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I sat up straighter. “I’ll sign whatever Peter draws up.”
I couldn’t help but feel insulted, even though I knew it was necessary.
“Don’t feel bad about it,” he said and moved closer to me. He leaned in, his eyes on mine once ore. “I love you. I’d leave you all my personal money if we were married and I died. But if we divorced, I’d have to protect my investments for the business so it could still be used for my purposes.”
“Whatever,” I said, my eyes starting to tear up. I couldn’t help it. I felt like he thought I’d go after his money if we were to divorce.
“Don’t feel bad, Alexa,” he said, his voice emotional. “I know this is sensitive for you, but you shouldn’t take it personally. Anyone with any money has to have a prenup.”
I sighed and glanced away, not wanting Luke to see how emotional I was.
“I know,” I said and took a drink, trying to get my silly feelings back in control. “I know it’s necessary. I just never figured I’d have to be talking about these things.”
“We won’t talk about it again, okay? You find a lawyer and I’ll get Peter to send the documents to them, and we’ll let them hash it out. All I care about, all I ever cared about, is being with you, being happy with you. I could be happy living on The Phoenix for the rest of our lives if it came to that.”
I turned back and looked in Luke’s eyes. I knew he was telling the truth. He saw money only as a means to an end, not a measure of his worth. He could feel that way because he never had to even think about money all his life so to him, it was just a way to do what he wanted. Nothing more and nothing less.
I picked up my glass of beer and held it up. “To our future together.”
He picked up his glass as well. “To us. No more worries about money. Just happiness.”
We clinked our glasses, and each took a drink. Then, Luke leaned closer and kissed me, smiling when he pulled back.
For the rest of the evening, we forgot all about his mother’s will and our prenup, and instead talked about the plans he and John had for their company and how my seminar went, talking about the Cold War building up of nuclear arms.
In other words, the things we really cared about.
Over the next week, our lives were pretty much settling into the new routine of me going on campus and Luke going to the office to work on plans for Astra Investments – the name Luke and John settled on for their new joint venture. There was no more talk about the will or the pren
up, and so we were two happy people, just building our lives together. Mrs. Marshall and her pettiness were soon forgotten while we spent the weekend shopping for our new home. I made sure to take lots of photos of the items we purchased for the apartment so I could have brunch with Candace and show her everything.
“I live vicariously through you, sweets,” she said to me as we flipped through my photos. “What a hard job to have – outfitting an entire new apartment in Manhattan and having an unlimited budget to do it. It’s every girl’s dream.”
“Ha!” I said and flipped through my photos, looking for the patio set Luke and I had picked out for the rooftop patio. “I’m sure every girl has different dreams than that.”
“None that I know. You’re lucky.”
“I am,” I said, and then remembered the will and prenup. “Luke’s attorney is drawing up a prenup for us.”
“Of course, he is,” Candace said. “He’d be stupid not to. You don’t deserve half his fortune just because he married you. Don’t you agree?”
“I do, of course. It’s just embarrassing to be so poor when he’s so rich. I can partly understand why the rich want to marry other rich people. At least they understand what’s at stake and don’t have to worry about things like grifters marrying you for your money, not for love.”
“Luke’s lucky to have you. You’d love him if he was middle class, right?”
“Yes,” I said. “If he was just an engineer or an investment advisor, or even just a yacht club gas pumper, I’d love him. But there’s no question that money is an issue because I have none and he has way too much.”
“Just wait until he starts investing in the space industry. He won’t have so much anymore,” Candace said with a snort. “The space industry is very investment heavy and small on profits. He’ll burn through his fortune in no time. You two will be paupers living off your salary as a college professor soon.”
She winked at me and I laughed.
“You’re wrong,” I said. “Luke has good instincts. He’ll invest in some aspect of the space race that will give him a crazy return on his investment. You wait and see.”
“So, speaking of the prenup, when are you two going to set a date? Are you going to have a big wedding? Pretty please? Can I be your wedding planner?”
“You’re a geologist. You hardly know a thing about anything else. You wear high-tops and eat Captain Crunch out of the box for breakfast.”
“I’ll have you know that I have very good taste when it comes to weddings,” she said, indignantly. “Besides, I have nothing on my plate for the next four or five months. I could pick potential venues, sort through menus and decorations, and of course, arrange for you to try on only the top of the line wedding dresses at designer boutiques.”
