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Everything happened so quickly, I barely even had the time to understand and process it before the onslaught of Kyst's parents presented themselves before us.
When I had called Kyst earlier, it was to make my intentions clear; that I wasn't looking to date him for real but I wanted him to be my fake boyfriend to Sully and Savannah's wedding as a payback for helping him out with Bernard.
I was foolish. Maybe even stupid. What was I thinking? Texting him like that with no explanation whatsoever?
When Kyst had gasped so loudly over the phone, all my resolve about the reason as to why I had called him was thrown out of the window. I wanted to know what had happened so suddenly in merely a couple seconds of me calling him that he was groaning and whimpering so loudly and then he had called for a doctor and I had panicked.
Not knowing what else to do, my best bet had been Lily since the many conversations that I had had with her in the past four months that I had known her gave me the impression that out of all the employees I knew at the office, Lily certainly knew more and would be able to help me out.
My heart had shattered when Lily had kept crying throughout our cab ride from my house when she had picked me up to here; Kyst Archer's penthouse. I had been befuddled, especially because Lily had never mentioned her relationship with any guy before and seeing her sobbing before me, continually asking me whether Kyst was okay or not had sunk my heart.
I had thought that her and Kyst had to have been in a relationship for Lily to exhibit such strong emotions for her boss. I had found it extremely disconcerting why Lily had encouraged my stupid decision of asking Kyst Archer to be my date if she already had been in some sort of relationship with him.
It had felt uncomfortable.
But now that I knew the reason as to why Lily had become so disturbed after I told her that Kyst was in agony and repeatedly called for a doctor, I felt betrayed for some reason.
Why had Lily never mentioned to me that Kyst was her brother? On multiple occasions we had talked about families. I had told her about mine; how I didn't have the best relation with my parents and how I was always afraid I was going to fail them, especially because of my past when I was the major factor for the bankruptcy of our well-established company.
I had expected Lily to tell me about her family; what they did, where they lived, but anytime I had asked a question, she had become awkward and changed the topic instantly, leaving me curious.
Lily had a way with her words. I had attempted about a hundred times to make her tell me about her family; give me some insight on what the people who had weilded such an amazing daughter looked like, felt like. But Lily had always been the smarter one amongst the two of us, seeing as to how she was able to keep in secrecy the fact that my boss— ever her own boss— was actually her brother.
And that the person that had said some extremely disturbing things to me on my first day of interview was none other than her father.
The said person; Lily and Kyst's father, flooded into the living room with a woman— who I assumed to be his wife; their mother— followed by Lily, her head hanging low and dried tears crowding her puffy cheeks.
"Kyst," his mom cried, leaving her husband's hand and rushing towards my boss's side, quickly cushioning his cheeks in both her hands and examining the medical gauze wrapped around his head.
I quickly manevoured to get up from the sofa to give his family the time to check him but Kyst caught my eye before I could get up and slowly shook his head. My heart stilled. Breathing softly, I settled back on the sofa again as Kyst's dad also came towards him and took a seat in the little space between me and Kyst.
Kyst was cushioned between his mom and dad, and yet his eyes turned to me ever so often, making sure I was there, with him, somewhere in his vicinity. He appeared to be scared, a slight change in his body language making me aware of the fact that he thought I was getting up to walk away even though I had no plans of doing so.
Yes, I felt hurt but I was also desperate. I needed to talk to him about the text I had sent him and have his consent on this idiotic plan of mine to make my friends happy; and not having to date Smelly Sammy.
"Vienna," Lily whispered and I hadn't even realised she had come to my side before she folded herself in the little space beside me, awkwardly flailing her hands on either of her sides, conflicted between hugging me and apologizing to me.
If I had been the fifteen-year old Vienna, I'd have said fuck it and embraced Lily into a hug, forgiving her for lieing to me. But the twenty-five year old Vienna was different and knew the right time to forgive and her worth for forgiving someone.
I would forgive Lily, I loved her, but before that I needed to know why she thought it was okay to not tell me that my boss was her brother. Did she not trust me? Was she hiding something from me? I just couldn't wrap my mind around the why. Did Kyst think I would take advantage of the fact that because his sister was my best friend, I would use her to get more time to submit my work? Or become lazy, and that's why he told her not to reveal her family to me?
Surely I didn't give that sort of impression just by bringing in coffee late. . . . right?
