Save the Date (Modern Arrangements) (16 page)

"What’s this we hear about that Natalia
bitch?" Dixon blurted out and Oscar shook his head.

I turned to look at James and scowled.

"What? They are like your brothers
so quit with the damn glares." He tossed back his drink and set it on the
bar for a refill.

Celia appeared and took his glass. When
she brought it back she leaned over the bar to kiss Dixon.

"Hey baby," she winked.

"Hey," he smiled goofily.

He had it so bad. I quietly chuckled.

"You heard from Lilli?" Celia
asked him.

He nodded.

"Yeah, she doesn’t know when she is
going to leave or if she can even come back." He looked upset. "She’s
already cancelled her classes for the current semester. It sucks."

"What happened?" I asked. He
eyed me warily before he told me what happened to her father.

It wasn't until that moment I knew three
things. One, I was definitely going to work tomorrow. Two, I was a total douche
bag for what I was about to do.  Three, the plan would be placed into action as
soon as possible.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

After making what felt like hundreds of
calls, all before noon, I began implementing the return to Plan B. My next move
was a text message. I pulled up her number and typed out a message.

The offer still stands. Please consider.

I hit send. Now, all I could do was to
wait. When there was no response by the end of the day I calculated my next
move. I knew I was being just a little manipulative. Okay, it was a lot. But I
was beyond desperate and this opportunity continued to fall in my lap.

The next day I got some answers from the
research I’d requested. My next step was put into place and all I could do was wait.

It was three days after the transaction before
I got the call I'd been waiting for.

"Hello?"

"What do you think you are
doing?" She was as pissed as I had expected.

"What do you—?"

"Don’t play dumb with me, Iverson! I
want you to take it back, all of it!" She shouted.

"I’m afraid I can’t do that." I
sat back in my office chair hoping this played out in my favor.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Lilli

I had been gone for over a month tending
to Donald. I cancelled my classes, knowing full well that I would not be able
to go to school. Hell, I didn’t know if I would be able to return to New York
at this point.

Once I got Donald out of the hospital, I
had to work with him and the nurse to get them familiar. The live in nurse was
expensive but, believe it or not, it was cheaper than the hospital stay. I had
stacks of hospital bills in my old bedroom that I was adding to the other bills
we had.

Going over the budget, I had to make a
few calls to get the current balance owed on the house. What I didn’t expect
was the balance being at zero. Thinking there was a mistake, I called the bank in
an attempt to correct it. No one at the bank would listen when I told them it
was a mistake.  There was no way in hell our mortgage was paid off.  Christ, we
were lucky to pay the interest on the late months. When the phone call proved
futile, I grabbed up the thick mortgage folder and left for what used to be a small
town bank.

Arriving at the, newly renovated and
acquired by a large chain, bank, I marched up to a teller.  Trying not to
unleash my frustration on the bank employee, I requested to speak with someone
about my mortgage. Once seated with Mr. Barmire, we discussed the situation. I
pulled out all of my prior statements, including the most recent one. Mr.
Barmire pulled up the account on his computer and showed me the zero balance.

Still, I insisted there was a mistake.
He did more research and discovered the total payoff amount had been wired to
the account three days ago. Dumbfounded, I didn’t know what the hell was going
on. Dazed and confused, I climbed into my father’s old beaten up truck. Then, as
I pulled out of the bank parking lot, I remembered the text message from
him
.

"That son of a bitch," I
yelled. I immediately pulled over to the side of the road and called him.

"Hello?" The fucker had the
nerve to sound smug.

"What do you think you are
doing?"

"What do you—?"

Oh no he wasn’t!

"Don’t play dumb with me, Iverson! I
want you to take it back, all of it!"

"I’m afraid I can’t do that." 
The self-satisfied sound to his voice grated my already raw nerves.

"Aidan, take the money back. You
had no right!" My frustration had reached its boiling point.

"What’s done is done, Lilli."
He was so calm and collected. My fist clenched, I wanted to punch him in the
face.

"I can’t let you pay off the house.
I’m assuming you
expect
something in return but I already answered
you."

He sighed but said nothing.

"Why didn’t you just go find
someone else?"

"Honestly, I did try. I almost had
but that didn’t work out. It seems to me, fate keeps bringing me back to
you."

"It’s not fate, Aidan!" Rubbing
at my forehead, stress crept up my neck, tightening the muscles.

"Lilli just accept my help."
He pleaded.

"You mean a favor. A favor you
expect to be returned," I spat.

"Only, if you want to return the
favor." His response sounded resigned.

"There is no way in hell I am going
to let you just pay off my father’s house! I’ll pay you back the same way I was
paying the bank." Proud of myself for standing firm, I straightened my spine
and held my head higher.

"I’m afraid I won’t accept your
money, Lilli."

My head fell a bit, as my heart sank. He
was refusing repayment.

"The only thing I will accept is
you saying yes."

I paused, waiting and, before I could
argue with him, he spoke again.

"It’s the
only
payback I
will accept. However, you can just accept my kindness and not worry about owing
me—"

"You’re an insufferable asshole,
you know that?" I seemed to suddenly develop Tourette Syndrome.

"And you, my dear, are a stubborn
pain in the ass," he chuckled.

