Substitute for Lawson

12

After unequal catch-ups, Damian still succumbed and stopped in the middle of the path, took a breath. Tired to the edge, the girl could hardly move her limbs, unlike him. How long has she not been running.

- What are you dead, - builds a feigned indignation and grins.

- And you ... - She exhales with the last of her strength, bending over in half, takes a breath.

- Well? He teases, squatting in front of her.

- What kind of scene did you make ?! What other suggestion, huh ?! Poor student from England ?! There is nothing?! How old are you, eh ?! - Boils like an electric kettle. She throws her hands up emotionally and is ready to beat this asshole. breaks into a ringing laugh, while Emily decided for the first time in her life, someone to express all her thoughts. - Aaaaa! I understood! - snaps his fingers. - You just need British citizenship! I found a fool and decided to breed her, inventing fairy tales that you need some kind of experiment there! She concludes triumphantly.

Damian's laughter seems unstoppable. After the last words, the man is already openly laughing, not laughing, and, a little more, and will begin to roll on the asphalt like crazy.

“What a fool,” he says through laughter. The girl cannot take her eyes off him and only now realizes that for the first time she sees him laughing. Always a pensive and serious expression on his face, and now a mature sullenness has been replaced by childish amusement. The wrinkles in the corners of his eyes gave a certain innocence, and a funny smile made him look like a rabbit. - I am a bipatrid, I have two citizenships!

- Yes? - Emily becomes abruptly ashamed. - Then why all this clownery ?!

- I told you, I want to experiment on myself! She tries her best to stop laughing, but the big smile never leaves his face. - So, daughter-in-law, - clicks her on the nose, watching the girl blush and frown. - Do not move your eyebrows like that, otherwise they will grow together.

Lowsen goes home first, followed by the offended Emily. Mumbling all sorts of discontent to herself, she trudged a little behind, watching the relaxed deputy. Having caught up with him already at the entrance, she did not say a word until they entered the apartment.

“By the way,” Damian called out to her as she was about to go to the bedroom.

- What?

- Here, take it, - hands her a credit card and the second keys to the apartment.

- Why is that? - accepts, but looks warily at the gold plastic.

- We are acting on an accelerated program. I promised to be a diligent husband, ”he grins. - I got a good job, so we have money, and the keys to the apartment of our dreams, bang! Ah, well, and there are still children left, how many children do you want?

- Enough mockery! I asked okay! Fox mutters frowningly.

- I answered normally, - the deputy parries.

- Then one more thing! “She wants to throw those keys back into him. - Ring. She concludes ironically.

- Ring? - As if remembering he asks. - Oh, what are you selfish, girls! Okay, you will have a ring, do not whine. - He claps and taking off his sportswear on the go hides behind the door in the bathroom.

***

Due to the insistence of her boss, Emily had to go not by subway, but in his car. She reproached herself for eventually embarking on some dubious adventure.

- And why the map? - She asked, thrusting her hand into her purse.

- Why, little wife? - Damian is sneering. - I, like any exemplary husband, give my money to my wife!

He was clearly being bullied now. She seems to have gotten excited, having recently considered him normal.

- Yes, you just made me agree! This is wrong… ”On the last sentence, the tone became quieter, and with a sigh, she turned her head to the window.

- Okay, just kidding. This is not all my money, just one of my cards. Well, since we live together, and according to ancient customs, a woman takes care of the house, and a man works, then this is money for groceries and what else might be needed there? - As if he is pondering. - Since we will eat together, then don't save on food and different things, I'm used to a normal existence. If you don't want to clean the apartment yourself, then just call the housekeeper from the agency. Little things like that, okay?

The girl shrugged her shoulders. I didn’t want to answer, but if so, then she did not intend to throw a card at him.

- Stop me here! - She dropped out when she realized that the office was not so far away.

- In terms of? Here? We haven't arrived yet.

- I want to go out here, but what will happen if they see us together? “She’s ready to jump out of the car. The guy behind the wheel clinks annoyedly.

- And that will be?

- They will say that I'm sticking to you. - The secretary puffs up remembering the snide little bitches that love to gossip behind their backs.

- Or maybe I'm sticking to you? Lowsen suggested.

- You can't stick to me a priori. - She grins bitterly. - He himself called me a mouse and a mumbled. Yelled at me right in front of everyone. So stop it.

- Maybe then we met on the road and I offered to let you down? - He is not appeased. For some reason, he wanted to do the opposite. Either for evil, or he did not understand the girl's feelings. He was not ashamed of anything and now, after the manifestation of his character didn't seem like such a gray mouse.

“Mr. Lowsen…” she pleads. - I… We almost arrived, so stop.

- What the hell are you doing ... - The man is dissatisfied, but almost reaching the office he stops at the sidewalk.

- Thank you. - she nods and unfastening her seat belt quickly leaves the car.

Lowsen watches her for a while, but remembering that she needs to go to work, he directs the car to the parking lot.

Getting out of the car, Damian looks around. Somewhere in the distance a girl minces that she does not want them to be found together. And who will find them, if there is no one in the parking lot except expensive pieces of iron and his?

