Chapter 17

• This got him smiling a bit as he forgot for a second that he had been sad a few seconds ago.
• “Nice one,” he smiled as he resumed eating his food.
• After eating in silence for a few minutes, he broke it with a noisy clatter from his plate
• “Alright, so back to business,” he said as he whisked his mouth clean with his handkerchief, getting ready to talk about the business of the day.
• “Why so formal?” I asked, finishing the last piece of fries I had left.
• “Because I’ve got a job to get back to in the next hour,” he said earnestly. “You know, you might have been in a coma for the past three years but there’s this thing called money which we all need to work for.
• “If we come in late to work, we wouldn’t get paid and that could lead to us being broke and unmotivated to keep on working.”
• “Yeah, yeah, yeah, make fun of me while you’re at it,” I chuckled as he bawled out in laughter. He was having a good time and I was happy about it.
• “So,” I belched out loudly before clasping my hands on the table in a businesslike manner. “What happens now?”
• “Yes,” he said. “The conditions for the marriage have to be met, or else we will not be having a wedding.”
• “What conditions have to be met?” I rolled my eyes believing that he was going to say something stupid.
• “Don’t do that,” he said.
• “Do what?”
• “Don’t roll your eyes at me.”
• “Is that one of your conditions?” I asked sarcastically, almost bursting into laughter. “I mean, if that’s the way we’re going then there’s really not much to talk about then.”
• “I’m serious, Charlotte.”
• “Okay, I’m sorry, jeez. You take things way more seriously when compared to my father.”
• The waitress appeared at the table as I watched her try to flirt with Taevon who was clueless to her advances as he paid for the food we had eaten and she cleared the table before leaving us to be.
• “What?” he asked after seeing the way I was staring at him in shock.
• “You really were clueless,” I said in amusement.
• “Clueless about what?” he asked, looking behind him like I had been talking about something else.
• “Didn’t you see what she was doing to you?”
• “What was she doing? She only came to get the money for the food and take the plates away.”
• “Yes that was true but she was also flirting with you,” I noted. “She touched your arm and squeezed it a bit.
• “She flipped her hair a couple of times and she also dropped her number on the table which you dropped back on the plate for her to take away. I’m so sorry but that was amusing to watch, and a bit sad if I’m being honest.”
• “She didn’t squeeze my arm, she tried to remove something from my shirt,” he retorted, about to argue with me as I laughed out loud.
• “Okay, what about the hair flip.”
• “Maybe she had something in her hair that she wanted to get rid of.”
• “And I’m guessing the phone number she dropped for you?”
• “It was probably something that she had mistakenly dropped on the table so I was kind enough to give it back. Stop reading meanings into it.”
• I sighed, “You really are clueless. Maybe one of these days I will take you to a bar and teach you how to get chicks.”
• “Sure you will, but right now, we need to get over my conditions. No more playing around. I’ve got work to do.”
• “Fine,” I said. “Name your condition.”
• “Conditions,” he corrected.
• “And somehow I’m the aggressive one,” I scoffed. “What do you want?”
• “Alright, firstly, I want the marriage to only last for a year. I don’t desire to be in anything permanent with you or anyone for now.”
• “I’m loving this term already,” I smiled as he was beginning to get me.
• “To be fair I can’t stand you and living more than a year with you might make me lose my mind or kill myself.”
• “The feeling’s mutual. You’re as daft as they come,” I had to let him know.
• “And you are as loud as they come.”
• I smiled at the man before me as we both shook hands on the first condition. That did not seem so bad. After a year, I would be free to break up with him and go back to my life. Revenge would be taken and I would be a free woman.
• “What’s the next term?” I asked, crossing my legs under the table.
• “This second one is quite personal to me and one I would love for you to really pay attention to,” he said with a very stern voice. “Before and after we get married, I would love for you to be nice to my sister or the deal would be off.
• “She is the only sister I have and I will go through the gates of hell for her. If you can’t be nice to her then I will have no choice but to call this whole deal off and we will never speak to each other again.”
• I didn’t see it as a problem. I had no problem with him or his sister, the only target I was going for was his brother. Marcus was my only target and I was not about to fuck up my chances at taking him down.
• “Are we done?” I asked as he nodded his head.
• “Yes we are.”
• Very simple conditions that I could work with. They weren’t hard to work with. My target was Marcus and so long as I was causing him pain, I was okay.
• “Do you have any conditions of your own?” He asked as I looked into the space before him.
• “No,” I shook my head after thinking about it. “Just help me take down your brother and we have ourselves a deal.”