn’t good.

  “Come on, then.”I took her by the hand and led her out of the school, opened the car door, and watched her climb in on her own. Another development I had missed; she used to insist on being carried up to the seat and buckled in. Not today. She slapped away my hands when I tried to reach for the seat belt and did it herself. I felt a surge of pride tingled with mild amusement.

  “I see someone is a big girl now,” I joked. Emma nodded proudly.

  “Where are we going, Daddy?”

  “Oooh, it’s a surprise. You’ll just have to wait and see.”

  “Won’t I get in trouble for leaving school early?”

  “You won’t. I spoke to your teacher.” I turned around from the driver’s seat and looked at her.

  “But let’s make this our little secret, okay? No telling Mommy, promise?”

  I extended my pinky finger to her, and she twisted hers against it. “Okay. Promise.”

  It was bittersweet, hearing about what had been going on with her. She had already set herself apart so fast in school her teachers were talking about skipping her a grade. And she was class prefect, a job she took extremely seriously, and which she said ‘made all the girls hate her but not the boys.’ Speaking of which, there was a boy who always brought her an apple from his own lunch box every day, and she wasn’t sure why, but she had started bringing him a snack from home, too.

  Her mom was pushing her to start music lessons, and she thought she might one day like to be in a band, but she wasn’t too keen about it just yet. It would mean giving up sports, which she loved very much.

  “You don’t have to give anything up, sweetie,” I told her. “Not if you love it.”

  “But I would have to skip soccer and basketball practice to attend music lessons.”

  “Is your mom getting you a music teacher?”

  “She wants to. But I met her, and she’s mean.”

  I pictured a short, stern woman with horn-rimmed glasses standing over Emma as she tried to play the piano.“Maybe the lady can come over the weekend? When you don’t have practice?”

  “Mommy says weekends are no good for her because she has to work.”

  “Hmm. I’m sure you’ll figure it out, don’t worry.”

  “Are you busy during the weekends, Daddy?”

  I glanced at her through the rearview mirror. She was biting her lip and wringing her hands in her lap. I knew what she was asking. It was something I had thought about many times, but I hadn’t figured out a way to make it work.

  “Not all weekends, no.”

  “Can I come to visit you when you’re not working? And then maybe Mommy can let me take music lessons at your place instead?”It was like a knife was being shoved into my heart. Her voice broke as she spoke, too, and I realized just how much she really cared about this.

  “Tell you what, sweetie. I’ll speak with your mom, and we’ll work it all out, okay? I’m sure we’ll find a plan that works for both of us, and of course, for you.”

  Emma nodded, but she was silent for the rest of the way.

  It was only when we pulled up outside Coldstone Ice Cream Parlor that Emma burst out of her moody bubble.

  “Ice cream?” she gushed. “Really, Daddy?”

  “Of course. I said I’d make it up to you, didn’t I?”

  She unbuckled her seat belt and threw herself at my back, her little hands going around my neck as she hugged me from behind. I reached over and pulled her to me as she squealed in excited glee. I found her tickle-spot with ease, and pretty soon, she was laughing uncontrollably.

  I loved seeing her bouncy and happy. She was like a little dynamo, bobbing up and down on her feet, pointing at ice cream flavors and then changing her mind and pointing to others. She must have sampled every single flavor before finally settling on a mix of just about everything. With a generous helping of sprinkles and a waffle to top it all off.

  It was a crazy amount of sugar, I knew. But if I couldn’t spoil my own daughter every once in a while, what was the point?

  We sat at a table by the window, and Emma decided to regale me with her newly acquired talent for identifying cars. She would point at them as they drove by and tell me the model, sometimes by no more than the side view. It was very impressive.

  “How did you get so good at this?” I asked her.

  “Mommy’s boyfriend works in a place that sells cars,” Emma said. I froze, the spoon halfway to my lips. “He lets me walk around the shop naming the cars.”

  “Mommy’s boyfriend?” I repeated, speaking through a lump that seemed to have lodged itself in my throat out of the blue.

  “Yeah. His name is Mike, and he’s really nice.”

  “Mike, huh. How long has he been Mommy’s boyfriend?”

  Emma dropped her spoon and stared away, thinking, counting in her head. “Six months,” she finally said.

  I paused, doing my own math. This information was… interesting, to say the least.

  “Is everything okay, Daddy?” Emma asked.

  “Of course, sweetie. Go on, eat your ice cream.”

  Emma pointed toward the play area just past the door to the back of the building.“Can I go play?” she asked.

