The Pretend Fiancé (16 page)

This time, when he tried to grab at her arm she caught his hand and hauled him out into the hallway. It was convenient that Barb's room was so close.

"Honey, are you sure this is a good idea? You seem really upset about something, and I have a feeling it’s about more than the drunken antics of certain parents of yours. If you like, we can go grab some breakfast and talk about it. Just you and me, sweetie."

It did sound tempting, Gwen admitted. But she knew it was a trap. A trap to get her sitting and calm her down. Couldn't he tell that she didn't want to be calm right now? That she needed this anger so that she wouldn't have to think about a certain Englishman's stubbly cheeks?

"No," she said, dismissing his offer. Thinking about Ben had breathed some air on the fading embers of her anger, renewing the heat of it inside her stomach. She knocked with purpose on her mother's door.

"Busy!" came the muffled response. There was another sound, too. One Gwen couldn't quite recognize.

Gwen knocked again. "Mom! It's me. We need to talk!"

The other noise stopped. Was she trying to pretend that she wasn't in? Because that was lame, even by lame mother standards. Gwen really wanted to lay into her. Maybe a few choice words about her inability to stand up without causing a scene.

Gwen rapped her knuckles on the door again. "I'm not going away until we talk!"

That sound she almost recognized came again. Then came the sound of footsteps padding towards the door.

The deadbolt flew back. The door opened. A man peered down at her through the gap. A man wearing nothing but a bed sheet tied hastily around his waist.

"Your mother is busy right now. Maybe you should come back in oh, say, half an hour? Is that long enough, babe?"

The above-referenced babe, Gwen's mother, lay with her head at the foot of the bed. She'd pulled a sheet up to cover her nudity. Her hair stood out at funny angles like she'd been rolling around in bed, like certain fingers had been running through it.

And was that sweat glistening on her skin?

The man standing half naked in the doorway also looked rather sweaty and disheveled. Her eyes couldn't un-see it. Her mind couldn't un-think it.

Gwen's stomach contracted, and she thanked herself for deciding to skip breakfast that day.

"Mom! What are you doing? Who is this? You! What are you doing to my mother? Don't you know she's still a married woman? Well, legally, anyway. But still!" Gwen said, her eyes still trying to find a safe place to look but unable to find such a haven.

Barb sat up in bed, carefully folding the bed sheet around her into a toga that still left one shoulder uncomfortably bare.

"Come inside before you start a scene!" Barb said.

She gave Barb a well-deserved eye roll. "Valuable advice. I wonder where it was yesterday?"

"Oh, just come inside, will you?"

The large, half naked man with the hairy chest moved out of the way to let them in. Hesitantly, Gwen entered, tugging David along. The door shut behind them, cutting them off.

Gwen looked at the messy sheets, the pile of pillows in one corner. Her gag reflex kicked in again and she looked away. Only to be met by the sight of the large, hairy man smiling down at her. "God!" she said.

"Guess again," the man replied, his grin spreading.

"Oh, Stan! Stop that," Barb said. "Gwen, this is Stan, my boyfriend. He flew into town early this morning. Stan, this is Gwen, my daughter."

"Nice to meet you," Stan said, holding out his hand. In doing so, he let go of a fold of the sheet, which began falling before he caught it.

"Mom! How could you?" Gwen said. Her mind reeled until it decided to stop on an image of Judith grinning evilly.

"How could I what? Get a boyfriend? I'm an adult, Gwenny, I'm allowed to go out with whoever I want."

"But... But... What about helping me? What about the... Our deal?"

"The contract? Oh, I told him about that," Barb said.

"It's like you're in a movie!" Stan said.

"You
what
?" Gwen said, followed by, "And will you two please put some clothes on?"

"He's cool, Gwen. He understands completely. Don't you, Stan?" Barb said.

"Completely. I think it's pretty cool, actually," Stan said.

I'm through
, Gwen thought,
we're through. As soon as Judith finds out about all this that's it, game over.
And they all had the audacity to smile about it, like it was all no big deal.

"Dad?" Gwen said, hoping for some backup from that corner.

