“It’s not like I’d expect you to sleep with me or anything,” he said.
“That sums up everything wrong with your offer. A husband and wife should want to sleep together.”
“Well, I mean, that’s totally negotiable. I’m not going to say no, our night together was—”
Was he fucking serious? I stood up abruptly. “Jesus. I’m certainly not going to sleep with you for money; who do you think—”
“Sorry, I was trying to be funny. Wrong time, wrong place.” His jaw clicked. “Look, I know I’ve kind of sprung this on you. But please, at least think about it.”
I glanced around, making sure I hadn’t forgotten anything, and headed toward the door.
“Weigh up the pros and cons. Think about it like a business deal,” he said, standing and pushing his hands into his pockets. “You’d be getting what you want—a debt-free Cecily Fragrance. Surely that’s worth considering?”
He made it sound so simple. But I couldn’t sell myself just to save a company.
Could I?
Nine
Scarlett
I stared into my glass of rosé like it was a crystal ball.
“You’re quiet. It’s freaking me out,” Violet said. “Was the sex bad?”
Violet had been messaging me, wanting to know how my night with Ryder had been. I’d managed to put her off last night—I’d needed an early night. I hadn’t been so lucky today. She’d insisted we go for a drink when I’d finished work. I just wanted to go home and process everything. “It was . . . complicated,” I said.
“What was complicated?” A woman with a familiar voice said.
I looked up to find my sister-in-law, Harper, standing above us.
“I invited Harper,” Violet said.
“So I see.” I really wasn’t up for a big, boozy night out where the main topic of conversation was whether I’d had an orgasm. I put on my best fake smile and shuffled across the padded bench to make room for Harper.
“Can we get a bottle of champagne, please?” Harper hollered across the bar at a waiter three tables over. “We’re celebrating,” she said, lowering her head to us so she wasn’t addressing the whole bar. “I’m so excited! You popped your post-divorce cherry. And with a British guy! Tell me all about it.”
Violet tried to avoid the death stare I shot her across the table. I couldn’t believe she’d told Harper I hadn’t slept with anyone since my divorce.
“Oh, you want the details,” I said. Well, they wouldn’t be expecting to hear this particular story. “He asked me to marry him today.” I shrugged.
Violet twisted her mouth to one side as if she were trying to figure out whether or not I was joking.
“He what?” Harper asked.
“He suggested we get married.”
Harper smiled politely, glancing across my half-empty wine glass, probably wondering whether or not more alcohol was a good idea.
“Like, as a joke?” Violet asked. “Is that British slang or something?”
I chuckled. “No actually, he seriously wants to marry me.”
Harper widened her eyes. “Well, you can’t get it right every time. There are a lot of crazies out there. Maybe stick to an American next time.”
Crazy was right. Living in Manhattan, I thought I’d seen it all, but getting married in order to inherit? Ryder might be British, but we weren’t in the seventeenth century, for Christ’s sake.
“Okay, spill, how did that happen?” Violet asked as a waitress came over with our champagne on ice. “Is he crazy in love with you? Do you have a magic vagina?”
As she opened the bottle and poured three glasses, I explained how Ryder turned out to be the man behind the company trying to buy Cecily Fragrance, and how he’d offered to pay off the loans in return for my hand in marriage.
“How long would you have to stay married?” Violet asked.
I shrugged. “I have no idea. I didn’t ask him.”
“Why? You don’t think that’s important?” she asked.
Didn’t she understand that I’d said no? “Five minutes or five years—it didn’t matter. I wasn’t going to marry him. For money.”
“Not even to save your business? Then you’re crazy,” Violet said. “There’s not much I wouldn’t do for that kind of cash.”
“I’d definitely do it for five minutes,” Harper said with a shrug. “Sign the paperwork and then get it annulled.”
“She probably wouldn’t be able to get it annulled,” Violet said to Harper as if I wasn’t even there. “Wouldn’t work for his trust thingy.”
“Divorced then. Who cares?” Harper said.
“I care,” I said. “Divorce is a big deal. Marriage is a big deal. You can’t enter into a relationship as a business transaction.”
“Of course you can. People have been doing it for centuries,” Violet said before draining her champagne. “You over-romanticize things. Marriage is always a deal. He has something you want, you have something he wants. Every relationship is like that if you think about it.”
“You really do take the fun out of everything,” Harper said, shaking her head.
“I’m just practical. Years ago men took pretty wives who had a big dowry if they could offer a title and respectability. Cavemen mated with the most fertile women in the village. It’s always a transaction. This one is just more . . . obvious.”
“So you think my marriage was a deal?” I asked her.
“I think every marriage is. You wanted Marcus because he promised to keep you safe, got along with our parents and has a nice ass.”
“Violet, you can’t boil down the reasons I wanted to marry my ex-husband to safety and a great ass. I loved him. Marriage is supposed to be about loving each other.”
“That was just part of the deal, for you—love I mean. It isn’t for everyone.”
Harper laughed. “You’re so cynical, Violet. But Max’s ass was definitely part of the deal for me.”
“I am not,” Violet replied, shaking her head. “What I will be is a lot richer if you give me his number.”
“You’re saying you’d marry Ryder—even though you don’t know him—just for the money?” I asked, looking at my sister, trying to figure out if she was playing with me.
“For serious money? Of course. I’d be crazy not to.” She grabbed the bottle of champagne from the ice bucket and topped up our glasses.
My sister was the most practical, unromantic person on the planet. She also thought like a guy.
“And anyway, weren’t you looking for an adventure?” she asked. “Marrying some stranger, it’s all about the adventure, isn’t it? And even if it’s the most boring thing you’ve ever done, at least you’ll be left with Cecily Fragrance, which you love.”
According to my ex, I approached life with caution. I thought about all the reasons we shouldn’t do something. I didn’t like to take risks.