The Pretend Fiancé (5 page)

Then he tried to set up that old armor of his again, the anger draining from his face. He even forced a bit of a smile when he turned to her. "It will be okay. I can sell my stake in Carbide Solutions. Get a position with another company. We'll be all right for money, if that's what's worrying you."

"I can't believe you just said that!" Gwen said, taking her hand away and stepping back from him, "I don't care about the money, Aiden. I care about you. Carbide Solutions is such a big part of your life, of your family. I can't let you just abandon it like this. Not even for me."

She put her hands on her hips and dared him to defy her.

"Gwen..." Aiden said, reaching out for her.

"No!" she said, taking another step back. "I refuse to accept this! Refuse. You aren't quitting, and we are still getting married. Do you understand?" Now it was her voice echoing up and down the staircase. A little voice sidestepped her anger and hoped that no one else was in there to hear all this.

"I understand," Aiden said, his eyes widening, "Just do me a favor and take a step towards me, please."

That was easier than I thought it would be
, Gwen thought.
Too easy
. She grew suspicious, her eyes narrowing at him. "Are you just telling me what you think I want to hear?"

"No, no. Of course not. I just want you to take a step forwards is all. I agree; there has to be another way around this. I acted rashly."

"Why should I believe..." she started. Aiden moved towards her and she took another reflexive step back. Except there wasn't anything behind her to take another step onto.
Stairs
, she thought as she began falling, her arms wind milling in a vain attempt to keep her balanced.

"Gwen!" Aiden said, jumping forward.

She lost the battle with gravity and felt herself tip over the brink. Her eyes scrunched shut, her mind anticipating the bone-crunching impact of her body against the concrete steps.

Except Aiden grabbed her hands and hauled her forwards, slamming her body into his with enough momentum to send them both stumbling back on the landing. They hit the next set of steps, Aiden cushioning the impact for her.

The air rushed from Aiden's lungs, and she caught a glimpse of his face as it constricted in pain.

"Oh! Oh, my God! Aiden, are you okay? Are you okay, baby?" Gwen said, all her problems forgotten as she stood up and began fussing over him.

I don't know First Aid
, she thought with frustration. Her hands moved hesitantly over him, her fingers clenching and unclenching, not knowing what to do, how to check for injury, not knowing whether touching him might make it hurt more.

"I'm fine, I'm fine," Aiden said, flinching when he grabbed the rail and pulled himself to his feet, "What about you? Maybe we should get back to the suite before we manage to kill ourselves here."

"I'm okay..." Gwen said, her relief at him being uninjured almost immediately replaced by her earlier stubbornness. She put her hands on her hips and glared up into his eyes. "You can't quit."

"Really?" Aiden said, a wry smile tugging at one corner of his mouth, "I just saved your life, and you want to get right back into it?"

She stuck her tongue out at him. "You're just using that as an excuse to keep yourself fired... Oh!"

Aiden grabbed her around the waist and pulled her close, forcing her into a kiss. She resisted at first, her body hardening against him, her arms doing their best to push away. But she never could resist him.

Soon enough, she melted in his grasp. Her knees went rubbery and she grabbed handfuls of his jacket.

When they finally parted, Aiden said, "I love you too much to lose you."

"And I love you too much to let you do this, you giant, handsome oaf."

"Hey! Have some respect for the Harvard education. I think I'm a step up from an oaf. Perhaps a cretin? Or maybe a buffoon?"

"My handsome cretin..." Gwen said, knowing this wasn't the time for this sort of horseplay but unable to resist her own desires. She ran her fingers up through his hair and pulled him down into another kiss, mashing their lips together.

It was a breathless one, leaving her panting when they finally finished. She tried to put a serious look on her face again and failed. Aiden noticed and chuckled at her.

"No fair! But seriously, you can't quit. Promise me you won't. Promise me we'll find another way to make this work."

Aiden took her left hand and examined the engagement ring, running the ball of his thumb over the beautiful stones set therein. His eyes became glassy, and she knew he was thinking about it.

