room.
“Aren’t you going to introduce me?” I ask. Franklin doesn’t respond.
“Hi, I’m Aurora Tate. His fiancée. And you are?" I extend my hand demonstratively to her.
“You’re Aurora Tate?” she gasps, stopping the search for her bra.
I spot something black and lacy on top of the dresser and hand it to her.
Shit, I should not have told her my name, I realize when it’s too late.
“I’m Lindsey,” she says, giving me a limp shake of the hand. “I’m leaving now.”
“No, that’s okay, stay. I brought you guys some breakfast,” I say.
“Is that why you’re here?” Franklin asks.
With anyone else, he would have the decency to put on his pants, but not him. He just stands there, completely nude, challenging me with his gaze.
“Yeah. Henry told me what a nice thing you did and I just wanted to come here and thank you for being such a wonderful guy,” I say sarcastically.
When I walk away from him, he catches me by the front door. I open the door and he slams it shut. When I reach for it again, he again stops me.
“I’m sorry, okay? Is that what you want to hear?”
“I don’t want to hear anything.”
“Are you serious? I had to practically force you to even kiss me! What do you expect me to do?”
“You are such an asshole!"
“I don’t know where we stand,” he says. “You don’t even seem to want to marry me.”
"I don’t! You’ve got that right.”
He takes a step away from me.
“Do you want to call this off?" he asks after a moment.
I shrug.
Yes, of course the answer is yes. If he were anyone else then he would already know that.
“In that case,” he says, “the deal is off.”
“What deal?”
“Tate Media. I don’t want it. I’m not gonna go through with the offer.”
“No, you have to,” I plead, hating the way that my voice cracks in the middle.
“I don’t have to do anything. You don't want to marry me because you think I’m a cheating asshole? Well, two can play that game. I don’t wanna marry you because I think your company is worthless and you are still in love with your ex-boyfriend. How about that? What do you think about that?”
“You can’t pull your offer,” I say, shaking my head.
“Why not?”
“That will make the stock price drop to nothing. We will lose everything.”
“You’ll have money to spare,” he scoffs.
“All of our investors lose everything, and all of the people who have their pensions tied up in the company and in the shares will lose everything.”
“What do I care about them?” he asks, shaking his head.
“No, you do care. I know you do," I insist.
When he walks back to his bedroom, I follow him.
I wait for him to get dressed before saying anything else.
“Why did you do that?” I ask. "Who is she?”
“Just some girl I met in the club a while ago. When you didn’t stay last night, I called her up and she was down to party.”
I turn away from him and wrap my arms around myself.
“What’s the big deal? It’s not like this is a real marriage?”
“I thought you wanted it to be.”
“Well, clearly you don’t.”
“Franklin, I don’t really understand what we’re doing here. Why do you want to get married? Why do you want to marry me?”
I follow him out to the kitchen and he leans against the island. Popping a grape into his mouth, he chews it up before looking at me again.
“I don’t know why,” he says, taking another grape, this time chewing with his mouth open. “Maybe it’s because you were the only one whoever said no.”
There isn’t anywhere to go from here. After I leave his apartment, I walk straight home but when I get there, I can’t bring myself to go upstairs.
So, I just keep walking in circles.
When I get hungry, I pop into a local vegan restaurant and have some lunch. My head is in a fog.
Why did I go there? I wonder. What did I even expect from him?
I guess a part of me thought that maybe we could actually make this marriage work.
Maybe it didn’t start out under the best of circumstances, but that doesn’t mean that we couldn’t be happy.
But seeing her there, I realize that if he wasn’t happy with me then he would just turn to someone else.
We don’t have anything in common.
He sees me only as something to possess.
Would that ever change? I have no idea.
How is your mom doing? I text Henry.
Okay, I guess, considering the circumstances. He texts back.
When