Save the Date (Modern Arrangements) (11 page)

"When is the food coming? I’m
starved!" James interrupted my mental planning.

"It gets here when it gets here.
Quit your whining!"

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Weeks passed before I heard from Dixon. I
got a voicemail one afternoon inviting me over after our baseball game on
Sunday morning. Come Sunday morning it was raining horribly, so clearly the
game was off, but Dixon still was having the guys come over to hang out and
watch some games.

Lilli answered the door, eyes rimmed red
and swollen. Her hair was loosely piled on her head. Wisps of chocolate brown
hang around her face.

"Hey, come in." Her smile
seemed forced. "Dixon went to the gym but he should be back any second. He
knew you guys would be arriving around this time." Following her path to a
barstool, she sat and slumped over a newspaper lying on the counter in front of
her.

"Thanks." I said, feeling a
little uneasy. "Um, how’s your dad?"

She looked over at me a little confused,
probably wondering how I knew about her dad.

"He’s okay," she almost turned
back around but hesitated. "Um…thanks for asking."

"Sure."

Before we could engage in further
conversation, the apartment door opened.

"Hey fucker!" Dixon walked
over, patting my back. "Give me ten minutes to shower." With a ruffle
of Lilli's hair, he headed down the hallway.

Stepping away from Lilli, I walked over
and sat on the couch. For a couple of minutes I sat in silence watching Lilli. With
one leg curled under her and the other crossed in front of her, she looked like
a contortionist.

"Lilli, do we have clean towels
anywhere?" Dixon yelled. I could hear the water running in the background.

Huffing, she slid from the barstool.
Walking down the hallway, she responded."They are in the dryer! I’ll get
them!" Just inside the hallway, she turned to me. "You can help
yourself to the fridge, tv and all that stuff." Then she disappeared.

On my way to the refrigerator, I caught
sight of the newspaper Lilli left on the counter. Black marks circled multiple
areas. Leaning in, I saw they were help wanted ads.

Was she seriously trying to get another
job? Jesus!

The flash of an idea reappeared in my
head. As I was thinking about it and looking over all the black circles, her
voice pulled me out of my head.

"You looking for another job?"

I turned. She wore a genuine smile.

"Sorry," stepping quickly to
the fridge. "I didn’t mean to pry, it just caught my attention." Leaning
into the fridge, I grabbed a beer.

"Not a big deal. It’s not a big
secret or anything." She shrugged as she sat back down.

"You seriously think you can take
on another job?" I leaned back against the counter and opened the beer.

"Well I am hoping to find one or
two better paying jobs, but if I have to add another one to my list then so be
it," she sighed and blew hair out of her face.

The idea flashed across my head again. I
cleared my throat.

"Lilli?"

"Hmmm?" She didn't look up.

"How much do you know about my
uh…situation?"

She looked up at that.

"Not a lot but, like I told you, I’ve
got a pretty good idea. You have to get married or something because of your
family, right?" Placing her elbow on the counter, she placed her chin into
the palm of her hand. In that moment, I noticed the depth of her eyes. It was like
she could see into my soul. Hopefully, I could get a small glimpse of hers.

"Sort of," I grinned
nervously. "I have to get married by February of next year or I lose my
inheritance." Her eyes widened and before she could speak, I continued.
"And…I have to stay married for four years in a monogamous and faithful
marriage." She looked a little too stunned to speak.

"That…that um….that kind of
sucks," she bit her bottom lip.

"Yeah," I rubbed the back of my
head. "Yeah, it does."

"So that’s the reason for all the
desperate attempts?" She smirked.

"Ha ha…I wouldn’t say
desperate," she raised her brow at my response. "Trust me, I am only
now starting to realize how hard this is going to be and desperation has now
set me forth in a different direction." I watched her face twist in
confusion.

"But, you could probably pick any
ex-girlfriend or girl that you meet and convince them to go along with
marriage," she looked at me like I was an idiot.

"Yeah, well it’s not that simple. I’ve
talked to some exes and some blind dates." I smiled at her knowing she
would be trying not to laugh at the ‘blind date’. She couldn’t fight it, she
laughed. "Plus there are other stipulations."

"Stipulations?" she asked.

"First tell me about your
father?" I watched her stop breathing for a moment.

"There’s nothing to tell."

"I call bullshit, Lilli. You can
tell me." I prayed that she would tell me, this was going to be hard
enough and I needed leverage.

She took a deep breath.

"My father has heart
problems." She took a deep breath before she finished. "He’s already
had a heart transplant a few years ago but he started having trouble
again."

"I’m sorry," I moved to stand
opposite of her. She nodded. "I have to be married by February of next
year, monogamous and faithful for at least four years and conceive a child
within the first year of marriage."

Her head popped up with wide eyes after I
finished.

"Wow…I…I really don’t know what to
say."

"Crazy huh?"

She nodded in response to my question.

"And, it is much more difficult to
accomplish than you would imagine," I laughed through my nose.

"I could…okay I couldn’t even
imagine," she shook her head. "So you are going in a different
direction you said?" she tilted her head to the side. "You don’t have
to tell me anything else if you aren’t comfortable—"

"It’s fine. Well, I figure that
some random person I don't know is probably not such a good idea for obvious
reasons, so I have been thinking about making it a business proposition in a
sense." I shrugged and sighed at the same time.

