Chapter 3 Marry me, Leilani

• Tempted to reply immediately, Leila opened the Candy Crush app instead. She didn’t want to give off the impression of being desperate.
• Someone laughed in the crowd. The garden had filled up now and they were raising a toast to the couple. Leila reached for the glass of wine on her table and cheered to the air.
• Where was her best friend?
• Nearly everyone in this garden was paired except her. One more reason she hated attending weddings.
• Another message came in from Kelvin and she didn’t take her time to reply to this one.
• Kelvin: So here we are again.
• Leila: Yes. I’m at this wedding my best friend forced me to attend.
• Force was not the best word to describe the true story. But Leila could bet her left ankle that Freya would have dragged her out of her house if she did not come to her wedding after the date.
• Kelvin: Same. In my case, I lost a bet so I had to come. I’m bored out of my mind. Weddings are not my thing but a single man has no say in such matters. My sister is trying to hook me up.
• Kelvin: I didn’t lose the bet to my best friend. I lost it to my sister. I’m here on her behalf.
• She laughed. He was rambling but she liked it so much.
• Leila: I’m bored too.
• Leila: Oh my God. You get it. I didn’t have a choice either and now my best friend is nowhere to be found. Yay me!!!!! The perks of being single.
• Leila: I really wish I could leave.
• Kelvin: Me too. I could be your ticket to leaving boredom land. What do you say?
• Rolling her lip between her teeth, Leila nodded like he could see her.
• Leila: Count me in. The sad lady is waiting for her prince charming to show up.
• Speaking of best friends, Freya was taking too long. She sent her a text and groaned at the reply from her best friend.
• Freya: Something came up. Will be back in a jiffy.
• All the more reasons for her to leave this place.
• The chair Freya once occupied squeaked, she looked up to see her Tinder date.
• “Leilani.” Her mouth dropped, how did he get here so fast?
• “Sad lady waiting for her prince charming, remember? Well, I’m here now. Be sad no more.” Leila laughed. That line sounded so much better on text.
• “Red looks really great on you, Leilani. Is this seat taken?”
• He sat down before she replied and she stifled the urge to be absolutely infatuated. Up close she could see his eyes were grey and his lips more pouty than they looked from afar.
• The duo fell into a companionable silence. A waitress 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 for 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. “Where’s your best friend?”
• “She left,” Leila replied.
• They sat in silence for a while and she fiddled with the strap of her purse. “Do you want to leave?” he asked.
• She couldn’t possibly leave with her Tinder date so she shook her head.
• “I think I’ll stay here for a while.”
• Food and snacks went round the tables. Her mouth watered at the delicacy placed on her table. 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 couldn’t say for sure she would experience it. Marriage and love was a fairy tale that didn’t exist to Leila. She sipped from the glass of wine used for the toast and took a good look at Kelvin. He massaged his jaw and his head turned slightly so he could wink at her.
• Heat crawled up her neck and she used her hair to cover the evidence of her embarrassment.
• “What do you think about marriage?” she asked.
• “It’s cool.” His fingers drummed on the table. He picked a diced apple from the fruit tray and returned it. “I don’t see myself getting married.”
• She didn’t either. “Why not?”
• Kelvin finally ate the apple and took another slice. She finished the rest of her canapés and he pushed him to her front. Her lips pulled into a smile of gratitude and he smiled back.
• “I don’t know, Leilani. Finding the right one is harder than it seems. I kind of miss the old days when parents found partners for their kids.”
• “You could bring it back,” she said to cheer him up. He looked better when smiling or smirking. “You could find yourself a partner you don’t know. That was how it worked.”
• 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 said.
• “Do you want me to bring it back?” His tone was as light as hers, full of teasing and mischief.
• “Sure. Why not?” Leila downed the rest of her drink and shuddered. Emboldened, she said, “Who doesn’t want to marry a stranger?”
• Kelvin 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. Kelvin’s 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, Miss Leilani.”
• “How crazy?”
• “Very crazy.” She cocked her head and sized him up from top to bottom, then gave him the go-ahead to speak. “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 still a stranger, handsome but still unfamiliar.
• “I’m kind of lonely,” Kelvin confessed with a sad laugh that tore open her heart.
• Laughing to mask her words, she admitted, “Me too.”
• Kelvin leaned forward to take her hand. Their gazes collided and she forgot everything she should have said.
• "With so many coincidences in one day, don't you think we were meant for each other?" His tongue swiped over his bottom lip, and he swallowed.
• “Marry me, Leilani.”