An Engagement Of PARALLELS

7. MAVERICK/ REYNA

Maverick

She resembles a statue. She doesn't speak, doesn't move, doesn't even blink.

When several minutes pass, I disrupt the silence. "Reyna, say something."

She opens her mouth, closes it and swallows hard. "All of this..." Reyna stops speaking again. She's so upset, she can't even finish her sentence. She just moves on to another one. "What did you say, again."

I wince and turn away from her. I force myself to take deep breath in order to remain calm. One of us has to.

The idea of marrying her just occurred out of thin air in the morning and by the evening, after my meetings were done, I was convinced enough to execute it all the way.

As an Astor employee, Reyna already had her background check done by someone responsible for the same but I wanted to do my own research. I called in a favor from an old mate, who did a thorough check on her.

Apart from minor glitches she was clean, which made her an even better partner in my fake marriage charade that I was hoping to pull in front of granddad.

Nobody would question it even. Rumor has it, that she was already known as my work wife because of the similarities we share. And it was also known that she was one of the few people I could tolerate for more than five minutes. There was a major element of truth in it.

All of these facts accounted that I speak and convince her on the matter. My plan was simple-

Marry Reyna.
Take pops money.
Save my company.
And then when its safe, part ways due to irreconcilable differences.

There was just a tiny bump on the road. Convincing Reyna wasn't that easy.

When I turn to face her again, I can see the vein on her forehead pulsating dangerously. I lower my voice to mere whisper. "I want you to marry me."

She goes numb again so I quickly add, "Just for four years. So pops can give me the money to sort our finances. You can think on it for a day or two." She has to break eye contact after hearing me aay that.

I can see that she is working through a lot of emotions at once, and I want her to give her the space to do that. I look down briefly because its hard seeing her so upset and being the reason of it.

Reyna laughs a humorless laugh. Then she gets up and walks towards the floor to ceiling length wall, looking outside.

I watch her. Even with her face bruised, eyes swollen and all the makeup ripped off, she just cannot manage to look unattractive.

She leans forward and sighs loudly. "That's what this was all about. All your concerns in the morning and now."

"What! No!" I pause. That's what it must seem like. Shit.

I have made her feel so important in the morning only to rip that off in the evening. And I had no intentions of doing so.

"Look Reyna, you're going about this the wrong way. I just..."

"You just what, Mr Astor. Enlighten me. You just what? You thought poor girl got beat up real good and lost her dog so let me use that vulnerability of hers to my advantage and propose fake marriage to save my company."

I don't respond. Her eyes are shooting daggers at me and rightly so.

"I tell you my sob story and you take me for some broken damsel?" She scoffs.

"No. You're not broken and I do not take you for a damsel. Reyna, you and I, we are compatible and if I have to get married to someone, I would rather that someone be you than anyone else." I say that with a confidence that I do not have.