Suddenly, the room fell silent, pulling me out of my own reverie as I looked up to find Kyst's parents looking straight at me and Lily getting up to pull the cushioned chair right besides the sofa, to give us space to get comfortable on the sofa.
"You're— you're James's daughter, aren't you?" Kyst's dad asked in astonishment, a sliver of familiarity ringing in his tone.
Startled, I looked at him, flabbergasted that he knew my father's name. "Yes, I— I am Vienna," I said politely. What he had said about me had pierced me in my heart but that didn't mean I had forgotten my manners. Stretching my hand out for him to shake, I added, "And James is my father, yes. Do you know him?"
He took my hand in his and shook it firmly before smiling softly. "Yeah. James and I were business associates about a decade ago before. . . . well, you know," he muttered, avoiding eye-contact as he let his sentence wander off.
"Know what?" I hesitated. Surely, my dad hadn't told him about—
"Your dad's company. . . ten years ago—"
"My dad told you about his company?" I asked, shock filtering through my nerves.
My dad had never been the one to brag when our company's shares had once been skyrocketing, touching skies and success and pride in my dad's shoulder had never lessened. So naturally, I knew my dad also wasn't amongst those who went around telling people about our company's demise, much less his business associate.
"Your dad and I weren't just business people, Vienna. He was my best friend. He is my best friend, even today," he complied.
The words were difficult for me to register because my father wasn't amongst the friendlier of types. He was impertinent and lacked respect where it was needed; it was obvious with how he treated my mom, like she was just an asset which he needed to claim the land and not his wife.
It shocked me to my core, knowing the same, bashful person also had a best friend, one who seemed to cherish him, given how Kyst's father didn't make a face or seemed to be off-put by my dad, rather he seemed quite cheerful that he was finally meeting his best friend's daughter.
"Really?" I asked, still not completely believing that the person that bred and raised Kyst and Lily into such respectful people was friends with someone that was the contrast of every good personality trait.
He laughed a rich, velvety laugh, the one similar to Kyst's and I saw the other familiar aspects in both father and son. While Lily looked more like her mom, with her long, brunette hair, yellowish-brown eyes and a sturdy figure, Kyst looked more like his dad in all the ways.
Both of them had piercingly, dark blue eyes and similar bone structure. Though it seemed that Kyst's father was aging and his health was deteriorating, it was no secret that in his youth, he had to be one of the most handsome men to exist with his charming eyes and a Greek God body, one exactly like the one his son inherited.
Apparently, for this family, body was more of a genetic art than it was gym-work.
"Yeah," he chuckled. "Really."
"That's. . . . surprising, sir," I said my thoughts, not being able to contain them within myself.
No matter how much I gave it a thought, my father did not seem like a person who cultivated his relationship with a person outside of his selfish benefits.
He still called me on a regular basis because I was last hope; rather a futile one, at marrying into a renowned family just so he could boast about it to the other people he was acquainted with, with the hopes of getting back into business.
Maybe he cared about me. He should since I was his only daughter but I just couldn't bring myself to see him as someone I'd never seen him as: selfless, loving, respectful; he wasn't any of this.
"Please call me Trevor," he said shortly and briefly glanced at his wife and then back to Kyst.
"Vienna," Kyst's mom said, a beautiful, sunshine-y smile erupting on her face. "I'm Emma. Kyst's mom. Pleasure to meet you."
I shook Emma's hand, my lips involuntary converting into a smile of their own, sensing a bubbly, warm environment. "Vienna," I introduced myself. "Good to see you too."
Kyst stole my attention from his parents when I found him staring at me, a giddy, impossibly huge grin sitting on his face. "What," I whispered, feeling the intensity of his gaze on me.
"I had always wondered what it would look like when my parents met my girlfriend." I gasped at his words, my eyes widening as he continued, "Can't say I had imagined it going any better than this."
But before I could get a word out, Lily from her seat on the chair chastised, "Kyst." She softly shook her head at him and muttered, "Do not get ahead of yourself. I said your dreams are about to come true but you two need to have a talk." She gestured to me and him.
Confused, I looked at Lily and then back at Kyst as I mumbled softly, "What dreams?"
Warily, Kyst's grin vanished and he turned to his dad, completely ignoring me as he nudged his dad with his elbow. Trevor turned to me as apprehension bubbled in the pit of my stomach, the tension in the air evolving to an uncomfortable silence before Trevor cleared his throat, "I was told I owe you an apology."
