30 Days Marrying You

chapter 6

The dinner was strangely quiet. Too quiet despite Xavier introducing her as his girlfriend and introducing her to his aunt, along with her husband and his grandma.
No one spoke anything since then. And no one asked her anything. Just the piercing stares from the people in the dining room, watching her every move. There was nowhere to look without meeting curious eyes.

It was until later when his grandmother dropped the bomb. A bomb that would set her life into fire and danger.

"So, when are you going to get married?"

Jessica almost choked on her food. She must have heard wrong. Her ears must have stopped functioning. "Married?" She repeated, glancing from Xavier to his grandma.

"You two look good together. What's wrong with getting married?" The grandma continued on, oblivious to the rush of emotion pulsing through Jessica.

She was not joking. Her face was serious. In fact, Jessica could not imagine a famous business owner like her was pulling a joke like that.
But, this was totally not on the plan. She was supposed to pretend to be his girlfriend just for that day. No marriage considered!

 "No! I can't!" While she spoke, she flashed another glare toward Xavier, who had stopped eating, sitting motionless on his seat.

"Why not? Both of you are dating. What's the problem?" the grandma leaned back, folding her arms across her chest.

"I can't marry him!" Jessica protested. "I... I have a problem." She could feel she was sweating profusely.

"What problem?" Her voice cutting.

"I have this disease..." She trailed off, her eyes was searching for Xavier, desperately asking for some help.

"Yeah, she has a disease. She... she..." Xavier stammered for some excuse. "She has constipation!"

Then, Xavier sent her a victory signal, looking proud with his excuse, as if he just saved the world from a bomb that would cause a world war, when in fact, Jessica felt like killing him in the spot, right here, right now. 'Constipation? Isn't there any better disease other than that?'

All faces jerked up to look at her, like puppets connected to the same string.
From the corner of her eyes, she could see his aunt's lips twitched, fighting a smile and his uncle was coughing to hide his laugh. And the grandma, well, her face was unreadable.

"Constipation? Is that true, Jessica?" The grandma asked for confirmation.

Jessica was trying to think straight but her head went blank. Maybe it was better to go with the flow. "Right! I have constipation!"

Jessica sent a murderous glare to Xavier but he was barely aware of it that she started to feel irritated.
And she was tired too. Was she the only one who concerned about the whole development?

"Constipation? It is not serious, right?" Then, she turned to the uncle and said, "You are a doctor. You should know better about this."

'A doctor?' Jessica's eyes was twinkling with some hope that he would not agree to the marriage. After all, this discussion about marriage was absolutely nonsense!

The uncle coughed again to hide another laugh. "Yes, constipation is not dangerous. It can be cured. You can get married without any problem." With impish smile, he said this with such assured authority that Jessica felt like she was having difficulty in breathing.

'HE WAS NOT HELPING EITHER!' But, she could only scream in her heart and hope all the organs in her body won't go deaf with the loudness of her inner scream.

"There! So, I don't see any problem anymore." The grandma smiled, already claiming the victory on her side.

Jessica did not answer. She stared at Xavier, meeting his now-anxious gaze.
She was mentally calculating her chances of killing Xavier without getting caught. She had to admit, they weren't good.

'No, I would be a murderer if I kill him. And I would end up in jail.' She lifted her fork and looked at him through the prongs of the fork, imagining him in jail instead. 'Ah, that's feels better!' She tried to control her anger and anxiety. She needed to be calm to face this situation.
Xavier would be of no help, so she only had herself to get out of this problem.

Xavier raised an eyebrow and his eyes were scrutinizing her reaction. She put down the fork, taking another bite of her food as an excuse to look down.
She chewed slowly, and then took a long drink of the orange juice without looking up. Her brain was working more than normal to find a solution to the situation. Now, she was mentally and physically tired.

"Jessica?" Everyone was paying attention to her, waiting for her decision.

She suppressed a sigh. She tried to maintain what dignity left of her and tried to smile. She already decided to tell them about their real relationship, that she was not his girlfriend, that she was only not more than a best friend.

'Could things get any worse?' Jessica mumbled in silent. Yeah, things would not go wrong if she told the truth, right? They might be scolded or lectured, but, other than that, what worse could happen?