The Arrangement

Monday mornings have always been a chore but somewhat bearable before when Lynn used to assist Lenny with picking Hannah up from daycare. She used to take Hannah to their mum’s till later at night when Lenny could come and take her home. Things are different now though with Lynn being too busy with her wedding preparations and Lenny and her mother not being on good terms at the moment. Now Lenny has to drop Hannah at school by 8, head to work, and leave the office by 5:30 in time to pick Hannah up from her school which closes by 6:30. It’s stressful as hell, but it’s worth it. It doesn’t help that paying for this school takes the largest bite out of her measly salary and it’s not even close to home.

Right now Lenny is in the queue at the entrance to the school with Hannah in the back seat sipping on a juice box. Drop-off always takes so long and everyone else seems okay with it except Lenny who never fails to press her car horn at every chance she gets.

“Ma’am please be patient”, one of the security guards regulating the entrance says in Lenny’s direction. She ignores him and honks even more. If she’s going to be paying all this money for this preschool then the least they could tolerate is a little honking. The majority of the other kids are being dropped off by stay-at-home mums and nannies which explains why they display such exemplary patience.

Finally, they get to the head of the queue. Lenny turns off the car engine and proceeds to help Hannah out of her double-strapped seat belt in the back seat. She crouches beside her, hands over her lunch and they share a brief hug.

“See you after school, baby”, she says after kissing her forehead.

“See you after school, baby”, Hannah replies happily and kisses her mum on the forehead too. Lenny lets out a sigh as she hands over Hannah to the kindergarten teacher and they walk hand in hand together to class. She watches her baby skip happily to class and her heart swells up with so much affection.

“Ma’am you’re holding up the queue”, one of the security guards yells. Lenny gives him the stink eye for interrupting her mummy moment and gets into her car. None of the cars behind her honked anyway. Rich people, she thinks to herself as she zooms off, leaving trails of smoke behind her.

She’s about 15 minutes away from work; this brief period after dropping Hannah off and before picking her up in the evening are the few times Lenny gets to have some ‘me’ time. But every time she’s having me time she’d only think about Hannah obsessively and occasionally the thought of Hannah would lead her down a rabbit hole of thinking. Thinking about her mum, thinking about college, thinking about money, thinking about Hannah’s father……

She’s lost in thought when her phone begins to ring, pulling her out of reminiscing. You’re not supposed to drive and talk on the phone, but Lenny is fond of doing the things she’s not supposed to do. She hits the accept button, puts it on speaker, and drops it in the phone holder. If only the Bluetooth connection of her car was working then she wouldn't have to be resorting to this.

“Hello?”, she’s talking above her normal tempo because that’s the only way she’d be audible past the car noise and the noise from the street.

“Hey”, instantly she recognizes the low, rough voice; “It’s Dash…Dash Behrt-Lehman”, he says. Her pupils dilate in surprise and a tinge of excitement surges through her at the sound of his voice.

“Thanks for clarifying. I thought it was one of the other many, many guys named Dash that I know”, she replies and almost facepalms herself for sounding so obviously fluttered. He chuckles cheerfully at that. Low, throaty, manly chuckle.

“How’s it going? Everything okay?”, she asks as casually as possible. He doesn’t have to know that she hasn’t been able to get their funeral encounter out of her head even though it’s already been a whole week since then.

“Yeah, yeah everything is going great. How are you?”, he sounds as if he’s intentionally stalling. Lenny is so distracted by the call, she almost misses her next turn.

“I’m okay. Actually on my way to work right now. Maybe I could call you back later?”,

“Yeah sure. Actually, I was hoping to talk to you about something. What are you doing after work?”, she wants to say picking my daughter up from school but, decides that’s too much info.

“I’m not sure I can be available after work”,

“Really? It shouldn’t take long. An hour tops. It’s pretty important”, just like when she shared a joint with him in the priest’s room, she goes against her better judgment and succumbs to his request.

“Okay”,

“Okay, great. I’d text you the address”,

“Can you make it somewhere close to Maspeth avenue? I have to be there by 6:30”,

“No problem. Maspeth avenue got it.”, he says and lingers on the phone for an extra few seconds before ending the call.

What was that all about? Was Dash Behrt-Lehman asking her out on a date? When she arrives at work, she tries her best to focus on her tasks, but her mind keeps drifting back to her call with Dash and the possibilities of later today. What if it wasn’t a date? What if it was work-related? He did say something important. Lenny thinks about the last time she has been on a date; ages ago. She doesn’t even think she’s ready to get back into the dating game. Not after how badly her last relationship ended. Hannah’s father had scared her in ways she still can’t move on from.

Time seems to go as slow as possible but, eventually, the clock strikes 5 pm and it’s time to get off work. Dash had sent her the address to the restaurant on Maspeth avenue and it’s only about 10 minutes away from Hannah’s school which is perfect for her.

By the time she arrives at the restaurant, it’s already 5:30. She heads inside and is fascinated by the interior decor. As an event planner, certain things catch her eye and she imagines how the interior of places can be manipulated to cater to several events. The high ceiling and vintage industrial bar setting reminds her of something a bartending masterclass would use. A fancy bartending masterclass. She’s scanning the interior when she spots Dash seated at one of the tables at the rear end. An automatic smile creeps on both their faces as she heads over to him.

“Hey, glad you could make it”, he says as she sits down. He looks like a different version of the Dash she was with a week ago. His jet black hair isn’t unruly today but, neatly pulled away from his face and slicked back; he’s wearing a brilliant black suit over his white shirt and he looks straight out of a men’s perfume or watch commercial.

“I already ordered, hope that’s okay. I know you’re in a hurry so I wanted to speed things up”, he says. She didn’t even plan to eat so she shrugged it off.

