"What's wrong?" Meredith's mother asked as they sat at Pot Belly's. It was Sunday afternoon and Meredith had taken the Metra out to meet her mom for lunch. She wanted to stay home after having had too much to drink the night before and embarrassing herself in front of Ben. But she knew her mother would insist she come out anyway. And she hoped it would help get her mind off of things if she went to see her mother. She really needed to give her mind a break. So she had popped a couple of pain killers for the headache and chugged two bottles of water before leaving.
"Huh?" Meredith looked up. She had been zoning out thinking of her upcoming project and how she would explain it to her mother. Even though she wanted to find a way to forget about it there really was no way to forget it. It was a big deal. Marriage. She had barely dated in the last two years. How would she tell her friends and family. They would never believe her. They would know something was going on.
Would there be a big wedding. He had said they were just signing documents but would that be enough to convince people it was real. If they happened to have a wedding ceremony after all would she be expected to take time off and go on a honeymoon. She had just gotten her first big project that was probably going to get her a raise and she would be busy working out the rest of the campaign if her ad was chosen. She looked up and noticed her mom watching her intently. She sighed and so did her mother.
"Your chili has gone cold, dear. That's not like you at all." Her mother finally said after a long pause.
"Oh. I'm sorry. I sort of have a new project at work and I need to figure out how to find a way around the legality of it but I signed an NDA so I'm not even sure how to get help. It's all very confusing at the moment and I guess it's just really getting to me." Meredith then started thinking about the honeymoon. Was she expected to do things on the honeymoon? If they got married wouldn't it be expected that she sleep with him as well. Meredith scrunched her brows together and her mother reached across the table and patted Meredith's hand.
"You can talk to Uncle Jack. He'll help." Her mother suggested letting go of her hand and smiling softly in attempt to help.
"You're right." Meredith sighed and took a swallow of her cold chili. "I'll call him tomorrow I guess."
"Maybe you should go home and rest. Take a bubble bath. Drink a cup of wine and watch the Rescuers. Just rest, dear."
"Yeah, that's a good idea. I need it." It had only been two days since her meeting with Brayden and she was already feeling so drained by just thinking about it. Her mother was right she needed to relax and try to calm herself down.
"I'll drive you home. You don't have to worry about the train."
"Thank you, mom." Meredith sighed and they cleaned up their table and left the small restaurant.
Meredith's mother drove her home and stopped at Wholefoods on the way to buy a container of hot chicken noodle soup. Her mother pulled up to the curb of MEredith's apartment and leaned over to the passenger seat to give Meredith a hug.
"If you need anything at all don't hesitate to call me. I will do what I can for you always, dear." Her mother said as she smoothed Meredith's hair out of her face.
Meredith thanked her mother then took the bag of goodies her mother had bought for her and headed up to her apartment.
She fixed herself a bowl of soup and curled up on her love seat to watch The Rescuers. When she finished the soup she placed it on the table in front of her and then snuggled further into the throw blankets as Dino curled up on the opposite side of the loveseat by her feet. She then promptly fell asleep.
Meredith woke with a start around three in the morning and dragged herself to bed. She felt like she had nightmares but thankfully she couldn't recall any details. She stripped down to her panties too tired to grab her pajamas, slid into bed, and quickly dozed off again.
*****
The next day at work Ben the guard noticed Meredith was still preoccupied in thought. She was staring off into space not really looking at anything or anyone and took even longer than usual to find her badge. He figured it was the project she had spoken of on Saturday and so he left her be with a simple "Hello," as she scanned in. She barely noticed but managed to mumble a "Hello," in return and she zombie walked to the elevator.
At lunch with Taylor, Meredith was still gloomy and in thought of what to do and how. She didn't want to say no and lose her job but she also didn't want to say yes and have to be married to a stranger for five to six years. She was really in a bit of a bind. She had called her uncle Jake before heading out to lunch and kept looking down at her phone making sure she hadn't missed his return call. She sighed a few times and absently spooned her soup into her mouth. She swirled her spoon around in her soup a few times staring off into space not noticing that Taylor had been talking to her this whole time about some thing she was setting up for Saturday night.
"What's got your panties in a bunch?" Taylor finally asked after Meredith's fifth sigh.
"What?" Meredith looked up with glazed over eyes and stared at Taylor as though she was seeing her for the first time. It was as if she had been awakened from a deep sleep only to realize she was at lunch the whole time and not in her bed. She sighed again. She shook her head to try and clear the fog and slowly spooned some soup into her mouth quietly.
