But I couldn’t help but hope that my life would turn out differently. Maybe I would find someone who could fall in love with me. And I could fall in love with them.
And only then could we even consider marriage.
But never, never in a thousand years, did I even consider that my marriage proposal would be this. A big fat lie. Decorated with a bunch of zeros.
* * *
Nobody said anything. Sebastian placed his elbows on the table, and I stared back at him blankly. Hardly moving.
Is he for real?
“You’re kidding, right? This is like, a joke or something? Like a Cartagena joke that you play with all the tourists?”
Sebastian looked back at me, confused. “No? I’m completely serious. Treat it as a business proposal.”
He’s serious. He’s serious about going into a fake marriage for…for what? More money?I pursed my lips. This dude was not giving me his best side.
“Let me just get this straight. You want me to marry you just so you can steal your dad’s company from your brother?” I couldn’t hide the look of disgust on my face.
Sebastian’s forehead furrowed. “I’m not stealing anything. If Father was in the right mind, he would halve the company—even though that is still pretty unreasonable considering my brother has never put any effort into growing it. I was the one who stayed up day and night to make sure it stepped out onto the international stage. Both Father and Elonzo wouldn’t have dared. I risked my investments, but Father doesn’t see that or care for it. I can’t see the thing I’ve put everything into just be taken from me because of an old man’s silly idea.” Sebastian hit his right knuckle against the table. He poured himself some club soda from the pitcher and took a few gulps.
“Okay…that’s a lot of information to kind of make sense of. Elonzo is your brother?” I asked.
“Yes.”
“And this ‘old man’s silly idea’ is…?”
Sebastian sighed. He tried to hide his face as he said the next thing. Was he embarrassed?
“It’s nothing…”
“It can’t be nothing,” I said. I was suddenly aware of the room. Not just the golden-plated portraits, the sea in elegant shades of lilac, the tables that were pristine in whites and creams, and the backs of chairs carved in unique shapes. I was already well aware that all this expensive décor had been surrounding me.
And now I know that all it was all part of this rich guy’s plan to blind me to his wicked plot. I think I liked him better when I thought he was just a rich dude that was hitting on me. At least there was some form of genuine feeling there.
But the décor wasn’t all I was aware of. When we’d first come in, only a few couples had been dining, and at a considerable distance from us. Now, it felt like the eyes in the room had grown. I could see the faces turned toward me when I had last spoken.
I blushed and leaned closer to Sebastian. “You’ve just asked me to…to…” I blushed even harder.Why can’t I just say the word?“…to marry you. That’s a big deal in my book…”
Sebastian followed suit by also leaning closer to me. There was barely a hair’s breadth between us. I suddenly had the thought that if anyone were to glance over their red wine glasses, they would think we were a couple having an intimate moment. Not two people at complete odds with each other about to…to what? Explode?
“It’s not a big deal because it’s not real,” he whispered. “Come on, you of all people should understand this?”
What is he talking about?
“Me of all people? Why? And don’t you dare say that it’s because I’m poor. After all, I swear…” I clenched my jaw.
The smile Sebastian had worn all afternoon and evening was nowhere to be seen. Instead, a thin line had established itself across his mouth. He looked dead serious.
“What I meant was that you know what it’s like to work for something, to put everything you have into doing it, and then see it taken away from you and given to someone else like it was nothing,” he said coolly. “And you know that person doesn’t have the best game in the park, they don’t even care about it. So, when you are forced to give it up because of some external factors, your heart can’t just do that. Do you understand?”
I closed my eyes. I got his point, though I’d probably hate myself the next morning for allowing him to compare my sport to his search for wealth and power.
But for one night, I would let him have it. I lowered my eyes away from him.
“So all this time that you were flirting with me, you were warming me up to this proposal?” I whispered bitterly.
Before he could continue, the server arrived with our plates. I had completely lost my appetite by then, but still I forced myself to eat, hoping it might distract me from the thoughts that were racing around inside my head.