Betting on the Brainiac: a Sweet Romantic Comedy

28. Chapter Twenty-Eight

Madison talking about our kiss yesterday nearly did me in.

For a split second as I watched her eyes nearly roll back in her head at the memory, I almost canceled the whole proposal and walked out. I’d seen a vision of the future with me one hundred percent crazy in love with Madison while she patted my head like one of the damn kittens.

Not even my mantra of Azora employees was enough to stop me. Instead, it was Madison unironically saying she was sure she’d know if she had chemistry with someone while I was literally sitting in front of her face.

If I can remember that statement plus the glimpse of my future as her hopeless pet, I can keep the distance I need to get this deal done and get her the money she deserves and Azora the money we need. I woke up this morning, ready.

I’m pretty sure I’m going to be engaged in less than ten minutes. I lift my hand and knock at her front door.

Ava answers and looks at me in surprise. “Hey, Oliver.”

Guess Madi didn’t mention I was coming. “Hey, Ava. Is Madison here?”

She glances toward the stairs. “Yeah, but she sleeps in on the weekend because of her late shifts. Want me to go wake her up?”

Do I want her to go wake up sleeping Princess Madison after I have spent the night tossing, turning, questioning my sanity, but not sleeping? I’d like that job.

“You mind if I do it? We’re supposed to be getting brunch right now.”

She steps back and waves me toward the stairs. “Knock yourself out. Her room is to the right.”

I take the stairs and tap on her door, earning a groan at the third attempt. Knowing I won’t wake her out of a dead sleep, I walk into a caramel-scented room with a blob under a comforter on the bed. A foot with cherry-colored toenails sticks out from the covers.

Who’s going to be confronted with a legendary bed and not test it for themselves? Not me. I plunk myself down, stretching out with my hands behind my head, gazing at the ceiling. Her room is soft grays and pale pinks with accent pieces I would bet are from Teak Heart. It’s sophisticated and feminine, but with soft textures that make it welcoming. Shaggy pillows. Silk bedding.

There is a rustling next to me, then something like a grunt with a question mark at the end.

“You overslept for our life-changing brunch appointment, so I came to find you.”

The blob lurches up and says, “Oliver?”

“Hey.”

She lets the blanket drop and pushes her hair out of her face, making an architectural thing happen as it bunches on the side of her head. “What time is it?”

“A little after 11:00.”

“Oh.” She blinks at me, and I wonder if she wears contacts. “You’re in my bed.”

“I’m testing your claims of greatness.” I give a soft bounce. “Not going to lie, I do feel like I’m being cradled by a thousand angels while kittens purr me to sleep.”

She gives me a sleepy smile. “I know.”

“You can never let Ruby win this.”

A nod. “I know.”

“I get why you’d have a hard time leaving this bed. But we do have business this morning.”

She yawns and melts back into the mattress. Her eyes drift closed. “Mmhmm.”

I roll to my side so I can prop my head on my hand and study her. “How much caffeine do I need to get you so we can figure this out?”

“None. Yes.” Another yawn. “More sleep.”

“Madison . . .”

She pushes up on her elbows, creating peaks and valleys over her neckline that I want to explore. I jerk my eyes away from the view so fast that I’m fairly sure I detach a retina.

“I’ll marry you, Olvr,” she mumbles. “Yes?”

“Yes.”

She lies back down and makes the soft lip-smacking sounds of someone tipping into sleep.

“Mads? Should there be more to this?”

“Nap or go away. No talking.”

It’s very stupid to stay, but dynamite isn’t getting me out at this point. I settle down to listen to Madison breathe and experience the unicorn-and-fairy mattress magic while I study the ceiling.

I wake to find Madison sprawled against my side, her head resting on my chest, her hand fisting my shirtfront. She’s sound asleep, her curves molded to me everywhere we touch.

Interesting. So this is how I die. Spontaneous combustion.

I brush my thumb over her cheek, wind my fingers through her hair, and start to drift off . . .

Until the sound of throat clearing gets my attention.

Her doorway is packed with three curious faces under messy buns of red, pink/blonde, and brown.

“Hey, Oliver,” Ava says.

I lift my free hand and wave.

“Whatcha doin’?” Ruby asks.

“Resting?” I say, as quietly as I can.

“Is that a question?” Sami asks.

Madison stirs, gives me a sleepy blink and sigh, and pushes up to face her roommates. “Ollie and I are getting married. Y’all want to come?”

It’s dead quiet for about two seconds, then a whooooole bunch of sounds happen at once. A gasp from one of them, a squeak from one of them, then Ruby running around the room chanting, “I win, I win, I win!”

“Are you serious?” Ava sounds baffled.

“Yes,” Madison says. “And Ruby, you don’t win. This is a marriage of convenience, like that movie where Ryan Reynolds has to marry Sandra Bullock. Except I’m nice.”

Ruby stops. “What are you talking about?”

Madison rubs her eyes, but she looks amused and more awake now. “This was your plan, Oliver. You tell them.”

“Everything?” She said she’s kept the Jeneze factory scandal and the details of her trust from everyone. I don’t want to spill info she still wants kept secret.

“All of it,” she says. “and I can’t tell it all again. I kinda wanted to puke when I told it to you, but they need to hear the whole thing, or this marriage isn’t going to make any sense without the full story.”

