Love Not Included (An Arrange Marriage Story)

35

Nicholas checked his bow tie for the tenth time to see if it's straight or not then looked down at his shoes checking if they were clean. He felt like something was off but was it actually or were his nerves playing with him that he didn't know. Pulling at his collar feeling uncomfortable all of a sudden, Nicholas saw it was quarter to five and felt a little relieved that Theora would be here soon. She always had a clear head and knew the perfect thing to say and do to calm her nerves. Heck just thinking about her calmed him down a bit.

"Nicholas Sir. Sorry to intrude but I have your speech printed out so you want to go over it once again" his secretary said coming in.

"Put it on the table, I'll have a look at it" he told her "oh and my wife will be here shortly let her straight in"

"Of course sir" she said before leaving.

Nicholas decided to sit down and go over his speech to pass the time. After a while, someone opened the door and Nicholas got up expecting it to be Theora.

"You're here finally" he said but his face fell when he saw his father standing in the doorway.

"Really I didn't know you were anticipating me you could've called me over and I would've come sooner" his father said teasing him. He knew well who his son was waiting for.

"Umm... actually I was just going over my speech" Nicholas replied nervously

"If you don't mind I've brought over Stanley from accounting and we could discuss something real quick" Leon seemed like he was asking but it was more of an order.

"Fine" Nicholas said putting down his speech and sitting back into his chair. The meeting went on for a good half hour and Nicholas found himself looking at the clock every ten minutes wondering why Theora hadn't arrived yet. They had to be at the venue by seven and it was a twenty minute ride he'd have little to no time to spend with her before the ceremony if she didn't arrive soon.

"Alright I think we've discussed everything that needs to be said" Leon said getting up "Stanley will print out all the details and implement the changes later on"

"Yes you will have to leave for the ceremony soon anyway" Stanley added looking at his watch.

"His mother has been in my office for the past hour god knows what she must have done last time she color coded all the files mixing finalised and on going projects. It took the secretaries two days to fix what took her twenty minutes to do" laughed Leon "Nicholas I see Theora hasn't arrived yet. Call her we can't be late to our own event now can we"

"She must be on her way Father"

"Alright I'll see you both at the event then" Leon said before leaving Nicholas' office.

As soon as Leon left Nicholas pulled out his phone and started dialling Theora's number. It went to voice mail so he tried again but she didn't pick up again frustrated he threw the phone on his table. Just then someone knocked on the door.

"Claire could you call my house for me real quick" Nicholas said not looking up thinking it was his secretary.

"I could but there's probably no one home to pick up the phone" Theora stood in the doorway looking breathtakingly gorgeous in her red gown Nicholas thought. He liked her in red there was something sexy and alluring about it.

"Theora! You're almost an hour late"

"Sorry I guess I needed more time to get ready than I thought"

"I don't like this" Nicholas said shaking his head

"What is something wrong with the dress?" Theora said looking down at herself