I want You Deeper

Nicholas pulled up in front of the taco stand, a smile tugging at his lips the second he saw the now-familiar building. It was hard to believe it had been a full week since he’d first met Charlie McLaughlin. Seven full days of texting back and forth about plans, with some of the texts even turning a little flirtatious.

Okay, so the flirting had been mostly on his side of the text exchanges. Charlie was all business, tending to go mysteriously silent whenever he turned up the heat a little with a wink emoji or a subtle tease. He certainly didn’t want to push things if she wasn’t interested, but he found himself testing the waters a little, eager to see if she felt the same attraction to him as he did to her.

It had also been almost seven days since he’d last laid eyes on her. When the door next to the taco stand opened and Charlie emerged, his entire nervous system went on immediate alert. He’d already been wired all day, long after his morning cups of coffee had worn off. Just the thought of picking her up in front of her building after work had kept him on high alert. But now, knowing he would be in her company for a full forty-eight hours had him reacting like a schoolboy with a crush.

“Hi,” she said, smiling at him as she met him at his trunk. He opened it without taking his eyes off her, then reached for the handle of the suitcase she’d rolled over between them. It was so hard to take his eyes off her, but he forced his gaze to the suitcase to avoid making a fool of himself.

“Ready for the long drive?” He struggled to keep his tone light and casual as he arranged her suitcase neatly next to his. Normally, he would have just tossed the luggage into the trunk without much thought, but she was so poised and composed, he felt the need to match that.

“Only a couple of hours,” she said. “We should get there just in time for the tail end of the cocktail party.”

“I hope there’s food at this thing. I’m starving.”

Charlie seemed to take that as her cue. She pulled up the menu on her phone and, while he pulled away from the curb and started out of town, read it to him. It was an impressive selection of finger foods, but he said nothing complimentary about it. He had a feeling her nemesis was responsible for putting the menu together. The name of the game this weekend was winning this war against Shellie Ashworth.

“Thank you for doing this,” Charlie said. “I know you probably have better things to do with your time than hang out at some stranger’s high school reunion.”

He smiled over at her. “Are you kidding? I’ve been looking forward to this all week. We have some time, so what’s our story?”

“Story?”

He glanced over at her briefly before turning his attention back to the road ahead. “For your friends at the reunion. Are we engaged, married, or just dating? How did we meet? How long have we been together? We have to get all that straight in case they ask us separately.”

Silence from her side of the car. He hoped he hadn’t pushed too far. But finally, she spoke.

“How’s this? We met a year ago at a work event. You proposed on Valentine’s Day, and we’re planning a big wedding for next summer. I wanted a full year to get everything together. We’re going to get married in the South of France, transporting the entire wedding party on your private plane.”

“I don’t have a private plane.”

Should he have pointed that out? Yes. He had to keep reminding himself that she wasn’t interested in his belongings. She was just interested in what her former classmates thought of his belongings. Somehow, that seemed worse.

After another silence, she asked, “But you can rent one, right?”

“Charter, yes. I can charter a private plane for our wedding.” He smiled as he said those words, teasing her by mentioning an event that would never happen. May as well get into the spirit of this if they were going to pull this pretend engagement off.

“But what are we going to tell your family next weekend?” She looked at him as she asked that, but he kept his gaze steadfastly focused on the road. He wished he could say he hadn’t thought about it. But he’d spent the week fixating on how he could possibly convince his mother that the special guest he’d told her he was bringing to the wedding was his fiancee.

“We’re engaged. I proposed in Vegas. No, she won’t like that. Something fancier.”

Laughing, Charlie settled deeper into her seat, resting her head against the headrest. “We ran off to the South of France in a chartered private jet and you proposed in some fancy garden?”

“That sounds better. So we’re engaged. Too late to do anything about it now. Perfect.”

He felt Charlie looking at him again. “What would she do about it if we weren’t engaged?”

