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I was planning on taking a nap, I found myself sleeping a lot when I wasn’t at work. But my phone began to ring. Not many people knew my personal number, and of those that did the only person I picked up for was my grandfather. I checked it, just in case it was him. But it turned out to be Lydia.
“Hello,” I said.
“Shut up!”
“Excuse me?”
“No, that wasn’t at you. No, I’m talking to him now.” Lydia seemed to be talking to someone else.
“Can I help you?” I asked. I had a bad feeling about this already.
“Taylor, I was wondering if you wanted to meet today to make sure we have everything set?” She asked.
“I thought we discussed everything already, and if not, can’t we do it over the phone?”
“We told each other facts, but we have to learn how to be comfortable around each other.” I froze. Did she know? “I didn’teven try to hold your hand while we were in that restaurant. We can talk the talk, but what will your grandfather think if we hesitate around each other?” I calmed myself down. There was no way she could know. “You may not think it’s necessary, but I want this to work.”
“What do you have in mind?” I asked.
“It doesn't have to be for long, I just—oh. Did you agree with me?”
“I did.” She was right to think I would have needed more convincing. But after what Mrs. Tupp said, I had to talk with her before the wedding. And again, she proved how competent she was in thinking ahead. If I flinched away from her, my grandfather might be too suspicious to believe it. I had to get used to her being near me. Once the wedding was over, then I could go back to being alone, only seeing her in passing in my home. “Do you want to go out to another restaurant, to get more photos of us together online?”
“Well we could do that later,” she said, “but I’d prefer if we practiced in the privacy of my apartment. I can take pictures of us there and put them on my Instagram.” It sounded reasonable, but the way her voice was pitched a bit higher, I thought there must be something else she was avoiding telling me. I did trust her, so I didn’t ask. If I didn’t need to know, I didn’t need to know. It was her personal life in this case, not a business meeting.
“When do you want me to come over?” I asked looking at my watch, it was three in the afternoon.
“How about around-” I thought I heard something crashing on her side of the line.
“Is everything Okay?”
“Yeah!” Her voice was incredibly high pitched, there had to be something up. “Come over around six! Gotta go, bye!” She hung up before I could get another word in. What had I justagreed to? She also sounded so casual with me. Strange. It was so much different from how she spoke at our first meeting, or even at the lunch. Maybe she was practicing?
I spent longer than I would admit picking out the outfit I was going to wear. I very rarely wore casual clothes. Most of the time I was in professional clothes for work or in something to work out in. I didn’t go out with people if it didn’t have to do with Hirano Enterprises. All those events tended to be black tie or business casual at the worst. I did find a pair of jeans somewhere in the back of one of my dressers. It was slightly distressed and felt tight. It had to be another old piece. I slipped on an easy gray T-shirt made of something soft and was done. Hopefully that was good enough. I had plenty of time left before six, so I set an alarm and decided to sleep anyway.
That turned out to be a mistake; I slept through my first alarm. In my rush to get ready, I realized I didn’t brush my hair. In the car on the way there, I kept my eyes on the road while one hand tried to smooth it out. I knew without looking that I looked like a mess. I didn’t like to be out when I looked like that, but it would probably be fine around Lydia. This was what getting comfortable was all about. She probably didn’t have off days like this though.
I made my way to her apartment and knocked. Inside I could hear loud music leaking through the door. Someone I didn’t recognize opened the door. It was a tall blonde woman wearing several pink bead necklaces and a pink cowboy hat. I didn’t get the apartment wrong? I was just here the other day. The woman’s eyes went wide. “You’re the hot billionaire?”
“I am?” I tried not to let my embarrassment show.
“Lydia!” The woman turned and yelled. “He’s here!”
Lydia arrived quickly. She was also wearing several cheap looking necklaces and a similar cowboy hat, her’s had a small veil on the front. “I’m so sorry,” She said as soon as she saw me.
“What’s going on?”
“My bachelorette party?” She played with the veil on her cowboy hat like that explained it. “Please come in.”
Everything inside me was telling me to turn around and leave. Maybe even call the whole thing off. Despite all that, I walked inside. The music was turned down low and I noticed all the streamers scattered around her apartment.
Lydia grabbed a broom and started to sweep some pretzels that were scattered on the counter into her hand and then into her trash can. “Sorry about, the, the all this.”
“What’s your star sign?” The woman asked, from across the room. She had four wine flutes held in one of her fists and champagne in the other.
“Capricorn,” I faintly recalled.
She narrowed her eyes but then brightened. “That’s fine. I got that sense from you.”
