The Pretend Fiancé (25 page)

“Is this...?” Aiden asked, thinking the same thing.

“It is. Everything is the same. Everything,” Gwen said. She knew because that particular event was etched into her memory, as tangible and real to her as the heavy ring weighing down her left hand.

As soon as Gwen and Aiden entered the room, everyone waiting on the other side began flooding in.

“Hey!” Beatrice called out, “Are you guys getting engaged again or something? Because if that first ring wasn’t good enough, I call dibs!”

Gwen shrugged in response. Was that what Judith wanted? She really didn’t have a clue.

The music died down and Judith’s voice boomed over the speaker system. “Hello, everyone. Thank you all for accepting my invitation. I know that you must all be asking yourselves what is happening here tonight, and that it strongly resembles another evening you all so recently attended. Let me put your questions to rest by saying that I am an old woman who has so few future opportunities for happiness. And I was just so pleased by this engagement that I thought it a fitting tribute to the happy young couple to help them relive one of the happiest moments in both their lives and mine. Now please, enjoy the wine, enjoy the music, and enjoy the evening.”

The entire time she spoke, Judith’s eyes reached out across the room to glare at Gwen and Aiden. They both felt it, they both saw it.

Everyone clapped and cheered. Judith even gave a slight bow to the audience before climbing down off the stage, assisted as ever by that rented butler of hers.

The music’s volume swelled again, and people variously seated themselves or went out to the dance floor to sway around each other to the rhythm of the song.

Only Gwen and Aiden stood still and alone. Even her parents had flocked for the dance floor. They both tensed, waiting for the hammer to fall. However, it didn’t. The seconds ticked on, and Gwen’s body began aching from the strain of keeping her muscles locked so tightly.

“Would you like to dance?” Aiden said, deflating.

“Are you sure it would be fine?” Gwen said, trying not to blink so as not to miss a single critical moment.

“I think so. This could really be as simple as a stunt to try and make us think about that day, and make me think it was a mistake to propose and you to think it a mistake to accept.”

“That sounds pretty tenuous.”

“We’re talking about a crazy old woman here. I think her grip on reality could best be described as tenuous. We’re here. That was an amazing night. Why not relive it a little?” Aiden said, grasping her hand and urging her towards the dance floor, “Come on, let’s go dancing.”

She allowed him to lead her out, her limbs still feeling stiff and robotic. However, as soon as his arms encircled her waist and he began leading her in slow circles, that stiffness melted away, leaving her feeling loose and almost relaxed.

Gwen rested her head against Aiden’s chest, letting the steady thud of his heart soothe her anxieties away.

“That was an amazing night, wasn’t it?” Gwen said.

“Hey, I was there, remember? Actually, as I remember it, I’m also the one who orchestrated the entire thing.” His chest reverberated with every syllable, and Gwen closed her eyes as she didn’t just hear but also felt his words.

“Yes, yes, you’re the best. Now just hold me for the rest of this song,” Gwen said.

“I’ll hold you the rest of your life, if you let me,” Aiden said. She could tell he was looking down at her by the way his breaths washed over the top of her head. He planted a kiss on the crown of her scalp.

If this really was Judith’s dastardly plan, it was the worst one Gwen had ever heard of. She couldn’t possibly love and want to be with Aiden any more than she was at that moment.

“Didn’t you already ask me a question something along those lines?” Gwen said, her cheeks beginning to ache from holding her smile.

“I did. I also remember your answer.” His finger gently stroked against the ring.

When the song ended and a more upbeat, higher tempo one swelled in volume to take its place, Gwen and Aiden threaded their way through the throng and found a vacant table. There, they sat back and watched the happy people get their dance on.

Eventually, David and Elsa made their way over as well, David pulling out the chair for his new main squeeze. “Hi everyone,” he said, “I’m David, and I’ll be your server tonight. Can I interest anyone in some wine? There’s, well, there’s red and there’s... white, I think?”

“You are so good at that!
Tres bien
! Great! Give me a kiss, lover,” Elsa said, snatching at David’s bowtie and pulling him down so that he planted his lips against hers. Gwen only experienced a mild repulsion that time. There was also a twinge of happiness for her father.

