Save the Date (Modern Arrangements) (15 page)

Once I returned to work the following
Monday, I made sure to have some of my assistants look into Natalia Dimarci.
There wasn’t too much to find out about her. She spent the last six years
finishing her degree in foreign business relations and working for a company
based in Germany. Curious as to why she didn’t work for Gideon or, even, for
her father, I decided to find out when we met for dinner this evening.

One week following our first date, where
Natalia remained open and honest, I continued to pursue her.  Three weeks after
our first date, I am thoroughly enjoying spending time with Natalia. She is
intelligent, friendly, classy and extremely physical. I think we have had sex
on every surface in my apartment. Which was completely her fault, she chose to
walk around my apartment half naked.

After a month and a half I wasn’t sure
that Natalia was the ‘one’, but I made preparations with Mr. Devlin to set up
papers before I approached Natalia with the idea of marriage and children. I
figured that most decent women would need to at least think about this type of
arrangement before making a decision, so, in a sense, I was also testing her.
Yeah, it was an asshole move, but, at the same time, I had to be sure about
this because I had a lot on the line. Not to mention, I only had a few more
months before I had to be married.

Once the papers were complete, I planned
on surprising Natalia at her place to ‘propose’. My first attempts were
thwarted when she had to leave for a week on business. So, I planned for the
night of her return. I was, however, called away on business a few days before
her return. I was supposed to be out of town for a week but the negotiations
were handled within a couple of days. I decided to surprise Nat.

Once I landed in New York, I called Liam,
on my way to Natalia’s place, to tell him about the negotiations as well as my
plan for tonight.

"Be careful, Aidan," Liam
paused, "I know Calvin and Gideon are not friendly but family is
family." His tone dropped in warning.

"I know, I’ve thought about the
same thing but I've done all I could possibly think of, short from having her
followed." I chuckled. "She has answered all of my questions, without
hesitation, and not once has anything contradicted her replies."

"I know you are a smart man. I
don’t mean to lecture." Liam said softly.

"You're just being fatherly, which I
appreciate. Thank you Liam."

"No need to thank me." I
smiled knowing Liam regarded me as a son, rather than his nephew. I respected
him greatly. "Good work with the negotiation and congratulations with
Natalia." He offered the best that he could in regards to Natalia."

"Thank you." We said our
goodbyes and hung up.

When I arrived to Natalia’s apartment,
she wasn’t home. After much coaxing and a small bribe, I had gotten the
building manager to let me into her apartment.

Once in her place, I quickly placed the
flowers I'd picked up on the way into a vase and then went to look for candles.
Finding a couple as I walked around, I got more curious as I went from room to
room. We didn’t spend much time at her apartment. To be honest, we'd only ever come
here twice and it was never overnight.

I found myself looking through her
closet, the books lining her shelves, the pictures on her walls. She was
definitely an educated woman who had sophisticated tastes. Then I found myself
in her master bathroom. I don’t know what I was looking for or if I was really
looking for anything. I simply felt like I was getting to know her by the
layout of her apartment. That was until a bright blue box caught my eye.

Reaching down to the garbage can, I
pulled up the box.
Clearblue Easy Digital Ovulation Test
.

What the…?

 Dropping the box back into the garbage
can, I saw the discarded white sticks. I turned and pulled open the cabinets in
her bathroom. Another full box of the same tests and two different types of
digital pregnancy tests sat on the shelves.

Why would she…she's on the pill. I’ve
seen her take the pill in the mornings at my place. I don’t…what if they
weren't real pills?

Then it struck me like a bolt of
lightning.

Was she trying to get pregnant on
purpose so that she was the easy choice? Didn’t she realize that I would..?
Fuck! Why would this upset me? This is what I want right? I need a child and if
she’s willing…but then why would she have already planned on getting pregnant
before…I mean, it had only been like two months.
Had she started this plan before we even met?

In that moment, I realized trusting her
would be impossible and I was once again fucked. I didn’t know what I was going
to do. I could suck it up and just go along with Natalia. But how can I be sure
of her intentions now? I couldn’t.

I quickly left her bathroom and exited
her apartment. I needed air and I needed it now. My head was filled with a
thick fog of disappointment, regret and disgust. I was almost to the elevator
when I heard the doors open and her voice. I quickly moved down another hallway,
hoping that she hadn’t seen me.

"I’m doing the best I can—"
"I know that it’s—" "Father, will you please—" "I
don’t care what Uncle—"

I stood against the wall like a coward,
listening to her conversation as she walked towards her apartment.

"Yes Father. Of course I'm still
taking them," she sounded extremely annoyed. "I tested, it was
negative," she sounded tired and defeated.

I couldn’t take it. Anger filled me and my
fists clenched at my sides. Emerging from the hallway, I headed toward Natalia
with purpose.

"Good evening, Natalia."

She spun quickly, a look of surprise and
panic filled her eyes. I smirked knowingly.

She held up a finger and spoke into her
phone quickly.

"I’ll have to call you back,"
she paused. "Uh huh, that sounds perfect." Then she hung up and
seemed to pull her mask back on. "Aidan, what are you doing here?"
she smiled and reached to hug me. I pulled back and her eyes widened.

"I came to surprise you. I arrived
home early and wanted to discuss some things with you. Shall we?" I
motioned for her to continue opening her apartment door.

Turning the key and the door knob, she
led me into her apartment. When she caught sight of the flowers I heard her
inhale sharply.

"Oh yes, I was already here earlier."

She turned.

"Aidan, what is—?"