“Yeah, it’s fine. Can I just ask…..this isn’t like a date is it?”, she scrunches up her face in a manner he finds adorable. He can tell she’s not trying to be offensive.

“A date? No, no. it’s not”, he’s almost laughing as he clarifies.

“Okay. No need to rub it in”, she snaps back lightheartedly. Just then the waiter arrives at their table with their meal. It’s several platters of amazing food from pasta dishes to chicken souffle and even seafood.

“Woah, we’re having a feast aren’t we?”, she says as she pulls her hair behind her ears. He watches her carefully as he replies;

“I didn’t know what you liked so I ordered bits of the whole menu”, her eyes bulge out in surprise. Who does that? Who orders the whole menu?

“Jeez, whatever you want to talk about must be important”, she jokes as she adjusts the food on the table so it can fit the new batch being brought by the waiter. He leans forward in his seat and his expression changes to a more serious one.

“Yeah, it is. I’ve been thinking a lot about the other day at my mother’s funeral”, he begins. She’s trying out some of the food and watching him intently. ‘Me too, Dash. I’ve been thinking about the other day too’, she thinks.

“Specifically what you said? About arranged marriages”, he says. She remembers her crazy suggestion and feels slightly embarrassed by it now that she’s completely sober.

“I do not stand by anything stoned Lenny said to you, okay?”,

“No, but, that’s the thing. It’s a brilliant idea. I mean I’m not going to lie to my fake bride, she’d be in on it and compensated accordingly for her services”, he pulls out a bound document from the briefcase beside him and almost pushes one of the plates to the floor to create space for it.

“What’s that?”,

“Take a look”, he urges. She puts down her fork and picks up the document. It appears to be a non-disclosure agreement with some extra terms including ‘duration of agreement: 1 year’ and ‘compensation: $5,000,000’.

“Are you crazy? You want to pay someone 5 million dollars to pretend to be your wife?”, her eyes dart up to him and the look on his face tells her she’s not going to like what he says next;

“Not someone. You”, which causes her to shut the document close and lean back in her chair in disbelief and slight confusion.

“What is this some kind of game? You can’t be serious”,

“Dead serious. Think about it, it’s just like you said - I get the CEO position, we get a divorce in a year or so and you walk away with 5 million. It’s perfect”. She’s silent for a minute and his eyes are searching her green eyes for a hint of what she’s thinking right now. Whatever it is, it doesn’t seem to be good. The giggly girl is gone and she looks visibly upset.

“Did you target me?”, she asks in a whisper, but he hears her loud and clear.

“What?”,

“Did you target me? Back at the church, you knew my full name even though I’m sure I never told you and you knew exactly where I was, you basically followed me. And now you’re pitching this insane idea to me like -”,

“Woah, slow down. First of all, this was your idea and no, I did not target you, okay? There was a list of the organizing committee and I happened to come across it and I recognized your first name. And it was pure coincidence that we ran into each other in that priest’s room. None of this was premeditated.”, he explains, never once moving his focused gaze from her. In a way, it’s intimidating how he holds her gaze intensely while talking but, somehow it also feels intimate. Like they know each other more than they do.

He continues; “I know this sounds crazy but, it’s not a game, okay? I need this. And think about what you could do with five million. You could do so many things, you could even change that smoke machine you call a car”, he’s trying to make a joke but, the scowl on her face tells him he failed;

“I like my car”, she retorts;

“Okay, fine, I’m sorry. I’m a condescending asshole. You don’t have to change your car okay? But I’m sure there are a lot of things that you wanna do that money can help out with. Think about it”, she does. 5 million dollars? Lenny can’t even believe what she’s hearing. That money could change her and Hannah’s life forever. It could get them out of that card box they live in, she could start her own event planning business, she could conveniently put Hannah through school and even afford therapy!

“Why me?”, she asks still in a state of disbelief but, she doesn’t feel upset anymore. Just curious and secretly expecting a camera crew to burst out from the back of the restaurant and tell her she’s being pranked.

“If I’m gonna do this, I want to do it with someone I trust. Not some random actress or whatever”,

“You trust me?”, she chuckles at that. Lenny doesn’t trust anyone.

“I mean I don’t have any reason not to. Plus I feel like we’re on the same page. I don’t want to do this with someone sentimental. We’re basically strangers to each other but we shared a smoke at a funeral so somehow I feel like if I’m supposed to do this with anyone, it should be you”.

She shakes her head in disbelief and lets out a light chuckle; “You’re fucking insane, you know that?”, it’s a rhetorical question and he can see that she means it in an amusing manner rather than an antagonistic.

“So you’d think about it?”, he asks knowing she’d say yes as he takes a piece of chicken nuggets and tosses it in his mouth.

“There’s nothing to think about”, he almost chokes on his chicken nugget but then she adds;

“I’d be crazy to turn this down”, he relaxes and smiles at this.

She glances at her watch to see it’s already 6:15; “Shit. I have to go pick up my daughter”, she says absentmindedly as she gets up. He gets up too;

“You have a kid?”, he didn’t see that coming and the tone in his voice gave his surprise away. She shoots a daring look at him;

“Oh is that a deal breaker?”, the tone in her voice almost daring him to say yes.

“Not at all. I love kids.”, he lies through his teeth. She giggles at this and whatever tension that built throughout this encounter has dissipated and all seems alright with the world again.

“I’d have my lawyer take a look at this and send a signed copy to you as soon as possible”, she says in mock professionalism.

“Sounds perfect”.

Before she leaves, she asks the waiter to pack her lemon pasta to go and Dash follows her lead and packs the rest of the food even though normally he’d just pay the bill and split. They share it in two and she has to hide her excitement at taking all that delicious food to Hannah.

She gets into her car with a shit load of yummy food and an agreement of five million dollars. The day couldn’t have gone any better.