Save the Date (Modern Arrangements) (14 page)

I shook away the shock clouding my head
and stepped to the middle of my room. Spinning in a circle,
I took it all in, catching
sight of a large white
envelope, my name written in perfect black script.

Opening the crisp white envelope, I
pulled the obviously expensive note card from within. 'Forgive Me' in large
silver and blue calligraphy decorated the front.

It couldn’t be.

I flipped it over. In neat handwriting, I
read the note.

Lilli,

Please forgive me for being so
inconsiderate of your feelings. I was a selfish asshole who deserved more than
a slap in the face. Thank you for taking it easy on me.

My intentions were good but I failed
miserably at being respectful and good to you.

Please forgive me and give me a chance
to explain.

The Loser

I snorted but as the weight of his words
sunk in, my knees felt weak.  Sitting onto my bed, the card in my lap, I
thought about the whole crazy situation and tried to decide if I wanted to come
to terms with his actions.

Waking up curled up to my pillow, I
stretched, my hand landing on something that crinkled. That was when I remember
the card and the scent of flowers assaulted my nostrils again. I sighed and
pulled out my cell.

"Hey Lilli," he picked up on
the third ring.

"I need a phone number," I
mumbled out.

"Oh you do?" Great he knew and
he was fucking with me.
Big jerk!

"Dixon," I warned.

"Who’s number would that be, dear
Lilli?" I heard him stifle his chuckle.

"Give me his damn number," I
groaned.

He laughed. "I’ll text it to you.
Oh hey…"

"Yeah?"

"Don’t take it easy on him and if
you hit him, try to match his left cheek where I hit him," he laughed and my
mouth fell open.

"You…you hit him?"

"Damn straight. No one messes with my
little sister." I was waiting to hear him pound on his chest.

"Thanks Dixon," Although he
was barbaric, he was my big brother in all sense of the words.

"No problem. You’ll get my text
shortly. Later, Lilli," I said good bye as he hung up.

My phone beeped two minutes later. I
stared at the number and did a mental pep-talk. In the end, I dialed the number
and prayed that it would go to voicemail, no such luck.

"Hello?" I could hear the
confusion in his voice at the unknown number.

"Aidan?" he said nothing.
"Hello?"

"L-Lilli?" he stuttered and I
smirked. He was worried and nervous.
Good!

"Yep."

"Um…" he cleared his throat
quietly, "Hi."

"T-Thank you for the flowers. You
really shouldn’t have…"

"I should have done more than
flowers," he interrupted. "Actually, I shouldn’t have put myself in
the position to have to do any of this, but, hey, I’m a jerk."

"Loser," I corrected.

"Ahh, yes, loser," he
chuckled.

"Well, thank you and if you want to
try to explain then I will listen, but, so help me God, if you make me feel
like—"

"I won't!" He blurted out.
"At least I will seriously try not to."

"Ok."

"Can I, uh, stop by later?"

"I have to leave for work in two
hours, so maybe we should just talk over the…" he cut me off again.

"What if I head over now?"

"Aren’t you at work?"

"Yeah, but I really don’t want to
do this over the phone," he mumbled.

"Fine," I shrugged to myself.
We said goodbye and I went to get a bowl of cereal before I got showered and
dressed for work. Thirty minutes later, having eaten, showered and slipped on
some shorts and t-shirt, I was drying my hair when there was a knock at the
door.

"That was quick." I opened the
door, motioning him in.

"Traffic wasn’t bad," he
answered with a shrug.

"Do you want anything?" I walked
toward the kitchen.

He shook his head.

After grabbing a bottle of water from
the refrigerator, I sat across from Aidan in the living room.

He swallowed hard before speaking.

"I am sincerely sorry about the way
that I came off to you. I don’t feel like you—"

"I get it." With a shrug of
one shoulder, I took a sip of my water before continuing. "Is that all you
came to say?"

"N-no." He was really nervous.
I almost started to laugh at him but bit the side of my cheek. He cleared his
throat and continued.

I listened as he explained the
conditions of his inheritance again. Then, I listened as he talked about the
pressure he is under to comply with them; his family, the company, his
grandfather and the employees. I was actually impressed at how distraught he
seemed to be over the possibility that his employees could possibly suffer if
he didn’t comply with his grandfather’s wishes.

As he started to discuss it in further
detail and open up more, I began to understand where his frame of mind was when
this all went down between us. He was completely stressed, confused and
petrified. I felt for him. When he finished, he commenced with his reasons for
approaching me.

We sat in silence for a little while
before I broke it.

"I forgive you," his head
snapped up quickly trying to read my face to see if I was serious.

"Really?" I saw the hint of a
smile on his lips and relief in his eyes.

I nodded.

"It doesn’t mean that I’ll forget
it any time soon but I can at least understand what you were going through at
the time. I mean, I can get an idea of what you are going through."

"Now comes the hard part," he
sighed and I looked at him confused. "Would you please consider this
arrangement? Just think about it and consider it, that’s all I ask." He
looked me dead in the eye. "I have over 5000 employees, most with families
and I have to try to do anything that I can to ensure that they are not a
victim to my mistakes."

I could feel the guilt itch at me when
he mentioned the people that worked for him. How many people would lose their
jobs because of this? I, of all people, knew what a job meant and how hard a
good one was to find.

