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The rest of the weekend passes in a blur. I grin and bear it as I spend my days pretending to fall all over my fiancé, touching his arm, kissing his lips, slipping my hand around his waist, and looking at him lovingly.
In the meantime, I try to call Olivia and update her on what is happening. But for some reason, all my calls go straight to voicemail. It’s exceedingly frustrating.
By the time we call it a night, I slip upstairs and lock myself in the same bedroom. I don’t want a repeat of last night, no matter how good he made me feel or how much just thinking about it makes my pussy dampen.
No matter how loudly I might have moaned.
Before I know it, we are on our way back to Harwicke. As we are closing in on the town, Dare looks over at me and reaches in his pocket. I’m expecting that maybe he is going to have me sign another document or something. But instead, he produces a small black velvet ring box.
Without a hint of ceremony, he puts it on the seat beside me and then looks away, leaving me to wonder what the box could possibly contain. There’s no way that it holds a ring. Even Dare would know better than to just set the box down beside me.
I reach for the box and crack it open, lifting it. Inside is the largest emerald and diamond ring I have ever seen. It is a huge, absolutely gorgeous rectangular emerald set in the middle and several rectangular baguette-cut diamonds beside it. My mouth hangs open, and I try to estimate how much the ring is worth. Easily in the tens of millions of dollars.
I look at Dare, reaching out and nudging him with my elbow. He arches a brow and turns away from the window, casual as anything.
The fact that he would just hand me such a magnificent ring and expect me to know what to do with it is like acid sizzling in the pit of my stomach.
Dare flashes me a smirk. "It’s a ring."
"And? What is it for?"
I feel beads of sweat break out on my brow every time I glance at the ring, so I reach down and close the lid to the box. He rolls his eyes. "It’s an engagement ring. Do you really need me to spell it out for you?"
"Wow, could you be any less romantic when you just lean over and drop the ring on my lap?"
“I thought I was perfectly romantic when I wired you the money for our arrangement. If I didn’t make it clear enough, this is not exactly going to be a normal marriage.”
My feelings about the ring are complicated, and I try to sort them out as I stew in my own silence. I look out my window and see the town of Harwicke as we begin to approach. Slowly, I begin to make out the shape of the roofs.
I jump out of my skin as Dare grabs my hand and tries to put the ring on it. It’s much too large and it slides on quite easily, the enormous emerald sliding to the side. I look at the platinum setting, and my lips twist. I don’t know what I had imagined my engagement ring would look like, but this huge emerald is just not it. I can’t tell if I dislike the ring because it is being forced on me or if I just genuinely don’t like platinum or the way the diamonds catch in the sunlight, winking at me.
I try to pluck the ring off, but Dare grips my hand. He looks at me and pulls the ring off my finger, pursing his lips. "It doesn’t fit. My assistant picked the damn thing out, so that tracks. I'll have it resized today and delivered to you before our engagement photos."
He had someone pick the damn ring out? Ugh. Of course he did.
I rip his fingers off my wrist and give him a sour look. "I need to go home first. I need to tell Aunt Minnie that I am engaged. She can’t hear this from anyone else."
He flops a hand at me, rolling his eyes. "Tell her to meet us at the penthouse."
"What penthouse?"
He gives me a look. "I bought a penthouse for us. Keep up, Talia."
My brows furrow. "How was I supposed to know that you bought a penthouse for us? What if I hate it?"
He gives me a puzzled glance. "You won’t. But even if you did, who cares? You only have to stay there when we are here in Harwicke. The rest of the time, we can stay at my Manhattan penthouse."
I want to argue with him, but the whole helicopter suddenly lurches, and my attention is diverted. I feel us descending, and I reach out my hands, clasping one on the door and the other on Dare’s knee. Until the helicopter lands, I grip his knee, praying quietly, though I'm not sure to whom I’m praying to. I’ve never been to church, much less been religious.
Once I climb out of the helicopter, feeling shaky, I text my Aunt Minnie the address of the penthouse that Dare gives me. It’s a quick trip to the penthouse from the helicopter landing pad and I spend it trying to get over my motion sickness from being in the helicopter.
I look around as I climb out of the car. To my left is a trendy-looking restaurant. I squint and realize that it’s Herbsaint, the same restaurant that Olivia took me to before. Looking around with some confusion, I notice that Herbsaint is in a huge warehouse loft building. Actually, now that I look around, all four corners of the intersection that I’m currently standing at have the same style of warehouse loft.
Dare grabs my arm and ushers me into the building across the street from that bar, but just before I step inside I hear Aunt Minnie’s voice.
"Talia! Talia, wait!"
I whirl on my heel, looking around. I spot her pulling up in her ancient eggplant colored rusted Volvo, a true nineteen seventies artifact. She has the passenger-side window rolled down, and she pulls to a stop beside the building. I look at Dare, biting my lip.