"You have barely slurped once since we sat down and you keep checking your phone like you're waiting to hear back if you've got ebola or something. And oh my god if you sigh one more time I swear!"
"Oh." Meredith thought of how she could tell her friend without actually telling her what was going on. Was there a way around the NDA somehow? "I got this really weird job offer."
"You have a job at a great company. What's the new place?" Taylor gave Meredith attitude and a look that said don't you dare leave me alone at this place.
"It's still with Maxwell. Just it would be a sort of solo gig directly for Mr. Maxwell." Meredith was being careful about how she worded things. She didn't want to breach her NDA. Brayden had already threatened enough she didn't have much left for him to use against her but she wasn't going to push her luck.
"OH!" Taylor nearly jumped out of her chair hearing a David was involved. "That's amazing. So you did catch his eye after all."
"Yeah something like that."
"So why do you look so bummed about it." Taylor tilted her head then munched a little on her sandwich.
"Well I signed an NDA already."
"Of course." Taylor knew how much Maxwell Sharpe loved their NDAs. It was no surprise to anyone that worked there.
"But it would be a long commitment and take up most of my free time. Well all of my free time really. I just started dating and going out and what not so I would have to cut that back for this new project."
"Yeah but you would get a raise right?"
"Kind of. I would have expenses paid."
"And it would look good on your resume."
"Sort of. Part of the deal is I can't leave Maxwell until the project is complete."
"Oh. Well I know you can't talk about it a lot but maybe have a lawyer check out the details just to make sure you aren't stuck without an out."
"I think I might be. But I called my uncle earlier to help me with the details." Meredith checked her phone again and Taylor made a face like she understood completely.
"Well look on the bright side at least you're doing such a great job that the higher ups are noticing you."
"Right." Meredith said sarcastically and scarfed down her luke warm soup. Before they headed back.
Meredith finally received a return call from her uncle just before 2:00 and he told her that he had a canceled meeting and was free until 3:00 if she could come up to his office. He asked her to pick him up an Italian Beef sandwich on the way. She agreed. She popped her head in Mr. Hubert's office telling him she just got a call for a meeting with a client regarding Brayden Maxwell's project and would be out for a while. He was excited and asked no questions. Meredith stopped at Portillo's on the way to her uncle's office which was on the south end of the Loop.
When she got to his building she was stopped by the secretary as soon as she entered.
"Are you here to see Mr. Glenn?" The secretary asked in a very nasally bored voice.
"Yes. I'm his niece, Meredith." Meredith took a seat on the edge of one of the few waiting chairs in the outdated office while the secretary picked up a phone.
"Your niece is here… Ok." She hung up and looked at Meredith. "You can head back. He's ready for you now."
"Thank you." Meredith rolled her eyes and walked around the corner as her uncle opened the door.
"Meri!" He said and gave her a kiss on the cheek then took the bag of food from her as he closed the door. "You didn't get yourself anything to eat?"
"No, I had lunch."
"So you said you have a problem."
"I signed an NDA." She pulled it out and handed it to him.
"Ok." He said between bites. "What's the deal. This is pretty fool proof."
"It's for a marriage contract. For six years."
"Uh huh. Well first of all you can't tell me that because this is fool proof but what's wrong with getting paid to get married."
"Six Years! And if I don't I lose my job or any chance of a job anywhere."
"You're young. Get married to the guy. If the rest of the contract is as well drafted as the NDA you don't really have much of a choice."
"Fuck."
"Even annulment won't work on this because you signed an NDA and technically shouldn't even be talking to me about it. This guy did his homework." He took another bite of his sandwich and shoved some fries in his mouth. "Am I invited to the wedding?"
"No. There won't be a wedding just signing some papers with witnesses."
"Damn. You don't even get wedding cake out of the deal. That sucks."
"Tell me about it." Despite everything else that she wasn't too happy about with the deal she did like wedding cake. "If I get fired do you have a position here?"
"Not really. I might could give you some part time paralegal stuff but I don't have much for you really, Meri. Sorry."
"It's okay. Thanks Uncle Jake." Meredith looked at her phone. It was 2:45. "I better head back. Don't tell my parents about this."
"I won't tell anyone. You shouldn't have told me."
"Thanks." She told him again and kissed his cheek before heading out the door and leaving him to his Italian Beef.
Meredith headed back to the office and finished up work and tried not to think about the meeting with her uncle before heading home for the day.