The Wrong Person For The Job

Chapter Two: Decisions and Heartaches

Oliver's POV

“No.” Thud. “No.” Thud. “No.” Thud. “N-”

“Drew!” I shouted, placing a hand on my aching head. “Quit it will ya? You’ve been at it for hours. Face it, you’re not going to find her if you remain that picky.

My best, and only friend, Drew, had been going through every file that Mrs. Osborne of Duchess had given to us earlier this week. All. Eighty. Three. Of. Them. Drew was to have to call her with in the next three hours so as to arrange a meeting with her, myself, and, well, my bride to be. The whole process of selecting one person who would be able to fool my parents, employees, and then the rest of the world wasn’t as easy as I thought it was. I honestly thought that I could just randomly point to a file and go with whoever the file was of but, alas, not just any of these girls would be able to fool my mother let alone the world. I ended up having to take the rest of the  week off (meaning I worked at home) just so I could discreetly pick someone without anyone finding out what I am up to. Anyone other than Drew that is. He was the one who came up with the idea to begin with. Secondly it was the only idea that would work. Everything I have done in the past to either convince her that she shouldn’t meddle in my life simple because she wanted a grandchild sooner than later or to  convince my father that my mother’s idea was ludicrous was completely wasted. Mom was hell bound to get a grandchild and Dad never said no to his wife. Not even once.

“She’s here. She’s got to be- I just need to find her.” Drew picked up all the files he threw on the floor, placed them on the coffee table, and began all over again. But not with out me. Since I agreed to go along with this deal he took over the whole “project” and pretty much shut me out of it. I should have some say on this though, we were looking for my “wife” after all.

I got up from where I was and walked over to Drew, picking up the topmost file. “What about her,” I asked after briefly going through the file.

“Grace Jarrett? No.”  Drew simply plucked the file out of my hands and placed it directly in the waste basket. “Don’t even consider her. Your father would disown you. Your mom would never talk to you again. And I’m pretty sure that your sister would love to have an excuse to never see you again. As for Jackson, well, let’s just say that his reaction would be the worst of them all. I will never understand why Mrs. Osborne actually gave us her file or how she got to work at Duchess.”

“Um- alright then. I don’t want to know. Now how about this one?” I picked up the next file and opened it. The file was of a twenty four year old blonde woman named Charlotte Meyers. Her file said that she was into athletics and was part of the city’s official women’s tennis team. When not doing tennis Charlotte apparently spent a lot of time volunteering at various animal shelters. And her favorite color is purple. “She seems okay. No arrests or even traffic tickets, plus my parents will like how she’s involved with the city- how she’s not completely unknown.”

Drew leaned over my shoulder and sighed, “No. Charlotte won’t work out because she works with dogs and your sister is allergic, remember? To bad though- she’s hot as hell.”

Definitely not as easy as I thought. Mom would never approve of anyone that had the slightest “issue” or “problem”. I suppose Mom wanted a trophy wife for me and the fact that Charlotte worked with dogs made her have a “problem”. So I had to move on to the next file. And the next. And the next one till Drew and I had gone through all of the other eighty one files. There were four other women that, like Charlotte, seemed perfect but had some minor thing that my someone would not approve of. The four girls were Robyn Davidson, Vanny Wright, Jane Appleton, and Anastasia Hendrix.

To begin with Robyn frequently had dyed her hair to bright and vibrant colors such as blue and pink. I personally had no problem with that  (my younger sister, Lisa, did that all the time mainly to piss off our parents, plus the last time I saw her, Lisa was able to pull off the pink streak in her hair that she was sporting as if it was no ones business) and I appreciated the particular braveness people had that enabled to do that. Even Drew didn’t have a problem with Robyn’s hair- hell, he said he found it sexy. But alas we both knew that my mom would go through the roof if she ever met anyone else who dyed their hair- they’d be a bad influence on Lisa or something. A wife should never be a bad influence I can just imagine my mom saying that. Like dying your hair a different color is such a horrid thing.