Chapter4
1244 Words
“It was my mother’s. There aren’t any others of such quality in my jewelry box, trust me.”
Matthew nodded slowly. The confusion had left his face. He seemed to be adding equations and solving the puzzle.
“So, Mr. Jones stole your check?” he asked now.
Diane nodded quickly. It was only now dawning on her that Matt was never snobbish. He only came here to purchase paintings from someone of wealthy means.
“And here I thought you were some rich princess working in a public school to feel less guilty.”
“So, you will let me do the painting?” Diane decided to push her luck.
Matthew considered for a while before asking.
“On a scale of 1 to 10, how broke are you?”
Diane’s eyes widened. She rarely saw his replies coming before they arrived.
“Why would you ask me that?!” She demanded.
“One is you-can-barely-afford-food, broke. And 10 is you-would-have-to save-to-afford-skin-care, broke.”
Diane felt her anger rise, but she bit her lip. “Two,” she answered truthfully, hoping her honesty would compel him to offer her the job.
Matthew’s face lit up in an eerily mischievous smile.
“Oh, I was hoping you would say that.” He let the door handle go and took two steps closer to her. Diane retreated with a single step, but he made up for that with another step.
“I have a problem, and you can help me solve it. For ten thousand dollars.”
If Diane’s eyes were mere balls, they would have dropped from their sockets to the wooden floor.
“Ten thousand dollars?!” she exclaimed.
“On the nose.”
“What kind of problem is it worth ten thousand dollars?”
“A sensitive one. Nothing immoral,” he shrugged. “Deal?” he asked.
If the stare-down from minutes ago was a meter, that was a mile. Diane combed through several scenarios and possibilities but came up with nothing. Then she let out a long and heavy sigh.
“I know I might regret this…but what freaking problem do you have?!”
“My aunt is dying. I am traveling to be by her side.”
Diane blinked. “Oh, that’s sad,” she said, wondering how she could be of help with that. She had toyed with the idea of going to medical school in high school, but her science grades did not let her live in her delusion for too long.
“I am her only family left, and she wants me to tie the knot,” he continued. “She thinks I will be alone after she’s gone.”
“Well, wouldn’t you be?”
“No,” was his simple answer.
“Okay. Then, tell her that.”
“Diane, if it was that simple, I wouldn’t be offering a thousand dollars.”
“Ten,” she reminded him.
“Ten,” he corrected. “Back to my aunt, I want her dying days to be happy.”
“So?”
“So, I have only a few weeks to fall in love, get married and appease her wounded heart.”
Diane shook her head in pity. “How terrible.” In truth, she couldn't care less. This was not a problem. This was a rich person’s dying wish. All dying people had that.
“So?” he prompted.
Diane regarded him with genuine surprise.
“There are women everywhere!” she pointed out, exasperated. She sounded desperate to get him off her back and his money in her purse.
He frowned. “Aren’t they? But it takes a lot to love and care for someone, to build a flimsy feeling that might fall apart and leave a very terrible taste in your mouth…”
“Oh Lord!” she groaned. “You know you don’t have to be in love or have any feelings, right?”
“I don’t?”
“You want a happy aunt?” she explained, feeling quite impatient. “Marry whomever. Then get a divorce after she’s passed.”
“Argh!” Matthew exclaimed. “I feel like a simpleton. Why did I not consider that? The solution was staring me in the face all along. Now all that is left is to find a willing girl…” he let the words hang in the air. “Besides, I have already agreed to pay a generous amount…”
It was only then that the full reason for the story dawned on Diane. She felt like a jackass, this was what his proposal was all along. He was asking her to…
“Are you trying to get me to…?”
“Tie the knot?” he asked. “Yes. It took you long enough.” He let out a sigh.
Diane had thought up several scenarios, including a money heist and smuggling out a dead body, but she had not considered this. It sounded like something from a bad movie.
“Why is this shocking?!” Matthew asked. “We will be helping each other. I got a bride for my aunt. You get money. A win-win!”
“What if…” she thought hard. “What if I am married?”
“Are you?”
“Well, no. But I could have a boyfriend.”
“Do you want the money or not?!” He sounded exasperated, but Diane was too.
“I don’t know,” she whispered at last.
“Look,” he sighed. “It will be a temporary contract—for let's say, a year? “No lovey-dovey stuff, of course. Just a business arrangement. And if you want me to prove there wouldn't be any romantic entanglement between us...”
Without thinking twice, he stepped closer to her, invading her personal space. Diane’s heart beat faster but she could not move. She seemed transfixed in place as his lips hovered above hers. Her feet felt like a pool of water and her skin had grown even whiter.
He moved his hand as if to cup her cheek but intentionally stopped just short of making contact.
“See?” he whispered. “No kissing. Just a staged act to prove our commitment to the charade…”
But he did not draw away. He hovered above her, staring down in her eyes, then suddenly he blinked and stepped back and Diane felt her heart beat back to life.
“W-What was th-that?” she stuttered.
“So, what do you say?” he asked instead, his voice a bit louder than usual.
It was a while before Diane could get her brain working again. She had wanted him to kiss her, she realized, and for that alone she considered turning down the offer. She had felt warm all over and was only seconds away from grabbing his neck and claiming his lips.
But ten thousand dollars was a lot of money. A lot of money she didn’t have. A lot of money she needed to get by. She couldn’t let her random sensual feelings get in the way of a good deal.
At last, she released a heavy sigh. “Fine.”
“You are in?” he asked again for confirmation.
“Yes.” She was too broke to say no.
“Good,” he nodded. “Meet me at the airport by nine.”
“What?!” she yelled, but he was gone.
- Writer