"Unbelievable," I groaned.

"Well, then, just accept my
kindness and charity—"

His charity?!

"Whoa, now we're your charity
case?"

"No, I apologize, that’s not how I
meant it. I simply mean that you should just accept it as a gift of friendship
because I don’t want your money," he rushed to explain.

"No, you just want my uterus!"
I countered with a huff.

"Listen. I know that the kid thing
really freaks you out. Trust me, it scares the hell out of me but, right now, I
just need to meet the first requirement before I worry about the other. How
about we agree to the first term and discuss the other as we go? Maybe we’ll be
able to figure out a way around it." He pleaded, again.

"Fine," I growled.

There was no way I would be a charity
case and no way was I just going to let him pay off our house. He knew I would
owe him for the rest of my life and that wouldn't sit well with me.
The
jerk!

"W-what?"

"You fucking heard me,
Iverson!" I pinched the bridge of my nose in frustration.

"Y-you agree then?" Relief and
victory flooded the sound of his voice.

"Yes" I hissed.
"But—"

"But what?" Apprehension
replaced victorious relief.

"I will not be having sex with you,
nor will I be getting pregnant. I will actively use my birth control
pills." I conditioned.

"Lilli, part of the terms of a
marriage is the consummation of—"

"Oh, shut up. It's not like someone
is going to demand to be in the bedroom with us. We can easily lie about that
detail." I rolled my eyes.

He huffed.

"So, what are we supposed to do for
four years of marriage, Lilli? Cause I can abstain but not for that long."

"You have a hand," I
countered.

"I don’t think so," he spat.

"Fine, get a mistress, just keep it
discreet then you won’t break any rules. I sure as hell won’t say anything, as
long as you don’t get caught."

He groaned.

"You really think I'm going to risk
getting caught and losing everything?"

"Look, I’m sure I can help you out,
make it look like she’s a friend of mine or something. I’ll bring her home with
me and you can do what you want when I make myself scarce." He didn’t say
anything. "Hello?"

"You’re diabolical," he said,
astounded.

"Don’t forget that either," I
threatened.

"We can work out the details when
you get back in New York," he growled.

After a couple moments of silence, he
spoke again, this time much softer. "How is your father?"

His question surprised me, having been
so focused on his own problems just a moment ago.

"Uh…he’s alright, for now. He needs
surgery. I have him at home and am trying to work things out with the
nurse."

"Why isn’t he at the
hospital?"

I cleared my throat, uncomfortable with
the questions.

"He hates the hospital, so I'm
trying to budget out a permanent live in nurse or caretaker for him." Then
I realized I probably just told him too much and smacked my forehead.

"Lilli give me all the hospital
information and I'll take care of it," he practically demanded.

"No. I’ve got it," I stated
firmly.

"Quit being stubborn, I’ll take
care of the bills and then I will have my uncle make some calls. He has connections
in the medical field. I can get a live in nurse within a couple of days."

I wanted to argue but the thought of my
father being so well taken care of was too much for me to pass up.

"Fine," I grumbled.

"Good," he sighed. "When
will you be returning?"

"Once there's a nurse here with him,
I will probably stay at least another week to help Donald adjust with the new —"

"Hold on one minute."

The line went silent. I started the car
up and began my trek back to my father.

It was a few minutes before he returned
and my mind was exhausted from everything trying to process at once.

"Lilli?"

"Yeah," I said quietly.

"There will be three nurses at your
father’s home tomorrow for you to meet. Decide which one you would like to keep
around and the home health agency will contact me."

I couldn’t speak.
How did he do that?

"Hello…Lilli?"

"Um…I’m here," I said still a
little in shock.

"So, I will see you in about a week
then? We can meet to discuss things?"

"Sure," I squeaked,
overwhelmed.

I agreed to call him when I got back to
New York in a week and we said goodbye.

Walking through the front door of my
father’s small, cottage style house, I debated on telling him about everything.
We didn’t keep secrets, however, I knew if I told him about Aidan he would stress
about it. It looked as if I would have to keep the whole marriage a secret
until I could be sure he was strong enough.

As promised, the next day three nurses
arrived within an hour of each other. All were really friendly and
professionally capable. However, when the one nurse arrived in Yankee scrubs,
Donald was sold. At least he would have someone to watch all of the games with.
Two days later, Millie brought her things and moved into my old bedroom.

The day after she settled into the
house, I started getting her familiar with my father's doctors and medical
instructions, along with his routine. She was a quick learner.

Millie quickly gained the trust and
friendship of my father. She was a tough woman who wouldn’t take his crap, but
she was also very tender with him.

While I finished dinner, I thought about
the day I would be heading back to New York. Everything waiting for me there
felt like an alternate universe. My plan was to leave Winter Harbor in three
days and, still, I couldn’t believe I be discussing a marriage proposal.

As I walked towards the living room to announce
dinner, there was a knock on the door. I stopped Millie just as she was about
to get up.

"I got it," I smiled. "Dinner
is ready, go grab a plate."

When I opened the door, all the air in my
lungs whooshed out. Once I caught my breath, I shook my head clear.

"Ai-Aidan, what are you—?"

A big smile stretched across his face as
he walked in the house, brushing by me. I closed the door and turned. "Why
are you here?"