When she let him back up, he winked at Aiden and Gwen. “Really, can I get anyone some wine?”

“White,” Elsa said.

“Red for me, please, dad,” Gwen replied.

“Nothing for me, thank you,” Aiden said, rounding out the orders for the table.

“I’ll be right back then, I guess,” David said, working his way back into the throng.

When the next song ended, a new one didn’t rise up to take its place. Instead, everyone watched as Judith climbed back up onto the stage. Everyone cheered for her again, and she gave them a tight little smile in response.

The speakers crackled when she tapped it with her forefinger to test the sound. “Ladies and gentlemen, I sincerely hope that you have all been enjoying your evening thus far...” She waited for the cheers to die down again before continuing, “In that same spirit, I bring you now a very special message straight from the lovely bride to be, Gwendolyn Browning. I’m sure it will deepen our understanding of this beautiful young couple.”

Somewhere out in the crowd, Beatrice yelled, “Woo! Go, Gwen!” and everyone chuckled. As they did, a large white screen began lowering from the ceiling behind Judith.

“You have a speech?” Aiden said.

“Not that I know of,” Gwen said, she’d stood at the mention of her name. Aiden rose up beside her. Coldness began pooling in Gwen’s stomach, and the palms of her hands became clammy.

Then she heard a voice over the speakers. It took her a second to recognize it. But when she did, and when she recognized what it was saying, her stomach dropped out through the floor.

Everyone quieted to listen.

“
I thought I got a signal from you that maybe, just maybe, you’re not as happy with Aiden as you think you are. And I also got this idea in my head that maybe you fancied me a little, too.
”

“
Ben, you’re a nice guy
.
I would love to be with you. And I do like you, maybe more than it’s okay to like you.”

A few people in the audience closest to their table turned questioning looks on Gwen. She hardly saw them, though. She started shaking her head, slowly at first, not quite believing what she heard. The words didn’t stop there, though.

“
And what about Aiden?”

“He has his company and his money to worry about, and I just want to help him with that,”
Gwen heard herself say.

“What if he didn’t have that company and that money, though? Would you still feel the same way about him?”

No
, Gwen thought,
Please, no, don’t. You can’t...

“No. Of course I wouldn’t.”
The words cut into her. The played again and again in her head. She couldn’t unhear them.

Someone nearby gasped. The questioning eyes fixing on her turned into accusing ones.

And then a picture lit up the screen behind Judith. It showed Gwen standing in the square with the benches. Ben had her hand pressed to his lips.

“Aiden!” Gwen said, “Aiden, don’t listen, it’s all a lie. That’s not how it went at all!” When she turned to her fiancé, he was already gone. She searched for him; saw him pushing his way through the crowd towards the exit.

“I really am sorry to have to surprise all of you like this,” Judith said, “But you can’t deny what you just heard. Gwen, yes, I see you over there, dear, sweet Gwen, I hope this helps you on your road to recovery...”

“Boo!” Beatrice yelled.

The quiet of the room shattered, people asking each other what that meant, people grabbing at Gwen, asking her what she was thinking, what kind of person she was.

David pushed his way out of the crowd and made his way to the table. “Gwen? What’s going on? Talk to me, sweetie.”

“Aiden! Wait!” Gwen called out, starting to push her way through the crowd.

***

J
udith watched the Browning girl start trying to ram her way through the audience. She’d be too late, Judith knew. Aiden was already at the door, his tall stature making him easy to pick out amongst so many others.

She thought she’d feel more pleasure in crushing the girl, in winning the prize in such a decisive manner.

However, along with the muted pleasure came another feeling. Small, but still there.

G
wen reached the exit only partially scathed. People hadn’t wanted her to leave. Some sounded confused or even pitying as they caught at her elbows in an attempt to stop her for a talk.

Others didn’t keep their opinions to themselves. They asked her how they could do that to Aiden, how she could be that sort of person. They accused her and called her things they thought she deserved.

And someone, she didn’t know who, had nearly wrenched her arm out of its socket in their attempt to keep her from leaving the room. Gwen could already feel the bruises from their fingers on her bicep. It was a deep, burning pain that clawed at her consciousness.

