Chapter 6: The Meeting

Barbara Brown’s POV

Oh my God!

I did not mean since it was only my reaction to the kissing that we just shared. I felt something inside me when I was trying to control the anger and something else inside me. It pooled in my stomach and before I knew it, I was running to the door.

I opened the door when a woman with fiery hair was staring at me from outside. She was about to come inside but she was stunned that I was slamming the door from inside.

“Sorry,” I mumbled before I was running toward the stairs. I don’t have time to wait for the lift so I went with the safer option, stairs. I felt my breaths were picking up and heavy as I was running outside the hotel before I turned to look at the hotel. I don’t know where Brad’s room was but I just wanted to disappear right now.

“Damn it,” I said as I was running down the sidewalk as I was trying to forget that kiss. He has taken my first kiss and I think I wanted to punch him but also, I wanted him to kiss me again.

God, I was an idiot.

I don’t know where my feet carried but I was running for a while like I saw a ghost before I was walking among the pedestrian of San Francisco. It was nice to be here, in my hometown before I fly back to New York tonight. I sighed before I went to the hotel to start packing.

Lunch came and we were out in the restaurant. Carol and Adam did not ask me. They knew better than to ask me anything when I was being quiet. And I was thankful for it.

“Barb, why don’t you eat more? We have some more work to do after this when we get back to New York,” Carol said as I was smiling weakly at her.

“I don’t think I can eat more. Thank you though,” I said before Carol looked at me and continued to chat with Adam before I saw a familiar car outside the restaurant. My eyes wide with recognition when Brad got out with his sunglasses on.

He looked like a Greek god.

My stomach was turning upside down and it was not from nervousness. No, it was something else as I was breathing hard.

“Hey, why don’t you guys chat even more? I think I wanted to get some souvenirs for my friends,” I said as I stood up from the chair and turned to look at Carol and Adam.

“We can go together—“

“No! No, I think I will bore you guys. I’m sure not everyone was into some stupid oven mittens and all that. Anyway, see you guys later. Bye,” I said before I was out of the restaurant after I gave some cash for my part of the lunch. I don’t think Brad would be serious to meet my parents. I thought he was only joking!

I was walking a few blocks away as he came to the other side of the road and walked beside me. I sighed before I was looking ahead, and not at his handsome face.

“I don’t know why are you here,” I said as we were in sync of our walk. Brad chuckled before he sighed.

“I told you. I wanted to meet your parents and what a coincidence that we were near their resident,” he said as I was glaring at him.

“Come on, Barbara. You’re not mad that I kissed you, right? I think you were enjoying it too much that you were hurt when it was short-lived,” he said my thought exactly. I was beginning to aware of his body heat when he was near and I think I wanted to be wrapped inside those heat.

I sighed.

“Am I right?”

“What are you even talking about?” I asked him as I was turning to look at him briefly before I was focusing on my walk.

“It was the kiss that got you into a bad mood today. Was it your first?” He taunted me even more and before I knew it, I was pushing him against the wall of the building. Thankfully, not everyone knows this road that I took to meet my parents with him.

“Listen, mister. My parents are a traditionalist. They think that you would want to marry me for real and if you tell them the truth about our little arrangement, I will personally kill you. Got it?” I asked as I was looking into his caramel eyes. They were holding mischief in them.

“Okay, got it. No threats with you,”

“Good, and now be a good fiancé and put my hands around my waist. We’re here,” I said as I was looking at the grim house that my parents lived. It has been in the family since the first generation of Brown immigrated to America. I sighed before I felt his hand on my waist.

“Don’t worry. I will play the doting fiancé role well. You’ll see,” Brad whispered to me that I felt shivers down my spine.

Good God, I was shaking right now.

“There, there, sweetheart. We can fool your parents. Trust me,” he said before he clicked the doorbell and I was holding my breath. I don’t know what to expect. My family was a traditionalist and they would usually know immediately if my so-called fiancé loved me or not.

“Coming!” Someone else said behind the door before I saw who it was. It was my mother and her shocked face that told me that she was surprised to see me.

“Hi, mum,” I said as I was smiling at her before Brandon was taking his chance to introduce himself.

“Good afternoon, Mrs. Brown. I’m Brandon Cornwall and I am the fiancé of your daughter,” he said.

God, he did not just say that!

Brandon Cornwall’s POV

I felt the tension was in the air. I looked at my lovely fiancée who was fidgeting with her fingers as she was trying to look anywhere else but me. I was in the presence of Mr. and Mrs. Brown. Or should I call them Dean and Jennifer or Jen for short? They were about to be my in-laws after all.

“So, this is a nice surprise,” Dean started as he was not convinced that I was his daughter’s fiancé. I see what Barbara asked me to play the role of doting fiancé very seriously.

“What do you mean sir?” I asked him as he was sipping on his tea that Jen has carried out from the kitchen.

“I mean, I know my daughter. She would not just show up from out of nowhere and bring a fiancé home to meet her parents. If anything, I think she wanted to be a spinster, if I recalled correctly,” Dean said before Barbara was looking at him.

“Dad!”

“What? You did say that to me,”

“When I was 15 years old and high school sucked okay!” Barbara said as she crossed her hands and looked away from Dean. Now that’s very interesting. I wondered how she was in high school days. Was she like she was right now?

“Here you go, my dear. It was such wonderful news, Dean. I cannot think anyone would be interested in our daughter,” Jen said as she took her seat next to her husband. Now that statement intrigued me even more.

“How so?” I asked them before I can sense that Barbara was burning her stare at the side of my head.

“Well, if you must know. We only have one daughter and 3 sons. Barbara is the youngest so you can imagine how that influences her behavior when she practically raised by three brothers,” Jen said as I was smiling at her.

“I don’t know you have 3 brothers,” I said as I was looking at Barbara. She was narrowing her eyes to me.

“That’s because you never ask,”

“Well, it was hard to ask when we’re busy doing other stuff that made you go—“

“Okay, that’s enough,” she said before she turned to look at her parents. She took a deep breath as she was composing herself.

“Mum, Dad, I know that you might be surprised that I visit you at the last minute and with a fiancé that you know about but I can assure you that Brad is a good guy. He helps me to be the better version of myself and I think I will die without Brad in my life. I hope you understand that I love him so much,” she said as she took my hands into hers. She was not focusing on me but rather on her parents. They looked at each other before they turned to us.

Then, they smiled.

“Well, that wasn’t so bad,” I said as I was standing next to the car when I dropped Barbara off at her hotel. It was a little run-down but she glared at me like I was insulting her.

“I cannot believe you’re insulting them!” She said as she threw her hands up before she went inside the room. I smiled at her backside which was in my view. And from my experience, that was a nice ass. And I cannot wait to feel it.

I cleared my throat before I got inside the car as that thought did not diminish. And I think I might have to have a long cold shower after this.