- Oh, my deputy is already meeting me, - not far away, the door of a Lexus car, owned by the general director, Lucas Kim, slams.

His wife gets out of the car next, and it seems that now Damiana guesses who Emily did not want to run into. A malicious smile appears on the lips.

- Hi Damian, - Alice smiled, straightening her coat.

“Hello, couples in love,” he chuckled, but his eyes still couldn’t leave Emily as she walked toward the office.

- Oh, and there Emily, how we all arrived together! - Tracking the eyes of a friend, the wife of the general, who has not seen her friend since Saturday, has already crept up to her.

“Well, again,” Lucas pouts, catching up with his friend. They follow, watching the girls.

- What? - Damian hardly looks away from the blue-eyed.

- No attention in the morning! First, everything is with my daughter, and then with a friend, even cuddling is not given! - the married man complains, long sighing. - I'm already jealous of her to Emily ... - Offendedly puts his hands in the pockets of his trousers, curling his lips.

“You'd better tell me who you’re not jealous of,” Lousen laughs, every now and then, shifting his gaze.

The men caught up with the girls who were already waiting for them at the entrance.

“Hello, Mr. Kim,” Emily greeted immediately, to which the headmaster also responded in a friendly manner.

Looking at the girl, Damian chuckled a little thoughtfully. He wondered if his guesses were correct or not.

“Good morning, Mr. Lowsen…” she said, remembering that it would be suspicious not to greet him. This elicits an even bigger grin from the deputy.

- Haven't we seen each other already? He says sarcastically, crossing his arms over his chest. There is a slight surprise in Alice's eyes.

- When is that? - the secretary squeezes out nervously. She runs her eyes from side to side, thus causing more suspicion than before.

- How, this is when? - Demin is feigned amazement. Obviously enjoying the show. - Today morning.

- You are confusing something ... - the girl is nervous. Lucas barely perceptibly twitches his eyebrows and crosses his gaze with his wife.

- Really? I kind of saw you at the crossroads, and you me, I nodded to you, - having frankly mocked, the man easily gets out of the situation, enjoying Fox's reaction.

- Ah ... this ... - plays along with him actively nodding. - Yes…

***

Sitting in his office, Damian still cannot help smiling. Brittany managed to fill him up with reports from almost all departments, but this did not prevent him from being in a good mood. I wanted to go to the legal department and again somehow make fun of the poor sufferer. He will make her confess to everyone, or at least to their mutual friends, what kind of relationship they are in. But now I had to start with myself and my best friend. I would rather like to share this crazy idea with a friend. Time was approaching lunchtime, and, oddly enough, things were moving fast even with a stream of thoughts.

During lunch, Kim himself went for Damian, and with a mysterious smile, even managed to hum a compliment to Brittany. From the very beginning, the behavior of his friend and Emily seemed strange to him. He was too active, for all his dislike from the very beginning to the intern, and she was too clearly embarrassed, as if she was trying to hide something. He also thought that it was not in vain that they were then standing on the wooden porch of the house together, and then his bosom friend, kindly offered to bring her home. It couldn't be that easy for him, and Kim knew it very well.

- Well, why are you sitting? - all the same mysteriously purred Lucas, opening the door to the office. Damian, who had recently thought about lunchtime, suddenly buried himself in the report and completely forgot even about Emily.

- What? - Not immediately hearing, the gloomy deputy looks up from the white sheets.

- You are not going to have dinner? - Reflexively raises the wrist with the watch to his eyes, pointing with his fingers to the dial. Damian does the same, immediately knocking himself on the forehead.

“Exactly,” he nods, hastily putting down the papers. - Come on, - getting up from a chair that seems to be soft, all the same, with a drawn-out groan, begins to knead his numb back.

Throwing a jacket over his shoulders, he picks up the phone from the table and both go out into the waiting room. There they are met by a secretary who looks as busy as her boss.

“Brittany, call the chief architect to me after dinner,” Damian instructed her on the machine, and, stopping, glanced at the girl. - And go to lunch.

“Okay, Mr. Lowsen,” she said on the machine, but she didn’t stop typing.

Assessing the cohesion of these two, the gene. The director chuckled and went out into the corridor after his deputy.

Now they were heading to the same restaurant where they usually dined. The two girls were not with them today. So to speak, a purely male conversation, or worse gossip than girls.

- Why are you so mysterious today? - Lucas noticed that snide grin that washed over his friend again.

- Why mysterious? - the one is naively interested, already anticipating, as he confesses in his idea.

“Well, I don’t know… and Emily, too…” Kim squints and, having greeted the administrator with a nod, sits down at the table. - Confused by your company more than usual.

“I don’t know what you mean, bartan.

“Okay, don’t pretend, you’ve probably already dragged the poor girl into bed. - Lucas says all this, about not even embarrassed by strangers, namely the waiter, who writes down everything that Kim silently shows. - Saturday was busy.

“Yeah, don’t tell me. - Damian involuntarily recalls how this Saturday ended. - And anyway, why did you decide that I will tell you who f****d and who not?

“Didn’t you do that before?” - a studying gaze peers over the wine list.

