Brian Kings and His Substitute Bride

/Brian's POV/

I stare at my phone waiting for my friend,Elliot to reply my message but his W******p about icon has been showing ‘typing’ for the past five minutes.

I feel a prick of sadness as I stare at my other friend sitting next to me in the car but she looks quite occupied with what she is doing on her phone.

Right now, I need somebody to help me calm these nerves that are all over the place,but out of my three friends, Elliot is the only friend that is in support of my engagement.

"His meeting must have commenced" I sigh in disappointment as I turn off my cellular connection and slide my phone in the breast pocket of my wine suit before staring out of the window.

I have anticipated this day over the past two weeks and now that the day is finally here, I can't wait to get to the venue to get started as I take one step closer to forever with the love of my life.

"How do you feel about all this?" my friend, Rhea finally breaks the silence in the car and I observe her keenly for a while.

"Should I be honest about how I feel?" I ask her while studying her facial expression and she nods eagerly giving me her undivided attention.

"Mere words cannot describe how happy I am right now" I answer her because I don't know how best to express my excitement in words.

“Is it just me, or you have really been overacting over this arranged marriage " Rhea says and I roll my eyes at her.

"You all can choose to call this an arranged marriage, I don’t care about that because I choose to call this destiny" I remark only for her to give me a snort of disgust that makes me glare at her because she was the one that asked me to be honest.

"Wait a minute, are you for real right now?" Rhea asks after a while, dramatically blinking her eyes.

“What does it look like?” I answer her question with another question making her pause dramatically as her jaw drops.

"You've got to be kidding me" she says shaking her head after recovering from her state of momentary shock like she can’t believe what she just heard.

“Of course not” I answer her with a spark of anger sizzling inside me.

"I am dead serious about what I just said " I assure her and she stares at me for like five seconds straight without blinking.

"Why exactly do you think I will joke with something like this?" I ask her snapping my fingers in front of her to snap her out of her frozen state.

"No offense” she starts and I stare at her with cautious evaluation.

“It is just that in my 22years of existence, I have never seen anyone this excited about an arranged marriage" she says after completely snapping out of her state of shock.

"The fact that you have not seen this happening before doesn't overrule the possibility of it ever happening” I answer trying to keep my voice and face as neutral as possible so that she doesn’t know that her reaction towards my engagement is hurting me but she gives me a really weird look.

“Why are you looking like you just stepped out of an horrific experience when I am living my fairy tale experience right now?" I ask her trying to mask the look of hurt and disappointment that her reaction is giving me.

“Fairy tale experience?” She asks puzzled and I nod.

"Seriously, Brian kings I still find it difficult to understand you after so many years of being friends with you" Rhea points out with a slack expression and my head tilts quizzically.

"You are kidding right?" I ask her but she shakes her head.

"Allow me to break it down for you, so that you can know that I am dead serious” Rhea says and I listen keenly.

“you have spent the past few weeks sending that plane Jane food and sucking up to her" Rhea expresses with an exaggerated sigh.

"She has a name Rhea and her name is Ember Weston" I remind Rhea even though I know that there is no way in this world that Rhea will forget Embers name especially when we all went to the same college and Ember works in the same company with Rhea.

"Fineeee” Rhea says with an exaggerated sigh.

“I will put that into consideration next time" Rhea says waving her hand in dismissal, something she does when she doesn’t want to drag a conversation further.

"I will really appreciate that" I reply her with a smirk.

"back to what I was saying,you have been sending that plane Jane....."Rhea mentions again and I glare at her because I know that she is intentionally doing it.

"Sorry...I meant to say that you have made it your new obsession to send Ember Weston different types of gifts , food and other gestures to try to make her feel special all in the name of an arranged marriage?”she lists while I just stare at her.

“I need you to make these make sense because right now it is not making any sense to me" Rhea questions.

"Wait a minute,how did you know about me doing those things for Ember?" I ask Rhea because I am very sure that I didn't mention it to her and there is no way she could have seen those things because she is not even on the same floor with Ember.

"Well,Everyone at work talks about the things you gift her on a daily basis so how wont I pick up one or two things from those incompetent people’s daily dose of gossip?" Rhea says rolling her eyes but her facial expression makes me burst into laughter.

“What’s funny” Rhea asks with a frown flickering across her forehead.

“I had no idea that you were so idle over the past two weeks, that you had the luxury of time to pay attention to all the preferential treatments that I have been extending towards an employee in your company.” I express with a satisfied smile plastered on my face.

"instead of trying to avoid this conversation, it will be better for you to answer me otherwise I will get pissed" Rhea says puffing out a breath.

"Fineeeee…I will tell you" I finally agree to explain things to her.

"I just hope that your hate for Ember reduces after you realize what she means to me" I express studying her expression keenly.

"lets wait and see" Rhea mumbles though it is still audible enough for me to hear.

"I have always had a huge crush on Ember" I start only for Rhea’s eyes to almost bulge out of its socket.

