False Engagements

Chapter 4

Day 3 and counting. Lila laid on the floor of her bedroom, watching Rusty sleep. Three days of contemplating, of ruminating over the whole matter. Technically she was supposed to be at work today, but her boss had told her to stay home since she had been so utterly distracted for the last two days, breaking bowls and misremembering orders left and right.

Maybe she should have told someone about this whole crazy thing. Ask for some proper outside perspective. As it was, the only thing she had done was to google Blake and see what came up. Nothing suspicious. He had explained his family background, given her any details she cared to know. And whatever had appeared on the search engine only corroborated what he said.

Well, she didn't have to tell the whole truth right? It was crazy. But if she could spin it...

She sat up, chewing on the corner of her lip. This was going to drive her even more crazy if she wasn't able to tell anyone anything. And at least Blake had given her an address. It was some condominium in the middle of the city. It wasn't like she couldn't tell anyone where she would be.

Steeling herself, she reached for her phone and texted Bailey, her best friend of seven years.

I got a job offer. Double my salary. But I have to move out the country for a year.

She wasn't sure how long she expected the response to take, but she certainly did not expect her phone to ring the very next second, nor for the voice yelling at her to be loud enough that she almost dropped her phone.

"You're moving out of the country??? LILA! WHAT THE HELL?"

"Oh my god, Bailey, calm down." Lila's hands automatically came up in a placating gesture, even though Bailey couldn't see it. "I haven't accepted it yet. That's why I texted you. I wanted to get some advice"

"Oh." Silence for a moment, then, "Good. Cos that's a frickin' major-ass decision that you shouldn't have made without consulting anyone. So what's the job? Why is it paying you double and why do you have to move?"

She definitely hadn't thought this through. Frantically she racked her brain for a way to twist the whole situation into something more believable than 'a billionaire asked me to be his fake fiancee to buy him time to get out of family obligations'.

Now that she'd summarized it, it did sound pretty crazy.

"Umm. Remember the two guys I said helped me rescue Rusty?"

"Mmhmm?"

"So they run their own businesses, and they're not local. We've been hanging out, 'cos one of them asked me to be their tour guide around Sateen Island while they paid for my food and tickets and stuff in return. Last week one of them had a sudden vacancy for a personal assistant position. He asked me if I wanted it."

Personal assistant seemed as close to the truth as she could make it. Bailey didn't seem too happy though.

"Really? So after a few days of hanging out, this guy asked you to come work for him without knowing what you actually studied? And personal assistant? Does that position even still exist? What if he's a creepy fucker trying to hit on you?"

If Blake had been some creep who had just been hitting on her, this might have been a lot easier, Lila thought. Instead, there was... this weird mess.

"Yeah it does sound weird right?"

Another long pause between the two of them. Then Lila sighed. She'd never been good at keeping secrets from her best friend.

"Do you want to hear something crazy?"

"Crazier than what you just told me?"

"... Yeah. I lied. That wasn't exactly what happened. I think the truth is even wilder." Who else in the world could she tell except Bailey? Even her parents weren't privy to some of her secrets the way Bailey was. So she told her the truth instead. About who Blake was. Why he really wanted her to come live with him. The family problems he was hopelessly entangled in. At the end of it, Bailey was dead silent, and Lila felt anxiety bubbling over in her, unsure of what her best friend would say.

It was to her greatest surprise that Bailey answered, "You know, I think that is actually less crazy than your original story."

"What?"

"Yeah, I mean, a rich guy who's reclusive, has a traditional family with inheritance squabbles and doesn't know anybody who wouldn't take advantage of the situation, like, that still makes sense! Sure, I guess actually meeting a person like that is kind of one in a billion, but at least he has a solid reason and motive. In that first version of your story he just sounded like a predator who wanted you away from family and friends."

Lila had to concede she didn't make the best go of telling a fake story.

In a way this was better though. Lying to Bailey had felt so weird, and it felt like she had let go of such a burden just being able to tell the whole unvarnished weird truth to her friend.

"So are you going to take it up? And would you have to be there the whole time?"

"No. I hashed out some preliminary details. I have to live there, so he can introduce me to the family and maybe bring me around to some dinners to convince people. But he said he's happy to pay for my travelling back here every month or so. And it's only two hours' flight, so it's not that far away either."

"Good. I was so scared I couldn't meet you for a whole year!" The relief in her voice was audible, and Lila felt her heart warming.

"Yeah that really would have been awful..." She flopped down onto her bed, startling Rusty, who swatted his tail at her face in annoyance. Still, the tension was starting to ease out of her body. "I think I trust him enough to take this up. Maybe you're right, a few days isn't enough to know a person. But based on what I know, I do think he's sincere. He basically showed zero interest in me until he actually needed a favor. And he was really polite about it too."

"If it was anyone else, I'd say they need to think it over. But I think you generally have a good nose for people. Like that one time you disliked Janine's boyfriend from the get go? And everyone didn't understand why? Until six months later when that whole drama spilled out. That really vindicated your pettiness."

"Excuse me? It wasn't pettiness. It was getting red flags off him, left, right and center!"

"Okay Lila, if that makes you feel better."

Lila scoffed at Bailey, but couldn't help smiling. "Well I guess I'll let Blake know then. I'll have to think of something to tell my parents too. We should probably meet for lunch or something before I fly over though."

"Yeah. Of course." Bailey suddenly sounded a little sad. "I'm still going to miss you. Seeing you once a month or so isn't really going to be the same."

Lila's heart gave an odd little squeeze at that note in her voice. "Me too. I'm going to miss our weekly ice cream dates. But at least we still have Facetime, right?"

"If that works for you... Speaking of Facetime, are you gonna Facetime me when you're with Mr. Mysterious Billionaire? Is he cute at least?"