It wasn't forthcoming. David shrugged. "I tried to tell you before: we each have our own lives now. Nice to see you again, Stan."

"Dave," Stan replied in greeting.

"You knew about him? Why doesn't anyone feel the need to share any of this with me?"

Barb pulled a shirt and some pants out of her luggage and disappeared behind a section of wall, pulling them on quickly. "Because we knew you would probably react this way, Gwenny. Besides, you haven't exactly shared certain big details about your life with us. Certain contracts with certain people."

"Mom!" Gwen said again. It was like she was 15 all over again, her mother embarrassing her in front of the guy bringing her to the dance. Except much worse.

"Oh, stop sounding so indignant, baby," Barb said, reappearing clothed and moving to stand beside Stan, who draped a naked arm over her shoulder while she held him around the waist.

Don't barf
, Gwen implored her body,
don't barf. Please don't barf.

"You know, I think this is actually a good thing, you coming here. I was trying to figure out how to introduce you two. Problem solved!" Barb said. "By the way, what does bring you to this wing of the hotel?"

David spoke up, "She's still upset with the restaurant incident."

"Oh, that," Barb said, blushing at the memory.

"Yes, that," Gwen said, clinging desperately to the last shreds of her anger. The embers kept threatening to be extinguished in vomit.

"I'm so sorry I behaved that way, sweetie. I really shouldn't have drank so much. But that lovely waitress..."

"Elsa," David spoke up again.

"Elsa," Barb continued, "She just kept filling up my glass and the wine was so good. Really, Stan, you can't believe the wine this restaurant had! No wonder it was a five star place. Aiden picked the wine out. He’s good at that sort of thing."

"Sounds great! Maybe I'll take you there, kitten," Stan said.

Gwen could practically feel the green tinge to her skin.
Kitten?

"Can we stay on topic for thirty seconds, people?" Gwen said. Though she found that she'd lost the stomach for it. Now she just wanted to get out of there and go pretty much anywhere else.

Barb and David looked at each other, then Gwen. "We are sorry. Next time we'll do better. We promise," Barb said.

"What makes you think there is going to be a next time? Am I really the only one who sees just how bad this is? Judith is going to find out about all this and then that's it!"

"Don't be so dire, sweetie," Barb said, "It's not so bad as that."

Gwen opened her mouth for a quick retort, but a knock at the door cut her off. Being the closest, David went over and opened it.

"Hi David, is Gwen in here with you? I thought I heard her voice."

"Aiden?" Gwen said, squeezing through all the bodies in the room to see. Before she could keep him from coming inside, Aiden stepped in and the door shut again.

Aiden didn't see anyone but her. He came right up to her and took her hands. "I know something's been going on, and we need to talk about it."

He noticed Stan standing next to him then, still wearing nothing but that sheet. "Hello?" Aiden said.

"Aiden, meet Stan. My mother's boyfriend who she's kept secret from me for who knows how long. Stan, this is Aiden. My fiancé. I'm sure mom's told you all about him, too."

"So you're the contract guy!" Stan said, again thrusting out his hand.

Aiden accepted it hesitantly. "The contract guy?" he said to Gwen.

"He's cool with it, apparently," Gwen said, glaring at her mother.

David joined them in the cramped circle they'd formed in the entry to the room. "Wait, so you two need to talk? Is there a problem? Is something going on?"

"It's nothing," Gwen said, even while Aiden said, "I think we need to talk."

She felt trapped. Literally and figuratively. There was no way she could force her way to the door to run away from this again. Not with Aiden and her father standing between her and it. And she'd come to them precisely to get away from Aiden so that they wouldn't have to talk.

And yet there he stood, looking at her expectantly. In fact, all of the people in the claustrophobic room watched her expectantly.

She couldn't though, couldn't talk to him about what the trouble was. She wasn't ready.

"Yes," Gwen said, "There is a problem. You did hear me when I said that Stan here is my mother's boyfriend? Well, what do you think Judith is going to think of that?"

***

"D
elicious! Truly," Judith said, a rare smile gracing her severe features. "Thank you for suggesting them."

