A Husband For Christmas

Chapter Two- Details

Until sitting on the couch within his apartment, I never held much to mind as to how someone like Xander had accented his apartment. Moments before crossing the threshold, I expected to find a s*x swing in one corner and even a wall of restraints and blindfolds as my explorative s****l knowledge did not expand beyond the pages of E.L. James. But instead of finding a closeted Christian Grey, I would find a Mister Darcy. Not a single wall set within the apartment had been left without a bookshelf, all overstuffed with a variety of literature from classics such as Mansfield Park to modern tales including Shadow and Bone. It seemed as if he had existed within a vintage study as there held few appliances of electronics, with the exception of the lights that came in the ceiling prior to signing a lease-the same set in my own confines.

“Should I get wine or water?” He would inquire as I was torn from my observation of the space around him before opting for the latter option, well aware if I had consumed even one more drop of liquor that I may become as willing as one of those brainless girls I had made fun of for the last five years as the smell of these old pages were as much as an aphrodisiac to me as his words had been to those before me.

He would return with a coffee mug of water before sitting next to me, his hand stretching across the back of the couch to attempt to make me feel closer to him. Feeling as though he misunderstood my presence immediately, I would lift my rest until now occupying the single chair diagonal from him as he would c**k his brow before shrugging me off as if saying ‘your loss’.

“Are you going to ask me or should I guess?” I was now suddenly withdrawn from every sense of confidence as I realized now in preparation to ask my proposition that I would sound certifiable. And yet as I attempted to think of some believable excuse that would not make me appear vapid and daft, I would recall the teasing from my siblings for having lied and so I would square Xander’s gaze in order to reinstate some form of control. As he analyzed me, I studied him in this moment as I thought of how my mother would comment on his ‘kind eyes’ and my father would compliment his physique for appearing like a ‘good, strapping young man’, whereas my brother would compare himself and my sisters would become immediately envious. For these reasons, I would push beyond my own worry to sound foolish before slowly nodding.

“I will pay your rent for the next six months if you agree to come home with me for the holidays.”

“Shouldn’t there be a dinner first?” he teased as I would repress my urge to banter with him as this seemed to be our only form of communication until now as I knew I was coming to him for a favor and therefore had to remain respectful if I wanted him to agree.

“If I had ANY other option, I would jump at it...but I can help you and you can help me-”

“What makes you think I need your help?”

“I saw the...the notice…”

“Proof you DO watch me…” He would now lift his second hand around the back of the couch, allowing himself to be absolutely comfortable whereas I was shrinking by the second, realizing this was possibly the worst mistake of my life.

“Your apartment is directly in the line from the elevator to my own!” As his brows would raise, seemingly in warning or surprise, I would take control of my vocal chords once again to keep from angering him.

“I have had girls come up with some extreme stories to sleep with me, but-”

“There wouldn’t be any sleeping...or touching...or anything like that...It would be for three days, you make them think you’re in love with me, and then we return as strangers in blissful ignorance.”

“Why so desperate?”

“I’m not ‘desperate’...” I was insulted at these words but couldn’t help but understand how I must appear to him.

“Really? Because we haven’t spoken more than a handful of words to each other and you’re offering me...almost ten grand for three days...Is there some OTHER reason? Maybe…” He would now fold himself closer towards me, nearly touching my knees as I would revolt away from him with this try.

“They are going to set me up with someone as pompous and arrogant as my brother...someone who thinks the conversation of twenty year old politics and sports scandals make for appropriate dinner conversation...And I may have already told my mom I was bringing someone-”

“That really does seem like quite a...pickle…” He grinned to his own choice of words as I couldn’t tell if this was some sort of s****l innuendo intended as he would wear that smirk as if everything he spoke would eventually circle back to being erotic in some sense.

“I just think this is an elaborate way to not break your goodie-two-shoes mentality but secretly wanting to find a way to let yourself want me-”

“Forget it.” At this point of his consistent arrogance that was temporarily in a fog due to his surrounding literature where I had mistaken him for someone with a deeper personality than what was clearly so very shallow, I was prepared to deal with the three day weekend of pure hell just to get out of this hole I had currently dug for myself.

“Wait-” He would speak as my hand wrapped around the golden knob to his door in preparation to take my leave.

“IF I were to consider this...Aren’t you worried they are going to find out what I do? I’m not exactly working on wall street...although I was in a film called “Positions” that took place on-” I held up my hands to stop him from explaining the details to me.

