Italy

She doesn’t know this man, not really - yet here she is flying to another continent with him.

After the game, Lynn had hammered her with questions about her and Dash’s relationship - ‘how old was he?’ ‘how did they meet?’ ‘how long have they been seeing each other?’ ‘what does he do for a living?’ Lenny knew the answer to the age question by chance because it was in the contract - 28. She told Lynn the fake story of how they met and how long they’d been together. She surprised herself with how vivid of a picture she was able to paint regarding how they managed to keep the relationship private for all these months. She told Lynn that he was the COO of his family’s business but, failed to mention that technically he was her boss or soon-to-be if he indeed got the CEO role that this whole act was for in the first place.

Lenny has lost track of the time; all she knows is that they were in the air by 9:15 in the morning and it’s been many hours since then. Thankfully, the discomfort she had imagined she would experience when she learned the flight was almost 9 hours long had proven to be false. Before this, she had never flown first class before, and the ample space, incredible food, and lounge access had managed to seduce Lenny into a state of bliss and sleepiness.

In her sleepy state, her mind drifts off to a distant memory that was buried deep within her subconscious but, managed to resurface any time she fell asleep in a vehicle; which doesn’t happen very often. In her memory, a faint song is playing on the radio, something heartwarming and mellow. She’s strapped into her car seat in the back and from the rearview mirror she can see her dad’s eyes occasionally wander towards her even though she can’t see the rest of his face, she can tell he’s smiling;

“Big day, baby girl! Can’t believe you’re already starting school. It’s going to be so much fun, I promise. You’re gonna love it, butterfly”, his emerald green eyes are a reflection of her own. Everything smells like lavender.

Suddenly, her comforting dream/memory is hijacked and replaced with another memory; one that she hasn’t thought about in the last couple of years. One that happened a month after Christian had told her he loved her. A lifetime ago.

This time she’s seated in the passenger’s seat next to Christian who is behind the wheel. They’ve been on the road for over an hour now and run out of things to say mostly because Christian was in one of his ‘trances’ where he would block out any external noise and be in his head. Lenny wasn’t sure how safe it was for him to be driving this way but, he had assured her it was part of his creative process and that he did it all the time. Since she didn’t want to obstruct his creative process, she sat quietly in her seat and pretended to be reading a book. Lenny never read books but, she had picked up a copy of “Things fall apart” by Chinua Achebe in hopes to impress Christian’s mother. They had spent the previous day picking out her outfit to be very conservative and he had even given her talking points. Next to him, in his brown denim jacket and loose black vest underneath with a tiger tooth necklace around his neck, his shaggy, dirty blonde hair, and 3-day stubble, she looks like quite a bore.

“Nervous?”,

“Yeah, a little bit. Taking a break from in there?”, she gesticulates to mean from his head;

“Mmhmm. I really want to get some writing done this weekend” “Don’t worry, my mum is going to love you. We’ve come prepared”, he jokes and the last thing she remembers is his hand reaching out for hers and the warm feel of his lips against the back of her palm. She can still feel the light tingle of his stubble brushing against her skin.

“Lenny”, she opens her eyes to see she’s on a plane. She’s not a 19-year-old taking a trip with her boyfriend to his home, she’s a 24-year-old, single mother taking a trip with her fake husband-to-be to a country across the Atlantic ocean. Dandy.

“Lenny, we’re here”, her vision concentrates on Dash’s face and when he speaks she notices a new feature she hadn’t observed before, he has quite sharp incisors that remind her of a character from all those vampire movies she watched as a teen.

Things proceed as they should. Outside the airport, there is a car waiting for them already. Dash and the driver exchange a few sentences in Italian as their luggage is hauled into the trunk of the car, but, the only thing she grabs is ‘Buonasera’. He ushers her into the back seat of the car and follows after her. This is the first time they’re together in a space like this, the glass separates the driver from them and gives a feeling of privacy. Very intentionally, they’ve kept a huge space between themselves. They’re barely 2 minutes in when he gets a phone call and he has an apologetic look on his face when he answers it. She observes him as he speaks, the collar button of his dark navy-blue shirt is unbuttoned and she vaguely wonders why he’s dressed so formally all the time. He’s on the phone with Jen however, he too is observing Lenny in her dressy blouse and vintage long-shoulder bag clearly sporting the look of a tourist. He’s still watching her when her gaze turns to the window and she seems transfixed by all the sights she can see. She looks more excited than she did when he offered her 5 million to be his fake wife and there’s something childlike and innocent about her facial expression.

“I could give you a tour of the city if you’d like. After the wedding”, he offers as he ends the phone call and discreetly puts his phone on DnD. Even though he’s here for work purposes also he’d like to have this one day to himself at least. She nods in acceptance of his offer and resumes her sightseeing. She marvels at the beauty of the ancient buildings, the vibrancy on the street reminds her very much of new york and suddenly a thought comes to her mind. She winds her window down to breathe in the air of Rome, the rush of wind on her face is fresh and mildly flowery.

When they arrive at the hotel, Lenny knows instantly that it belongs to the Behrt-Lehmans. The Bel Posto shares a similar color palette with the company’s brand and it looks similar to their hotel in Manhattan. Same Architects touch.

They check-in to two separate rooms on the top floor; both master suites, more space than they could ask for. The receptionist seems to recognize Dash and even though Lenny can’t understand a word she’s saying, she can tell there’s some flirting going on.

Once she gets her room card, Lenny is about to head to the elevator and her room but, she notices Dash doesn’t collect his room card yet.

“Oh, you’re not checking in now?”, she sounds more concerned than she would have preferred;

“No. Just have a few things I have to take care of first. I’d be back soon”. A sense of abandonment creeps on her and she realizes she doesn’t want to be alone in this unfamiliar place.

“It shouldn’t take long. We could grab a late dinner after and I’d fill you in on all the details you’d need to know ahead of tomorrow. Sound good?”,

“Yeah. Okay–”,

“–I’d call when I’m back. Get some rest”, and with that, she heads to the elevator, and he heads back to the car waiting outside.

Just like he said, he had called a few hours later and they had walked to a quaint restaurant not too far from the hotel. He uses this time to tell her all about his uncle Leonard who was already in his 50s but, desperately trying to pass as a 30-something-year-old. He tells her about his charade of crazy aunties, the kinds of questions they’d probably ask and he tells her about his younger cousins too. They’re walking back to the hotel from the restaurant; he’s trying to teach her simple Italian phrases that she might hear tomorrow when he brings up the topic of the proposal. Somewhere in her mind, she had forgotten about the reason for this trip and she had deluded herself into thinking they were on some sort of a date. But once the proposal topic comes up, she remembers why she’s here and the illusion of romance shatters; replaced with the clear vision of a realist.

He informs her of his plan to propose tomorrow after the wedding, so they could all see, and hopefully, it’d make sense that they’d get married in a month.

His rationale is that by the time they’re back in New York, the whole news would have spread and both his father and Darius would know he’s ready to take on the CEO position.