Our "Friendly" Matrimony

3-Awesome accents and Life saving plans

"Did you hear how he spoke? He sounded so... cool."

Alex followed me in my trudge to the penthouse we had in Vegas. Gushing about the accent of the hotelier we had just wrapped up the first meeting with.

I grinned to myself as he talked about wanting to copy it the next time he had to speak Russian with anyone. Realizing that he wasn't going to stop talking about our client and his voice, I stopped and turned around abruptly, having him nearly run into me chest first.

Taking into account the look I was sending his way. He rolled his eyes in return, mimicking me by crossing his arms.

"For the last time, I'm not gay."

I shrugged disbelievingly and started striding in the direction of our penthouse once again, having Alex follow me, now on a completely different topic.

"I just know how to appreciate things, it doesn't mean I'm gay."

I chuckled to myself in return as he wrapped his arms around my head to lock me in place and make me listen to him.

"How come you get to compliment girls and gush about them while I get the gay card every time I talk about a guy that way?"

He sounded like he was pouting behind me and tilting my head up to glance at him only confirmed my doubt.

"It's called inequality champ, very common in the world we live in."

Sighing to himself, he dropped his arms before kneeling behind me. A surprised 'oomph' left me as I lunged to grab onto him and cradle my bag altogether while he started walking again, this time with me in his arms.

"Why didn't you say anything about the blisters?"

I had changed into a different attire in the one hour break we had after landing. And unfortunately, my packed attire came with brand new heels that were bound to do some damage.

And they had in fact done quite a lot of damage. Regardless of the pain, I was taught to walk straight and properly in any and all footwear so I couldn't just break habit because of the stings and pain. I was certain it was going to hurt even worse if I was to wear converses on it.

Thankfully though, it seemed that walking behind me and taking a brief pause from his gushing, had given Alex the chance to catch onto my discomfort.

Leaning my head against his shoulder, I started talking as he nodded to the guard standing outside the door to Alex's penthouse. But since I basically watched over everything of his, it was going to be called our penthouse.

"I'm literally gonna kill those idiots when they show up."

Alex agreed in return, carrying me up the stairs and into the room that was supposed to be mine for the entirety of our stay.

"This merger was supposed to represent both the company's and the fact that they literally missed out on it, like completely and totally! They weren't even late! They didn't show up at all, how in the world could they miss out on a two hour meeting when they left literally an hour or two after us?"

Alex hummed absent mindedly in reply, removing my heels after settling me on the bed while he looked over the blisters with inquisitive eyes.

"Maybe they ran into traffic?"

I huffed under my breath. Traffic or not, a warning would've been nice. This merger was a big deal! And the fact that they totally skipped out on it wasn't going to help them or the company make more profit as the year progressed.

"They could've at least called."

I muttered in return, watching Alex make his way to my cupboard and pick out my pajamas.

"Get comfortable, I'll check if we can get some Epsom salt here."

The fact that he was so much more focused on the blister than my clearly more important words, had me clicking my tongue in response.

"Fine."

He halted, barely a few feet away from exiting the room and turned around with a small grin as an angry pout automatically made its way onto my lips.

"You should really get back at them for it, don't you think?"

I rolled my eyes at his attempt to finally strike up a conversation before shrugging at him in return. The grin on his face refused to leave as he pinched my cheeks, only to have his hands smacked away by me.

"Just let me get the salt and we'll tear apart your cousins after that."

I sighed, gesturing for him to drop me in the washroom first and he chuckled in response. Lifting me up as I took hold of my pajamas, he set me down outside the washroom and pulled off my ponytail before giving me a pat on the shoulder as if to say you're good to go now.

I waited to turn on the shower till he was gone. And grimaced as the water started beating down on my blistered heels. They said warm water helps with blisters but at this point I would've preferred cold water.

In order to stop feeling the sting, I washed myself down quickly and threw on fresh undergarments and my pj's before making my way out and towards the bed. My eyes drifted close as my brain finally prepared to shut down.

After napping for four hours in the jet and spending the last hour pouring caffeine down my throat while Alex reviewed our notes, I couldn't help but want to sleep some more. My unhealthy addiction and constant use of caffeine had made me immune to the alertness it otherwise provided.

Unfortunately we had another meeting that had to be attended, and I couldn't risk skipping out on it. God knew how much Alex loved dragging me to our joint meetings. Keeping my mind awake was practically impossible and I knew that in order to secure such a task, I'd have to force myself out of bed and onto a much less comfortable surface.

Feeling hands slowly pull me lower on the bed, my eyebrows furrowed as my eyelids adamantly refused to open. Relax, demons don't have such warm hands. Probably, but who knew? Maybe that's how the demons dragged the sleeping souls into their own world to feed on their soul.

