“Married?!”
“Correct.”
“Wow. And by out you mean…”
“Out of the company, the will, the trust.”
“Not the trust!” I tease, but he doesn’t even grin.
“I’ll also have to legally change my last name, settle a tab of debts my father has kept since I was eighteen, apparently, and so on. I lawyered up but he’s outmaneuvered me. I’m properly fucked.”
“Too bad you didn’t win the Great Grace Race,” I smirk.
He grimaces, “You saw that?”
“The entire world saw that. It was the number one hashtag on TikTok for weeks.”
He doesn’t look stoked about being a trend, which is kind of surprising. He was in a real life Bachelorette type situation a little over a year ago, where a few billionaire men competedout in small town Arkansas for the heiress of the Ameri-Mart fortune.
He lost to the man who is now marrying my friend Kat, Skye’s cousin. Speaking of…
“Whatever happened to Grace? Could you call her? Were you even a close second or did she like that hot, beefy bald guy better?”
He snorts, “You don’t have much of a filter when you actually speak, do you?”
“I do if I need to mince words. I’m crap under…under…”
“Pressure?”
“Right. But I thought we were two besties here in the safety of the vault.”
“Ah, I see,” he says. “Well, Grace fell in love with some local I think. Pissed her father right the hell off. Turns out she’s pretty gutsy. She actually could’ve been brilliant for this arrangement.”
“Bummer.”
He slumps even more, “Quite.”
“So, you actually wanted to get married? Like, you fell for her?” I find myself asking.
He recoils. “Heavens, no. Father made me do it. I thought he just wanted me in it for the PR. She’s a lovely woman but a real marriage? No.” I stare at him, the caricature of a rich man-child who is deathly allergic to commitment. “What, don’t tell me you’re a romantic?”
“No,” I shake my head. “But I’m not scared of commitment either.”
He tilts his head in thought. “I’m not scared of commitment. Scared of…boredom. I like change. I like bouncing about the world and trying new things. Getting that pilot’s license. Scuba license. I’m even licensed to take you sky diving.” He looks over at me but I don’t react. “I like different cuisines, extreme climates, a variety of…”
“Women,” I finish.
“I was going to say cultures.”
I grin, “Sure you were.”
“I was. We’re in the vault, no sense lying, yeah? I’m not running from commitment. I’m running from…monotony? I date. I’ve tried, truly. But I get bored every time.”
“Well, you could speed date, find someone new who—”
He looks over with defeated eyes, “Who’ll marry me by the end of the year?”
“End of the year! It’s already October!”
