Chapter 12
Nash
After we ate lunch and then visited with Grandpa a little more, I drove Magnolia home. I had been in such a rush this morning that I didn’t pay attention to much, but as we walk up the two flights of stairs to her apartment, I’m horrified.
The hallway is narrow. The carpet is thin, stained, and wrinkled.
It feels as though the walls are closing in around me. The stale smell is a tribute to the days when everyone smoked indoors.
Passing apartment 3B, I hear a TV blaring through the walls. I jump—flinch, I mean—when a dog barks from inside 3C.
Magnolia stops in front of 3A.
She smiles up at me, a curl of blonde hair resting against her cheek. “Thank you for walking me to the door.”
“It’s the least I could do after what you did for me. When you’ve single-handedly saved my butt, wrapped my grandfather around your finger, and thrown the family into mayhem, I wish there were more that I could do for you.”
“If you hear of any job openings, that would be great. My expensive mocha habit means I need to get back to work as soon as possible.”
She pounds her fist twice on the doorjamb, and at the same time, she turns the door handle.
The door opens.
“Please don’t tell me that’s how you unlock your door,” I groan.
She smiles brightly and steps inside the apartment. “I did not just unlock my door that way.”
If her landlord doesn’t fix her lock, I will.
When I step inside, I’m pleasantly surprised by the cleanliness. There are rugs thrown on top of the carpet, which probably helps hide any outrageous stains. I slip my shoes off and try to close the door. It takes five tries to get it to latch.
Flopping onto the couch, I pull out my phone and place a quick delivery order for some sturdier locks. Hopefully, they’ll get to my townhouse by tomorrow.
“Make yourself at home,” Magnolia says.
I’m already sitting down. It’s a little too late for that.
“I thought you were just dropping me off?” She phrases it like a question.
“I need to talk to you.”
“That’s what my parents always told me when I was in trouble.”
I confirm the order and then pocket my phone. “Well, this time, I’m the one in trouble.”
She stands there, staring at me, arms folded across her chest. “All right. I’m listening.”
“I have a proposition for you,” I say as I glare at the sorry excuse for a door.
“I may be easy, but I’m not cheap,” she snaps back.
I sigh. “Magnolia, I hope we’re good enough friends that you know that’s not what I mean.”
She nods slowly. “Of course. I meant that I couldn’t possibly accept a lowball offer. I will only settle for…” She pauses as she ticks off her fingers, as though she’s doing a quick calculation in her head. “Minimum wage?”
“Is that a question?”
“Yes.” She shakes her head. “No. I need at least minimum wage if I’m going to be able to afford a weekly mocha habit. See, even I’m willing to cut back during times of economic hardship.”
“Your apartment is held together by duct tape. Have you ever been out of economic hardship?”
She shakes her finger at me. “Look at you, getting all snobby. It’s not a good look on you.”
“So, you like my usual looks?” I press.
“Yes, I—” She holds a hand up. “Wait a second. Now this feels like entrapment. I admit to nothing.”
“We’ll circle back to that later,” I promise her, because she looks all cute and flustered when I tease her. “I want to continue to pay you to be my fiancée.”
“Well, if it’s good, honest work like that, then by all means…”
At the moment, I wish she weren’t so quick-witted. It’s hard to argue your point with someone three steps ahead of you.
“I want my grandfather to get better. I happen to like him. And for some reason—although I’m beginning to question why—he loves you.
You put him in good spirits. I’d like to hire you to be my fiancée until his health is stable.
It would mean coming to the house with me regularly.
Probably a family dinner or two. But hopefully, he’ll be back to himself within a couple of weeks. ”
She slips out of her tan jacket and hangs it on the hook by the door.
She doesn’t seem to be jumping at the opportunity.
“Why don’t I just visit your grandfather? We wouldn’t have to pretend anything.”
I debate whether I should tell her what Grandpa said about her when she was gone. The part where he told me that she felt like a missing puzzle piece and that she fit just right with me…Yeah, that would probably scare her away. Especially since I feel the same way.
But I need something to sway her. “You’ve given him peace, as he knows you’re not after me for money.”
“Aha! He must have noticed my shoes. The only nice thing I splurge on.” She thins her lips. “Nash, as much as I like you, I have to tell you that lying is a horrible habit.”
I lean forward the best I can on the beanbag couch. Desperate times call for desperate explanations. “Let me tell you a story.” I pat the space next to me, and she sits down.
