7
Elvira
From: [email protected]
To : [email protected]
Subject : RE: Marriage Deal
Dear Elvira
Please come to my office.
I PRESSED THE SEND button. Fuck! I scrolled up the email just to make sure I was the one who wrote the email he was replying to.
Yep. That's my drunk, typo-ridden email, alright.
And I fucking send it. I read his reply again through a head-splitting hangover as though the words would magically change.
I can't believe I was foolish enough to send it.
I took an aspirin, drank some water, hoping to cure my hangover, and prayed for the best as I dragged my feet to his office.
Levi was sitting in his chair, his large desk unusually clean.
The only thing on it was his laptop. He wore his usual attire: a light blue shirt under a brown jacket and dark blue pants.
But he nonetheless looked imposing, like a king in his domain.
A mysterious and handsome king. One you'd find in a dark fantasy.
His dark brown hair looked darker in the dim light of his office, and his gray eyes were even more piercing.
My mouth went dry. Out of fear or something else.
I chose fear. The other emotion was more terrifying to contemplate.
My gaze darted away from him to his general office.
It did not help that he had one of the largest offices in the department and that it was filled with books and papers on the floor.
They were neatly piled into stacks that looked like his sentries guarding him from nuisance subjects like me.
He gestured to the two visitors' chairs, and I pulled one and sank into it, my stomach rumbling with fear.
"You know why I called you."
Was that a question or a statement? Should I apologize or make it off as a joke?
Either way, I was fired, so I might as well be sincere.
"I'm so sorry about the email. I don't know what I was thinking.
I drank a lot, and I know I shouldn't have sent it.
And if you want to fire me, you're well within your rights. "
"You're not getting fired."
"No?"
"No."
"I'm much more interested in your proposal." His gaze went to his laptop. "You want eight hundred and sixty thousand dollars, a precise amount, I must say, for marrying me?"
I shifted in my seat. He was reading my silly little email as if it were a serious proposition. If only I had a neuralyzer like in Men In Black that I could use to wipe his memory and fling his laptop out of the window. "Uh… Like I said, it was a joke."
"Why that amount?"
Each time I recalled a line from that email, I cringed. "It's nothing." A nervous chuckle bubbled out of me.
"Not when a figure is that precise, it's not."
I shrugged. "Why not. I was drunk. I just thought of an amount and typed it. It's nothing serious. The entire email is a joke."
"Really?" He clasped his hands and leaned back in his chair. "So you don't think I am handsome and have a juicy piece of ass?"
Fuck. Why did he have to look so good this morning? His hair was perfectly coiffed, except for a lock that fell to his forehead. My hand itched to brush it away. "Please don't make it any worse than it already is. This is embarrassing for me."
"What if I want it to be real?"
"What?"
"Your email. What if we make it real?"
"As in?"
"I marry you and you get," he read the email again, "eight hundred and sixty-five thousand dollars. We can round it up and make it a cool million."
"A mill—a million dollars?" That would be enough to get the partners off Effie's back and for me to pay my student debts. It would solve all my problems. "Are you serious?"
"Unlike you, I am not joking, Miss Edwards.
You must know I am in desperate need of a wife, and you seem to be in desperate need of money.
" He flashed a tight smile. "Kinda like me, actually.
We can marry in secret, of course, and according to the terms of the trust, the marriage must last for at least a year.
What do you say? I will adhere to the stipulations in your email, of course. "
Marry Levi Hawthorne. The idea was starting to sound less crazy the more he spoke. “Is it possible?”
“Anything is possible,” he said.
“I mean…” I straightened my back. “You’re my boss. Isn’t it improper?”
“Not according to the rule book. There’s nothing against two colleagues marrying each other, but it would be a different matter if I were your supervising professor, which I am not.”
"Can I take a minute? I need to think this over. It's a lot."
"Sure. You have until end of day to give me an answer."
I left his office on spaghetti legs. My legs shook as I got out of his office.
I don't know how I made it to my own. I sank into my chair and stared at a blank space for what must have been a quarter of an hour.
A million dollars was there for me for the taking.
After which, I called Jess and told her everything. She didn't speak for several seconds.
"Jess? Are you there?"
She coughed. Her voice was strained when she spoke. "One million dollars?"
"Yes. It's insane, isn't it? I should probably say no."
"What the fuck! You say yes. In situations like this, you always say yes!"
"That's easy for you to say. You're not the one who sent him the email."
"It's Levi Hawthorne. It's not like he's some skeevy dude who approached you in the street. And besides, his family is loaded loaded. A million dollars to him is like a penny."
Everyone on campus knew how rich Levi's family was.
The Hawthorne name was synonymous with high fashion as well as philanthropy.
They were one of the most illustrious families in the entire state of New York.
So he did have the money. And he was Levi.
He wasn't a stranger. I knew him. But that wasn't what was making me apprehensive.
That night at Levi's place flashed through my mind.
That moment of the two of us standing in the middle of his living room, and almost kissing.
Only for me to vomit on myself a few seconds later.
I didn't want a repeat of that again. But the former.
The almost kiss. My brain has played multiple scenarios of how it could have happened and how it could happen again.
I didn't want to think of him like that.
He was my boss. He had been kind to me once, and my brain had gone into overdrive.
But whenever I was alone at night and sleep was evading me…
"I can't marry him," I said definitively.
"Didn't you say you won't be staying together as a couple?"
"That's not the issue."
"Then what is it?"
I want him.
I dismissed the stray thought as quickly as it came. "Because…"
"Because you have no excuse. You called me because you want me to say no. You want to use me as your justification to refuse a wonderful opportunity like this, don't you?"
"No!"
"But I am not going to. Think how happy your sister will be when she is finally free of those partners who are harassing her. Think how amazing it would be not to have to sell your family business."
I thought of Effie's weary face the last time I spoke to her. The fight had been drained out of her, and she was at her wit's end. She would be so happy if I relieved her of this burden. She had been like a mother to me after our parents died, and I've never had the chance to thank her.
"You're right." I took a deep breath, reckoning with what I was about to do.
"Damn right I am."
I went back to Levi's office. He seemed surprised to see me. His eyebrows raised, and his face lit up. "You need clarification?"
I shook my head. "I'm ready to give you an answer."
He nodded. That brief light gone, replaced with a blank expression.
"I will do it."
He shifted forward. "Are you sure?"
I nodded. "But for eight hundred and sixty thousand dollars only. I don't want any more."
He scoffed. "You realize I am worth like four billion dollars, right? If I gain access to my trust fund, a million dollars is like a penny."
I gulped. How did I not know he was that rich? But I didn't want to marry him for money I didn't deserve. The thought of getting even a few more than I needed was icky. I would owe him."Eight hundred and sixty thousand will be adequate."
"Fine."
He got up from his chair and stalked over to me until he was standing a few inches away. Oak and morning dew wafted into my nostrils. My heart rate accelerated. A flash of that night we almost kissed passed through my mind. My breath hitched. Levi extended his hand. I shook it.
"It's a deal."