10

Andy’s POV

“Okay, your first assignment will be joining me and my family for dinner this evening. I’ll pick you up by 7pm.” I said, as I drove her back to her clinic.

“Hold on, my dad's expecting us for dinner.”

“Cancel it. Mine should come first.”

“Why? Your family is not more important than mine.”

“I’m the boss, I make the rules.” I said smugly.

She frowned. “Let’s get one thing straight. You’re not my boss, we’re partners. My say has just as much weight as yours. And I say we go to my family for dinner tonight.”

I gritted my teeth and opened my mouth to tell her that this wasn’t a partnership and my word would be the law, but I remembered I was dealing with Tiffany Baxter. Trying to boss her around would only make things worse.

“Your right. We’re partners, and no family is less important, but my case is time sensitive. The earlier my dad meets my fiancee, the quicker I get my position, the quicker we go our separate ways.”

Her frown relaxed.

“Fine, we’ll see yours tonight. I’ll call my dad and reschedule.”

“Thanks.” I pulled up in front of her building. “Do you want me to walk you to your office?”

She glared at me. “Don’t push it.”

I drove back to work, relieved I’d finally solved my biggest problem, but I still had another. I hadn’t told Tiffany we’d have to be married in a couple of weeks, I knew she’d refuse to go along with it. Being my fiancee was bad enough, she’d never agree to be my wife. But without the marriage, I won’t be CEO.

I was still thinking of a way round it when I got to my office.

“Mr. Justin asked to see you when you returned.” My secretary told me.

“What does he want?” I growled, the asshole had probably heard the news, but was too much of a pompous ass to come and ask me himself. The hell I was going to go to his office.

I called my stepmother and told her to expect Tiffany and I for dinner. As I hung up, my best friend Jeff breezed into my office.

“Andy! How did you pull it off? Man she’s hot! Your dad will have no complaints about this one. She’s even better looking than Jessica...”

“Keep your voice down.” I whispered.

“Sorry.” He sat across me. “I was surprised to hear Tiffany was your fiancee, I thought you guys hated each other in high school.”

“We still do. This is just a business arrangement.” I swore him to secrecy, then told him of our deal.

“I don’t think this is such a great idea Andy.” He said, “What if your dad finds out?”

“He won’t. Only you, her, and me know about this arrangement.”

“What if he remembers the person you were dating was called Jessica, not Tiffany.”

“He won’t. He never met her, and isn’t very good with names. As long as the person I’m with now has a family name that’s well known, he won’t care.”

“What about Justin and his mother?”

“Who cares about them? My dad is who I’m concerned about.”

He shrugged. “Okay. If you think it’ll work, who knows, you guys may even make it real.”

“No way.” I said quickly. “There is no way I’ll ever think of dating Tiffany Baxter for real. Forget it. If it wasn’t for the nosy paparazzi, I won’t have anything to do with her. She’s annoying, just like in high school. No way I’d ever, ever date her.”

“Are you still trying to convince me, or yourself?” He smirked.

I ignored him. My mind was on this evening. I couldn’t afford anything to go wrong. I hoped Tiffany would do her part to make sure it didn’t.

I left work early and headed home. I took a shower and quickly got dressed then drove to her place.

On the way I took a good look at the neighborhood and realized it wasn’t the nicest.

Why would the daughter of a man as rich as Huge Baxter live here? Then I remembered she’d said she’d been estranged from her dad after the scandal. Maybe he’d cut off her allowance , which meant she’d opened that clinic all by herself, without any help?

My respect for her rose. Maybe I should find her a house in my neighborhood, it was a lot nicer and safer too.

Wait, are you thinking of helping Tiffany? My mind asked in horror.

I’m doing it for myself, it’s bad for my image if my fiancee lives in this kind of neighborhood.

I Ignored the part of my mind that screamed I was lying.

I stopped in front of her apartment and called her.

“I'm parked in front of your apartment, where are you?”

“Stepping out of the shower, I’ll be there in five minutes.”

I groaned in exasperation. If she was just stepping out, getting dressed and doing her makeup would take her an hour at least. But I got the surprise of my life when five minutes later, she was walking towards my car.

The sight of her made my jaw dropped.

She looked indescribable. Earlier she’d been wearing a lab coat over a blouse and pants, now she was wearing a navy blue mini dress that clung to every part of her curves. Her hair that had earlier been held into a pigtail, was now loose and fell to her shoulders. She looked breathtaking and I was embarrassed to realize I'd gotten hard just looking at her.

“It's rude to stare she said, getting in besides me. Her flowery perfume filled the car.

I blushed.

“Sorry, it's just that, you look really beautiful.” I said.

“And you look really surprised. Where you expecting me to show up wearing a trash bag?”

“No…but…in high school you never cared about looking fashionable.”

“In high school I was never paid to be someone’s fiancee.”

I shrugged. “Whatever. You look lovely.”

“Thanks.” She smiled.

I pulled into the main road, wishing that I could clear my head of the images I was forming of her, and that my other head would stay down. Neither obeyed.