4: His Contract Wife

Kelvin’s mouth opened, but no word came out of him. She was making their meeting awkward, but she didn’t know how to stop it, and he made it even worse by undoing the button of his suit jacket.

She flushed, her cheeks deepening. There were no eyes on them, but she raised a hand, as if to shield herself from his view in case anyone was watching.

“What are you doing?” she whispered.

Kelvin shrugged off the jacket and undid the top buttons of his dress shirt. His sculpted skin came into view, and his finger moved to the third button. “Showing evidence,” he finally told her.

“No.” Cheeks burning hotter than an oven, she shook her head. “No need. Thanks. I believe you.”

“Are you sure?” he asked, laughter coloring his voice. She relaxed when he put on his jacket.

Leila laughed freely for the first time. “Very.”

The duo fell into a companionable silence. A server came close to their table, and Kelvin accepted a glass of sparkling wine from her. Leila was still nursing her first glass, so she was stunned when he downed the content of his glass in one gulp and requested another.

“You shouldn’t be drinking so much,” Leila said.

“I shouldn’t.” But he called a new waiter over and requested for his third glass. “But I am.”

“Tough day?” she asked.

“Yeah.” Kelvin cradled his glass, taking slow sips from it. There was a bracelet on his wrist, with the thread looking like it had seen better days. It contrasted with his appearance. She liked it. It was an oddity that made him seem more human, someone she didn’t have to be so uptight around. “Where’s your best friend?”

“She left,” Leila replied.

They sat in silence for a while, and she fiddled with the strap of her bag. “Do you want to leave?” he asked.

She couldn’t possibly leave with a stranger, so she shook her head. Inviting him over sounded pleasing on the phone, a good way to forget about the disaster that happened earlier. On another look at him, he was above her league, but Freya would approve of him.

“I think I’ll stay here for a while.”

Food and snacks went round the tables. Her mouth watered at the delicacy placed on theirs. The band was playing a slow song to match the mood. She dug into her canapés, but Kelvin’s plate remained untouched.

“Have you ever wondered why people get married?” he asked as she munched on her snacks.

A lot of times. “Yes. It’s a beautiful thing.” But she doubted her chances of experiencing it.

Marriage and love were fairy tales that existed in movies and interactive games. She sipped her wine and stole a look at Kelvin. He massaged his jaw, tilting his head so he could wink at her. A blush crawled up her neck and she used her hair to cover the evidence of her embarrassment.

“What do you think about marriage?” she asked.

His fingers drummed on the table. “It’s cool.” He picked a diced apple from the fruit tray and returned it without tasting it. “But I don’t see myself getting married.”

That must be why his sister sent him here. Leila didn’t see a marriage in her future. Not if her Tinder dates continued to fail while work kicked her ass.

“Why not?” she murmured.

Kelvin finally ate the apple and took another piece. She finished the rest of her canapes, and he pushed his to her front. Her lips pulled into a smile of gratitude, and he smiled back.

“I don’t know. Finding the right one is harder than it seems. I kind of miss the old days when parents found partners for their kids. They always had good choices.”

“You could bring it back,” she said to cheer him up. He looked better when smiling or smirking. “You could find yourself a pretty stranger and marry her. That was how it worked. So easy.”

The older methods were awful. Kids were betrothed to people they didn’t know. It was a no from her, but Kelvin’s eyes crinkled with a smile that told her he liked what she proposed.

“Do you want me to bring it back?” His tone was as light as hers, full of humor and mischief.

“Sure. Why not?” Leila added, downing the rest of her drink with a shudder. Emboldened, she said, “Who doesn’t want to marry a pretty stranger?”

He straightened up in his seat. “So, if a stranger asks you to marry him, you will say yes?” Her smile fell off. He was taking the joke seriously. His eyes darted around the garden and he scratched the back of his neck. For the first time since his arrival, he looked nervous. “I’m about to ask you for something crazy, Leilani.”

“How crazy?”

“Very,” he said. She cocked her head and sized him up from top to bottom, then gave him the go-ahead to speak by nodding. “Marry me, Leilani.”

“What?”

Of all the crazy things she had heard this year, this was the craziest. And the fact she was thinking about it made her crazier than the man proposing to a total stranger.

“We will have rules. There will be a contract.”

Eyes widened in shock, she muttered, “You want me to be your wife? A contract wife?”

His Contract Wife. Surprisingly, Leila wasn’t appalled by the idea. Heck, it was a good one. But marriage? Straightaway? He was a stranger, handsome, but still unfamiliar.

“Yeah. My mother keeps bugging me.”

“Sounds like everyone in your family is eager for you to get married,” she teased.

“That too. But I’m kind of lonely,” Kelvin confessed with a sad laugh that tore open her heart. “Some days are worse than others.”

“Yeah?” Laughing to mask her words, she admitted, “Me too. It’s a lonely world.”

Marriage had taken Freya away from her. While her friend tried to be there for her, times were different. Work was driving her insane. In the last few weeks since the dismissal of the CEO, things had changed.

Everyone had grown increasingly agitated after rumors of a merger or possible downsizing broke out. If any of that was true, some departments would be dismissed. Her team hadn’t been on their best streak, and God, it was too much for her alone.

She missed the days she could rant to Freya. Though she couldn’t help, she was good at cussing out everyone involved. Now all she had were colleagues who were as frustrated as her.

Kelvin leaned forward to take her hand. Their gazes collided, and she forgot everything she should have said. His tongue swiped over his bottom lip. “Then marry this stranger, Leilani.”