Finally, he took a deep breath and then blew it out slowly. "You're right..."

"You better get used to saying that!"

"Yes, dear," he continued with a wink. "We'll find another way."

***

J
udith set her bone china tea cup down on its saucer, the delicate material clinking. She still felt satisfied with herself, still knew that she had made the correct decision.

However, and not that she would have ever voiced such a reservation to another living soul, there was the smallest bit of hesitation. Of worry.

If Aiden truly did quit, that would leave the company completely to her. And she simply didn't have the head to manage the day-to-day running of a huge corporation like Carbide Solutions.

She knew that she would end up delegating almost all responsibility to various underlings, and that didn't sit well with her. There needed to be someone bearing the Manning name helming that ship at all times.

And maybe, just maybe, she'd misjudged the situation somewhat. Particularly regarding Aiden's feelings for young Gwendolyn, and the lengths he would go for her.

I really am getting old if I'm doubting myself this much
, she thought.

So thoroughly did Judith think she routed her grandson and his fiancé that it came as quite the shock when that hatchet-faced butler came into the sitting room and announced them.

"Aiden Manning and Gwendolyn Browning wish to see you, ma'am," he said with that precise Swiss accent of his.

This should be interesting
, she thought. "Well send them in, then. Don't stand there staring at me all day."

The butler turned smartly on his heel to do her bidding and Judith couldn't help smiling a little. This butler was good at his job, no matter how she goaded him on. There hadn't even been a spark of anger or defiance in his eyes.

Looking notably more disheveled than when they'd stormed out, the young couple appeared in the doorway. Aiden's hair was in disarray, the half-Windsor knot around his neck had been pulled at unkindly. And there was a flush to his face.

The girl still looked plain and greedy in her worn denim jeans and blouse. Though she looked similarly off kilter. Judith didn't spare any more mental energy to consider how they'd come to be in such a state. Such a thing was too distasteful to her.

"Well, sit then. I would offer you more tea, but I'm afraid I drank it all myself."

They sat in front of her. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw the butler take his position in the corner.

"I take it that since you are coming to me together, you haven't made the decision to part as I suggested?" Judith said.

They shared a glance, and then Aiden spoke. "I reacted harshly earlier. We... discussed the matter and decided that we needed to speak with you again."

"What is there to discuss?" Judith said, waving her hand to dismiss whatever point it was they wanted to make. "I made myself perfectly clear to you. Call off your engagement and take your rightful place or stay as you are and be left with nothing. There isn't a third option."

Aiden's lips pressed into that tight line again, and Judith immediately thought of his mother. Henry never would have displayed emotion like that. A soft sound from under the table told her that Aiden had begun gripping his knees hard in an attempt to control his anger.

"We thought you might see reason and..." Aiden said.

"You are the one who needs to see reason, boy. And you," Judith said, fixing Gwen to her chair with a pointed glare, "If you really do care for my grandson at all, you'd see that stopping this whole thing here and now is the best thing for the both of you."

Aiden brought his hand down onto the table. Gwen jumped at the sudden noise, but Judith stayed still. "Don't speak to her like that," he said.

"One of the only benefits to being this old, boy, is that I can speak to whomever I like however I like."

That earned her a smoldering glower from Aiden, his jaw working. Finally, he shook his head and then turned to Gwen. "Let's go. There isn't any reasoning with her."

So predictable
, Judith thought. Young people always went about expending so much energy on their feelings, using their emotions to guide their way rather than taking a breath and a step back and truly thinking about what it was they were doing.

Well, soon enough Aiden would expend all this energy raging against her and come to the same conclusion. All she need do until then was have some patience about her and wait.

Aiden tensed himself in preparation to jump up and storm out again.

Except this time he didn't. This time, Gwen laid a hand on his and he calmed almost immediately.

That gave Judith some pause. She really did have quite the profound effect on the boy, it seemed.