“Try to break us up, of course. Push whatever socialite she’s picked out for me between us in the hopes you’ll give up and go away. I told her I was bringing a date.”

“What did she say?”

Nicholas glanced over at her. “I don’t know. I dropped it on her voicemail right before picking you up.”

She blinked. “You’re kidding. She hasn’t responded yet?”

“Beats me. I have my phone set not to disturb me right now.”

“Hiding out, huh?”

“No. I just want to focus on my drive.”Please check at N/ôvel(D)rama.Org.

But she was right. He was hiding out. He didn’t even want to glance at his phone right now. If he had a missed call from her, he’d be worried about her reaction. If she hadn’t called at all, he’d probably be even more worried.

Better off escaping the whole thing.

“I’m sure your mom just wants you to be happy,” Charlie said.

“My mom.” He sighed. “She’s always been more about what everyone thinks. My younger brother is in medical school. Did I mention that? His goal is to eventually become a heart surgeon. He’s at UC Berkeley, getting his undergrad. Marrying the child of a society friend of my mom’s. I’m sure they’ll eventually have the perfect home in the perfect suburb near Mom.

Maybe pop out a couple of perfect kids.”

Had he said too much? He realized that had come across as a little bitter, but there you had it. His entire life summed up in one paragraph. No matter how much he accomplished, his mother would always point out how much more his younger brother was doing.

“You’ll eventually have to break it to your mom that you’re not getting married, though.”

Charlie’s point was something Nicholas had given plenty of thought to over the past few weeks. He knew the holidays would come around quickly enough, and his mother would expect him to show up with his wife-to-be.

“I figure I’ll just tell her it didn’t work out.” He shrugged. “The point, right now, is to get through my brother’s wedding, and just showing up with someone I’m dating won’t be enough.”

“Because you want to show your mother that you don’t need her to find a woman for you,” Charlie said.

“Exactly.”

But it went deeper than that. He wanted to show his mother that, like his brother, he had his life together. Not just the part where he was set for life and had a big, fancy house with a pool and jacuzzi that he only used when he had friends over. The part where he had been able to attract a woman and convince her to spend the rest of her life with him.

The part he always seemed to mess up.

“So what type of woman do you need me to be to impress your mother?” Charlie asked.

Nicholas looked over at her. Was she serious? “Exactly the type of woman you are. You’re perfect.”

Those last two words might have been a little on the heavy-handed side. Charlie’s eyes widened, but she didn’t take her gaze off the windshield. Had he just called her perfect? She was, but he didn’t mean it in a direct compliment sort of way. He meant that she was perfect to parade in front of his mother and all his friends.

Of course, he wouldn’t tell her that.

He decided to change the subject. “The more pressing question is, what type of man do you need me to be to impress Shellie Ashworth and all her friends?”

A long silence met that question. He waited patiently for her to answer, wondering if the delay meant she was having second thoughts about asking him to help out.

“Act like a billionaire.”

He frowned, running those words through his mind before repeating them. “Act like a billionaire.”

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw her nod. “Yep.”

“Exactly how does a billionaire act?”

“I don’t know. Rich?”

Nicholas thought of all the billionaires he knew. There weren’t that many, actually. There were quite a few millionaires in his circle of friends, though, and plenty more who were comfortably settled in the six-figure zone. He knew exactly how they acted because he strove not to act that way. “I think I have it,” Nicholas said. “Act like a total tool?”

Charlie gasped. “No!”

He laughed. “I didn’t figure that would go over too well.”

“Just, you know, be poised and gentlemanly and…you.”

“Me?”

“Be yourself. You’re perfect just the way you are.”

Hadn’t that been exactly the compliment he’d given her a few minutes earlier? And he’d meant it in the context of the impression she was sure to make on his mother. He was fairly sure she’d meant it in a similar context.

“Let’s do this,” Nicholas said, turning to flash her a big smile before pressing down on the gas to speed past an SUV that was going ten miles below the speed limit.