"I’ll think about it," a smile
spread on his face. "But," his smile started to fade, "I would
look for another option, Aidan." I rubbed my face with my hands.
"Honestly the marriage thing isn’t too much to take on, though, I am not a
fan of marriage. However, the kid thing…I mean…bringing a kid into a fake
marriage or marriage of convenience, knowing that by the time they are three or
whatever, they will no longer have that family dynamic, well, that’s just
sick." I shook my head.

He sighed heavily, rubbed one hand over
his face before slipping his long fingers through his hair.

"But, you will think about
it?"

"I said I would," nodding with
my response.

Chapter Nine
An Agreement

Aidan

It had been two weeks since the flowers
and the conversation. I had really thought about what he was offering, but
every moral fiber of my being was at war with the fibers that told me that I
was an idiot to not do this. I even had a girl’s lunch with Phoebe and Celia
just to talk through the whole thing. They, however, only told me what they
would do, not what I should do.

Knowing that I had to tell Aidan my
answer soon, I decided to call him after I got out of class. I would much
rather handle this over the phone than in person because I just can’t go
through another plea session from him.

"Hey Lilli," he answered
quickly.

"Uh…" I gulped "Hi."

"I’m guessing that you’ve made a
decision?" he sounded weary, like he knew what was coming.

"Uh, yeah..." I sighed.
"Aidan, I am so sorry, but I just…I can’t. I just…I can’t." I forced out
a breath that I didn’t realize I was holding.

He was quiet and didn’t say anything for
a few minutes. I started to get nervous but then he spoke.

"I understand," he said flat
and low. I tried to apologize again but he cut me off. "Thank you for
considering it."

"I’m sorry and I hope that you find
someone that this will work with." We said goodbye and hung up.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Another two weeks passed and I'd not
seen or heard from Aidan, not that I expected it. My last exam was finished and
I had a month off from school before the next semester started. If one of my
job interviews didn't come through, I would have to drop out of college before
the semester picked up.

My phone vibrated in the middle of one
interview and I tried to pretend that it wasn’t my phone making the noise. I’m
not sure the interviewer bought my bad acting skills. Once I was shown out with
the promise to ‘let me know either way’ I started back toward the apartment.

I remembered the call and pulled out my
phone. It was Harry, my father’s best friend. I quickly listened to my
voicemail, all he said was to call him but he sounded upset. I rushed to call
him.

"Lilli?"

"Harry, what’s happened?"
Storefronts began passing by me in a blur.

"Lilli calm down. It’s just
that—"

"Just what, Harry? Where is
Donald?" Sobs began wracking my chest.

"He’s in the hospital, Lilli."
He cleared his throat uneasily.

"Please tell me it’s not—"

"Lilli, it’s his coronary arteries."
Harry got silent when he heard me sobbing through the phone.

"I’ll be there tomorrow." Quickly
hanging up, I sprinted to the apartment. Along the way I called Dixon, Celia
and Phoebe.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Aidan

She told me no.  What the hell am I
going to do?  How am I going to stop the loss of our family company, of
securing the future of our current employees?

Viola kept trying to get me to go to
different events but I just didn’t feel like it. Finally, she won out and I
accepted an invitation to one of her many charity organization galas.

Doing my family duty of greeting and
mingling, my attention was drawn by a tall, dark haired woman who was clearly
looking me over. I had never seen her before but she was gorgeous. Her black
hair barely met her shoulders yet framed her perfect, fair complexion. I hadn’t
realized that I was walking toward her until I was about two feet away. Closing
the distance, I introduced myself and she offered me her well manicured hand. I
kissed the knuckles.

"It’s a pleasure to meet you,"
I smiled.

"Oh, the pleasure is all
mine." She smiled seductively, my body immediately interested.

"I don’t believe we've met
before" Turning my charm up one more level, "I am sure I would have
remembered you."

She smiled coyly.

"Well, I don’t usually come out to
these things; however, a friend of mine convinced me it would be worth my
time." She paused and looked me over. "I’m beginning to believe she
was right." She winked.

"Who is your friend? Perhaps I know
her." I was curious as to whom she was associated. A brief moment of
nervousness flashed in her eyes before she composed her face.

"Dance with me?" she said
quickly, placing her champagne flute down on a nearby table. She grabbed my hand
and led me out to the group of couples that had already congregated on the
dance floor.

I put my hand on her lower back and held
the other up as we began to move around the floor; she was good. She moved
gracefully next to me as we swayed to the music filled air.

"So, can I ask your name?" I
whispered into her ear and she shivered. I smiled.

"Natalia," she responded.

"Do you have a last name?"

She paused for a moment before she
answered.

"Natalia Dimarci," she said
hesitantly.

I stopped moving and looked back to her
face. Her brow furrowed, nervousness crossing over her face.

"You’re related to Calvin
Dimarci?"

"His daughter," she smiled
weakly. I resumed dancing and she seemed to relax.

"I wasn’t aware that he had a
daughter," I fished for further information.

Calvin Dimarci was Gideon’s brother in
law. Though the two publicly didn’t see eye to eye, I was still curious and
cautious about the woman in my arms.

"Yeah well, sons are more revered
in my family. I’m sure you are aware of my older brother Alec?" I nodded.
"Yes, well…" she let the sentence fall off.

Not willing to be a judgmental jerk, I
continued the evening with her by my side. We talked more; her willingness to
answer questions without hesitation relieved some of my apprehensions. Enough
so that we made plans to see one another for dinner.  A quiet dinner, alone,
would prove a better atmosphere to clear my remaining hesitation where Natalia
Dimarci was concerned.