"Please, just call me Charlie," the man said.
Mr Wilson nodded in response. Charlie looked at me from my head to toe. I stiffened under his gaze. It's not every day some old man tries to analyse me. He immediately smiled and asked Chris, "Who is this lady here?"
"She's Luna, Luna Brown. My fiance." Chris took my hand and looked at me affectionately. *insert heavy coughing* Since I was single af my whole life, affection makes me feel awkward, Mr Wilson was not any better, I could feel him cringing inside. I don't know why I was asked to put on this act, but since I accepted Im going to be the best actress anyone has ever seen. But, that did not mean I was going to leave Mr Wilson off the hook that easily, I was going to do this my way.
"He is very lucky to have me." I winked at him and flashed a smile. I could feel his grip on my hand tightening.
You know how they say that when you're in love, you don't need to talk, you can understand what the other person is saying by looking into their eyes. Yeah, we had something similar going on here.
He looked at me straight in the eyes and I understood, 'Luna Brown, stop being so cocky, it does not suit you.'
'Oh, really? Try to stop me then. I will reveal this whole drama by that time.'
'You are really very daring Ms Brown, you have guts to threaten me.'
'Its something I learnt from you, I guess now you understand how hard it is to put up with you'
'That's your impression of me? I guess you're not as great of an actor as you think you are, Ms Brown.'
'As if you're a better actor than me, your brother, the movie king, must be dying inside since he has a brother like you who can't act even if his life depended on it.'
"AHEM!" Charlie cleared his throat loudly.
"If you two lovebirds are done looking at each other so affectionately. Let's order."
Mr Wilson, like the gentleman he isn't did not do the whole 'pulling out the chair' act. Was I expecting it? Well, I should have known better since Mr Wilson is a terrible actor.
After we got seated, Charlie called the waiter and ordered on our behalf. To my surprise, it was exactly what Mr Wilson liked. I understood that Charlie did his research, and he was just as interested in the deal as Mr Wison was. All that was needed was a gentle push. Yeah, I started analysing the situation as usual.
"So the last time I met you, you were still single right? I remember you saying you won't get into a relationship until you are thirty years old." Charlie said. He really does not mince words, does he? He got straight to the point. Mr Wilson seemed very much prepared as opposed to me, who had no idea about this whole thing until earlier that day.
"I was, but then I met her," he looked at me and smiled. Ouch my heart. "I knew that if I were to stand by my words and stay a bachelor till I was thirty, I'd miss out on some of the best years of my life."
I was wrong; I was dead wrong. Chris is EXACTLY like Jason, but he never showed that side of him. But damn..... Whom did he learn all this from? He or she must be a master flirt.
"Luna, right? Do tell this old soul about how you both met." He asked. Uh oh, busted. Wait, this question is out of syllabus, I repeat, it's out of syllabus. Mr Wilson help me. I turned towards him, but he just quickly grabbed the glass of water and started drinking. Like I'm gonna believe he got thirsty right when I was about to ask him for help.
"Hmm, where do I start? Oh ya, I was a university student at that time. Mr Wilson, I mean, Chris, came to out university as a guest speaker to talk about the scope in terms of jobs in the IT industry and a lot of boring stuff." Yep, I did do that. I just called his life's work 'boring stuff'. Mr Wilson choked on water when I said that. 'YES choke on water you betrayer.' Ahem.
"I sat in the front-row seat. At that time, the entire hall was empty, i could not see another student, there were some professors though. I thought that this would be a boring old speech by a boring old man. On a side note, I was partially correct." Mr Wilson glared at me.
"But I realised later on that I was just early. The only reason why I was present was because I really needed to be marked present for my attendance record. Mr Wilson was practising his speech at that time. He looked a bit nervous. Suddenly he looked at me and our eyes met. I mouthed the word 'breathe' and smiled at him. I think that's what drew him to me." I said.
Mr Wilson wanted to say in response, "Really? You think I'd be interested in someone who told me to 'breathe'?"
If he really said this I would say, "Well, you were interested in someone only because she confidently introduced herself." Yeah, I'm never gonna let him live it down. :)
Charlie just looked at me and smiled. "I see, love at first sight."
I think he never heard of frenemies at first sight. I conversed with Charlie and gave more details about how we met, our 'first date' and so on, while Mr Wilson looked like he wanted to stab himself with a fork. I would have suggested him to find a new fork since the new ones are sharper.
"Luna, may I speak to you for a minute, privately." Mr Wilson dragged me away without allowing me to say another word.
"What do you think you're doing?" He asked.
See I was confused, I did exactly what he told me to do. It's not my fault that he was vague about his instructions. "Didn't you ask me to to pretend to be your fiance? And now you're asking me this stupid question." I said.
"I was referring to you spouting unnecessary details about how we met and such. If he was to ask me about it, how am I supposed to answer?" He asked. I hated that he made a logical point, but who asked him not to pay attention and leave the whole thing for me to solve, he could have helped when I asked him to.
"Well, it's your problem, not mine." I said.
"It will be OUR problem if he finds out okay. Now please, don't be impulsive."
When was I impulsive? He was the one who asked me to pretend; he left me alone when I was asked a question- I was unprepared too and now he scolds me for not being able to answer it the way he likes it. What do you want, man!
Fine, I was not going to argue. I will stay quiet the entire conversation.
The food was served by the time we got back. We ate in awkward silence because Im usually the talkative type, but since Im quiet now, there was an awkward silence.
"Well, you have heard Luna's side of the story, but you haven't heard mine yet." Mr Wilson said.
I wanted to roll my eyes at him, what's he gonna do now? Why couldn't he just keep quiet and eat his food? Didn't he say that he doesn't remember what details I 'spouted', why does he want to get caught so fast?
"It was just like you said Charlie, love at first site. I was smitten the moment I saw her. I did not know why either, but she stood out amongst the crowd, or according to her, she stood out because she was the only one present in the empty hall." He chuckled as he said this.
He probably felt guilty and now he's trying to make me feel better. So kyuuut.
He remembered most of the details I mentioned and went along with the flow of the story and narrated our first date too. Most of the events which happened in the story happened between us.
He spoke about how I pranked him with a ghost- referring to the scene with Beatrice, he spoke about how fussy and picky when he was sick so I had to make quite a few trips to the shop to get what he wanted- referring to how he made me make him coffee several times; he spoke about how I'd pick out clothes for him and force him to try it on.
I did not realise how he changed those petty fights into romantic moments. When I look back at them, I laugh out loud because the fights I had with Mr Wilson had me distracted most of the time. It took up my attention, so I never really thought about my dad, the whole arranged marriage and running away part of my life. I guess I did not need the free therapy session the creepy receptionist offered. I had something better. I smiled brightly to myself while I looked at him narrate a few more incidents. Yep, this is how it all started, folks. Ouch my heart.
Charlie looked at his watch and said, "Oh look at the time, I should hurry back before my lovely wife gives me an earful of scoldings." He laughed. "Chris, stay back, I want to talk to you about the contract before I leave."
Chris looked at me and nodded. And that right there is my signal. I gave him a hug before I left so we were believable. This time, the hug was less awkward, it was more warm and fuzzy.
After I left, Charlie spoke, "I know that you guys were pretending Chris."
"..."