"My pleasure, madam," the butler said as he took the silver platter away. A few crusts of bread remained, as well as a sprinkling of crumbs.

So few foods agreed with her nowadays that it was a rare treat when something did. Yes, she really did like this butler. Though she couldn't allow him to become too familiar, of course.

"Now, please do me the favor of getting rid of yourself until I need you again."

"As you wish," the butler replied, leaving the room with the dishes Judith used for her breakfast.

When he left, Judith picked up a twice-folded piece of paper and read it over, smiling. It appeared that the Brownings had behaved exactly as she thought they would at her little supper.

The waitress's written English wasn't the best, but it was serviceable. She smiled again at the description of the mother destroying the table.

Yes, it was time to make young Gwendolyn honor their other agreement. She picked up the little silvered bell on the table and rang it, the tinkling sweet and irritating. The butler appeared right away.

"I have a message for you to deliver to my grandson's fiancé. Straight away."

"D
on't you think you're overreacting a little?" Aiden asked.

He'd convinced Gwen to return to their suite. Though perhaps convinced wasn't the correct word, since it hadn't exactly taken much convincing. After her failed sortie against her parents, Gwen had wanted nothing more than to get out of that room.

Especially since Stan didn't seem to mind standing around wearing nothing but that sheet. Which had begun to hang open near the end, there.

"Stan," Gwen said, her lips snarling around the word, "What kind of a name is Stan, anyway?"

Her brain still couldn't quite wrap itself around all these new and exciting complications.

"A man's name. A normal, ordinary guy's name," Aiden said, sitting down on the couch and trying in vain to catch Gwen's attention so that she might join him.

Instead, she paced back and forth just in front of the first step that led down into the sunken den. "No," she said, "Jack and John and Mark are normal guy names. Stan is a jerk's name. A filthy, hairy-chested, mother-stealing jerk's name."

"Those are quite the compound adjectives," Aiden said.

Gwen rounded on him, spinning so that the toes of her shoes hung over the lip of the stair. "This is not a time for jokes! Seriously, Aiden, what are we supposed to do?"

Seeing her distress, Aiden pushed up off the couch and stood in front of her. With the small steps boosting her height, they looked at each other at eye level.

Before she could step back, he wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her close. Gwen wanted to enjoy the touch, the closeness, but she couldn't. Every time she tried she felt Ben's stubble scratching at her face.

"I don't know yet. Please, just listen to me. You're so close to all this, so involved, you can't help but be a bit reactionary. It's not helping. You need to take a breath, take a step back, and look at all this more calmly."

"Another Harvardism?" Gwen said.

"Henry, actually. The man sought every advantage he could in business, and he learned a lot from it."

Gwen tried to pull away from him but couldn't. Those arms of his were like a steel band around her waist. "Advice from the late, great Henry Manning. Wonderful. Just what I need right now. Did he tell you anything about dealing with his mother?"

"No. And cut the sarcasm. It doesn't suit you. All I mean to say is that I don't know how to deal with these new turns of events yet. However, we'll figure it out with time."

"We don't have any time! Why does no one else but me see that? Now will you please... let... go!" she said, putting her hands against his solid chest and pushing. He let go and she stumbled backwards before catching herself.

"Now that we've dealt with your parents, we need to talk," Aiden said, following her.

"Talk? About what?" Gwen replied, her back stiffening and her heart thudding hard and fast. He knows something, she thought, but how does he know? There's no way he could know about Ben and me.

"Whatever's been bothering you lately. I know that something's up..."

"Nothing's up! Except for your meddling grandmother, that is."

"It's not her. This is different. You've been cold and distant. You don't like it when I touch you. Please, Gwen, I need to know."

It came right to the tip of her tongue, tried forcing itself through her lips.
You remember Ben? The handsome English reporter you hate? Well he bought me a few drinks after I stormed out and then kissed me even though I didn't want him to and then I lied to you about the whole thing and it's killing me inside but I'm afraid of what you'll say or do if I tell you. I'm afraid you'll tell me you think we shouldn't be together anymore and I couldn't be alive anymore if you said those words to me.
She wanted to let it out, she really did. But she wanted to keep it in even more.