UNDER CONTRACT.
1757 Words
The envelope had been beneath Aisha’s teacup for three days.
She had stopped pretending she didn’t know what was inside it.
Still, she left it there.
Every morning, she moved the cup. Every evening, she put it back.
On the fourth morning, she finally opened it.
FINAL NOTICE.
Aisha read the words twice.
Then she looked at the amount beneath them.
Her stomach tightened.
Tomorrow.
That was all the time she had.
She leaned back in her chair and stared at the ceiling, trying to think of one person she could call without feeling like she was handing them a piece of herself.
No one came to mind.
Her phone buzzed beside the bill.
A reminder from the hospital.
She turned it face down.
For a moment, she sat perfectly still.
Then she reached for her laptop and forced herself to open it.
Work first.
Panic later.
She had just typed three words when someone knocked.
“Come in.”
The door opened.
Ethan walked in carrying two coffees.
He took one look at her and stopped.
“What happened?”
“Nothing.”
“You look terrible.”
Aisha gave him a flat look.
“Good morning to you too.”
He placed the coffees on the desk.
“I brought this for you.”
“I don’t drink coffee this late.”
“You’ve been drinking coffee since eight this morning.”
“That was different.”
“How?”
“I was pretending I had my life together.”
A faint smile touched his mouth.
Then his eyes landed on the envelope.
The smile disappeared.
Aisha noticed.
So did he.
“How much?”
She closed the laptop.
“How much what?”
“The bill.”
“I’ve got it.”
“Aisha.”
“I said I’ve got it.”
He pulled out the chair opposite her and sat.
For once, he didn’t argue.
He simply looked at her.
That was somehow worse.
Aisha picked up the envelope and folded it in half.
“I’ll sort it out.”
“With what?”
She looked away.
Ethan understood.
“Let me pay it.”
Her head snapped back toward him.
“No.”
“You haven’t even heard the amount.”
“I don’t need to.”
“Aisha—”
“No.”
The word came out harder than she intended.
Silence settled between them.
Ethan leaned back.
“You’d rather let a deadline bury you than accept money from me?”
“I’d rather solve my own problems.”
“You’re not solving this one.”
Her eyes hardened.
“You don’t get to decide that.”
“I’m not deciding anything. I’m looking at what’s in front of me.”
“And what exactly do you see?”
“A woman who hasn’t slept properly in days.”
She said nothing.
“A woman who checks her phone every five minutes because she’s waiting for bad news.”
Her fingers tightened around the envelope.
“And a woman who is too proud to admit she needs help.”
Aisha stood.
“Enough.”
Ethan stood too, but he didn’t move closer.
“I’m not calling you weak.”
“It sounds like you are.”
“I’m saying you don’t have to do everything alone.”
She laughed softly.
“People always say that until you actually need them.”
Something in her voice made him stop.
Aisha looked down at the bill.
“I’ve accepted help before.”
She swallowed.
“It always came with a price.”
Ethan’s expression changed.
He didn’t ask what happened.
He simply reached into his jacket and placed a black folder on the desk.
Aisha stared at it.
“What’s that?”
“Another option.”
She didn’t touch it.
“For the bill?”
“For the bill. And for Sofia.”
That got her attention.
Ethan opened the folder.
“I need a favor.”
Aisha raised an eyebrow.
“You?”
“Yes. Me.”
He slid the first page toward her.
“I need a relationship.”
She blinked.
“A real one?”
“No.”
“Then why are you asking me?”
“Because Sofia needs to believe it’s real.”
Aisha stared at him.
Then at the contract.
Then back at him.
“You’ve lost your mind.”
“Possibly.”
“And you think I’m going to pretend to be your girlfriend?”
“Not pretend everywhere. Just where it matters.”
He turned the page.
“Public events. Family functions. Photographs. Whatever is necessary to make the engagement impossible.”
Aisha’s gaze moved over the neatly printed clauses.
There were rules.
A ridiculous number of them.
No unnecessary physical contact.
No interference in private affairs.
No emotional expectations.
No discussion of the arrangement outside agreed boundaries.
A fixed duration.
A clean termination.
She looked up.
“You actually had a lawyer write this?”
“I had a lawyer make sure neither of us could change the rules halfway through.”
“And what do I get?”
Ethan’s answer came quietly.
“I’ll pay the bill.”
Aisha’s eyes returned to the page.
“Everything?”
“Everything.”
“No repayment?”
“No.”
“Why?”
“Because I need you.”
She looked at him.
It was the first honest answer he’d given her.
Not because I feel sorry for you.
Not because you need me.
Because he needed her too.
Aisha closed the folder.
