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“I’m asking you to be engaged to me for real,” said Eric.
“To marry you?” I said, my voice hoarse.
“Is that what you want?” said Eric.
I stuttered. I didn’t know what to say. Except … yes. Of course, I’d marry a man like him. He’s strong, he’s kind. He’s revealed to me the value of myself. He’s risked life and limb to save me in a storm. He’s made me trust him.
Of course, I’d marry this man. If I didn’t, I don’t know who else I would rather be married to. After all, there was no one in the world like Eric Slade.
“But what about my dad?”
“I’ll talk to Tom,” said Eric. “But here’s what I want to say. This can be as real for you as you want. It doesn’t have to be a lie. It could be the truth for both of us.”
“But what do you want?”
“Huh?” said Eric. I saw his eyes shift. For a moment, his unshakeable confidence looked like it had suffered a knock.
“What do you want?” I asked. “Do you want to marry me, Eric?”
“I … well …” Eric’s face went a little red, and suddenly he was avoiding my gaze. “That’s not what I’m talking about,” he said. “I’m asking you if you want this.”
“I can never marry someone that I don’t love,” I told him. “And doesn’t love me back. It would be living a lie. And that’s something I can’t do, Eric. You know that. Surely you know that about me?”
“What does it matter if it’s real or not, or whatever?” said Eric. “It’s what you want, right?”
“I know I don’t want this,” I said. “Whatever game you’re playing, it would be fine if it was just me. But I have to think about Cassie.”
“Don’t you know I’d do anything for you?” said Eric. “For the both of you?”
Who was he to say something like that?
Then, I realized that Eric must know. On some level, he must have realized that he was Cassie’s father.
“I know you’d never hurt me,” I said. “But I need more than that, Eric. I don’t just want to be safe—don’t just want to be kept. I want … I want …”
I didn’t know what I was trying to say. In hindsight, I wanted to know that he liked me and that he felt the same way about me as I felt about him.
But you can’t make someone love you, can you? No matter how hard you want them to. And if Eric was willing to drag me all the way here to sell a fake wedding to his business colleagues …
Then there was no way he loved me. I wanted to tell him so, were it not for the whining, mechanical sound that began to buzz.
I looked up. There was a blinking light at the top of the elevator control panel.
“We’re supposed to be going to the top floor,” he muttered and turned to look at the light. Eric pressed the button a few times, but the elevator wouldn’t budge.
“Where are we going?” I asked. “Why did you bring me here?”
“For an engagement party,” said Eric.
“An engagement party?” I said. “For what, your fake wedding?”
The light at the top of the control panel blinked red. “Emergency Stop,” said a cold, mechanical voice.
And I knew that this was my chance. If I got off the elevator here, I could discuss it with Eric. I could bring this whole thing to a stop. But if I didn’t, then who knew what would happen next? A shotgun wedding? A marriage he didn’t really want?
I pressed the button which opened the door.
“What do you think you’re doing?” Eric snapped, and then the door slid open.