What! was my first, honest reaction because I didn't realise what he meant by owing me an apology but the more he looked at me, the faster I recollected my memory. My interview. What he had said to me that day, mostly how he had said it, was what disturbed me.
He made Kyst look like some sort of a womanizer who gave jobs to pretty women and me. . . well, I thought he made me to be a whore, who was pretty but not talented enough for the job.
I would never have asked for an apology by myself but if he thought he owed it to me, I also wasn't going to deny it because whether I'd put it past me or not, he had said those words to me without having known me and they had stung. I deserved the apology so I was going to take it. Call me disrespectful, but I knew my worth now, after ten years of being pathetic, and I was going to fight for it.
Deeming my silence as what it was: the consent to continue, Trevor looked at me and said, "I'm so sorry for what happened that day. I was in the mood to tease Kyst and I didn't realise what I was saying until it was too late."
Biting his lip remorsefully, he continued, "When James told me that he wanted his daughter to interview for the position that had just vacated, I was a little sceptical. I told Kyst to take your interview and to give you the job because I wanted to see if you were just as competent as your dad. I promise I never meant to slut-shame either you or my son and I hope you won't hold it against me since this is certainly not the last time we meet."
My heart was beating violently. Until today, until this apology, I had never realised how much I needed to hear it.
I had put it past me, yes, but there were times where I had thought that maybe Kyst had given me this job because he also, like his dad, thought I was pretty. I would put in extra effort in those times, always double-checking my items and work, attempting to submit my work way before the timeline, making sure a hundred times that my boss's schedules never overlapped and what not.
I was stressed for no reason, always trying my hardest to prove my worth even though I knew I didn't have to. My heart knew I was capable but my brain tricked me into believing that I was not because of which I took everything to heart.
Now I understood. Even when Kyst rebuked me for bringing his coffee late, I used to think he was having fun testing my limits or looking for reasons to offend me and tell me how I was useless, unsuitable for the job when in reality, he had always meant it for my benefit. He was hoping to inculcate in me the habit of being punctual. It was a valuable concept, one that I had misunderstood day after day because of my own insecurities.
But not anymore.
I wasn't going to look at things in the pessimistic way anymore but rather optimistically.
Maybe Lily never told me about Kyst because she just didn't want to. Because maybe she thought I would think of her as an entitled bitch who took an easy job out as a receptionist because she didn't want to sit home and also because she didn't want to work hard because she had everything she already wanted. Maybe she was afraid of being judged, that I would think low of her for working at the front desk when her brother was the CEO.
There were different ways a human brain worked in and thinking negatively of everything was extremely harmful for others but especially ourselves.
So I did the thing I had to.
"It's okay," I smiled brightly. "Thank you so much for apologizing. I hope I reached the expectations that my father set up for me, for you to think so highly of him."
We all stood up at the same time and I was surprised when Emma brought me in for a motherly hug and whispered in my ear, "You really are beautiful, sweetheart." My chest warmed at the motherly compliment and I kissed her cheek lovingly, thanking her for being so kind.
Trevor grinned at me and in a fatherly way, patted my back before following his wife out of the house, both of them also yelling at Kyst to take care and that they would return the next day to check up on him.
Next, Lily scurried away, this time embracing me in a tight hug, muttering apologies and promising about clearing the misunderstandings in office the day after.
When the upheaval and the adrenaline of the excitement of meeting Kyst's family died down, that was when I realised I was with Kyst Archer, in his home; his penthouse, alone.
The first time we were alone, he had me pinned me against his office door and I had claimed to hate him.
The second time we were alone, again in his cabin, I had assumed his name to be Kai under his careful scrutiny and giggled in his warmth.
The third time we were alone, he had me backed up against his desk, his raging, hard boner just mere inches away from sending me into oblivion and ending me, right then and there.
My cheeks heated up at that moment of vulnerability, me at his mercy, out of my wits and one second away from shredding his clothes and feeling his naked body on mine. Thank God Lily had interrupted or I would've regretted it forever. Not the shredding clothes part, but the condition that we had been in; it would be stringless. And I didn't do stringless.
Until I was desperate. Back then I hadn't been. Today, I was.
"Mr. Archer," I called out.
He turned to look at me before sitting down on his couch and patting the place beside him, gesturing me to follow suit. "Ms. Bell."
Sighing loudly, I sat next to him and turned in his direction, folding my legs beneath my butt and getting comfortable. "Do you feel better now? Your head?"
