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“Good day, sis?” Vicky asked, coming in with fresh coffee.
“The best,” I said, ignoring her infraction just that once.
“Won, did you?” Vicky asked, putting the coffee on the desk in front of me.
“Epically so,” I said, drinking the drink of the mighty.
“Surprising no one,” Vicky said, playing the role of supplicant well.
“I shouldn’t get too cocky, that’s when people tend to slip up,” I realized.
“So, I hear,” Vicky said with a wink, going back about her work.
With a deep breath, I picked up my phone and dialed, deciding it was time to move things forward.
“Hi, Russ? It’s Ann, can you come up and see me in my office please?”
Out of habit, I checked my hair and makeup in the mirror. I was about to make a pretty big ask and wanted to give him a reason to say yes, even if my reasons were somewhat shallow. Though, to be fair, I had heard about relationships based on worse things than mutual sexual attraction. I knew this all was supposed to all be fake, but Russ was just so damn sexy it was easy to forget.
“You wanted to see me?” Russ asked, coming in almost cautiously.
“Yes, please, take a seat,” I said, gesturing to the chair across from me.
Russ sat across from me, still looking a bit nervous like he thought I might fire him or something.
“I was thinking about our plan for the wedding and was wondering if we can take some photos of when you proposed so I’ll have something to show my family,” I said, it not sounding as bad out loud as it did in my head.
“I guess that makes sense,” he said, not exactly sounding sure.
“Wonderful,” I said, mostly just happy he was going along with it.
“Where were you thinking?” Russ asked, bringing up a very good question.
“I hadn’t really thought about it. I just had the idea now,” I admitted.
He nodded, looking out the window as he thought. “Okay, well, there’s the beach of course if that’s not too cliché,” Russ suggested.
“It might be a bit,” I admitted.
“We could drive down to San Francisco and go to the Golden Gate Bridge.”
“Good idea, but I was thinking of doing it today,” I pointed out.
“Right,” Russ replied, putting his thinking cap back on.
“A restaurant?” I suggested.
“Classic, should I have the ring hidden in the desert?”
“Why would we do that?” I asked.
“I don’t know, it is just something I heard about once.”
“Sounds dangerous,” I admitted.
“Yeah, now that you mention it,” Russ agreed.
“Let’s just put a pin in that one,” I said, trying to be charitable.
“Right,” Russ concurred.
“I think a standard one knee and ring will do the trick,” I told him.
“I can do that,” Russ said, his expression contradicting his words.
“Which brings us to which restaurant,” I said, mostly to myself.
“You would know better than me,” Russ pointed out, reminding me that he was new to town.
“Yes, of course. The Blue Room?”
“That one I know, mostly by reputation,” Russ said.
“That makes sense,” I said.
“Isn’t that —”
“The most expensive restaurant in Hollywood?” I asked.
“Yeah,” Russ confirmed.
“Indeed, it is,” I said.
He frowned and looked a little pale. “I don’t have that much money right now, I just got into town and —”
“It’s not a problem. I’ll pay, you are doing me a favor after all,” I said.
“Okay, if you need it, I’ll do it, but I need to get back to work soon, okay?”
The fact that he wanted to leave so quickly started to ruin the joy I was feeling about our plan. I wanted to believe that Russ was okay with all this, but there were little indications that he wasn’t. Maybe he wasn’t as attracted to me as I was to him.
“Okay, I-I’ll make the reservation and email you what time to meet me,” I said, picking up the office phone.
Russ went back to his office and I dialed the Blue Room hoping Lanna would be on shift. Powerful as I was, I only had so many contacts, and the place usually had a week-long waiting list for reservations.
“Hello?” Lanna said, picking up.
“Hi, it’s Ann,” I said, the relief washing over me in an awesome wave.
“I need a table for dinner,” I said.
“Today?” Lanna asked, almost mystified.
“Yeah,” I said, realizing deep down just how silly this all sounded.
“I’ll see what I can do. Can I call you back?” she asked.
“Of course,” I said, trying to be reasonable.
I hung up letting out a deep breath and buzzed for Vic. I was really beginning to question the plan. I really didn’t want to go to the wedding without a date and I didn’t want to let my cousin down by not going at all. I had been there for every other major event in her for life from baptism to graduation and it seemed wrong to abandon her at that point.