- Well, I won't be anymore. - he claps, now his turn has come to poke on the menu. - And here it is please. - claps the hard cover and gives the menu back to the waiter, with nothing to do, twirls the leg of a perfectly grated glass in his fingers. - How you got married, too, does not hurt me in detail. How is Alice in bed?

Lucas has been watching Damian closely all this time. And yet, he is somehow strange today. Putting his chin on the palm of his hand, and resting his elbow on the tabletop, he tilts his head slightly to the side and squints.

- My intimate life, that's why it is intimate, in order to remain private, but you have never been against stories about your exploits, well, there were so many girls that, in principle, it is absolutely not important. But I can see in your eyes that you want to talk about something. Lucas concludes with a steely calm.

- Do you think I can marry, huh? - Damian blurts out and, despite the expressive eyes of his best friend, inhales and looks away somewhere to the side, where a middle-aged couple is sitting at the next table. Lucas is watching all this with just his eyes.

- Decided to listen to mom? - and still surprised. You don't hear something like that every day.

- Not. - turns his head and still not knowing what to do with his hands, begins to play with a table knife. - Should I marry Emily?

The large and black eyes that were drilled opposite became several times larger than usual, although they were large in themselves.

- What?

- So what? - there was a slight fear in Damian's eyes.

- Admit it honestly, you slept with her and accidentally caught a child? - Kim is interested in some more parental tone, which makes Lowsen boil.

- What does that have to do with it, hyung ?! He shouts. - I didn’t sleep with her. - also instantly calms down by breathing out the words.

- And then what? I'm just running out of logical explanations for your idea. Why do you need it? And why is she?

- I don't know why she is. This is nothing serious. I want a fictitious marriage, I want to understand myself, maybe I will like it and I will start more actively looking for a woman for life? Or I’ll say no to all this, and I’ll remain a bachelor forever.

- Why is she? - the general does not appease. - You seem to be free to choose a girl to your liking for such a strange step. It seems like a queue for you, if you listen to the conversations of the fair s*x.

- Exactly, I don't need these ... - Damian says a little timidly, widening his eyes. - they are like predators that attract me only at night. And this one ... I don’t know, I don’t understand her in any way.

“Mmm…” Lucas glances at the waiter who is already carrying their order, and saliva spills in involuntarily, making him gag. - Do you even know what this fictitious marriage will cost you? - while the waiter is arranging the plates, Lucas looks at the deputy, who seems to have lost his appetite. “You’ll have to be married to her for at least a year. And getting divorced ... it's ... especially here, a dreary job, as a lawyer you should know.

Damian's face is brooding. Rubbing his chin with his index finger, his eyes flickered as if calculating something. While Kim begins to eat his steak, he has not touched the food.

“I'm not a family lawyer to remember that. - after a long pause he gives out and, as if remembering the salad in his plate, begins to eat. - Well, okay ... let's say ... then ... - conducts a fork, looking somewhere through his friend, that he starts to strain a little.

"Damian, are you really okay?"

- What?

- Never mind. Why do you need it? Do you understand that this will all be? Maybe you need to see a doctor?

“Brother,” Damian breathes. - And you once, for what purpose did you close Alice in the house? By the way, you kept her forcibly in a closed room for the first time. Did you know what you were doing then?

- You should remember what I was going through then and how you were spinning around me, willingly hand over to psychiatrists ... - memories put pressure on appetite, or rather on its loss.

- I was afraid that you could do something with yourself, because you had it in your plans. Enough! BUT then you're already green like a salad on my plate. - slightly casually throws the cutlery on the table and picks up a glass of juice. - In general, Emily was almost r***d on Saturday.

- And it wasn't you? - not understanding all the seriousness, mocks Kim. - okay, okay, don't look like that! - catching a murderous look, throws up his hands and prepares to listen further. - This is when you left? What happened? - the voice sounded worried.

- Yes, I took her home, but this fool forgot her phone in my car. I returned, and there ... - Damian nervously pursed his lips. - There, some guy pressed her to the curbstone. It turned out to be the landlord. In general ... I have it now. - clears his voice, watching his friend grow dark with every word.

- Yeah ... Aaaa, that's why you both behaved so strangely ... - he chuckles. - Well, okay, let's say ... Let's say you got married ... How much did you want?

- Six months.

- Yes, for six months ... And ... don't you think that you will fall in love later?

- Do I look like a woman who dreams of fairy tales and a prince? - not even considering such an option, he grins.

- Back to my case? Lucas chuckles reproachfully.

- It's hard not to fall in love with Alice. - he parries, throwing up his hands. The director frowns with his index finger.

- Okay. He exhales noisily. - Let's say you are not such an ordinary girl who dreams of a prince, although you are men, but Emily is just that. Do you even see how she behaves around you? A little more and she will not only agree to marry you, she will offer you to give birth to children, so for an experiment. I certainly understand that she is not a hunter ...

- Since when do you complicate things so much? - Damian is irritated at the thought that his friend may be right.

- Alice taught me, she always does that. In general, you think. Of course, I will support any of your decisions, but even after this, am I the crazy one in our pair?

“Both are crazy. You and I would not have communicated for so many years if we thought differently. - chuckles Damian, starting the second part of his lunch.