Instinctively, his hand reached up to the gauze tied around his head and he gave a meek nod before his expressions turned playful and he smirked, "It got okay the moment that you kissed it."
My nostrils flared as I sucked in a sharp breath. I had been scared and terrified to see him lying on this particular couch, helpless and in pain and despite my better judgement, my hands had tingled to hold him close to me and I had pressed a kiss to his forehead, hoping it wouldn't be as serious as he had made it to be on the phone, in his stupor of fresh agony.
My cheeks warmed under his gaze and I stuttered stupidly, "I— I thought you were still unconscious— "
"So that means you can kiss me?" he inquired, unbashedly. "In that case, when you were sleeping the night Sully proposed to Savannah, I should've taken advantage of your drunken state and kissed you, no?"
This asshole— "I— I'm sorry, okay? I didn't think you were going to make a deal out of it. I was just scared something happened to you and I couldn't stop myself— "
"So you were worried about me?" the handsome bastard, my blue-eyed menace mused. His blue eyes held me captive as he cocked his head to the side, pretending to think, "I wonder why."
Because I'm starting to think that I feel for you as more than just my attractive boss, you beautiful human fool. Groaning at the bastard that my brain was when it decided to side with my heart, I lied through my teeth, "Because I need your help." Not exactly a lie because I did need his help but needing him to fake-date me was the last thing on my mind when I had seen him unmoving, on this very couch.
At this, he looked genuinely shocked. "What help?" he treaded carefully, as if he was afraid that I was going to ask of him something that was very important to him, something he had never expected, and of course I was doing just that.
"It's related to the text I sent you," I told him, waiting for his reaction. When I was met with cold, reactionless eyes instead of the warm, blue ones that made me feel at ease, I hesitated.
"Go on," he said hoarsely. He stiffened under my gaze and broke eye-contact when he realised what I was talking about was more than just playful flirting, although he had no idea what I wanted from him, yet.
"I— I didn't mean to really ask to date you." He froze, his head snapping up. A chill ran down my spine, a bubble of nervousness wavering my voice. "You said you would give me anything in return for my help to secure the deal with Bernard Black, right?"
He nodded. "Have you finally thought about what you want?"
"Yes," I said anxiously, still contemplating backing out and just coming clean to Savannah and telling her I lied and that I had no boyfriend.
No. I also didn't want to be on Sammy's arms for the rest of the days that her wedding continued.
"What is it that you want?" he asked in that sexy drawl of his, his eyes appraising my black hoodie and leggings intently. I hadn't had the time to change so while I had called Lily to pick me up from my apartment, I had only brushed my hair, grabbed my phone and some cash. I had been panicking and with no other thought than the wellbeing of my boss on my mind, I had entirely obliterated dressing up and had paced around my apartment like a klutz until Lily had come.
But now with Kyst staring at me, his eyes roaming around me in my regular clothes with little to no makeup on, I realised I looked so vulnerable to him right now, alone, and again, at his mercy, in the sight of his vision and sitting here waiting for his consent for my plan.
Say it, you fool. "I want you to be my boyfriend," I finally said it, my nerves twisting in my belly before I realised that I had left an indispensable factor of this arrangement out and I added, "Fake."
"You want me to be your fake boyfriend?" He said it like it was an absurd idea, and I knew it was, but he didn't have to say it like it was the worst thing he had ever heard in his life.
"Yes."
And then he took a straight one-eighty and said something I didn't expect, depending on how disgusted he sounded just a second ago. He said, "Okay."
"Okay?" My eyes widened. "Just like that?"
"That's what I promised, didn't I? That I would give you whatever you wanted. And if this is what you want, then sure. I'll pretend to be your fake-boyfriend to. . . .?"
"To Sul and Sav's wedding," I implied. I was still too shocked that he had agreed. Oh my god, I— I—, "I'm your girlfriend, then."
"Fake," he quipped almost as if he was annoyed, his mouth twisting in a distasteful manner as if the word made him want to puke.
But I couldn't care less.
"Yeah," I said.
I was his (fake) girlfriend.
||
So... what did you think?
They're finally (fake) dating now!!!!! what next?
did you expect the meeting with Kyst's parents and Vienna going this way?
did you see something unusual here? like. . . . something from chapter 8, a character being mentioned here again perhaps?
ANYWAYS. . . . tell me your thoughts about this chapter!
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thanks for reading<3
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