Chapter 8

• "Ma'am, Mr Richardson is here," Martha informed Olivia, who was concentrating on her phone.
• A wide smile formed on her face the moment she heard Scott had finally shown up.
• She downed the remaining wine in her glass and hurriedly dropped the glass on the table before rushing to the living room to meet Scott.
• "Hello Scott," she greeted calmly as she descended from the stairs.
• "Good afternoon miss Olivia," Scott greeted, watching her graciously walk down the stairs.
• She was definitely a beauty to behold; he thought to himself.
• "Have you decided?" she asked, clenching and unclenching fists nervously.
• "I wouldn't be here if I hadn't missed Olivia," he responded and Olivia sighed.
• "Okay Scott, I'm all ears," she told him, swallowing a lump in her throat before clasping her fingers.
• "After much thought and consideration, I have made my mind that I will marry you as my fake wife," he tells her and Olivia immediately heaved a sigh of relief as her heart had begun beating faster than usual as she waited anxiously for his reply.
• "You can't imagine how happy I am to hear that Scott," she told him, not hiding how very relieved she was.
• "I'm very grateful you decided to do this for me, Scott. You have no idea how grateful I am for your help. So did you decide on how much you'd like to get paid?" she asked and Scott couldn't help but roll his eyes.
• He obviously came to this decision not because of the money from her but because he had his own intentions as well.
• As silly as his thoughts sounded and as impossible as it seemed, Scott's plan was to get Olivia to fall in love with the real him and finally make their marriage a move from a fake one to a real one.
• He didn't want to make it seem obvious that he had another agenda or make her feel uncomfortable so he decided to tell her his price although deep down, he already knew that even if his plan didn't succeed, he would not be collecting a dime of that money from her.
• "Two million dollars," he told her, trying to look confident but mentally cringing in disgust.
• "Really? That's all you want for this? Just two million? I must say Scott, that is quite a small amount of money. I was expecting you to name a price like maybe from ten million dollars and above," she replied to him, genuinely surprised by how low his price was.
• "That is more than enough Miss Olivia," he assured her and Olivia sighed.
• "Oh well, I guess it's your choice at the end of the day. I will transfer the money to your account as soon as we finalize everything related to our marriage and don't worry, it won't take too long at all," she assured him.
• "Alright, since that aspect is settled, how about we get started with the rules of this agreement. This is the contract and inside it, there is everything you need to know," Olivia told him as she handed the contract to him hurriedly.
• He collected the contract from her hand and carefully read through them.
• "When we are in public or in front of the camera, we need to act like the perfect couple. They'll be questions, paparazzi harassment and other different situations and we'd need to put it out there that we really love and care about each other," Olivia explained to him.
• "It says here that it is a year and six month contract? So does this mean that after a year and six months, we both go our separate ways?" he asked.
• "Yes Scott, that's precisely what it is. We're not really married so we can't exactly stay together for too long. I wouldn't want you to miss the chance to be with another woman you truly love and that is why I believe that once this contract expires, we'll both come up with an understandable reason why we couldn't make our marriage work and after faking a divorce, we'll go our separate ways happily," she responded and Scott could feel a slight pain in his chest as soon as she explained her reasoning.
• He never expected that their acting would have an expiring date and he cursed himself mentally for thinking too far and expecting way too much.
• He wondered if that one year and six months would be enough for him to get her to fall in love with him because from what he had read in the contract, she had clearly stated that when they are out of public eyes and by themselves, he is to stay away from her and do whatever he pleaded away from her.
• "Isn't this a little too much?" he asked.
• "What's too much?" she questioned.
• "Your rules are what's too much Miss Olivia and also, why are you the only one that gets to make rules? I mean, I should set up my own rules too since you chose to come up with the most ridiculous things," he hissed and Olivia was confused.
• "What exactly do you find ridiculous?" she asked, genuinely curious.
• "Except when we're out in public, I'm not allowed to come anywhere close to you? Like seriously Olivia, why is that? You make it sound like I have some contagious disease or something. Why do I have to stay away from you like you're a plague or something?" he questioned.
• She clicked her tongue. "I didn't mean to sound insulting Scott. I just don't appreciate anyone being too close to me, especially in private. Besides, what other things are you and I supposed to even talk about? We're acting anyways and that's about it and that rule is something I came up with so we can both get out personal space when we're alone. You're allowed to do whatever you want and I'm allowed to do whatever I want. Our agreement should not restrict us from living our lives and it shouldn't make us forget our places," she retorted harshly.
