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“Of course.” I said, making an effort to keep my tone gentler than I was used to. She seemed startled by it, the way her eyes slightly went wide for a moment before carefully schooling her expression back.
“About yesterday.” She took a deep breath. “I deeply apologize for the way I behaved. I not only wasted your time by being late, but I also made ill-thought out remarks about your wonderful company. I know that we can’t be business partners, but I hope that you won’t think badly on Sew Fit because of my mistakes.”
“Don’t apologize.” She was speaking so fast she was tripping over her apology and I didn’t really want to hear it anymore.
“What?” She looked taken aback.
“I’ve changed my mind.”
“You have?” She said, leaning forward over the desk.
Explaining everything was going to be so tedious. “I need you to marry me.”
Chapter 3
Lydia
“No?” I blurted out in response. To say I was surprised would be an understatement. Out of anything he could have possibly said to me, to marry him wasn’t in the top ten, or even the top one hundred.
“I’ll give you the funding you need.” He nonchalantly said, like this wasn’t a crazy conversation.
“Are you bribing me?” I frowned, genuinely appalled. Mr. Hirano wasn’t very nice to me yesterday, I’d admit, but this was on another level.
“You’re jumping to conclusions,” he replied.
“Then, please enlighten me,” I said, exasperated. I was willing to hear him out, after all, he was still holding my briefcase hostage. I wouldn’t have admitted it, but I was also interested to hear whatever he was going to say next. We needed an investor.
He sighed and began absently playing with a stress ball on his desk, like he didn’t know he was doing it. It was the only thing in his office that looked like it belonged to him. The rest of the room was stark, walls painted navy with no photos of family or anything hanging up to prove someone worked here. On his desk, other than his computer and some pens and paper, there was nothing else. nothing personal. “You were prepared yesterday with research on my company, if I recall.”
I nodded. “I read every single article I could find. I like to be prepared.”
He hmm-ed then continued. “My grandfather is the CEO and he wants me to take over the company starting next year.”
“That’s good?” I wasn’t sure what that had to do with me.
“It would be.” He paused when he knocked the stress ball off of his desk on accident. He frowned at the space where it used to be. “But he wants me to get married first.” He grimaced as he admitted it to me.
“Why?” I asked.
“He wants me to produce,” another pause, “heirs.”
I laughed. How could I not? “That’s ridiculous,” I snorted, then realized I probably insulted his family again within twenty-four hours of doing it the last time.
“I agree.” His mouth was set in a hard line and his eyes sharp. “I have no interest in marrying.” Now that was surprising. Some of the articles I read were in gossip magazines, to try and judge his personality before the meeting. None of them had any solid proof of his dating life. I had thought he must be really secretive, that someone like him had to be dating someone, but now it made more sense.
“So, you want to marry me to get the company and I’ll do it because I need investors? that’s your plan?”
“It wouldn’t be for very long, maybe half a year, a year at the most. Then we’ll have a tidy divorce and then we can be rid of each other.”
“What about heirs?”
“If need be, we can fake a pregnancy.” He shrugged. The more I learned the more it made sense, but it didn’t stop being completely crazy. “The most difficult parts of the arrangement would be the public appearances. I have to make them occasionally, but I am known to be a private person, so we wouldn’t have to stay very long.”
“That makes me feel better,” I said sarcastically. “What about living together?”
“To keep up appearances, you would have to move in.” The way he winced I thought that sentence physically pained him to say. “But I live in a rather large mansion in Glencoe, and we both work. If we both play our cards right, most days we wouldn’t have to even see each other.”
It seemed like he had this all figured out. Inside my chest my heart was beating quickly, and my mind raced trying to process everything. It seemed too good to be true and at the same time, a little degrading.
