The Marriage Deal.

Take Seven.

My nerves were on me, high on me. I kept thinking about this dinner with my parents. All week, I've been jittery. When I told Lydia that mom wanted to meet Derick, she gave me that exact look that I feared. It was the look that told me that mom would like him, that she'd think he was the one for me. I hated that look. Well, actually, I can't say that, because I haven't seen it that much. She never told me that she thought any of my ex's were the one for me. She may have liked them as a person, but that didn't mean she wanted me to spend the rest of my life with them. Although that would not be her choice.

Derick seemed too excited for my liking. What was he excited for, anyway? I watched him tie his tie in the mirror. Did I ever mention how vain he was? I'm sure he knew how handsome he happens to be. Yet, he loved standing in the mirror, watching himself get ready.

"I should force you to allow me to meet your parents." I muttered, looking at him with envy. How was he so excited?

His fingers stopped working at his tie and he looked at me with interest. "You want to?"

I sent him a deadpan expression. "How is that a good thing for you?"

"I don't see why you're freaking out so much right now. It's a big deal, I get that. But, it's not as big as you're making it seem. It's not like they can force us to actually get married." He shrugged and continued tying his tie. "Hey, can you help me with this?" He asked, a slight frown slithered across his lips.

"Sure," I rolled my eyes, approaching him. As I stood before him, I grabbed his tie and began working at it. He accidentally knotted it without knowing. Therefore, I had to retie the entire thing. He was staring down at me. I hated when he did that.

"Staring is impolite." I chided, looking up into his eyes with a mean expression.

"I don't care. I'm not polite." He pointed out.

"Trust me, I know." I rolled my eyes and let go of the tie, displaying my masterpiece. "There you go."

"Thanks." He didn't move and he was still staring at me.

I glared at him, annoyed. Then, I pushed him over a little. "Make space. It's my mirror time now." I spun around to look at myself in the mirror. Suddenly, I felt like I didn't look good enough. "Crap, am I not dressed enough? Like, am I wearing the proper attire?" I asked, biting my lip. It was a nervous habit I had.

"You look great, London. Stop freaking out. These people are your parents. Besides, I'm not about to watch you take another thing off to change. You take forever to get ready." He complained. Only then did I realize he was standing behind me.

"Why are you so close to me?" I asked, changing the topic.

"We have to share the mirror. Besides, we'll have to be in compromising positions like this when we get to your parents' house." He teased me. His breath tickled my neck. That was how close he was.

"Technically, we won't." I denied, not looking him in the eyes anymore. He was enjoying this too much. "Can we just go? You're making me uncomfortable."

He threw his head back and laughed. When he regained his composure, he looked at me, humor still in his eyes. "Why? Because we're attracted to one another?" He asked coyly.

I pushed against him and began heading towards the door. "I'm not attracted to you." I lied bluntly. It was an obvious lie because even as I got further away from the door, his laughter was still clearly audible.

•••

"We are so backwards." I mumbled, staring out of the window as we zoomed past all of the buildings and grassland areas.