• "To the best of my knowledge, this contract is an agreement between both of us and how we would like things to work while we're married. What this means is that we both have a right to include whatever we want to proceed with the agreement. Just because you're paying me doesn't mean I will have to compromise myself and do whatever you want me to do. I know you think being married is all that matters and nothing else but how can we fake a relationship on the outside, if we can't even be friendly with each other?" he questioned.
• Olivia rolled her eyes at him. "I definitely don't see anything wrong with the contract at all, Scott. I mean, everything written in there makes perfect sense so why are you so worked up? It's not like we were actually friends before all of this and I doubt we need to keep up a friendship that never existed," she snickered with a dismissive shrug that annoyed Scott.
• Scott knew Olivia had a condescending personality but he just didn't know how stuck up her ass she really was. He wondered how she expected them to make a fake relationship work if they couldn't even be friendly with each other. He wasn't even asking for them to be close friends but simply suggesting that they were cordial enough so their fake relationship doesn't end up suffocating both of them.
• The fact that she still simply saw this agreement as a relationship between an employer and an employee made him even more upset. She wasn't interested in a friendship with him solely because she was still stuck in her head and in her belief that Scott was not on her level and that because of her higher status, she couldn't possibly be friends with him.
• Scott pinched the bridge of his nose in frustration as he let out a tired sigh.
• "For this to work out as perfectly as we want, we will have to be friends with Olivia or at least, be cordial with each other and develop a better connection. We can't fake something when there is no background at all. I need to know you better and you need to know me as well so we can both make this entire situation work," he explained to her, hoping she'd understand where he was coming from.
• "But you did it just fine the other in front of my parents and I believe you can easily do it again. I mean come on Scott, we don't have to know each other all that well to come up with simply lies. It shouldn't be that complicated," she retorted confidently.
• "Can you be any sillier Olivia? It doesn't always work like that, you child! Just because it worked out once and that I was able to come up with a story to your parents doesn't mean it's always gonna work out that way all the time. If we can't even mention the basic things that we like in interviews or mention anything personal about each other, we won't be able to keep up with his facade for three months, much less a year and six months," he told her, getting tired of repeating himself.
• Olivia let out a frustrated sigh as she unconsciously ran her hand through her long hair. She didn't really know whether or not to agree with him.
• She could obviously tell that he had a point and that being cordial was the best way to go if they wanted their relationship or better still, their agreement to work out but at the same time, she didn't like the idea of being friends with him.
• It's not like she hated him or had anything against him cause if that were the case, she wouldn't have proposed that he married her. Her only issue with his proposal was simply her fear of things not going according to plan and getting ruined along the way.
• What Scott wasn't aware of was the fact that Olivia knew that he had feelings for her or had some kind of liking for her and she had actually always known from the very beginning and she just didn't want a situation where by his feelings for her would get worse and would lead to him believing that anything could work out between them.
• Scott was most definitely attractive and she couldn't deny the fact that he was an intelligent and trustworthy man but outside of the fact that he was the perfect man to her parents, he was far from being the perfect man to her and she couldn't imagine herself in any kind of relationship with him.
• "So what you want is that we both become friends, is that it?" she asked.
• "To put in terms that you prefer, we should simply be cordial with each other, learn a few things about each other just for the purpose of interviews and the likes and we don't always have to avoid each other. Like you want, I won't get in your way but that doesn't mean I won't speak to you when the need arises," Scott explained.
• Olivia exhaled. "Fine Scott, you win this one. Like you want, you and I can be cordial with each other but is there anything else you'd like to include in the agreement before it's finalized?" she asked.
• "I don't want to sound like I'm picky or anything but yes, I do have a few other rules that I'd love to implement as well," he replied.
• "I'm listening to Scott. As far as they're not too ridiculous, I can deal," Olivia assured.
• "Firstly Olivia, I'd appreciate it if you don't treat me like I'm your subordinate all the time. The only time you can is when we're at work but outside our work, let's be respectful to each other. I'm aware that you look down at me and that you think you have the right to order me around because you're paying me but this is a marriage agreement Olivia not a business deal of any kind. Be kind enough to treat me with respect just like I respect you as well," Scott spoke and Olivia could tell by his tone that he was dead serious about being respected.
• She couldn't exactly deny the fact that she does look down on him so instead of arguing, she simply agreed with his terms.
• "I'll try my very best to be respectful to Scott and if I slip up, forgive me," she responded.
• "Now that this is settled, we can move on to the next stage of our agreement or should I say, our marriage," Olivia chirped with a grimace and Scott couldn't help but chuckle at the thought of their faux marriage.