AGAPI

3. Negotiation

"Can we just get married?" Austin says in a low voice, with his head low staring at his thighs.

"Did your grandma send you here to tell this?" I ask him, being suspicious as he clearly showed his disinterest towards marriage earlier.

"No. But, just so you know, I overheard a part of the conversation between my grandma and her secretary earlier that she doesn't really intend on forcing us to have a baby. She just wanted to give out a harder strike so that when you try negotiating with her, you would atleast meet her expected strike that is our marriage solely. She just wants us to get married. The pregnant part was just proposed because she knew you would not follow all her orders and that you would try negotiating a part of her orders." He pauses looking at me to make sure I understood what he was trying to say and I just nod.

"Given our situation," he continues, "We can't really go completely against her. You would've also realised it by now." I have, unfortunately. He pauses and takes a deep breath before speaking again, "I'm not trying to force you into this marriage but we both have our own reasons as to why we have to get married. It's a benefit for both of us. Honestly, we can just pretend to be married for few years until we have the power to defend ourselves from my grandma and then we can divorce. How do you feel about this?"

Infact, I had the exact same plan, to get married for few years and later divorce once everything was under my control but the pregnant part was an obstacle for that. But, now that I got to know that it was a transparent obstacle which I can easily pass through, most of the things in my head got sorted out.

"I'll meet Ms. Mabel day after tomorrow and negotiate the things you said. Since, I don't really have any other better option than getting married, I have to go according to what you said."

"I'll come with you day after tomorrow because it involves me too. Let's go together." I nod at his words.

"Well, okay we'll meet at her company day after tomorrow."I check the time and realise it was past midnight. "Sorry, since it's past twelve, it's tomorrow. I'll let you know about the timings after getting it confirmed by her."

"Okay."

We sit there in the car avoiding each others gaze for a few more seconds when the awkwardness starts to fill in again.

"Well, I'll be going then. Thank you for the ride." He breaks the awkwardness and leaves the car. I turn the car around and head towards my house. I really need to get some rest after such a tiresome day.

Thursday, September 26th, 2019
3:00 p.m

"Even though she is planning to negotiate with the baby part, she might play hard to convince. So, you should also pretend to be hard enough to not accept it and try to negotiate it no matter what. Our future depends on you." Austin says as we we're in Ms. Mabel's company, heading towards her office.

I hide my nervousness and exhibit my confidence with a cold expression to face the one who's trying to save my company by destroying me. I take a deep breath and reply, "I'll do my best. Don't worry because I'm not going to let my future get completely destroyed, so you wouldn't have to worry about your future too as we are currently on the same boat." I say, instilling confidence in him and most importantly to myself.

"Thank you, I guess." He says bluntly, probably already sick of my cocky behavior but I couldn't care any less because this behavior of mine has brought me to places I dreamt of being at and most importantly I didn't care of how I seemed to him. If he has a problem with my attitude, he will have to deal with it in the future because I'm not willing to change myself for a man who means or would mean nothing to me.