Chapter 1

Marianella

My sister was not in the habit of calling me during office hours, so when her name comes up on the call, I grab my phone and head for the bathroom.

The feeling that something is wrong settles in my throat as I lock the door and slide the button to answer the call, taking a deep breath before I put the phone to my ear.

“ Hola hermana “ he greets me and as I predicted his tone of voice was apprehensive.

“ What happened? “ I ask at once.

“ I have two pieces of bad news - she paused, the second longest of my life “ Rebecca is getting married.

I groaned in frustration.

Rebecca is our cousin who still resides with the rest of our family in Spain, during our entire existence, Becca was the apple of the family's eye, even though she is the youngest, she was the pride of everyone, the one who faithfully followed the family traditions, which included only leaving home when she got married, something Esmeralda and I both ruled out.

When we graduated from high school, we moved to Seattle, looking for an opportunity to grow up and get out of the backyard, which of course resulted in the Núñez family being very upset.

“ Mama started a big speech about how you or I should be getting married first, the abuela was crying in the background, all the drama you know, then I…

An uneasy silence.

“ What have you done, Esme?”

My hands started shaking before I even knew what kind of nonsense she had done.

“ I told them that we were both engaged, I may have mentioned it a few months ago too, damn, I was so nervous Nella, I imagined Rebecca making our lives hell at the wedding rehearsal.”

My stomach clenched at that scenario, her bragging about her marriage as if she had won a multi-million dollar prize.

“ Dios mio, Esmeralda... “ I exclaimed in exasperation, "What are we going to do now?”

“ We'll have to find boyfriends to support our story," she said simply, as if it were a daily chore like brushing our teeth.

“ How the hell are we going to do that? In case you don't know, they don't sell men at the corner market.”

“ I can get a good price on them on the Internet.”

My head spun with horror at the things her mind was capable of concocting, Esmeralda was two years younger than me, and twice as rebellious.

“ Look, we'll manage, I just won't let them humiliate us, we'll go with them even if we have to hire call girls," I huff and she laughs at my reaction.

I feel my pressure drop as she hangs up the phone, and only then do I realize what has just happened, my sister has gotten us into a lot of trouble.

I have a feeling that this is not going to end well, Mama might find out, anyone in that family might find out, and what would once have been a humiliation could turn into a catastrophic nuclear bomb.

I leave the bathroom looking around, in this company the walls have ears, I don't need this story to spread and reach the ears of my tyrannical and asshole boss.

Besides being stranded, I didn't need to become unemployed.

When I reach the hallway to my office, Karen, the receptionist, raises an eyebrow, analyzing me.

“ Come on, spit it out," she gestures in my direction.

“ I am perfectly fine.”

“ You're a terrible liar, you're a mess, you look like a child who has just broken his mother's vase," she puts the tip of her pen against my nose.

I snort.

“ My cousin is getting married," I declare, Karen looks at me without understanding.

‘ And that would be the end of the world, why?”

“ Because my family has a lot of traditional bullshit, and for them it is the end of the world if the youngest gets married before the oldest," I explain in a low tone, making sure that no one will hear.

“ Oh, shit! So what are you going to do? We can create a profile on tinder…

“ Don't even think about it “ I practically scream “ my sister has already done us the favor of ruining everything by telling our mother that we have boyfriends, I can't deal with this level of desperation anymore.”

“ Uh, right, it's worse than I thought.”

“ I have to go, meeting in 5 minutes “ I check the time on my wrist watch “ If you know of anyone who wants a fake girlfriend, send my contact information.”

I turn to walk away and hear his laugh, at least that amused someone.

“ I think Tinder is a better idea, you can get good men there," she shouts, and just as I am ready to turn around and cuss at her, I bump into something.

My boss.

He is looking at me with his usual poker face, and my face heats up at the possibility that he overheard some of this conversation, my god this day has to end.

As usual I am ignored, his body deflects from mine and moves on, I run to get the print copies of the documents and do my best to meet him in the elevator in record time.

“ Did you manage to review the contract in time? “ he asked, and even from a considerable distance his voice seemed to be everywhere.

He was a striking and dominant figure.

“ Yes, I highlighted some parts for you to take a look at, some of the data doesn't match," I explained, trying not to sound like a nervous teenager.

“ Dante assured me that everything was correct," his head lowered towards me, his gray eyes analyzing me. 

“ The production rate of the service offered is much lower than what was requested in the original contract, I remember perfectly well that I sent the information that the service offered should be above 76%, here it is saying that the service should reach the rate of at least 45% “

“ I said, swallowing hard.”

He makes me nervous, and he's not even acting like an idiot tyrant this time.

We went up in silence, I could feel his tension from where I was, he didn't like mistakes, especially contractual ones, this would give him a loss that would lead to a heart attack.

I decided it was wise to keep quiet while I opened the glass door to the conference room, so that he could direct all his anger at the legal team.

I handed him a copy of the contract, and he held it up angrily. Sometimes I understand him, we have been working for days on this contract, it is crucial that slips like this don't occur with million-dollar negotiations.

Dante came through the door, a warm smile was offered to both of us, my boss didn't take it well, he twisted his lips in disgust and turned his attention back to the paper.

“ How are you, little Nella? “ I prepared myself to answer, but he continued “ I heard the news, so are you looking for a boyfriend? “

My mouth dropped open in shock, I was afraid of that, I work in an environment where most people just want a chance to crush each other.

