I stared at myself in the mirror and gasped in awe. Mother's stylists had worked wonders, this was the most beautiful I'd ever looked in my life and even Mother and Emilia agreed. I was dressed in a deep red wrap dress with gold accessories, heels and a golden clutch as well. The gold made my amber eyes pop and the red looked amazing on my skin, combined with the minimal make up they'd applied to bring out my features, I looked amazing. The only thing that made me sad was Mother hadn't allowed me to keep my curls, she'd had the stylists make them pin straight instead in she and Emilia's preferred style.
"Emilia" Mother called. My sister sat up from where she was reclining on my bed and put her phone aside. "Excuse us, your sister and I have some important things to talk about" Emilia pouted at first but she eventually gathered up her stuff and left.
"There are some things you need to know before you leave" Mother said as she came up behind me and placed her hands on my shoulders "First there can be absolutely no mistakes, believe me there will be hell to pay it I hear of any mistakes.
Second, you are to act like you're completely in love with him and excited for your wedding. Leave no room for doubt, especially for the paparazzi who'll be there. And third, your number one job is to keep him happy and pleased, and I do not care what you have to do to accomplish that. But remember this, nothing can go wrong with this date, and if you do well enough, I'll forget all about your behaviour this morning"
"Are the paparazzi going to be listening to our conversation then?" I needed to know if she'd be able to know everything we discussed.
"Of course not" Mother scoffed " they'll be seated close enough to take pictures but far enough that they won't be able to hear what's being said" I perked up at that, she wouldn't be able to know if I brought Jacob with Mr. Kingsley, I can actually do this I thought she'd have no idea if brought up a marriage of convenience with Mr. Kingsley.
" But if the paparazzi aren't seated close to us, how will you know what we talk about?" I asked cautiously.
" Rachel, darling" she laughed "Do you really think I don't know everything that goes on in your life? Every single conversation you have, everywhere you go, everyone you meet, I know everything" Mother placed her hands on my shoulders and squeezed them extremely tightly. " Tonight must be perfect, nothing can go wrong." Her face actually looked nervous and it was then I realized there was more riding on this marriage than I knew.
"If you really knew everything, then why did you let me date Jacob in the first place?" I asked curiously.
"Simple, because I knew you were just acting out, and there was no way I would ever let you end up with him. He was simply for you to pass the time until you got married" She said dismissively. I clenched my fists angry that she was being so condescending and dismissive of my choice, but I couldn't do anything for fear that she'd change her mind about punishing me.
I waved goodbye to my family on the front porch as my car pulled out of the driveway and steeled my nerves for the task I was about to face. 30 minutes later, we pulled up to a fancy semi casual restaurant, thankfully, I was dressed appropriate. I'd never in a place like this before so I had absolutely no ideas where to go. Sure my family came to places like this almost every weekend for various reasons, but I'd never been allowed to go with them. So I was glad when a woman came to me, introduced herself as the hostess and asked if I had a reservation to which I replied that I had a reservation for Kingsley. Mother had told me to say that just before I'd entered the car. As she led me inside, I observed the diners through my sunglasses and tried to locate Mother's lackeys but I couldn't tell who they were. The hostess led me up the winding spiral staircase until we got to the 3rd floor. There was only one door at the top of the stairs and she proceeded to push open the doors and reveal the one of the most amazing views I'd ever seen. The entire wall opposite the door was made of glass and you could see the view of the city's skyline through it, it was breathtaking .
"It must look so beautiful at night" I whispered.
"It does" a voice said from behind me. I spun around and pressed a hand to my chest to calm my racing heartbeat.
"You scared me" I said, it was Adrian Kingsley, the hot stranger I'd seen the night of my birthday party.
"My apologies, it was not my intention to do so. Please sit down" I cautiously made my way to the table and sat opposite him. I looked around the room and noticed all the other tables were empty. " I booked them all" Adrian said and I whipped my head around to stare at him again.
"What?" I asked not understanding what he was talking about.
"The other seats, you were curious why they were unoccupied, I booked them all so we could have a private conversation"
The hostess walked in along with a waitress called Agnes, the waitress took our drink orders and left while the hostess remained. I wondered what she was waiting for but Mr Kingsley answered those questions with his next words.
"Laura will take your phone and any other belongings until the end of our discussion"
"What!! Why?" I asked holding my clutch tight to myself.
"Because, Ms. Sanders, it could be bugged"
" There's absolutely no way that's true" I cried holding the clutch even tighter to myself " It's my phone, I'd have known if someone bugged it and believe me it is not bugged"
"Do you really trust everyone in your life not to do that?" Mr Kingsley said as he leaned back in his chair,crossed his arms and raised an eyebrow. I was about to say yes, that no one in my life would do such a thing when I remembered what my mother had said earlier. Could she really have bugged my phone? The little seed of doubt he'd planted in my mind made me decide to hand over my clutch to the hostess. She nodded to me and left the room assuring me that I'd get it back later.
We stared at each other in silence until the waitress brought out drinks, a strawberry daiquiri for me and a scotch on the rocks for him. I lowered my eyes to my drink as I took a sip trying to avoid eye contact. So far, I was failing at everything Mother had asked me to do. I gathered my nerves and raised my eyes to his, I needed to tell him about Jacob, I couldn't lead him on like that, hopefully Mother wouldn't know want we'd talked about since he'd rented out the entire floor.
But how exactly am I supposed to bring up Jacob without offending him? I thought, I contemplated different ways to tell him but I couldn't think of a good one so I decided to be upfront with thin about it.
"There's something I need to talk to you about, it's very important" He quirked an eyebrow. "But it can wait until later" I chickened out at the last moment.
"I see" he said and sipped his drink. He put down his drink, uncrossed his legs and leaned forward in his chair looking extremely serious. " What we are about to discuss Ms. Sanders can never leave this room. Do you understand?" I nodded and swallowed past the lump in my throat.
"Do you believe in love?" He asked, I nodded again " Then what I'm about to suggest may seem strange or offensive, but I promise you that I have my reasons."
"What is it?" I whispered, then took another sip of my drink
He took in a deep breath and released it " We honour our family's wishes by getting married, but we have a marriage of convenience instead" The loud sound of my glass shattering on the floor made him jump but I could only stare in shock at what he'd just said.