I groaned as something wet touched my feet, immediately shooting up in surprise as my brain registered it.

The laughter that erupted out of my best friend, had me kicking water in his direction as he wheezed at the sight of my ruffled hair, ragged breathing and wide panicked eyes.

"Alex you little s**t! You could've given me a warning!"

Barely managing to contain himself, he only stopped laughing momentarily to mutter an 'ew' as I flung more water at him.

"Hey, I just took a bath, stop that you little weasel."

I laughed in return, preparing to fling another foot-ful of water at him but he had successfully managed to trap my feet in his hold.

Sighing in response, I threw myself back on the bed as he dipped my feet under water and stood up, only to catch my half lidded gaze. The momentary shock of his actions had drained from my mind and I was back to feeling exhausted all over again.

"Get some rest, that's salted water, I'll come back to check on you after cleaning up again. Thank you for that by the way."

Flashing him a sleepy grin, I felt him drape something over the half of my body that was on the bed and I held onto his arm in return. Feeling him physically restrain his laughter.

"You're such a koala... I can't!"

His annoying laughter made me pucker my lips in frustration as I let go of his hand and hushed him sleepily.

"Wake me-meeting."

Swallowing half of my words, I heard him chuckle as he walked away.

__________________

Alex's POV

"You know she'll kill you for this, man."

Vince spoke, trying to reason me out of leaving Soph asleep, but he was definitely in no position to talk.

"Fortunately, I won't be going alone."

Narrowing my eyes on the two of them in response, I only received a smug grin from him and an accusing scowl from Leo, who still wasn't over the incident with the board of directors.

"We were busy trying to get approval to proceed. Both of your stunts could've cost us heavily if I hadn't been there."

Offended gasps left both me and Leo simultaneously as Vince decided to take all the credit. Ignoring the fact that I had been the one to generate such a wonderfully informative presentation to seduce the minds of those money grabbing oldies.

"Yeah sure, and what did you do exactly? Agree to marry Somerset's daughter?"

Vince huffed at that as Leo high-fived me, after momentarily forgetting his grudge against me. It was a well known fact that one of the directors wanted to marry his daughter to Vincent, but he had been determined to avoid it no matter what.

Arranged marriages were rather popular in our households, some for the sake of business and other's for the sake of love. Since our families were well known for arranging marriages, if someone did find someone else they were interested in and the grounds set by our parents or grandparents were fulfilled, the marriage would be definite.

It was however less likely for someone who didn't really fall in the 'preferred category' to be welcomed into the family with open arms. My aunt and two of Soph's uncles were literally the only ones who somehow managed to get the blessing from our elders for their marriage.

The others were chosen ones, who were well acquainted and known by the family. And Mr. Somerset just happened to be someone of the sort.

"No way is that ever happening. Where is the dude we're meeting with? Is he seriously running late?"

Vince was clearly getting frustrated and as his best friend, I took it upon myself to throw gasoline on the newly igniting fire.

"I wonder how Mr. Roberto felt when some people didn't show up?"

Rolling his eyes at my indiscreet jab, he turned his head away from me and focused on Leo as he scrolled through his phone.

"You have literally nothing better to do."

Leo chose to ignore his twin and sighed in relief, only tucking away the life-consumer when the required personnel walked into the meeting room. My dear two friends had absolutely no idea that this meeting was with Mr. Somerset's daughter herself. And the look of surprise on Vince's face was totally worth it.

_______________________________

"You're breathing too loud!"

I whisper shouted at Leo as we attempted to make our way into the penthouse quietly. They were going to be killed for missing the first meeting and I was going to be murdered for making her skip out on the second one.

The only way we could hope to get out of this was if Soph hadn't already waken up.

"Shut up, you're whispering too loud!"

He responded smartly. Tiptoeing past Vince to make his way into the living room. The lights were dimmed, just the way I had left them but Soph could be awake for all we knew.

"She's going to run us over with that new rover of hers."

Leo whispered quietly, making our hearts resume beating at an abnormal rate. I had little doubt that she might actually do that. She was more than just excited to see Vince and Ms. Somerset jr. interact. Especially since she herself had found the girl adorable and just perfect.

"She isn't here."

Sighs of relief left us as Leo spoke the reassuring words after scanning the whole living room under the dull lighting. On the bright side, we had bought cookies and ice cream to offer in case she wanted to take a hammer to our heads. Cookies and Ice cream, and cookies and cream Ice cream were the way with her.

The only way to bargain for our lives was to entice her with the goodies we had to find in a rush.

"You sure about that?"

The light that suddenly shone through the room had all three of us wincing before our adjusted gazes revealed my totally and definitely pissed best friend standing on the stairs.