Chapter 4 #2
“No. I…I didn’t realize that was your dad.” I fold her phone up and pass it back to her, my hands shaking. It could be worse. It could be so, so much worse. I can’t be anything but truthful, and Mika deserves to be looked in the eye for my confession.
It means looking up at her because she’s still standing and looking like she’s waiting for her dark lord to come and claim her, her blood-red lips parted, the rest of her body tense.
“I…I might have almost slept with your dad last night. It didn’t happen, but—holy cheese sticks!”
“What?!” Mika sways and drops down to her knees. “Oh my god. No.” She blinks rapidly. “Wait. Define almost.”
“It didn’t happen. I promise. My car broke down in front of this hotel, and I realized it was one your dad owned.
My phone was dead, so I went in to use theirs.
This was after the whole finding Kevin balls deep in more than one woman.
There was almost no one in the hotel lobby because it was late, and the door to the lounge was open, but there was no one in there.
It was like how it is in the movies when this weird vibe practically summons you in. ”
“You’re supposed to resist the pull of the devil,” Mika says dryly.
But her lips twitch despite it all. If she had a dollar for every time someone accused her of being in league with devil worship, she’d be as rich as her dad.
She just likes dark fashion and makeup. She’s the sweetest, most caring, most loyal, smartest person I know.
And she’s a total badass. It’s kind of ironic because she doesn’t even do tarot cards, and even vanilla, boring, and bland little old me has a few decks.
“It was weird. I thought, just one drink, and then I’ll call a tow and go home.
There was this guy working at the bar. He was the only one in there.
He was…” My face heats up to the same faded hue of dark pink as my nightgown.
“He was attractive. Then I saw this crazy nice piano, and I started playing it and—”
“And it was like a siren call straight to his cold and lonely heart.”
“Why would he be working the bar?” I ask.
“He does that sometimes. I think he likes taking a break from the corporate responsibilities and just being a regular person sometimes.”
“That’s so weird.”
“So is the fact that you guys almost accidentally hooked up. How far did it go?”
There’s no way I can admit that.
“He was a gentleman and told me that I was upset and needed to go home and decompress. So it didn’t go far at all.
” He just saw me in my lace skivvies, and I got a total lady boner for him.
If he’d wanted to, I would gladly have let him stroke my pussy.
I would have ground myself all over his fingers.
Mika rolls her eyes and paces a few steps over to the bookshelves on the far wall.
They’re bursting full. I don’t allow myself many indulgences, but books are a budget buster.
“Right. He wants it to mean something while, at the same time, getting married for real, but it’s fake to a total stranger for the cash and connections. ”
“Please don’t tell me that you’re going to unfriend me for life. It was an honest mistake. I swear on my life it will never happen again.”
Also, can I give you the two grand to give to him to repay what he gave me last night because I’ll never be able to face him again?
Mika walks back to the couch and drops down beside me. She wraps her arms around my waist and sets her head on my lap. “I would never unfriend you.” We’re both silent for a beat. And then, of course, her wild Mika brain goes straight to the nefarious side. “Maybe this is a good thing.”
“How?” I leap up, dislodging her. “No, this is not good. Not freaking good at all.”
“He doesn’t deserve to be locked in a loveless marriage.
It’s like he’s still punishing himself for not being able to make it work with my mom.
Even she’s said that she hurt him and broke his heart.
Not that she’s sorry about it. He’s clearly not happy, and whatever reason he’s doing this, it’s all the wrong reasons. ”
“So, how is this good?” Mika has a brain that can go down eight wild channels all at once, searching to compute the best scenario. I’m seriously afraid I’m not going to like her answer.
“You need to break the wedding up.”
“Oh. No. Noppers. Heck to the no.” I flee straight to the kitchen with my glass, though I’m not sure I need to drink more water. I just need a gallon of it for my burning face.
I turn on the tap and splash water all over myself, drenching my hair and half my nightgown.
Mika is right there with the towel off the stove. Why do these things always smell like hashbrowns and rotting death, no matter how many times I wash them? I bypass it, grab a roll of paper towels, rip off a few, and dab at my face.
“I’m going to convince my dad to use you as his wedding planner.
He basically knows nothing about my private life, so he doesn’t even know we’re best friends.
