It’s been about three weeks since the last time I’d talked to or heard from Nia or Alejandro. I had been enjoying my time away, but I knew I had to face my fear at some point. I began to pack the few things my aunt’s bodyguards managed to grab when I first came over here, when she entered my room.
“I had my bodyguards get your car, I know you like driving that thing and I honestly don’t know why,” she said to me, and I chuckled.
“Don’t call Betsy a thing, Aunt Tori! She’s beautiful.” I walked over, and she placed a kiss on my forehead.
She smiled at me, wiping my tears and said, “You are so strong, you got this.”
“I love you,” we say in union, and she takes that as her chance to leave the room.
I got everything in my car and drove off, the sun went under the horizon. It was gonna be a long drive.
About halfway through, I got hungry, finding a little diner. I pulled in and entered quickly, excited to eat. The lady sat me in the corner and gave me a menu as the door opened like 3 minutes after me. Not paying attention to anything but the menu, I didn’t realize the man sat in my booth.
“Hi, Jade,” the voice sends shivers down my spine. I haven’t heard it in so long.
“Hi, Mr. Phantom,” I smile, a bit nervous about what he has to say to me.
“I understand you needed space, and I gave it to you, but you need to do this. Not only for me but for the safety of your parents,” he threatens, and I chuckle at his failed attempt.
“Trust me, I’d want to watch as you torture them. Trying to threaten the livelihood of my parents won’t get you anywhere, but I’ll do it on one condition,” I bargain with a smirk on my face.
“Anything,” he states with his eyebrow raised.
“My aunt, she gets everything, and anything she wants, and you have to pay her medical bills,” I say sincerely.
“What medical bills?” he questions.
“She has cancer,” I sigh and say, looking away from him, trying not to cry.
“Oh, okay,” he said, not wanting to push the subject.
“I also get to be an authorized user of your credit cards,” I smile, changing the subject, and he chuckles.
“Deal,” his smile wide as we shake hands.
We ate in comfortable silence. This isn’t so bad. Maybe he won’t be awful to deal with as a husband.
“Wait, do we have to make this look plausible?” I question, and he shakes his head yes, chewing on his food.
“So then we’re either getting a house that Nia will move into, or you’re going to pay half of her rent,” I say. It isn’t a question. He either does it, or we don’t get married.
“I already have the house, love, don’t worry,” he smiles at me, and I chuckle.
We didn’t speak for the entire time we stuffed our faces. After we finished, the waitress walked over with the check. He quickly pulls out his card and hands her that with the tab.
“I didn’t even get to attempt to pay, Alejandro,” I say and sigh.
“You shouldn’t even want to try,” he smiled.
“You two are too cute,” the waitress said as she came back over with the receipt.
“Thank you!” Alejandro said as she smiled.
“You guys have a nice night now!” she says walking to the people who just walked in.
We walked out, and he walked me over to my car.
“I’ll see you at the office tomorrow then?” he asked, smirking at me.
“Do I have to?” I whine as he opens the door for me.
“Please, we miss you at the office,” he begs of me.
“Fine,” I drag out the sound of the word as I get in.
All he does is smile as he closes my door and walks toward his car, blowing me a kiss. Acting like I didn’t see it, I turn my car on and turn on some music before continuing my drive home. It was like 2 in the morning when I got there. In the living room with slow music playing sat Nia as she drank a cup of wine.
“Hi, roomie,” I smiled at her as I entered.
“I thought you wouldn’t be back for a while,” she stood, helping me with my things.
“I missed you too much,” I smiled at her, and she hugged me after setting my things down on the couch.
“I heard you’re engaged!” she says excitedly.
“Something like that,” I shrug unknowingly.
“So are you two together already?” she asked with her eyebrow raised.
“No, just happen to be getting married,” I say, and she sighs, putting her hands to her head.
“Why are you doing that?” she asked.
“He needs it so he can take over the business or whatever,” I shrug.
“Has he made a contract?” she said as I walked into the kitchen looking for something to drink.
“No, he may have it ready for me tomorrow,” I chug the water down and shrug.
“Most likely,” she says, shrugging along with me.
He, in fact, did have a contract waiting for me in his office. Walking in, both of his parents smiled and stood, walking over.
“I didn’t think I’d see you again so soon, darling,” his mother said with a chuckle.
“Always lovely to see you, Ms. Phantom,” I give her a hug, and we sit on the couch.
“Your husband said he’ll be here shortly,” his father inserted himself in the conversation.
I nodded my head and smiled, and she began to tell me about how her son called her crying over me.
“Me?” I question.
“Oh yes, darling, he was weeping like he’d never have before,” she mocked her son, laughing hysterically.
I didn’t find that very funny. I was upset he didn’t tell me, but it wasn’t anything to hold against him. I was gonna marry this man, starting off on the wrong foot wasn’t going to do us any good.
“My lord, finally, hello, beautiful,” the annoyance in his tone went away as soon as he saw me.
“Hello, Mr. Phantom,” I smiled as I stood.
“You still call him by his last name?” his father questioned.
“No worries, father, it’s okay,” he defends me as we sit, and he sets the contract before me.
“Don’t worry about having to sign it today, look it over and let me know in the next few days,” he says, and I smile.
“I trust you, sir, just one question,” I ask and look up at him.
“What, Ms. Spades?” he rebuttals.
“Do we have to be married forever?” I question and can hear his mother scoff.
“Yeah, as long as we don’t officiate the wedding you can be romantically involved with anyone else,” he says. “It’s in the contract,” he smiles.
So basically, don’t have an intimate relationship with him, and I should be fine. Is he insane? Who wouldn’t want to have that with him? He can obviously find someone to handle his needs, but I don’t think I want him to.
“Okay, can I have a pen?” I ask, and his mother quickly shuffles over to grab it. She practically runs toward me, with a wicked smile on her face.
His parents left almost immediately after I signed the papers, and he and I just sat in silence. He sat next to me on the couch and took out a little black box.
“What’s this?” I question.
“Just open it,” he smiled.
I took off the bow and opened the box, finding his Amex card inside. I looked over with a small smile on my face.
“You know I was kidding, right?” I asked.
“Even if you were, as my soon-to-be-wife, you have no choice,” he smiled.
“So now what?” I question.
“You and Nia move in,” he smiles.
“When you said you had the house, I thought you meant to look at it,” I said, shocked.
How’d he know I’d say yes? What if I told him to go ahead and kill my parents? What would he have said then?
“Nope, paid in full a few weeks ago,” he shrugged.
“Oh my stars,” I say, and he laughs.
“So for this wedding, are we doing a garter or what?” He smirks at me.
“Knowing who you are, I shouldn’t let you anywhere near me,” I laughed as my face turned a bright red.
“You know you’d love it,” his smirk now a wide grin.
I shiver off the thoughts of him. I wink at him and smile, and he laughs as he exits his office. I know I won’t last, but the least he could do is not make it so damn hard.