However, every part of her mind still functioning concerned itself with one thing: finding Aiden and making him understand. She knew that if only she could explain things to him, that the recording had been edited, the conversation changing things, taking them out of context, that Aiden would forgive her and everything would be all right.

Except when she finally spilled out into the hallway, she couldn’t find Aiden anywhere. Behind her, the music in the ballroom began playing again. At least no one had followed her out, yet.

“Aiden! Aiden?” Gwen called out, not caring when other hotel guests glared at her for the noise.

This time of night, there weren’t too many other people out and about. Most people were either in the ballroom or sleeping in their beds, leaving the hallway fairly clear.

And still she couldn’t find him. Gwen ran to the main lobby, thinking that maybe Aiden had headed straight for the elevators to take him back up to their suite.

The pair of night auditors watched her from their desks.

He wasn’t standing in front of the bank of elevator doors. He wasn’t sitting in any of the lounge areas.

“Aiden?” Gwen said again. She stood in the middle of that grand lobby and turned in a slow circle. Movement no longer keeping her together, her body began trembling from the terrible brew of shock, panic, and adrenaline inside of her.

“Aiden!”

She ran up to a tall man wearing a dark suit, putting her hand on his shoulder and spinning him around. It wasn’t Aiden. Even from the back, he didn’t really look like Aiden.

Why couldn’t he have been Aiden?

“Sorry,” Gwen said up into the stranger’s frowning face. She ran over to the main doors, the revolving ones still now and the sliding ones shut. At first, she saw only her own reflection against the darkness. She squinted, shifting her focus so that she could see out to the broad concrete patio and drive in front of the hotel.

She saw no one that could be Aiden. He was gone.

“Aiden...” she said.

“Miss? May I help you in some way?” a Swiss-accented voice asked.

It was one of the night auditors. A man, his dark hair slicked to the side. He looked concerned, as well as a little uncertain. This caliber of hotel probably didn’t get many crazy ladies running around the lobby in the middle of the night screaming out a man’s name.

“I don’t know. Maybe,” Gwen said, her shoulders rising and falling rapidly. Her vision began tunneling, and she realized that she’d begun hyperventilating. Lightheadedness followed. She collapsed.

“Miss!” the auditor said, moving quickly and catching her before she could collide with the hard surfaced of the polished floor. He brought her over to a nearby couch and helped her lay down. He looked over his shoulder and called out, but Gwen couldn’t make out what he said. Everything was hazy. Sight, sound, even touch. Hazy.

He’d asked for water, apparently. He and the other auditor helped her sit up against the arm rest and then he tilted the glass against her lips. She swallowed, the coldness of the liquid shocking her system.

Aiden, I have to find Aiden
, she thought, her mind beginning to clear.

“Now, what is the matter, miss? Shall I call for a doctor?” the auditor asked. His compatriot had her cell out, ready to make the call.

“No, that won’t be... No, I’m okay,” Gwen said. She wasn’t okay. It felt like her insides were about ready to shake themselves apart. She didn’t need some strange doctor poking at her, shining a light in her eyes, asking her how many fingers he held up.

“I’m looking for someone. My fiancé. He’s staying here with me. Can you tell me if you’ve seen him? He may have come through here right before I did.”

The auditors looked at each other, the woman shrugging. She said something in German to the man, who turned again to Gwen. “Your fiancé, what does he look like, miss?”

“He’s tall,” Gwen said, having trouble focusing. The auditor offered her the glass again, but she waved it away. “He was wearing a tailored suit. A black one. With a red tie.”

Again the two auditors conferred. Gwen didn’t need to understand the words to know the answer.

“I am sorry, miss, but neither of us have seen your fiancé. Perhaps he has returned to your room? It is possible we didn’t see him use the elevators or the staircase. They are difficult to see from the desks.”

“Maybe,” Gwen said. That made some sense to her. Maybe Aiden had gotten his fill of Judith and couldn’t stand to be there any longer. Maybe he’d gone back to the suite. That story didn’t fit perfectly (if it was true, why then did he leave Gwen there?) but it was worth investigating.