“I’m not sure it’s going to make sense even with it,” Sami says. “But I’m up for story time.”

In less than a minute, the other three roommates are lounging on the mattress with us, and they settle in so easily that it’s obviously a thing they do often.

“Okay, go,” Ruby says.

I lean against the headboard and start, covering her dad’s labor practices, her grandmother’s trust, her parents’ amendment of the trust, my company losing the investment we were counting on, the jobs riding on us finding the funding, and my proposal.

The story is interrupted periodically by gasps of outrage, loud booing of Mr. Armstrong by Sami, Ruby requesting the spelling of Dhaka so she can read about the case on her phone, and an occasional clarification from Madison. But twenty minutes later, I conclude, “So then I came over this morning like we agreed, but this one was asleep”—I jerk my thumb at Madison—“and I had to see why you guys would make a bet about a mattress and fell asleep too. So I don’t have any when and where kind of details yet.”

Questions come at us rat-a-tat style as they talk over each other until Madison laughs and holds up her hands.

“Y’all, settle down!” When they do—with some grumbling—she says, “Here’s the part I didn’t even get a chance to tell you, Oliver. I called Josh as soon as you left. He connected me with one of the firm’s estate attorneys. We met an hour later, and he went through my paperwork and said Oliver had it sewed up tight.”

I take a half bow from my seated position. “You’re my friend. Of course I’m going to keep it all legit.”

Sami frowns. “Josh didn’t say anything to me about this.”

“Good,” Madison says. “He wasn’t supposed to. I needed everything figured out before y’all got in my business. Anyway, once the lawyer said I was good to go, I went and talked to Stella, who’s moving next weekend, and she said you can rent her place, Oliver.”

Another flurry of chatter:

“Stella’s moving?”

“Oliver is going to be our neighbor?”

“So when are you getting married?”

The last one is from Ruby, and Madison looks over at me. “Saturday good for you?”

“Will the courthouse be open?”

“Courthouse? No, sir.” She jumps from the bed and starts hunting for something on her small bookshelf filled with romance novels. “I will be treating this wedding with the seriousness it deserves. Pool party, no family, only friends. Who wants to officiate?” At last, she pulls out a notebook and flips it open.

“Me!” Sami’s hand shoots up.

“Good with you, Oliver?”

I nod. What else do you do when your cat mom suddenly turns into a party-planning tornado?

She jots with the notebook’s attached pen. “Let’s do a day thing so my friends from Gatsby’s can come. We need a theme. Tiki? No, overdone.”

“Masks?” Ruby suggests, and I shoot her a sharp look. She returns it with raised eyebrows. She’s asking if I’ve told Madison about the kiss. I give Ruby a slight headshake. She presses her lips together but stays quiet as Madison barrels ahead.

“Fun idea, but still hot for outdoors,” Madison says. “I’ll think of the answer after I get some coffee. Everyone get out of here so I can get dressed and caffeinate.”

They climb off the bed and file out arguing about the theme with words like “Wild West” and “retro Goth” flying around.

Madison holds out her hand, and I take it, sliding off the bed to my feet. Suddenly we’re as close as we were the night of that kiss. I’m painfully aware of her soft, warm body dressed in sleep shorts and a tank top, and not much else.

“Hey, fiancé,” she says, grinning up at me.

“Are we crazy?” I ask.

“Yes. Meet you downstairs for coffee?”

I can’t help brushing a kiss against her hairline. “Okay, fiancée. Thanks for doing this.”

“Doing what? Getting myself millions of dollars four years early? You’re so welcome. Now go.” She steps back and points to the door.

Ruby is waiting for me at the bottom of the stairs. “Outside, please.”

When the front door closes behind us, she crosses her arms and hisses, “Why are you so dumb?”

“It’s a pretty smart plan.”

“You know what I mean, Oliver. Is this your strategy to win Madison?”

I sigh. “No. I agree this would be the dumbest possible way to do that. I’m not going to say a word, and I’m going to keep my distance.”

She studies me with tight-pressed lips. “That’s why you haven’t told her it was you who kissed her?”

“Yeah. It complicates everything. She’s not into the Oliver she knows. She’s into a character I accidentally played one night. Sucks, but that’s how it is.” I scrub my hand through my hair. “I’m going to quit working at the club. I can afford to lease a small office space on another floor in the building now because of the dowry.”

She can’t hide a smile. “The dowry.”

“Yes. I must marry to preserve my company’s fortunes.”

She shakes her head. “I don’t even know what to say to you right now.”

“Congratulations on your upcoming nuptials.”

“No congratulations. I trust that you and Madison are both honest people and will do right by each other with the money. But this is going to be messy.”

“It won’t. I’ll keep my distance. I’ve kept myself up several nights imagining how wrong this would go if I forget that. I practiced feeling that kind of pain. I didn’t love it. I’m putting in giant emotional buffer zones, and I’m enforcing them. Now can we get your blessing?”

“You do not get my blessing,” Ruby says. “But you will get my help. Let’s go see what your unhinged future wife is hatching, because I’m warning you, Oliver, it will be nuts. That’s her MO.”

“Thank you, Ruby.”

She puts her hand on the doorknob but pauses to fix me with one last searching look. “What you need here is good luck.”

She disappears into the condo, and I sigh at how true her words are: next up, I have to call my mom.