Obviously. He would never have done anything last night if he knew.
I know nothing happened,” she says when I try to protest. “But he wouldn’t have even let it get that far if he’d known.
I truly believe that.” She loads up the coffee maker with water and gets the coffee grounds out of the tin beside it.
She’s so efficient, even though I can tell her mind is ten million miles away.
“You’re going to sabotage the wedding. Double book the venue.
Make sure the dress isn’t ready on time.
Order a cake full of laxatives. Find a real-life wizard and get him to hex some raccoons so they crash the wedding and eat everyone’s brains for real. ”
I hop up on the counter and cross my long legs at the ankles. “I can’t do that. This is my job at stake. I actually went to school for this. Something like that will live on in infamy forever, and if I get fired, I’m going to have to move out of Providence to get hired anywhere again.”
“Well, maybe we can just work behind the scenes. Attack her character.”
“If they have an open marriage, and your dad doesn’t love her, I doubt that would work,” I point out.
“Then we’ll just have to make him look undesirable from her perspective. Why does her daddy want to marry her off anyway? Why is that his price? You’d think he’d be happy to give his connections to my dad in exchange for a cash injection into his failing empire. Why is she on the table?”
That just makes me think how I wished I could have been spread eagle on the piano of my dreams last night. I quickly wash the image out of my mind with an entire bottle of mental bleach.
“You’ll just have to seduce him,” Mika continues.
“He’ll meet you again as his wedding planner, and you can go from there.
You already have a connection. He’ll just think it’s this weird sign from the universe that brought you two together again.
” Grinning broadly, she gets two mugs out of the cupboard.
“If he falls for you and finds out that love can be real, then maybe he will take a chance on finding happiness again and ditch this fake marriage crap.”
“He could still get fake married. It’s an open marriage. Plus, just no. I’m not going to fake fall in love with your dad,” I say, shaking my head.
“You could do it for real.”
I clench my hands so tightly in my lap that my knuckles go white. “I don’t think that’s something you can force.” Judging by the way my body lights up and my nipples pretty much go into full slasher mode at the expense of my nightgown, I wouldn’t have to try too hard.
“Ugh, fine,” Mika mutters, sighing grudgingly.
It’s the kind of sigh that says she’s not letting this go, but she’ll make a backup plan for now and work on adding Project Get Bellatrix To Fall In Love With My Dad, Dad To Fall In Love With My Bestie, or Both Would Be Best into the mix later when she figures out how to do it so subtly that I don’t notice.
“You do what you can do to delay the wedding. I’ll have to figure out how I can convince him not to go ahead with it, but it’s going to take time. I just need you to buy me some time.”
“Money usually opens any doors. I’m not sure how I can delay a wedding when they can just go elsewhere, to some other venue, for the big day. When things don’t work out, they can get another wedding planner, and I’ll probably be fired.”
“You’re not getting fired.” She sounds so sure of herself. “We just have to make this work.” Mika takes my hand and squeezes the life out of it. “Are you with me, my rabid raccoon fighting partner in crime?”
“I’m sorry, I think they ate all the brains I had.”
“It’s okay.” She bumps my chest with her fist, curling her long, clawlike black lacquered nails into her palm so they don’t stab me. “Think with this.”
She flattens her hand over my racing heart, and ugh, blimey and barnacles, what kind of friend would I be if I told her no?
Probably the rational, sensical one.
I need more information. She’s had some time to process this, but I’m out here, wallowing in the deep end.
“What else did your dad say? Like why a wedding to get the connections he needs? Why did this asshat throw his daughter into the deal when it could have been strictly business?”
I don’t like Mika’s smile. It says she’s already been over this, and it’s by no means an out. “Geneiva’s father is old money. I was right about the castles and his empire. And what does old money care about more than anything?”
“Their wealth?”
“Their reputation,” Mika corrects me. “Apparently, Geneiva’s always been trouble. She has this guy she’s in love with, and he has connections to the mob.”
“The mob?” I gasp. “Are you freaking kidding me? I’m not getting involved with the mob in any way.”
“She wanted to marry him, but she agreed to this marriage on paper and to keep him as her secret lover so she doesn’t shame her family. His family isn’t keen on her either. She’s not Italian.”