"A business…seriously?" she
wrinkled her nose and crunched her eyebrows together.

Not the reaction I would like to have
gotten.

"Yeah and I’ve recently gotten an idea
of what to do," I stopped, hoping she would bite.

"Hmm..." she seemed to think
over what I had and had not completely said. "Which is?"

There it is.

"Answer one more question for me,
first?"

"Uh...oh-kay." She drawled out
her words and there was now a slight narrowing of her eyes.

"You're in financial concern due to
your father’s health issues, right?"

Nodding, she opened her mouth and spoke.
"Yeah, but what—"

I could almost see the light bulb go
off.

"Aidan….I am not—"

"Just think about it. We could draw
up an agreement for marriage. I will help alleviate the financial issues your
father is having and help you financially to finish college without having to
work during the four years of marriage."

Shock and fear flashed in her eyes
before disgust replaced them.

"No. I don’t know what you seem to
think of me, but I'm not for sale, Aidan."

"I never said—"

"Hey, sorry it took me so long.
Celia called me," Dixon bounded back into the room. He looked between
Lilli and me. "Is something wrong?" He turned an intense glare on me.

"No," Lilli said flatly.
"I was just heading to my room." Standing, she walked away.

Without one look back, she left the
room.  I watched her leave with a rigid spine and a rush to her steps.

Once she was out of hearing distance, Dixon
turned on me. "What the fuck did you do?" he hissed.

"Nothing."

He glared and took a step closer.

"I simply told her about my
situation that’s all." Shrugging, I headed to the couch.

I was thankful for the knock on the door
as Dixon headed in my direction, still glaring at me.

"Hey man," Oscar greeted
Dixon.

"What’s up?" James spoke next.

The three of them entered the living
room. I sat thinking over what just happened between Lilli and me.

How can I convince her to do this? I
thought helping her father would be my ticket to closing this deal.

"Aidan!" Dixon boomed from the
chair across from me.

"Huh?" I shook my head and
looked at his frustrated face.

"I think you need to tell me what
the hell happened, don’t you? I won’t let you do something to her," he threatened.
James and Oscar look back and forth between us.

"I already told you—"

"And the rest of it?"

"I may have proposed a business
arrangement with her." I shrugged.

"You did what?" Dixon jumped
to his feet.

"Calm down," I stood up in
front of him. "She told me about her father’s health and financial
concerns and I told her about my ‘situation’. Then I proposed that we make an
arrangement. I would help her if she helps me. I wasn’t being an asshole or
whatever, it was just a suggestion."

"Dude…" James said low and shook
his head.

"Aidan did you just..?" Oscar
looked like he couldn’t even find the words.

Dixon just sat down roughly on the couch
and got redder in the face.

"I wasn’t trying to do anything
mean. I just thought, actually I still think, we could help each other
out."

"Leave her the fuck alone."
Dixon seethed.

"Just listen to me."

Dixon started shaking his head.

"Just listen!"

At my insistence, he glared.

"If she agrees to marry me I will
arrange for all the financial issues to go away for her and her father. During
the four years I will make sure she finishes college." Looking around to
each of them, "I think that it’s a win-win idea."

"And what about the kid?"
Oscar added. "You expect her to sleep with you and give you a kid, knowing
that in four years you will be splitting up? I don’t understand your
thinking."

"It’s fucking brilliant."
James exclaimed. Everyone turned to look at him. "Oh come on! The company
needs to be kept in our family and, if it will help them both out, then what is
four years? And as for a kid…hell, people raise children in separate homes all
the time. Aidan works hellacious hours as it is and would only have time for
weekends, so it’s perfect." James looked as if he had it all figured out.

"Fuck you!" Dixon glowered. "This
isn’t just some girl we are talking about! This is my best friend." He
looked at me with a death glare. "This is someone who is so much better
than you using her and throwing her away when you are done!"

"Dixon, I would never hurt her or
force her to do anything she didn’t want to do. It was simply an idea." He
wasn’t buying it and he really shouldn’t, because, truth was, I wasn’t going to
let it drop that easily. This situation had the makings of the perfect modern arrangement.

"Fuck you, Aidan!" His words
full of venom.

"I think I should go." I stood
up and headed toward the door.

"Yeah, I think you should."
Dixon yelled following me. As I walked down the hall to the elevator, he yelled
again. "Stay away from Lilli. She’s not one of your sluts!"

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Another week passed. I waited without
contact for a reason. I hoped she would think more on my suggestion and perhaps
start to see the positive of my arrangement. Tonight I would finally see how
close I was to succeeding.

At eight o’clock, I sat at the bar with
the large envelope in front of me. She appeared behind the bar in tight black
denim and tiny halter top. When she saw me, irritation tightened her face. Like
a woman on a mission, Lilli walked my direction.

Chapter Seven
Lillian Snowe

Lilli

From the moment I first saw Aidan, he
was ridiculously attractive. I mean his thick, messy, reddish-brown hair and the
shadow of a beard tracing his jaw line. Then those gray-green eyes and thick
lashes, I mean, why do men always get those eyelashes? To top it all off, his
lean but muscular build was pretty close to perfection—even through clothing.

My body definitely reacted to his
appearance; however, my empty wallet curbed any or all bodily reactions at this
point in my life. The only relationships I had were with my closest friends.
Any interaction outside of the friend circle were only at the bar with
customers and my purely physical relationship with my
friend
Demetri.