"Judith... Mrs. Manning," Gwen said, "There has to be another way around this. We really do love each other, and I'm not just a gold digger out for your family's money. How can I prove that to you?"

Judith almost believed the girl. She was convincing, Judith had to admit. She could see how Aiden fell for it, for her. Judith steeled her resolve, shaking her head and offering a thin, patronizing smile to show Gwen that she could see right through her ploys. "I fail to see how you could do that. Everything I've seen up to this point has just convinced me that I am right. Why, your family alone..."

Gwen's face lit up, her eyes widening, so quickly that it startled Judith, who fought to not show her reaction.

"My parents!"

"What about them?" Judith said, trying not to think about them. All that argument and bickering and bad blood gave her a queasy feeling. Clearly it was a relationship that should never have happened.

"They're not always like this, I promise. It's just that they've hit a few bumps with their divorce proceedings and its getting to them. They're really nice people when they're not yelling at each other," Gwen said.

"I'm sure they are," Judith said, hoping to end this conversation shortly.

"What if they changed? What if you could see them being normal and nice? That I really did come from a caring family and I'm not just some sociopath from a broken home out for Aiden's money?"

Judith sighed. There was more of that pointless youthful energy. "It would be a start, I suppose. A small start. However, that's something I will say I'll believe it when I see it, and not a moment sooner. Besides, an otherwise healthy tree can still produce bad apples..."

Except that Gwen no longer listened. She'd latched onto that small possibility and wasn't intending on letting go.

"Then I'll show you! You'll see," Gwen said.

Betraying her low upbringing once more, she stood from the table without first dismissing herself and rushed to her perceived task, dragging Aiden along behind her.

Judith watched them go, a hint of amusement showing itself in her small smile.

"More tea, ma'am?" the butler asked.

"G
wen! This is ridiculous!" Aiden said, chasing after his fiancé through the luxuriously-appointed hotel hallway.

Gwen bit her lip, trying to remember the room numbers. Her mom and dad were in here somewhere, and they were the key to this whole thing.

They arrived at the elevator and her finger hesitated over whether to punch the Up or Down button. Aiden caught up to her, laying a hand on her shoulder.

"Gwen, just stop for a second. Think about this."

She shrugged his hand off even as she said, "Aha!" and remembered what floor they stayed on. She jabbed the Up button and waited.

"It's just a game. It's always a game to people like her," Aiden said. "To people like Henry and Judith. And you know they only play when they know they can win."

Gwen hardly heard him, her mind alive with possibilities, scenarios, gambits and maybe even a little blackmail.

My parents are the key
, she thought,
mom and dad, dad and mom
. Even though what Aiden kept trying to say to her made sense, she didn't want to hear it. She didn't want to hear it because she didn't want to lose him, and if he was right about this whole thing, that meant she was out of ideas for keeping him. And she couldn't accept that.

"Don't play," Aiden said, "Because they always make the rules. And they always make the rules to make sure that they win. What do you even expect to do when you see them? You can't magically repair their relationship; you saw them last night. They hate each other!"

The doors gave a subdued chime and slid open quietly on well-oiled tracks. Gwen stepped inside.

"Thanks for the vote of confidence," Gwen said, hitting the button for her parents' floor, "I'm glad to see that you’re taking this so seriously. If you don't want to help, then at least stay out of the way."

Aiden's shoulders sagged just as the doors began sliding shut. "I'll be back in our suite."

The elevator began rising as soon as the doors sealed. It accelerated just fast enough that she felt it in her knees, the whine of the electric motor barely audible. Gwen's heart did its best to slam its way out of her chest.

Some part of her told her that Aiden was right. Judith set all the rules here. And she had to face it: they were pretty tough ones. David and Barb really could no longer stand being in the same room with each other.

It galled her to think about Judith's confidence in the matter, in Judith's summary judgment of her parents as bad people who raised some sort of problem child.

David and Barb had always done their best with Gwen, and she knew that. They'd kept it together for her until she went off to college, keeping their arguments and grievances to themselves as much as possible.