Page 35 of Married to Lies

“Just...” She hesitated for a moment, then finally said, “Bryce told me you were a good guy, and any time someone has to argue that their friend’s a good guy, it’s usually because he acts like a douche, so you have to get used to him being douchey, you know?”

“I think I follow,” I said, despite a heavy weight growing in my stomach. I didn’t know she’d spoken with Bryce about our date, and I wondered what else had been said. Did Jada tell her about the marriage clause?

“But Bryce was right,” Rei said with an encouraging smile. “You are nice. No scary skeletons in your closet, right?”

I swallowed. “Actually... there’s something I should tell you.”

16 Rei

I knew it.

I freaking knew it.

This date had been going too well.

He was thoughtful, a good listener, and asked great questions to keep the conversation going so it didn’t feel like I had to carry it for the both of us. Sure, maybe booking out a fifteen-thousand-foot mini golf course for just the two of us was a little overkill when I would have been happy with a conversation over a muffin and a dirty chai, but hey, we love a king who goes above and beyond.

Just when I thought this relationship could really go somewhere, I asked him if he had skeletons in his closet and his features went all stony and guarded again, unlike the open, smiling man I’d experienced just moments before.

“Tell me,” I ordered. I wasn’t in the mood for games. Mini golf was over.

He set his cup down with a sigh. Then he ran his tongue over his lips as if to remove any milk residue, even though there wasn’t any there. Maybe he was just stalling. Then he got out his phone and tapped on something. I couldn’t tell what because there was a dark privacy screen protector blocking my view. Definitely stalling.

“Are you really texting right now?” I asked, annoyed. I had half a mind to get up.

In response, he flipped the phone around to show me a document, the words “non-disclosure agreement” in bold and all caps across the top. “I need you to sign this first,” he said.

I stared at it, and then him. “Are you kidding me?”

His face instantly answered my question, but he added, “I wish I was.”

“You can’t really expect me to sign that without my attorney looking it over.” I knew better than to trust things at face value. Learned that lesson the hard way and had the emotional scars to prove it.

“Your attorney?” he echoed.

“What, just because I’m a janitor I can’t have a lawyer?”

“No, o-of course not, I-I—” He stammered over his words, but he cut himself off with a deep breath. “Please send it to your attorney as soon as you can. I want to tell you everything, but I can’t until I know for sure it will stay between us.”

He seemed so earnest, and I felt like the room was spinning around me. I didn’t know who to trust, who to believe. This man across from me, putting on such an honest act, who clearly had secrets of his own... or Conrad, the man I thought I knew so well.

Finally, I said, “Can you email it to her? I’ll have her give it a look.” Her explanation would fulfill my curiosity even if it ended whatever this was between us.

“Sure.” He had me type her email into his phone, and then he said, “Sent.”

“Please hold,” I said, standing up and walking away from the table to call Darla. She was a total southern belle, complete with red lipstick and bleach-blond hair always perfectly done. All that sweet exterior hid a shark on the inside—exactly what I needed for my legal representation.

After a couple rings, she said, “Rei, sweetie, what do you need?”

“Can you look over this NDA that the MyHome CFO just sent you? The sooner the better.”

“Sure thing. I’ll pull it up now. They’re usually pretty easy.”

I nodded, pacing around the lobby and ignoring the man waiting at the table, drinking cocoa like I wasn’t dying to know the secrets he was working so hard to keep.

“Hmm,” Darla said.

“Yeah?” I asked.