I didn't know how to answer that, I just closed my mouth and prayed that I wouldn't get fired.

“ My secretary's love life should not be your biggest concern, but your incompetence, I expected more professionalism from you, not to mention common sense," my boss fired in the direction of the lawyer.

" What are you talking about? " Dante asked, turning his attention from me to his boss.

" Frankly, did you think that this change in the contract would go unnoticed? This change was not authorized by me".

Roman just defended me.

I took advantage of the change of subject to leave the room and pretend that I was making coffee, and watched as several people entered the room while I filled cup after cup with the speed of a slug.

My head was still spinning, my boss who always seemed determined to make my life more difficult had come out in my defense.

It was probably no big deal and I'm being dramatic, I shook my head and picked up the tray ready to enter the lion's den.

The meeting lasted three damned hours, hellish hours where numbers and results were discussed without rest, I didn't understand most of what was being said, I just wrote down what I considered to be important, and looked around trying not to die of boredom.

At the end of it all, only Roman and I were left in the room, it was obvious how stressed he was, his tormented expression did not go unnoticed.

I arranged the chairs and collected the papers left on the table, doing my best to avoid his glances, most of them disapproving.

The truth is that I don't blame him. Although very competent, I am a walking disaster, I don't know how I managed to keep this job, I have unwittingly tested his patience many times.

“ Marianella," Roman called, I quickly turned around ready for whatever he was going to throw at me, "you'd better be more cautious about what you say about your personal life around here.”

“ I'm sorry, sir, it won't happen again," I shook my head emphatically, and his brow furrowed.

“ I told you I'm not your father to be called sir, for God's sake!

“ All right, Roman? “ I suggest, managing a brief, short smile.

“ Better, and one more thing," he points his index finger in my direction, "I would rethink the Tinder idea, you will find many Dantes there.”

With that he left the room, leaving only me and my will to die.

An hour later I was walking through the door to my apartment, kicked off my shoes behind the door and sighed with relief, I found my sister sitting on the counter with two glasses of wine waiting for me, I put our dinner next to her and pulled the glass to me taking it all at once.

Esmeralda is very different from me, her tanned skin and the black hair around her waist give her a more mature and fierce look, she resembles our mother, while I totally pulled the features of my father, blond hair, blue eyes and skin so light that in half an hour in the sun I am able to attract heat stroke.

I remember when we decided to leave our parents' house to go to college, it was just me and her, a huge world and the fear that all our plans would fail.

Our parents went crazy, these were not the plans they had for us, but there was no way out, they had to accept the fact that we wanted very different things from our family.

“ Such a bad day? “ she asked, a playful smile threatening to leave her lips.

“ Bad, I want to die, or rather, maybe I'll just go ahead and kill myself soon.”

“ Well, I hope you still have the stomach for more, because I haven't told you the second piece of bad news.”

She jumped up from the counter and helped me set the plates. I opened the package from the Italian restaurant near my work and distributed the pasta on two plates. She wasted no time in wrapping her fork around the strings and putting them in her mouth.

I take my time on the first fork, honestly I don't feel very hungry, I'm exhausted.

“ The engagement party is in two weeks, a weekend of partying, you know, big stuff," she says in one breath and I choke.

“ Two weeks... tell me, how are we going to resolve our situation in two weeks? “ I rub my hands over my forehead “ After all, who is the crazy man who proposed to her?”

“ Gean Garcia, that wine winery heir “ my sister smiles wryly, I know her mind has projected thirty different swear words.

“ I'm not surprised, she spent her life preparing to be a high society housewife.”

“ I love this family, but sometimes it seems like they think like primates, how can so much ignorance fit in a DNA? “ she fusses and then goes back to concentrating on the noodles.

“ That's not what I'm worried about, do you have any idea how to get a boyfriend in two weeks? “

“ No, but I'll talk to some of the single guys in my company, there must be at least one crazy guy who will agree to it," she shrugs her shoulders like it's nothing.

“ Well, I have no idea what to do, I can't go to the company, this conversation has already reached the ears of my boss," I shrug my shoulders remembering today.

Esmeralda laughed so loudly, I swore I could feel the apartment shaking.

“ Has your hot boss heard that you are looking for a boyfriend? Did he even offer? “ her eyes blinked innocently.

“ Wherever you're going, stop, there's no way I'm involving my boss in this, he'd never say yes, dios mio Esmeralda, have you lost your mind? “

“ That doesn't mean that you can't try, he would be a very good bet.”

‘ My resignation would be great too, all I need is just cause for harassing my boss," I muttered angrily.”

“ Impossible, you spilled hot coffee on him on the first day of work and kept the job, I doubt anything will top that.”

“ What are you getting at? “ I raised my eyebrows, really confused.

“ That if it were anyone else I would have thrown you out by now, so take advantage of the situation.”

I fill my wine glass, thoughtfully.

“ Esmeralda, what in your twisted head makes you think that he would do such a crazy thing? “

“ He doesn't have to do this of his own free will, find something he wants too, make a business out of it.”

“ How the hell am I going to do that? In two weeks specifically.”

“ You are his secretary, you have access to things that no one else has, just look for it nicely," she snaps her fingers in the air, as if by magic.

I can't think of anything a man like him could want, women are certainly not a problem, and everything else he can get with money.

And really, there was no point in thinking about it, it wouldn't work at all.