  I glanced at my watch. I was supposed to be meeting Gabriel in a couple of hours.“Okay. But finish your ice cream first.”

  She nodded happily. She started to take large spoonsful and shovel them into her mouth, her speed so fastI had to slow her down. But in less than ten minutes, she was scraping the bottom of the cup and bouncing up and down in her seat, and I waved her away with a rueful shake of the head. She screamed her thanks and dashed from the table, her cute little ponytails dancing behind her as she ran.

  She had taken after her mother, Emma. She looked a lot like her, and she had that irrepressible sense of adventure, as well as fierce confidence. It was what m
ade her so good in school. And it made her seem older than she really was. But underneath all that, the child still lurked in all her innocence. Which was why I was furious that Vicki hadn’t told me about this so-called boyfriend.

  It wasn’t that I had any issues with her dating. Before we split up, and just before we found out she was pregnant, there had been talking of an open relationship. No, Vicki could date whoever she wanted to. The problem was her introducing these men to my daughter without so much as telling me they existed. And, clearly, this Mike had already spent a considerable amount of time with Emma.

  Against my better judgment, I pulled out my phone and dialed Vicki’s number. She was probably still at work.

  “No,” was the first thing she said when she answered the phone.

  “I’m sorry?”

  “No, Cameron. Whatever it is you want, the answer is no.”

  “You know, Vicki, I expect at least a little civility from you. I mean, I’m only the father of your child.”

  “Only in the most technical sense. What do you want? I’m in a meeting.”

  Now that I thought about it, Emma was nothing like her mom. She was sweet and patient, and kind.

  “I want to know why you’re introducing my daughter to other men without my knowledge.”

  “What?”

  “You heard me.”

  “What is this? Have you been spying on me?”

  “Why would I spy on you?”

  “Wait… Did you… Let me call you back.”

  The line went dead. I kept staring at the phone in my hand, waiting for that call, letting the anger build slowly. It had actually been a bad idea to call her. No doubt she was now connecting the dots, figuring out I was with Emma and building up a dose of righteous fury.

  The phone rang.

  “Tell me you didn’t just take Emma out of school,” Vicki said. Her voice always got high-pitched when she was mad. And that was a tried and tested strategy of hers; always counterattack, always pivot and dance away from the real issue.

  “I believe I asked you a question, Vicki. Don’t try and change the subject on me.”

  “My sex life is of no concern to you. I think you’d agree that our daughter’s safety is more important, surely?”

  “Oh, because she isn’t safe when she’s with me?”

  Just to confirm, I stood up and peered over the glass window into the playground. Emma was sliding down a large chute.

  “That’s not what I…”

  “It sounded like it. It’s a narrative you’ve gone back to over and over again. Just because I was late to pick her up once. Once.”

  “I’m not getting into this with you. Not now. I can’t believe you pulled me out of a meeting for this shit.”

  “Who. Is. Mike.” I said through gritted teeth.

  “He’s my boyfriend. Not that it’s any of your business.”

  “I think it became my business when you introduced him to my daughter.”

  “Mike is a great guy. He has a daughter himself, and he’s a great dad.”

  “So that’s what this is about? You’re doing this to spite me?”

  “Believe it or not, Cam, not everything I do in my life is about you.”

  “I can’t believe you, Vicki,” I said, finally getting to my boiling point and then shooting right past it. “You give me all this shit about being a better dad, being in Emma’s life more, but then you go out of your way to frustrate my efforts to see her. And then as soon as some other guy shows the slightest interest in you, you decide to replace me with him? No. I won’t have it.”

  “She’s my daughter too!” Vicki said, and now she was getting fired up as well. “I do all that to protect her from disappointment. Because you’re not here when she’s crying and asking me why ‘Daddy couldn’t come to see her’ or why you’re always working or if you even love her. No, I’m the one who has to deal with that. And by the way, you’re not doing yourself any favors by dragging her out of school for God-knows-what.”

  “I’m doing what you told me to do! I’m trying to spend more time with her! I’m sorry I don’t have a car dealership to throw at her.”

  “You know what, Cam? Fuck you. I’ll have you know I didn’t introduce Mike to Emma until a year after we had started dating. I won’t make any apologies for moving on with my life.”

  “I’m going to take her,” I said, the thought jumping into my head and then pouring out of my lips before I even knew what I was saying.

  “What?”

  “Emma. I want my daughter to come live with me.”

  “That’s not going to happen, Cam.”

  “I guess we’ll see about that.”