“My family are devout Catholics...even if they saw you in anything...they wouldn’t admit it...so it’s perfect-”

“Aww...you said I was perfect…” It would appear an eye-roll was customary with each time he opened his mouth before they would come to a rest at his own expression of self-pride.

“The situation.” I reiterated for clarification that he remained purposely ignorant to before taking a step closer to me.

“Next question...wouldn’t we have to get to know each other? Surely they are going to ask how we met and what made us fall for each other...so...what would I say?”

“I could write an itinerary in the form of questions-”

“Just tell me now...Would I be some college guy? Maybe a hunky next door neighbor dying for you to pay attention to him? Maybe a stripper that gave you one passionate night you can’t forget and you realized I actually had a heart of gold?” He teased, walking closer to me with each question as I would slip from his steps and towards the center of the apartment, as he would stop his steps closing in to me.

“How about we met in the library? It seems you like books-”

“You seemed surprised...what did you expect exactly?” I would bypass answering as he would slowly nod in understanding my blush as he would continue. “And maybe I brushed your hand when reaching for the same book? We talked about a love of shared literature and have been inseparable ever since?”

“That’s...actually kind of sweet-”

“It was in a movie I did...but it was definitely not…’sweet’...” My mind began to flash at him in a library, wearing a tight shirt and glasses, playing the part of a nervous teen or even a handsome professor as I would quickly stop myself as I did not wish to think of him in any way, let alone this! Berating myself for how swiftly my mind had come to conjure and accept such an idea, I would return my focus to him.

“We can figure out the details on the plane...I would pay for your ticket-”

“If you have all of this money...why do you live in THESE apartments?”

“Just because I come from money doesn’t mean I always want to be under my parent’s thumbs…” Something I said seemed to strike his curiosity as he would now pose in a pensive stance before slowly crossing his arms.

“So ten thousand dollars for three days and then we come back and remain strangers?”

“Exactly!”

“What the hell? I have no plans…”

My lips would widen into a large smile before I would extend my hand out to him. Although I felt silly as he would eye me as if I had suddenly grown a third eye, he would take his grip to my own as I would feel his soft touch take hold of my own grip with an impressive yet careful possession. Suddenly a gasp would leave my lips as I would be pulled into him, my hand landing on his chest to remove myself immediately, before a second hand to my waist would lock me in place.

“If you want them to believe we care about each other...You’ll have to let me touch you…” I clenched my jaw in realizing this would be the truth before pulling myself out of his grip as he would watch me with pride in knowing he held some form of an effect on me.

“Unless you’re worried you can’t control yourself.” Any sense of nervousness I had wash over me in his abrupt steal of my person would be dissolved after such narcissistic words; as if I had been too weak as a woman to defy his relentless advances.

“I think I can manage…” His eyes would fall into a sharp narrow as if testing my sincerity by the contortion of my face, as I was sure to keep it as convincing as possible, even if my heart had defied my desire to keep it steady. But I was simply taken off guard, not helpless against him as he nauseated me too much for this to ever turn into lust; but more importantly anything beyond it; which would be my heart’s true desire that I knew would only end in heartache and regret in finding this in someone like him.

“Then we have a deal…” He would extend his hand once more, this time, I would recall how that sharp pull had still left some form of a consequence on me and so I nodded in place of meeting with his skin again.

“Great...I’ll come back with the tickets tomorrow-”

“Looking forward to it..” As I turned to leave, not wishing to remain here for any longer than what was absolutely necessary, I rotated in the nick of time to watch him undress me with his eyes.

“If my dad sees you do that, he’ll kill you…”

“Then it would be a good thing he can’t read my mind…” I would roll my eyes and leave in an exhausted exhale, realizing there would be misinterpreted signals if I were to act in any other way, before I would return to my own apartment.

“What the hell happened to YOU?” Jeanie would inquire as my eyes would come to focus on the reflection, allowed by the flower-shaped mirror directly beside my door. Noticing how my cheeks remained permanently red and my hair had become loose from having been thrown around almost weightless, I would smooth my locks back in place, before taking another glass of wine.

“Well...It seems I have a date for Christmas…” The words seemed foreign coming from my lips with the weight behind them heavier than the worry of how I would explain his presence so sudden in my life with a love meaningful enough to keep them from worrying for yet another year. However, I believed the grandest of issues did not lie in the details as much as my ‘boyfriend’s’ behavior, and if I was honest, mine in response to him. Not from the inability to act on it, but the act of being repulsed by his touch...At least, I thought it was repulsion…