Kim looked up, her expression professionally pleasant. "Mrs. Dubois. Lovely to see you again."
My grandmother didn't say anything. She just stepped forward, wrapped her arms around Kim, and pulled her into a hug.
Kim froze. Her eyes found mine over my grandmother's shoulder, wide with confusion. I tried to communicate something—reassurance, apology, an explanation I didn't actually have—but I'm not sure anything translated.
After a moment, my grandmother released her. She cupped Kim's face in her hands briefly, smiled at her with genuine warmth, and then turned and walked to the elevator without another word.
The doors closed. She was gone.
Kim stared at me. "What was that about?"
"I'll explain." My voice came out rougher than I intended. "My office. Five minutes."
I walked away before she could ask any more questions.
The five minutes felt like five hours.
I stood at my window, staring at the city, running through the conversation in my head. There was no good way to do this. No script that would make it sound reasonable. I was about to ask my secretary to pretend to be my girlfriend, and no amount of careful phrasing would make that less insane.
The knock came at exactly five minutes.
"Come in."
Kim appeared in my doorway. Her spine was straight, her shoulders squared, her expression carefully neutral. But I could see the tension in the way she held herself, the slight tightness around her eyes. She was nervous. Bracing for something.
She had good instincts.
"Close the door," I said. "Please."
She did. Then she crossed to the chair I'd gestured toward and sat, her hands folded in her lap, her eyes fixed on my face.
I took a breath. "I have a proposition."
Her expression didn't change, but something flickered in her eyes. Wariness. Suspicion. The look of someone who'd learned to expect the worst from situations like this.
"Go on," she said.
I moved around my desk and sat on the edge of it, closer to her than I would normally be, trying to make this feel like a conversation rather than a corporate presentation.
"My grandmother has given me an ultimatum. You might think it sounds ridiculous; I certainly do.” I laughed nervously. She just stared back at me. Seems I’ll just have to jump right in. "I have three months to get married. If I don't, I lose my inheritance. All of it."
Kim's eyebrows drew together. "That seems... extreme."
"She's an extreme woman." I ran a hand through my hair. "The thing is, time isn’t on my side. I was hoping I’d find someone willing to play the part, for a fee, of course. We’d stage a breakup, and I’d pretend to be so heartbroken that my grandmother would forget her ridiculous ultimatum."
The confusion was settling into something else now. Her eyes were narrowing. Her jaw was tightening. She was starting to understand where this was going.
"And?" The word was clipped.
"And I haven't found anyone." I held her gaze. "Until now."
The silence stretched between us. I watched understanding dawn across her face, followed by disbelief, followed by something that looked a lot like anger.
"You can't be serious."
"I know how it sounds."
"Do you?" She stood abruptly, the chair scraping against the floor. "You're asking me to lie to your family. To pretend to besomething I'm not. To…" She stopped, shaking her head. "This is insane."
