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She looks up at me with cold eyes, and without a word, crosses to the door and leaves. This must be why my grandfather chose her, she’s stubborn. Just like me.
Chapter 5
Clementine
I could do a lot with ten million dollars. Tennyson would be set for life. And only a year? Is this some kind of trap? My twenty-four hours have come and gone. I didn’t return the papers before arriving at work, and I’m not sure if I even will.
“Oh, that looks pretty,” my co-worker, and best friend, Erin, tells me as I finish the rose petals on a wedding cake. “You’re so talented. Someday, you need to open your own cake business.”
Well, technically, I can now. I could open a whole chain. This money is really messing with my head. The fact he said ‘everyone has a price’ hasn’t left my mind. I meant it when I said I couldn’t be bought, but maybe I can be rented.
“Someday.” I lay down the piping bag full of frosting and wipe my hands on my apron. The three-tiered buttercream and raspberry cake I created doesn’t give me the same amount of satisfaction it normally would, because all I can see is my own cake,ifI marry Gabriel.
“What’s wrong?” Erin asks. “You’re so quiet today.”
I’ve known Erin for two years—we both started at Let Them Eat Cake on the same day—and in that time, she’s become like a sister to me. She was there to help me when my own sister was taken from me all too soon. She also has a son the same age as Tenny, so that helps a ton. But more than anything, she’s my person, the only one I trust, and her hazel eyes have just the right amount of concern to have me lifting part of this burden off my shoulders. “I might be getting married.”
Her mouth falls open. “To who?”
Even though the bakery is empty, I whisper, “Gabriel Prince.”
She gasps. “Clem,theGabriel Prince?” Her shoulders droop, and the hurt on her face is unmistakable. “Why didn’t you tell me you were dating him?”
“Well,” I stare at the blonde braid draped over her shoulder, because I can’t look her in the eye, “it’s all very sudden.”
“I’ll say,” she says, crossing her arms. “How long has this been going on?”
“Not long.”
Poor Erin. Her mouth hangs open so far, I could toss one of the raspberries from the cake in it.
“Listen,” she finally says, “I know I’ve been telling you that you needed to date, that you’re a hermit, but this is pretty drastic.” She looks at me like I’ve got an extra head. “Has Tennyson met him?”
The rest of the story falls out of my mouth at a rapid pace, and she remains silent until I finish.
“Ten million dollars?” she exclaims. “I’ll marry him.”
“I don’t know what to do,” I lament.
“Do it,” she encourages, with no qualms, “that’s what you do. I think we need to sit down.” She takes my arm and leads me over to one of the empty tables in the front of the store. “It’s one year, Clementine. That’s only three-hundred and sixty-five days.”
She sits, and I plop down across from her. “Keep going,” I tell her, wanting to be convinced I’m not selling out.
“He’s gorgeous,” she starts counting off on her fingers. And she’s right, he certainly is. With all the turmoil of what’s been going on, his sex appeal was the last thing on my mind. But yeah, damn him. “Wait,” she says, “will you be having sex?”
“Nooo,” I draw out, feeling my face warm, remembering his question in his office.
She lifts a brow. “Why not?”
“It just won’t be happening,” is the only assurance I can give her.
“Mhm,” she says. “Ok, moving on. He’s a busy man, so you probably won’t even see him that much.” She leans in. “Ten million dollars, Clementine. A year is a small investment for the return you’re going to get. You can’t say no.”
“What about Tennyson, though?”
“It’ll be over before you know it.” She sighs. “A lifetime of security for him is worth one year he won’t even remember when he’s older. Be the user, for once.”
Well that’s certainly something I’ve never done, and maybe it’s time I did. Just because I marry Gabriel doesn’t mean he gets a complacent wife.
