What?

“What do I say now?” I showed the message.

“Tell him how you feel about the wedding,” she responded without thinking. “He's being paid, so it's his job to make you satisfied now.”

I bit my lower lip for two seconds, before letting it go. “Okay.”

Estelle kept staring at me with curious eyes, as I continued texting my match on the site. He said his name was Leo and asked me to fill him in on what I wanted. 

My nosy friend had included that, I needed a man who was capable of making my ex feel like trash in my profile.

“Leo seems very nice,” I blurted out.

The crazy lady in the room with me, blinked fast as she drew closer. “Is that his name?”

“Who else would I be talking about?” 

“You've gotten that sharp edge in your tone again, I missed that.”

I stared at her and smiled. “Thank you for everything, Estelle. He agreed to do it.”

“I'm so happy for you dear,” she said , before turning to her phone. “Go on, talk to your man.”

“Haha! Funny, I'm sure that's not his position in my life.”

“Yeah, I forgot to ask for this. Can you send the photo he sent you? I want to search for him on the internet.”

“Why?”

Estelle raised one brow up. “Ri, I don't want you ending up with a criminal. Because you will blame me all your life, if that happens.”

I thought about it for a second and it made sense, what if he had a past he was trying to hide from me? It only made sense to check him out, in her own little way.

“Check your phone, I've sent his photo to you.” 

She nodded in response, while I continued talking to him on the site. When we were both certain about what our roles were going to be, he requested my personal number.

I did not think twice before sending it to him, which made me question myself but I shrugged it off. His first actual text message on my phone melted me as my eyes read through it.

Leo: Hi baby, I've been away for too long. Just wanted to inform you I'm back in town and available, but only for my princess. I'll see you at the wedding venue, I love you.

I knew it was all an act to make us look legit, if anyone decided to dig in deeper into our relationship but still couldn't contain the butterflies in my stomach.

Me: Awwwn, I missed you so much babe. Can't wait to see you, the wedding venue is at the Rios estate. I love you more.

Leo sent a message to me on the site, once he had seen my text. *I forgot to ask, but when is the actual date?*

Talk about a man who was attentive to details, I told him and we said our goodbyes before I dropped my phone.

“Nothing is coming up on him,” Estelle said, making me remember she was still in the room.

“What does that mean?”

“He's either a ghost, a really bad guy or an angel.”

“Alright, he already gave me his number and we've texted,” I stood up and headed to the kitchen. “So he can pretty much be anything, as long as he shows up. This was a great idea, by the way.”

“Yeahhhh,” she said absent-mindedly, before looking in my direction. “Hey don't finish my spaghetti, when are you going home?”

We joked around for a while and after some time, I went back to my house. Being alone in the big house made me feel lonely, but there was nothing I could do about it.

Days rolled into weeks and just like that, it was the eve to one of the biggest weddings in town.

Leo and I had been talking consistently, so I did not feel much pressure on myself again. It almost felt real, even though I knew it was all an act.

I woke up in a good mood and hit the shower, but by the time I got back my phone was blowing up with messages.

The urge to ignore it was strong so I continued my skincare but the thought that it could be a brand reaching out to me, made me grab my phone.

One look at it and I noticed it was our college group chat blowing up. Out of curiosity, I opened the chat and saw that I had been tagged multiple times.

Everyone was congratulating me on my new man but only Estelle and I knew about it, so I called her phone.

“What did you do?”

“No good morning for me, huh?” She sounded sleepy. “What's wrong?”

“How did everyone find out about Leo?”

I could bet she straightened up when she heard that question. “Ri, it slipped out. I'm sorry.”

“We were supposed to keep this to ourselves, Elle.”

She sighed softly. “I know, I know, but I found it hard to hold back when that vixen kept showing off.”

“If you were the one cheated on, I bet you'll kill everyone.”

“Hehe! How do you know me so well?” She said laughing. “It serves her right though, did you see that everyone isn't talking about her big day tomorrow? You're news on the block.”

A smile found its way to my face. “What would I do without you? But I hope you won't do something like that again.”

Before she could respond I heard my doorbell ring. “I'll talk to you later girl, byee.

I ended the call and rushed to the door, I knew I was not expecting anyone unless my mother decided to surprise me. But the person I saw at my door when I opened it, was the last person I had in mind.

Savvy Sanders, my ex.

“What's the meaning of this?” I asked him in an angry tone. “You're getting married tomorrow, you should not be here.”

“Are you seeing someone, Zariah?”

Whenever he called my name in the past it made me feel good, but all that my stomach felt was disgust right now. 

“Is that why you came all the way here?”

“Ciara mentioned something like that, but I wanted to confirm from you.”

“As who? I don't know who the hell you think you are, but you have no right at all to do that.”

“Zariah, I—”

“Save those excuses for someone who cares, I DON'T!”

“I never meant to hurt you, I—”

My phone rang breaking his speech, it was Leo. For some reason I was smiling as I answered the call, while staring at Savvy.

“Hi baby.”

His voice sounded like music when it came on. “My princess, how are you doing?”

“Perfect, you?”

“Good, thank you. What are you up to?”

“A fly came into my house, I'm trying to chase it away. Are you all set for tomorrow?” 

“Yeah,” he paused before going on. “About that, I would not be able to come as planned. Something came up.”

I slammed the door hard on Savvy's face as I spun around and muttered just one word. “What?”