I turned. She wore a genuine smile.
"Sorry," stepping quickly to the fridge. "I didn’t mean to pry, it just caught my attention." Leaning into the fridge, I grabbed a beer.
"Not a big deal. It’s not a big secret or anything." She shrugged as she sat back down.
"You seriously think you can take on another job?" I leaned back against the counter and opened the beer.
"Well I am hoping to find one or two better paying jobs, but if I have to add another one to my list then so be it," she sighed and blew hair out of her face.
The idea flashed across my head again. I cleared my throat.
"Lilli?"
"Hmmm?" She didn't look up.
"How much do you know about my uh…situation?"
She looked up at that.
"Not a lot but, like I told you, I’ve got a pretty good idea. You have to get married or something because of your family, right?" Placing her elbow on the counter, she placed her chin into the palm of her hand. In that moment, I noticed the depth of her eyes. It was like she could see into my soul. Hopefully, I could get a small glimpse of hers.
"Sort of," I grinned nervously. "I have to get married by February of next year or I lose my inheritance." Her eyes widened and before she could speak, I continued. "And…I have to stay married for four years in a monogamous and faithful marriage." She looked a little too stunned to speak.
"That…that um….that kind of sucks," she bit her bottom lip.
"Yeah," I rubbed the back of my head. "Yeah, it does."
"So that’s the reason for all the desperate attempts?" She smirked.
"Ha ha…I wouldn’t say desperate," she raised her brow at my response. "Trust me, I am only now starting to realize how hard this is going to be and desperation has now set me forth in a different direction." I watched her face twist in confusion.
"But, you could probably pick any ex-girlfriend or girl that you meet and convince them to go along with marriage," she looked at me like I was an idiot.
"Yeah, well it’s not that simple. I’ve talked to some exes and some blind dates." I smiled at her knowing she would be trying not to laugh at the ‘blind date’. She couldn’t fight it, she laughed. "Plus there are other stipulations."
"Stipulations?" she asked.
"First tell me about your father?" I watched her stop breathing for a moment.
"There’s nothing to tell."
"I call bullshit, Lilli. You can tell me." I prayed that she would tell me, this was going to be hard enough and I needed leverage.
She took a deep breath.
"My father has heart problems." She took a deep breath before she finished. "He’s already had a heart transplant a few years ago but he started having trouble again."
"I’m sorry," I moved to stand opposite of her. She nodded. "I have to be married by February of next year, monogamous and faithful for at least four years and conceive a child within the first year of marriage."
Her head popped up with wide eyes after I finished.
"Wow…I…I really don’t know what to say."
"Crazy huh?"
She nodded in response to my question.
"And, it is much more difficult to accomplish than you would imagine," I laughed through my nose.
"I could…okay I couldn’t even imagine," she shook her head. "So you are going in a different direction you said?" she tilted her head to the side. "You don’t have to tell me anything else if you aren’t comfortable—"
"It’s fine. Well, I figure that some random person I don't know is probably not such a good idea for obvious reasons, so I have been thinking about making it a business proposition in a sense." I shrugged and sighed at the same time.
"A business…seriously?" she wrinkled her nose and crunched her eyebrows together.
Not the reaction I would like to have gotten.
"Yeah and I’ve recently gotten an idea of what to do," I stopped, hoping she would bite.
"Hmm..." She seemed to think over what I had and had not completely said. "Which is?"
There it is.
"Answer one more question for me, first?"
"Uh...oh-kay." She drawled out her words and there was now a slight narrowing of her eyes.
"You're in financial concern due to your father’s health issues, right?"
Nodding, she opened her mouth and spoke. "Yeah, but what—"
I could almost see the light bulb go off.
"Aidan….I am not—"
"Just think about it. We could draw up an agreement for marriage. I will help alleviate the financial issues your father is having and help you financially to finish college without having to work during the four years of marriage."
Shock and fear flashed in her eyes before disgust replaced them.
"No. I don’t know what you seem to think of me, but I'm not for sale, Aidan."
"I never said—"
"Hey, sorry it took me so long. Celia called me," Dixon bounded back into the room. He looked between Lilli and me. "Is something wrong?" He turned an intense glare on me.
"No," Lilli said flatly. "I was just heading to my room." Standing, she walked away.