Chapter Four

JASON

I adjusted my suit jacket and my tie, waiting patiently for Elena. I didn’t know what had finally convinced her, but it was way past 9:00pm, when she had called me, and I had wasted no time booking us a table at a restaurant, close to where she lived. I had chosen that exact place so she wouldn’t have an excuse not to come.

But I was damn nervous as hell. And that was just saying the least. The past hours had been so stressful for me, with me making a lot of arrangements. 

If by any chance, Elena agreed to my terms, I would have to rearrange my whole life to fit in what I suspected was very much my present.

I was still just staring at the door blankly, when I spotted her.

Gosh..

Why did she have to take my breath away, just by looking at her.

The woman was just…beautiful..

And I wasn’t talking about ordinary beauty. 

She glowed. Literally.

As she sighted me and started to make her way towards me, I watched as her hips swayed in accordance with her step.

How was she walking like she was on a damn runway?

The emerald green dress she was wearing hugged her and wrapped her like it was attatched to her body.

Something stirred inside of me, and I had to sit up and clear my throat to call myself to order.

After all, there was the possibility that she was my father’s mistress, hence all these in the first place.

“Good evening, Mr. Richardson.” She said, in a low voice once she was standing close to the table.

I nodded, and stood up, gesturing for her to sit, before I sat back.

I knew I was supposed to do the gentlemanly thing and pull the chair out for her, but in the state I was, that was impossible. There was no way I was going close to her. I didn’t want to do something embarrassing.

“Good evening, Elena.” I said, ditching the formalities. There was absolutely no need to be formal now since she was on my father’s damn will!

She narrowed her eyes at me, but didn’t comment.

I raised a hand and signaled to the waiter, who immediately hurried to our table.

“Would you like to eat something?” I whispered, before the waiter reached us.

Elena shook her head, staring pointedly at the menu that lay on the table. “Just a small dessert would do. Although I don’t know what to choose, everything looks good.” It sounded like she was murmuring too herself more than she was talking to me, because there was a lightness to her expression that wasn’t there before.

I narrowed my eyes at her and watched as she excitedly skimmed the menu. 

Something about the way her face lit up, was adorable.

Uhh…shit..

I wasn’t calling my father’s mistress ‘adorable’ now was I?

I cleared my throat and pointed to a line in the menu. “We would have this.” I said, and just turned away when the waiter left, and Elena looked at me with annoyance.

I had just committed the very first ‘don’t’ when it came to women. 

‘Never order food for her unless she tells you to’.

ELENA

I couldn’t even enjoy my dessert, as I was annoyed throughout.

He had known that I was yet to decide, and he had gone ahead and ordered me a slice of chocolate cake.

I mean, it was the most delicious slice of cake I had ever had, but I didn’t care. I was already annoyed, so after a couple of bites, I pushed it aside.

Jason just stared at it, then at me, before concentrating on his, and ordering us a bottle of wine.

It was when the waiter cleared the plates that he finally spoke.

“I need to hear your terms.” He said, going straight to the point.

I frowned, confused. “Terms of what? I have no terms.” I answered, leaning back in my seat.

Jason mimicked my expression. “I don’t understand. You are the one with the upper hand here. You should have something you want out of all of this, or at least some conditions.” He said, and I finally understood what he meant.

“Oh…I uhh, have no issue at all. The only condition I have is that during our marriage, we would just keep to ourselves and do our own thing, pretty much the whole time.” 

It was quite weird saying it. But it was going to be weirder if we didn’t talk about it.

I finally had the opportunity to be with my crush of two years, for five whole years, and it was going to be platonic.

Hah!

Talk about being unlucky.

I had given this a lot of thought throughout the whole day, even leaving the office early to get some air away from there. And when I had calmed down, and also gotten a call from the Richardsons’ lawyer, I had been forced to put down my defense and actually consider.

Even if I felt uncomfortable as hell, I was going to do it.

What I didn’t expect from Jason was a shake of his head. “Oh, I don’t think we can actually keep to ourselves, at least not outside.” He said and shrugged.

My frown deepened. “What do you mean? Isn’t this just a small agreement on paper, that we will be free of in 5 years?”

Jason let out a laugh that actually sounded so…good.

It was like the sound was going straight to my chest and tugging at something there.

I blinked and tried to remove the thought from my mind.

The last thing i wanted was to begin drooling in front of Jason. And I was very close.

"Oh, you don't really know who Paul Richardson is, do you?" he asked with a voice that had a bitter edge to it.

I frowned in confusion, about to ask what he meant, when he reached for something on the chair beside him, and placed it on the table, right in front of me.

I looked at the file skeptically, then at him. "what is this?" i asked, and flipped it open. Jason didn't need to answer me, because, right there on the very first page, were words that made my head spin.

What had I gotten myself into?