  I hung up and dropped the phone onto the table, somehow resisting the urge to throw it against the nearest wall.

  That had been impulsive, without a doubt. But the more I thought about it, the more the idea appealed to me. Why not? I could provide for Emma just as well as her mom could. Granted, I would have to get some help due to my busy schedule at work, but it was nothing I couldn’t ultimately adjust to. I looked at my watch again. It was a good thing I was meeting Gabriel. He had advised me to play nice with Vicki, to avoid risking her going to court. But I was the one going on the offensive this time. It was the only language Vicki understood.

  “So, talk to me, man. What’s the plan?”Gabriel stretched out on my couch, his long limbs nearly knocking the glasses of whiskey off the table.

  “I’m not sure yet,” I told him. “That’s kinda why you’re here.”

  “And here I thought you wanted to hang out like old times.”

  “I do, obviously. But this shit just came up, so I need you to put on your lawyer hat for a minute first.”

  Gabriel frowned. It was never a good sign.

  “It’s okay,” I told him. “You can be honest.”

  “I don’t think it’s a good idea, man. There’s too much that could go wrong. And the outcome you want is unlikely, to put it lightly.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “If she’s going after your parental rights, that’s a case we can talk about. But if you’re the one suing for sole custody, then you have to prove without a shadow of a doubt that you’re the better parent. The child support thing certainly doesn’t help; you’ve essentially been out of Emma’s life completely, so you have to show why you want back in now. That, and you have to prove that Vicki is a bad parent.”

  “Ah. So, what you’re saying is I have no chance of doing that.”

  Gabriel shrugged in that way he did when he was trying to be polite.“Look …” He straightened up, sat upright, and swept his hand around the living room where we were seated. “You know what I love about this place?”

  “Free alcohol?”

  “True. But also, the fact that this is a single man’s haven. A bachelor pad, if you will. I mean, look around, man. Exercise equipment. Magazines. Take-out food. I love you, but this is no place for a child.”

  “Then I’ll make it one. I’ll redecorate.”

  “Okay. But do you know the first thing about taking care of a child? I imagine there’s a reason you left that part to Vicki?”

  “Part of the reason. I felt she could do a better job…” I trailed off, realizing I was making his point for him.

  “Exactly. Vicki has her faults, but she has been a good mom up to this point. Any judge will see that. But that’s not even the most pressing issue. I think this could all come down to your work.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “You’re kinda married to your job, dude. And Vicki is going to use that against you. Didn’t you just tell me the old man is leaving Penguin Publishers and that they’re looking to promote you? That just means more work and less time here. Realistically, I don’t see how you can convince a judge that yours would be a better home for Emma.”

  It was all very diplomatic, the way he said it, but I knew he had a point. He was just being nice by skirting around the issue. I couldn’t argue with the fact ab
out work. Even if I could make the schedule work, I still needed to learn how to take care of Emma and prove that I could do it. It was a tall order, to say the least.

  Now that I’d had time to think about it, I couldn’t remember what had possessed me to make that threat in the first place. A faceless stranger going by the name Mike. Anger, definitely. And frustration. Not emotions anyone ever benefited from.

  “How about you sleep on it?” Gabriel said. “Just think about it. If you still want to do it, then we’ll figure out how to go about it. Okay?”

  “Okay, man. I hear you.”

  A timid knock sounded on the door just then, and Gabriel and I exchanged looks.

  “Are you expecting company?” he asked me.

  “Not that I know of,” I said.

  I got up and walked over to the door. I peered into the keyhole and was pleasantly surprised to see Yvette, in her usual bathrobe. I opened the door, trying to keep my eyes from straying to the very short hem of the robe, and the creamy thighs below it.

  “Hey, hubby,” she said, pushing past me and into the house.

  It was a mark of how close we had gotten that she felt this comfortable in my house.

  “Hey, lover,” I responded.

  “I need to borrow something. Do you have…” She trailed off. She had just looked into the living room and seen Gabriel, who was now standing watching us, an amused expression on his face.

  Yvette immediately turned scarlet. Of all her quirks, that was the one I found most adorable; she couldn’t hide it when she was blushing.“Why didn’t you tell me there was someone here?” she whispered to me, and I laughed. “I’m practically naked!”

  “What I’m hearing is that you came over naked because you knew I would be alone.”

  “Oh, stop it,” she said.

  She tried to adjust her robe, pulling it down as much as possible. Then, still red in the cheeks, she went over to Gabriel to say hi.