I was staring at my lap and the silence was a bit too long. I hesitantly lifted my gaze to meet his and saw his confusion. I sighed and went on explaining.
'Look for 1 year of fake marriage, I will not expect you to abstain from, uhmm, physical or whatever relationship you are having at the moment, or whatever you choose to have in the future. My only request is that you keep it under wrap and don't do it in the house I'll be living in.'
There it was. I blurted it all out. I turned to look at Mr. Alexander and he looked like he was enjoying whatever was going on between me and his son. Emilio stared at me before saying
' Jane, I will try as much as possible to avoid situations that may be embarrassing to you, but I expect you to do the same.' I smiled at him and replied.
' Oh you don't have to worry about this where it concerns me...' you idiot! I kicked myself mentally.
' Huh I mean to say I will respect our marriage. ' Mr. Alexander sort of saved me when he quickly asked
' So that's it then. Do we have a deal?'
' Deal' Emilio said
' Deal' I confirmed.
Quickly after we were joined by Meghan. She was an Afro-American woman in her mid-fifties. Her formal suit did not have one thing out of place and her stance was that of authority and confidence. I met her during the welcome ceremony held at the laboratory for Mr. Alexander when he took over. We immediately hit off as we were both women who had to overcome unusual obstacles in the workplace. She was a no-nonsense person and often might come off as too strong. But I knew she had a good heart and would always try her best to help people around her.
I did not contact her after I heard about Mr. Alexander's contract marriage thing. It was good that she was here for this. There must be papers for us all to sign and formalities to fill. As soon as she came, she winked at me and Mr. Alexander took her out of the room. I was left with Emilio, and I did not know what to say. I glanced at him and saw he was already looking at me.
"You are silent. Shall I call Zeus and Apollo?" he teased. At first, I could not get what he was talking about and then he whispered.
'Monsters'. I could not hold myself and laughed.
"Please do not tell me they are your dogs" I asked.
"They are not mine. But if you like them, I can bring them home" he chuckled.
"No thank you. Unless you want me barging into your room every now and then" I replied. His mouth twitched and he looked at me strangely. I could swear his gaze dipped to my lips and then lower. I felt a rise of heat in my cheeks. Thankfully, my complexion did not show blushes or else he might have caught my train of thoughts. He handed me the Jewelry catalogue and I welcomed the change of topic.
'Choose whichever model you like, and I'll have it made.'
I did not look at him as I could feel how close he was. I was beginning to think that this deal was a bad idea. I tried hard to simply browse the catalogue. I was not interested in anything. I could see there were many models with hundreds of diamonds and precious stones. There were more with bigger diamonds. I was wondering who the hell wore diamonds as big as a paper weight. He was awfully silent next to me.
"Is it necessary for me to wear a custom-made ring? Can we just buy one from a shop?"
"We will not have time to go shopping Jane" he simply said and then added.
"If you are not liking anything here, I can order another catalogue."
"They are just too show-off. Do people really wear rings that big?" I asked while pointing to some humongous models. He shrugged and replied with a yes. I was about to drop the catalogue when I spotted the perfect one. It was in two pieces. The first one was the wedding band which was a plain silver ring, and the second part was the engagement ring with a single small diamond. I showed Emilio the model.
"Are you sure this is the one you want?" he asked disbelievingly.
"Yes! It is perfect" I beamed. He stared at me then at the ring for a few seconds and then click its photo and started typing away on his phone. I thought we were done when he gave me another catalogue and asked me to choose one for him.
"Why can't you choose yours?" I asked. He looked smugly at me and said.
"I do not wear jewelry and shopping for one gives me a headache. Please do me this favor and pick one."
"Hah.... What if you do not like what I choose? You will be the one wearing it after all. It should be to your liking" I stated while going through the models.
"Trust me I can only wear my watch. All these I do not like, and I can see you also you don't like them" he said pointing at my bare hands. So, he noticed things. I did not know whether I liked it or not. How could he be noticing things that fast about me?
"I do not wear jewelry because of the nature of my work. And also, when I reach home, I prefer to get everything off as quickly as possible. Opening bracelets and taking rings off irritate me to the world's end."
"See we are similar in one way. I also like to get everything off as quickly as possible."