False Engagements

Chapter 5

Lila

- I'm in. When do we start?

Blake

- Happy to hear it.

- How long do you need to pack and tender your resignation? We can operate on your time here.

Lila

- I can give a week's notice

Blake

- Excellent.

- How does flying out next Friday sound to you?

- I'll transfer the first part of your pay to you. Just send me your bank details.

- How much is your current annual salary again?

Lila

- Sounds great. See you friday?

- Wait, where and when on friday?

Blake

- I'll text you again when I've arranged for the flight.

Lila

- Oh yeah right

- ok

- See ya then

- My annual salary is like twenty thousand

- Here's my bank account

- RBLK xxx-xxx-xxxx

--

She wasn't sure how giving her bank details to Blake made her feel about the whole thing. It finalized something there, something purely transactional, and made her feel... Maybe a little bit icky.

Which was stupid, because he'd told her to look at it as a job he was hiring her for from the get-go, and she wasn't doing it solely because she felt bad for a man she barely knew either.

Right.

She was giving up a year of her life here! She wouldn't be able to date, or have any real social life until Blake got his mess dealt with! Having a decent salary in this time that made up for all of that was absolutely necessary. No one lived off of hope, idealism and unicorn rainbow puffs. She could accept this salary with an open mind and an open heart!

The hype lasted for all of two minutes until her phone pinged with a notification and she opened it up to check it again.

Wait. That was... One too many zeroes, wasn't there? Or was she looking at it wrong?

Lila

- Uh Blake

- I think you made a mistake?

- It's twenty thousand

- Not two hundred thousand

She didn't have to wait long before he replied, thankfully.

Blake

- No, that's correct.

- I found your current salary too low.

- Based on the difficulty of your coming job, I thought 200,000 was more in line.

- Is there any other problem?

Lila

- what

- ... well if you put it that way?

- Thanks

- I guess??

- And I don't think so

Blake

- Fantastic.

- Enjoy your evening.

- Also, are you simply in the habit of not using punctuation in general?

Lila

- Are you quibbling about my punctuation over text???

Blake

- Yes.

- :)

She didn't bother replying to that one. But the little smiley stuck with her. It was an unexpectedly cute detail, and one that didn't match up to the image of the Blake in her head. Reserved, aloof Blake, who had his thoughtful side nevertheless and cared for things without anything showing on that carved-marble face of his.

'Is he cute?' Bailey had demanded to know. Lila wasn't sure 'cute' was the right word to use. Handsome, certainly. Annoyingly good-looking. But cute?

Maybe she'd have to rethink her whole opinion on him.

On a whole more practical note... She went back to look at her phone, eyes tracing over the pop-up notification for the $200,000. That was... more money than she'd ever made in her life. Blake was probably serious about transferring the other half at the end of their agreed-upon year, but Lila thought this was probably all she could accept as payment for the entire period.

With this, she would have enough to do whatever she wanted when she was back to her old life. And that was a dream not many people she knew could achieve so quickly. Suddenly a year didn't seem that long anymore. If anything, she thought Blake was overpaying her by a lot.

--

Packing was harder than she thought it would be.

In the end, it had been cheaper to release the apartment back to her landlady, while she kept the rest in a storage unit. A lot of her stuff was still with her parents in the next county over, so at least she was spared from having to pack her entire life into boxes and suitcases. Even so, she still had two suitcases worth of things, and eight boxes of miscellaneous bric-a-brac she had gathered over the years, on top of Rusty's new cat things. Not to mention the furniture she was loath to throw away or sell.

There had been an unexpected lot of memories tied up in her things. Deciding what she wanted to bring with her was a struggle- although she supposed the struggle was done now, as she eyed the suitcases sitting near the front door of her two-room apartment. Thank heavens for e-readers, or she knew she would be bringing far more than two suitcases to Blake's residence.

She suspected that might have been a bit of a problem.

How big was her room going to be anyway? Lila had no idea. Most probably it would be tiny. She knew the area Blake lived in, the property prices were said to be sky-high. Even most wealthy people there lived in pocket-sized apartments just so they could have the convenience of living right smack in the middle of town, next to the bustling business district. She'd probably just have to get there and see, and not pack too much to begin with. Just the necessities for now. Anyway, she would have time to come back and pick out more things to squirrel away back with her in a month.

Now that she was done, she was reminded of her texts. Blake said he had sent a taxi while he waited for her at the airport. Probably time to get going soon.

She picked up her bags, and the carrier where Rusty was meowing from. Poor Rusty really, the packing had upset him, and now the confines of a carrier was starting to stress him. She murmured to him soothingly; he seemed a little bit happier after she had tossed his favorite soft toy in there at least.

Personally, Lila didn't think Blake needed to spend the extra time and money to come escort her. She was a grown person! Perfectly capable of catching a regional flight and making sure her passport and papers were all in place. But if Blake thought it was impolite and was so insistent on coming over, then oh well. That was his own business.

Out the door, she locked the apartment behind her for the last time. The small pang of nostalgia that followed bit surprisingly hard. Even though the place was tiny, and she had lots of complains about it, (and she hadn't been here for more than a year and a half), it had already felt like her own sanctuary for the time. It wasn't likely to be hers again when she came back in a year.

She exhaled sharply.

Then again, she had two hundred thousand waiting in her bank. It was going to be okay, she could afford a better place then! And she could build something even better for herself after, she knew. She could feel it in her bones. For sure.

"Thanks for being my home," she said all the same, patting the door lightly, before turning away and down the stairs. Rusty let out a small mewl, as if he felt the same small desolation at leaving.

The taxi was indeed already waiting. Lila felt a bit bad for taking so long, and she hurried to stash her suitcases in the boot. Once she was settled in the car with Rusty at her side, her phone pinged, as if on cue.

Blake

- The taxi should be at your place.

Lila

- I'm in it!

- on my way

There was no response after that. Lila shrugged and settled to read through her social media feeds, as well as message Bailey from time to time. It wasn't a super long ride- just about long enough for her to get bored of her social media and to finish a chapter of a novella she had been reading. Rusty was quiet beside her, and when she looked in the carrier to check on him, he seemed to be moodily chewing on his toy.

The poor toy was going to be utterly mangled by the time they got to Blake's place. She hoped he'd catproofed her room the way she'd requested, so Rusty could run around.

All throughout the morning she had been methodically checking that she hadn't left anything behind, that whatever she needed to be in order was in order. The taxi ride served as a break for her to finally rest and put all the packing and paperwork behind now. Now though...

She gazed out the window as the taxi pulled alongside the curb to the departure hall.

This was getting real. She really was going to fly off to another country for some harebrained idea and a pretty face that somehow could convince her to do something really dumb just because said pretty face looked sad.

Think of the money, she told herself, when she hesitated over getting out the taxi. And think of how sad Blake would be. Maybe it was silly to let someone else's difficulties get to her so easily, but hey this was going to be a win-win situation right? Blake solved his family problem and could f**k off to do whatever he wanted after that, and she got capital to do whatever the f**k she wanted. A year was a short time.

With that repeated firmly in her mind, Lila pushed the door open.