“You’re asking me to sell you a relationship.”
“No.”
His voice softened.
“I’m asking you to borrow me one.”
She almost smiled.
Almost.
Then the phone on the desk lit up.
FINAL NOTICE — PAYMENT DUE TOMORROW.
Ethan saw it.
He didn’t comment.
He simply pushed the contract back toward her.
“You don’t have to decide now.”
Aisha stared at him.
“But you know the deadline.”
“Yes.”
“And you know I can’t afford another option.”
“Yes.”
“Then don’t pretend this isn’t pressure.”
His jaw tightened.
“I won’t.”
That answer unsettled her more than any argument could have.
He picked up his coffee.
“I’ll leave you to it.”
At the door, he paused.
“Whatever you decide, don’t decide because you think you owe me.”
Then he left.
Aisha remained standing beside the desk.
The room felt strangely quiet.
She looked at the contract.
Then at the bill.
For the first time in her life, the thing she wanted and the thing she needed were sitting on opposite sides of the same page.
She reached for neither.
⸻
Sofia found the photograph by accident.
She had been searching through an old box in her mother’s study for something else when a stack of photographs slipped from her hands.
One landed face-up.
Three children stood beneath the old school oak tree.
Sofia recognized herself immediately.
Ethan was beside her.
He looked younger, carefree, almost unrecognizable.
Then she noticed the third child.
A girl standing slightly behind them.
Her smile was small.
Careful.
Sofia frowned.
She turned the photograph over.
Ethan, Sofia & Aisha — Spring Fair.
Her fingers went still.
Aisha.
She looked at the photograph again.
Then another memory surfaced.
A lunch tray knocked from someone’s hands.
A notebook thrown across a classroom.
Ethan laughing.
A girl trying not to cry.
Sofia had forgotten.
Or perhaps she’d simply decided it wasn’t worth remembering.
She pulled out another photograph.
There she was again.
Aisha.
Always nearby.
Always quieter than everyone else.
Sofia’s expression changed.
She wasn’t looking at an old classmate anymore.
She was looking at a missing piece of Ethan’s past.
And suddenly, something clicked.
The way Ethan looked at Aisha.
The irritation.
The familiarity.
The tension.
He hadn’t merely met her again.
He remembered her.
Sofia slowly sat down.
A smile appeared on her lips.
Not because she was happy.
Because she had finally found something she could use.
If Aisha was the girl Ethan had once enjoyed tormenting, then Sofia knew exactly which version of him she could bring back.
The boy who didn’t care about consequences.
The boy who laughed when people told him to stop.
The boy who had once listened to Sofia because she knew how to get him to do almost anything.
She looked down at the photograph.
“Let’s see if you’re still in there,” she whispered.
Then she slipped it into her handbag.
⸻
Three nights later, Aisha stood before her bedroom mirror.
The gala invitation lay on the dresser.
Beside it was the contract.
She had read every clause.
Twice.
Maybe three times.
Her phone buzzed.
She didn’t look at it immediately.
When she finally did, her heart sank.
PAYMENT OVERDUE. FINAL REMINDER.
Aisha closed her eyes.
She thought of the hospital.
Of the number on the bill.
Of Ethan’s offer.
Then she opened the drawer beneath the mirror.
For a moment, her hand disappeared inside.
When it came back out, she was holding something small.
She slipped it into her purse.
The contract remained on the dresser.
Whatever was going to happen next was definitely going to be a game changer.
⸻
The Beaumont Foundation Gala was already crowded when Ethan arrived.
Everyone knew who he was supposed to walk in with.
Sofia had made certain of that.
She stood near the center of the ballroom, surrounded by photographers and influential guests, looking every inch like the future Mrs. Beaumont.
Then the doors opened.
Conversation faded.
Ethan stepped inside.
Alone for exactly two seconds.
Then Aisha appeared beside him.
The room went silent.
Sofia’s smile disappeared.
Aisha felt dozens of eyes land on her at once.
She almost stopped.
Almost.
Then Ethan offered his arm.
She looked at it.
For one heartbeat, she remembered the contract.
The rules.
The deadline.
Her decision.
Then she slipped her hand through his arm.
Cameras flashed.
Someone whispered her name.
Someone else whispered Sofia’s.
Ethan looked down at Aisha.
She didn’t look back.
Across the ballroom, Sofia watched them.
Her eyes moved from Aisha to Ethan.
Then to the photograph hidden inside her handbag.
A slow smile returned to her face.
She had found the girl from Ethan’s past.
Now she only had to remind Ethan exactly who that girl had been.
The music began again.
But no one in the room was listening anymore.
They were watching Ethan Beaumont and Aisha Karim.
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