CHAPTER 6 - THE ARRANGE PROPOSAL
Courtney almost fell on the chair upon hearing the word marry. Of course she will not deny the feeling of excitement since it was the same guy she was stalking for three months. But the fact that it was the same argument she had with her parents, she can’t help but to reject that sudden proposal.
"I'm sorry? Did you say marry you?” Courtney wants to be sure she heard correct.
“Yes.” Ben confirmed.
"Are you out of your mind?!" She whispered yell.
“Just listen to me first then you can decide after that.” Ben negotiated.
"I was right with my statement earlier." She flipped her hands.
"I'm surprised you can read me like a book. You got me there!" Ben placed a hand on his chin.
"Well it's part of my job reading people by their body language.” Courtney proudly said.
“If you don't mind me asking what's your job anyways?" Ben somehow got interested.
"I'm a therapist." She replied with smile.
"You're really great on your job." Ben complimented her.
"Thanks. So let's go back to our conversation before this goes nowhere.” Courtney brought the topic once again.
“As I was saying, being my wife can solve both our problems..” Ben leaned forward on the table like he was dealing with a client.
“How does marrying you solve my problem?" Her voice suddenly rose.
"I know this is not how you preferred to be married but I really need your help too. I’ll compensate your work hours by pretending to be my wife." Ben reasoned out.
“I don’t need the money and with the way you say it makes me feel like I'm some cheap, gold digging slut." She whispered the words just enough for them to hear.
"No that's not how I see you believe me." Ben immediately opposed.
"There’s a lot of woman you can get to so why did you pick me?" She still puzzled with the idea.
“That already crossed my mind but then my mother will find out, and who knows what kind of woman I’ll get to encounter? It could be some swindler, an ex-convict, or some obsessed stalker. Those type or women can put my life in jeopardy and can ruin our life, at least with you I know you.” Ben admitted.
Courtney almost gone pale hearing about the last type of woman that Ben mentioned. She admitted she was one of those women who are stalking him on social media, but not obsessed. She told herself that it is better to keep that part to herself since things might turn sour if she told him about it since Ben seems not too fond of that.
“Ten minutes ago you didn’t.” Courtney sneered.
“Point taken, but anyhow we are in the same shit, so why don’t we just help out each other.” Ben convinced her.
“You mentioned about your mother, does she have anything to do with this idea of yours?” Courtney studied Ben.
“Correct. It's actually my brother’s idea and I just go along with it since I know that’s the only way for my mother to stop pressing me to get married. Heck! I'm only twenty eight and I have no plans to marry just yet.” Ben explained.
"Then tell her about it maybe she'll understand." She advised.
“I tried but she didn’t listen, and I think you knew how parents can be, right?” Ben returned the question
“Totally, they are unpredictably unbelievable.” Courtney sighed.
“To make my situation worst, she wants to meet her daughter-in-law as she preferred to call it on her birthday and even demanded for grandchildren before I turned thirty." Ben added.
"Your mother is something. What’s the catch if you don’t agree with her conditions?" She almost choked her own drink.
"My inheritance including this café will be given to my younger brother. Don’t take it the wrong way, I'm not against the idea but he already got his shares it’s just that I was the one who worked hard to make our business grow." Ben defended his side.
"I understand you very well." Courtney placed her hand on top of his.
"Take it this way if we get married my mother will stop nagging me on getting married while your parents cannot force you to be engaged to someone you don’t know. Sounds good enough?" Ben convinced her.
"This is temporary right?” Courtney retracted her hand when she realized it.
“Yup, let’s say one year then we will divorce and you’ll get the money upfront.” Ben suggested.
“I don’t need the money, I have a job remember? The only thing I’m still on this table and not slapping you is because you’re my cousin’s friend and I want to help you too.” She speaks with full dignity.
"I got the best part on that that you are up for my proposal." Ben stated.
“I-- yes?" Courtney answered with questioning tone.
“Yes!” Ben hollered making few staff and people in the café looked their way.
“Don’t celebrate yet, we have a lot of things to discuss. For starter, my parents basically don't know you plus they know I have a boyfriend overseas which I don’t really have." She partly said the truth.
It was like a full blast of cold air hit her since that was her exact words with her parents. A total lie but now it is a reality minus the name of guy and that Ben didn’t knew it was him she was referring to as the overseas boyfriend.
“Now here’s what we’re going to do, I’ll post as your boyfriend/fiance.” Ben pointed himself.
Suddenly the cold drink that Courtney was holding slipped on her hand and onto the floor. One of the staff immediately head their way and started mopping the floor.
“Oh my, I’m so sorry.” Courtney apologized for her clumsiness.
“It’s okay. Let him clean it up.” Ben stopped her from moving and guided her back on the chair.
Ben gave a pointed look at the staff since he was looking directly on Courtney’s partly seen cleavage when she bent over to help the guy.
“How should we do it? I meant I told them you’re located abroad and all of a sudden you’re here?” Courtney finally found her voice after fixing her smudge pants.
“Easy, tell them the truth that you told me about their condition and then I decided to go back here.” Ben conjured a story.
“How about how we meet?” Courtney asked again.
“We can tell them the truth, we met at the airport through Zac, at least we didn’t lie about that part, and if they decided to call your cousin then he will confirmed that.” Ben added up.
“Are you sure it was your brother’s idea to have a hired bride? With the way you’re making up this story makes me think otherwise.” Courtney softly giggled.
“If I didn’t know any better I would say you’re falling for me.” Ben winked.
“Yeah right, Mr. imaginative mind.” Courtney sneered but deep inside she was blushing.
“Since you already claimed I have a creative mind, let’s continue our love story shall we?” Ben smirked.
“By all means.” Courtney gestured for him to continue.
“We can say, I left abroad for business and continue our relationship by talking on the phone then you told me about their plan so I head back as fast as I can to marry you and meet them, sounds more realistic eh?” Ben asked her opinion.
“I guess that's half the truth and we both can live with that. How about the heir? I mean do we really have to – you know?" She felt uncomfortable saying it.
"I'll tell my mother you can't have kids so I divorced you.” Ben thought.
“Nah that’s too plain, besides I don’t want to be the villain on this story while you play the victim. We can say that we’re not ready for that responsibility and we realized that we’re not meant to be.” Courtney gave her insight.
“Or maybe we can forget about the contract and just get on with it, what do you think?” Ben eyebrows arched up and down.
"I think what we need is a written contact before your mind gets somewhere." Courtney dismissed Ben’s flirty words.
"Anything you say wifey.” Ben joked that somehow brings an effect to Courtney.
“Is there a place where we can talk privately? We don’t want to risk people hearing this deal, right?" Courtney suggested.
"You’re right about that. We can have it in my office, if that’s fine with you?” Ben offered.
“Sure, let me grab my things.” Courtney took her car key and phone on the table.
“Give me five minutes, I just need to talk to my staff for brief second and then we can go, is that okay?” Ben made a note to talk to the guy earlier.
“Alright I’ll just be in bagno (toilet).” Courtney informed him.
“You can just wait me outside the door then.” Ben agreed and both of them left the table.
When Ben entered the kitchen, he calls the guy immediately and gave him an ultimatum. He told him never to disrespect her fiancé the way he did and the guy felt embarrassed about it. He apologized to his Boss since he was ogling the wife. The other staffs were surprised to hear about the fiancé part since nobody guess that he is engage. Kudos to their Boss, he managed to keep the whole relationship in private.
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