“Ihave a reservation at a restaurant,” Blade told me that Friday night. Since the dinner with the Schultzes, we had been working nonstop on the proposal to win the contract. Since I had met them and Mrs. Schultz seemed to like me, Blade had wanted me on the proposal team.
“It’s the soft work,” he had explained, “inviting them over for casual events and such. We want to seem friendly and personable. I’m confident on our numbers.”
In addition to organizing the visit to Harrogate, I had asked Mrs. Schultz to go shopping and lunching. She had readily accepted, and I had spent a morning with her, during which I somehow bought even more fugly dresses.
“Should I wear one of these tonight?” I joked, holding up a dress covered in flowers with a giant pussybow.
Blade frowned. “Just look decent. It’s for my brother’s birthday.”
“Oh? Which brother?”
“Uh, Carl.”
Blade was fidgety in the car on the way over, twisting his large, expensive watch on his wrist, smoothing down his suit jacket. Was he mad that I had rejected him? It had taken all my willpower to do so. His bare chest made me crazy. All I wanted to do was run my hand along those broad shoulders, down the curve of his pecs, along the rippling washboard abs, and trace the V down to the bulge in his pants. My nipples felt tingly just thinking about it. But I could not afford to have this fake relationship turn into a real disaster.
It’s totally fine. You can just ogle in the safety of your mind,my libido argued.After all, you’re going to be living with this person for at least a year if not more, so you might as well appreciate the eye candy. Could be worse; he could be one of those short, scrawny billionaires like Mark Zuckerberg. At least he’s handsome and he smells nice. It’s purely a superficial reaction.
When we stopped at the restaurant and Blade held the door open for me, a traitorous part of me thought,You like him for more than his body.
“Blade!” his little brothers cried, running over to him. He scooped them up in his arms, clearly delighted to see the children for all he complained about them.
“Hi, Avery!” Davy said, hugging my legs. “Did you bring grilled cheese?”
“We’re in a nice restaurant,” Blade admonished, batting his little brother playfully.
Several of them wrapped me in a group hug. My family never greeted me as happily as Blade’s brothers did. I felt tears prick my eyes a little, and I blinked as I hugged his little brothers back.
“We should come over again!”
“You just want her to make you cupcakes,” Blade said.
“You can come over whenever you want,” I promised them. “We’ll decorate cupcakes and watch movies. I’ll make popcorn.”
“You’re baking?” Edward asked from behind me.
“What are you doing here?” I asked him.
Shirley came up and handed me a drink.
“What is this?”
Blade grinned at me, and Gunnar handed him a microphone.
“Avery, you’re too smart for me, and that’s one of the reasons I want to spend the rest of my life with you. Additionally, you’re warm, funny, caring, value family, and you keep me honest. We’ve talked about marriage, so this shouldn’t be a huge shock, but I did want to make a splash for you. For someone who values her family and friends as much as I do, I wanted to make sure they were all around to celebrate us starting on this grand new adventure together.”
My eyes started watering. Even though he and I had planned this in a corporate office, the words still felt genuine.
“Avery,” Blade said, sinking down onto one knee and taking a black-velvet box out of his suit jacket, “will you marry me?”
I always loved a proposal, and even though I knew this was totally not real, I started crying. “Yes,” I sobbed.
Blade stood up and kissed me deeply.
“I hope you’re not crying because of this hideous ring,” he whispered in my ear, making me laugh. He slid the ring onto my finger, and I spontaneously kissed him again while he picked me up and spun us around.
“Picture-perfect proposal!” Penny exclaimed as one of theVanity Ragphotographers snapped away.
I wiped at my eyes.