Morbid curiosity probably.
If I were her, I would have kicked me out already.
“Is there a dragon in this story?”
“Yes.”
“Then, by all means, continue.”
“I got engaged way too fast to someone who cared more about money than me. The end.” I hold my hands out to the side in a ta-da motion.
Magnolia looks at me blankly for a moment, then licks her lips. “That was, without a doubt, the worst story I’ve ever heard.”
“Was it my brilliant storytelling or the sad content?”
“I would not call your story brilliant. I would call it the Post-it note version. Actually, it’s like one of those highlighter tabs. Not even big enough to have any depth.”
I shrug. “It felt pretty thorough to me. My grandpa wanted me to test my fiancée by telling her I wouldn’t inherit anything.
I thought he was being ridiculous. But he finally convinced me to do it—and for once, my mom even agreed with him.
She ended things two weeks later, and I didn’t tell Grandpa at first because I was embarrassed.
And then I didn’t tell him because his health was failing.
So, he still believes I have a fiancée.”
“Wow, that was better,” she says as I finish my explanation. “There really was a dragon in that story.”
“I know he seems like it at first, but—”
“I was talking about your fiancée. Wait, you want me to pretend to be her? No way!”
“No! We can work around that. You can still be Magnolia. Honestly, I never told him much about my fiancée. I think, deep down, I knew we weren’t right. Anyway, he likes the name Magnolia far better than he ever liked Jane.”
“Good. Because I could never be a Jane.”
“I agree. You’d look terrible as a Jane.”
She smacks my arm. “But seriously, I’m surprised he didn’t make a big deal out of the name change. I didn’t even think of that being an issue when I agreed to be your fake fiancée.”
No matter how I explain this to her, it’s not going to reflect well on me. “I didn’t talk about Jane much. Grandpa never met her. She was someone I met at Harper’s graduation party.”
“Harper?”
“She’s one of my cousins. Jane, her friend’s older sister, was there. We hit it off, started dating, when she was home that is, and here we are.”
“You left out all the crucial details.” Magnolia scowls.
“Nope. I got all the important parts.”
“What about your breakup?” she asks.
“Well we didn’t break up, did we?” I say with a smile.
“So it really just came down to the money? How do you feel about that?” She leans forward as though she’s an interrogator.
“We weren’t really in love. I think I liked the idea of finding someone, and she liked the idea of my inheritance.”
“Ouch. Are you sure that’s why you didn’t work out?”
“She wasn’t like you,” I admit. I don’t know why I’m telling her this. This isn’t crucial to anything.
Magnolia jerks back abruptly. “Now you’re just teasing.”
“No, really. I mean that as a compliment. There’s an openness in your character that draws people to you.”
“Not my former boss. She was not drawn to me,” Magnolia mutters.
“Oh, she was probably threatened by your creativity.”
She shrugs. “I think she’s threatened by everything. And I didn’t get a chance to be creative at that job. But at least it paid the bills…”
I interlace my fingers and lean forward to rest my elbows on my knees. “That brings me back around to the part where I would pay you. I’d like to pay you a full-time salary for the next couple of weeks if you’re going to do this for me.”
She bites her bottom lip as she studies me. “Isn’t it a little weird to pay someone to lie?”
“Think of it as an acting job,” I say with a grin.
I really need her to do this. I wasn’t kidding when I told her I thought she was a miracle drug. I can’t risk telling Grandpa the truth until he’s a lot stronger.
“For two weeks?”
“I hope that in a couple of weeks, Grandpa will be back to himself and will be able to handle the news.”
“Don’t you think he’ll be angry at you for lying?”
I shrug. “Probably. But I think he’ll understand too.”
Magnolia paces around in a small circle as she contemplates the offer. “I do need a job. I should be applying for new jobs right now.”
“You can still apply. It’s not like you’ll have to be at my side all day long.”
Although spending more time in her company does sound nice. She makes everything more enjoyable.
Magnolia stops her pacing and looks at me, no longer chewing on her lip. “Okay. I’ll do it. But I can’t guarantee I’ll be able to keep up the lie. I might forget I’m supposed to be in love with you.”
A weight lifts with her agreement. I slap a hand against my chest. “You mean you don’t think I’m lovable?”
She narrows her eyes at me but doesn’t reply.
I clear my throat. “You won’t regret this. Much, anyway.”
“Somehow, I don’t believe you.”