"Tsk, tsk, Natalia. Don't you think
I should be asking you what is going on?" I crossed my arms over my chest.

She looked confused but still panicked.

"Or should I be more
specific?" I watched her take one slow step backwards. "How long
before we even met had you planned all of this?" I tilted my head in
curiosity.

"I-I’m not sure what you are
implying," she stuttered out.

"I’m not a fool, so please do not
treat me as one," I growled. "Was this your father’s plan or your
uncle’s?" I asked through clenched teeth.

"A-Aidan…" then she broke
down, "it wasn’t my plan. I didn’t intend—"

"So you are, indeed, not pregnant
then?" I raised an eyebrow. She shook her head. I snorted.

"Well that’s too bad. That's the
only way I would’ve stuck around. However, that’s good for me because now I can
walk away from this without any regret." I turned for the door.

"Aidan, please—"

"Thanks for the pussy, Nat."
Keeping my anger in check, I gently shut the door behind me.

Once in my car, the anger seeped back
in. I sped off toward my apartment ignoring the calls from Natalia as I broke
every speed limit along the way. Once in my apartment, I left Devlin a
voicemail to cancel and destroy all documents involving Natalia. I grabbed the
full bottle of bourbon, a glass and threw myself onto a lounge chair on my
balcony. I let the cold October air whip against my face as the bourbon warmed my
throat.

What the fuck am I going to do? I am
completely fucked! I could always go back to that fucking traitorous bitch but,
if Gideon was involved, I couldn’t risk it. I was basically ready to just pick
up any woman and marry her. It was the only choice I had left.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Two days passed and I hadn’t left my
apartment. I was racking my brain, trying to figure out what I was going to do.
When James showed up, I shouldn’t have been surprised; I had been ignoring all
phone calls.

"You look like shit," he
laughed out. I grimaced. "What the hell happened to you?"

I told James about Natalia. He was just
as pissed off.

"Those evil bastards, do they think
this is a game?"

"Well apparently Grandfather liked
to play with people’s lives too," I snapped.

"What?" James looked
astonished by my outburst.

"You heard me. If he would never
have done this to me then I wouldn’t be stuck dealing with this shit!"

He didn’t have a response, he knew I was
right. Instead, he proposed something else.

"Get cleaned up, we’re going
out," he smiled large.

"I don’t want to—"

"Get in the shower before I call
Dixon and have him sponge bath your ass!"

I shuddered at the threat, earning a
chuckle from James. He pulled out his cell and made some calls. I drudged off
to the bathroom hoping that the hot water would make me feel a little more like
myself.

Once I was showered and dressed in a
pair of black slacks and a white button down, I met James in the living room.
He gave me a once over and shrugged while slightly moving his head side to
side.

"What?" I asked.

"Nothing," he chuckled.
"You look alright but I don’t know if you look like husband and father
material." He laughed and headed toward the door.

"Shut the hell up." I yelled
as I followed him.

Once James parked his sleek red car, I finally
noticed our destination for the night.

"Are you serious?"

He smiled and shrugged.

"I thought we would hang out at a bar
or something." I groaned.

"Hey, there's a bar in here,"
he smirked.

I rolled my eyes as I climbed out of the
car.

We entered the club and weaved through
the bodies to reach the bar. Celia moved behind the bar, she was working with
some red head tonight.

"What can I get you guys?" The
red head asked, trying to be seductive. She wasn’t successful. She was
irritating. James ordered our drinks and she went about the task.

"Dude, she was totally eye-fucking
you." He smacked my back and laughed loudly in my ear.

"I can’t believe Elora lets you out
of the house." I glared at him.

"She has nothing to worry about."
He grinned.

"What? Did the playa just put his
balls on a shelf?" I chuckled.

He smirked.

"Oh, they aren’t on a shelf. They're
in Elora’s mouth." He laughed back. I shook my head laughing.

"Hey stranger." Celia stood smiling
before us.

"Hey," I smiled back.

"Haven’t seen you for awhile, how
are you doing?"

"Good," I lied.

"Liar," James snorted.

I smacked him. Celia eyed us curiously.

"So, I heard you finally got a
woman," she smiled.  

I felt the frown form on my face.
Celia’s smile morphed to regretful. Before she could say anything, I simply
blurted out a quick response.

"Nah, let’s just say that we didn’t
see things the same way," I forced a smile and tossed my bourbon down
slamming the glass onto the bar.

"Let me get you another."
Celia quickly returned with a full glass and I thanked her.

"So, don’t you and Lilli usually
work together?" I asked between gulps.

"Uh…yeah," she answered. Her
forehead creased with worry.

"What’s wrong? Everything
okay?" I asked, with a small amount of true concern.

"Yeah, well…Lilli had to go back to
Maine. She’s been gone for like a month." She sighed unhappily.

"She’s been gone for a month?"
I furrowed my brow.

"Yeah, her father got sick again
and she was in the hospital with him for two weeks before he was allowed to
come home with a nurse." I could see the tears start to form in her eyes.
"Sorry," she said when she realized that I was watching her get
upset. "I just feel bad for her and I miss her," she shrugged.

I was about to ask her more but she gave
me the just a minute motion and went to help some people who had just sat down at
the bar.

My mind started to digest what she had
just said. The wheels turning so wildly in my head, I didn’t hear Dixon or
Oscar arrive.

"Hello!" Dixon’s boisterous
voice brought me out of my head.

"Oh, hey, Dixon!" I replied,
seeing Oscar over Dixon’s shoulder. "Oz," I raised my glass to him
and he nodded.