"I don’t know what was wrong with me during our college days but I can recall that after one of my guys made a joke about Ember being head over heels for Adrian, I completely dropped the idea thinking something was going to happen between them and I just didn’t want to ruin it for her" I continue ignoring Rhea’s bewildered expression.

"Adrian was too busy obsessing over her sister to care about her existence" Rhea remarks and my jaw involuntarily drops.

"Isn't that just to harsh?" I ask her

"I don't think its to harsh" she says waving her hand in dismissal.

"What was I even thinking by starting this conversation with you knowing that you have a strong dislike for Ember,and nothing I say is going to make you like her" I blame myself.

"Calm down Brian" Rhea says with puppy eyes.

"Its not like I don't like Ember......" she starts and I give her a knowing look.

"Fineeeee.....I admit that I don't like Ember,and I have never tried to hide my feelings about that, but I am here today for a reason” she says pulling the hem of my well tailored suit.

“I am here for you because that is what friends do" Rhea says and I send her a skeptical look.

"Why are you looking at that way" she asks in an uncomfortable tone of voice.

"This confirms it” I say throwing my hands up in surrender and that makes her raise an eyebrow at me.

“what you just said doesn't sound like you are trying to acept Ember" I point out shaking my head.

I am just so done having this conversation with her.

"But I am....." She tries to convince me otherwise.

"While still judging her?" I ask Rhea and her lips part but no words make its way out of her mouth.

"That confirms it,I am right" I sigh as I lean back on the car seat, angry at myself for entertaining this conversation with her when I knew the likely outcome.

"Can I ask you a question?" Rhea requests but I just ignore her because dragging the conversation further is just pointless.

"No offence,but what exactly do you like in that plane Jane?" She inquires and my eyes darts in her direction with my mouth hanging open loosely.

"That came out kinda wrong” she tries to dismiss what just made its way out of her mouth.

“what I was trying to say is that I was still trying to wrap my head around why on earth the Kings will have a marriage alliance with the Weston's when both families are financially bouyant, and to think that you agreed to an arranged alliance without protesting or throwing tantrums is just beyond me "she expresses making me send a dissatisfied look in her direction.

“me to try processing the whole arranged marriage thing was bad enough only for you to dump the most unexpected news of the year on me about your crush on Ember weston so forgive me if I am not reacting to your sudden declaration of love with proper excitement"she says folding her palms in front of her head while I look at her wondering how I have coped with an insensitive and blunt person like Rhea over the years.

“My peace of mind and my mood throughout the engagement hangs on a balance right now, so instead of giving Rhea a piece of mind, it is better not to go down that lane at all" I mentally decide against indulging Rhea as the car drives into the event centre

"Heyyyyyyyyyy" Rhea says tugging the hem of my suit jacked again and I glance at her briefly before averting my gaze.

" what if I say that I am willing to give Ember a chance because you obviously care about her?”Rhea says and that gets my attention.

"I obviously care about her?" I inquire as the sides of my lips curl up into a smile even though I try to fight it.

"You need to look at your self in the mirror as you spoke about her,you sound like she is the best thing that has happened to you which is really surprising because I have not seen you this facinated about a lady ever since you and your Eloise broke up" Rhea says and I clear my throat before looking out of the window.

“ I think I deserve a proper explanation from you concerning what happened between you and Eloise because there was never a point that you were as obsessed with Eloise like you are with Ember” Rhea interrogates

I am minutes away from taking a step closer to forever with the lady that I have loved from a distance and the only thing on Rhea’s mind is my Ex?

" Since we are at the venue already,it’s better for us to hurry inside to check if the arrangements that we made yesterday concerning the proposal is in place before they flop it due to their incompetence" I say borrowing Rhea’s favorite word ‘incompetence’ and completely ignoring her question.

"I didn’t put any incompetent bastard in charge of your proposal so you have nothing to fear” she assures and I smile.

“Now back to the conversation that I am trying to have with you….." she says in her frustrated voice

"…..the same conversation that I am trying my very best to avoid” I answer her before opening the car door and getting out of the car.

I am quite content that Rhea is able to notice how fascinated I am with Ember but there is no way that I can risk allowing any negative comment to make its way out of Rhea’s mouth again which is why I am consciously bringing mine and Rhea’s conversation to an end before she spoils my mood with her insensitive remarks and rounds of unnecessary questions.

"Brian we are not done talking" Rhea calls out to me but instead of going back to have a conversation with her,I scan the area of reserved parking lot for an escape route.

While searching for an escape route, my eyes land on my fathers special assistant stepping down from the limo, clad in a lovely embroided black and wine gauze floor length dress that is showing way more skin than she does on a normal day.

"There she is" I mumble as I make my way to her knowing fully well that apart from Rhea’s strong dislike for Ember, she also has a strong dislike for her friends which is why my fathers special assistant, Miss Caleb is just the best way to escape Rhea right now.