Maddox wraps his suit jacket over my shoulders as we finally step back outside under the chilly autumn night though the wine in my belly is enough to keep me warm.
The moon has dissolved behind a thick layer of grim clouds, sheet of stars hidden from view.
“I’m sorry.” He muses, his tone not at all apologetic, “My mom can be a bit… ah, well you saw it yourself.”
I shrug, peering out for Elliot or the car.
I can see it, back in its place on the nearby sidewalk, bathed in the glow of lamplight. The line of cars is still long and never ending. I’m pretty sure they’re even the same vehicles as when we entered the place over two hours ago.
“You did well, if that’s any consolation.” He adds, wrapping an arm around my waist as he helps me stumble down the sidewalk.
He’d stayed clear of the wine, letting me finish his glasses when his parents weren’t looking instead. Just another thing about him that was I grateful for. Just another thing on my ever growing list that was going to make being falsely married to him even more difficult.
The wine gives me courage I normally lack, but before I can speak he’s guiding me more furiously ahead.
“We should hurry before my parents turn up outside.” He murmurs, his voice caught and carried away by the cool breeze now making the tiny hairs stand up on the back of my neck. Not even wine can keep you warm forever, “Or else we’re going to be dragged back for coffee at their place.”
“Oh god no.” I gasp before I realize what I’m saying, my jaw falling open, “Ah! I didn’t mean that, it’s just-”
His laughter cuts me off as we continue to walk, two of my hastened steps equaling one of his.
“Believe me, Ava. I agree with you completely.”
Within minutes, Elliot has handed over the keys to Maddox’s Porsche and has vanished down the sidewalk with barely a glance at me.
I watch him melt into the shadows as he dashes around the corner, curiosity churning with the wine in my gut.
“He’s a little odd, I know.” Maddox grins, face obscured in the darkness as he jams his key in the ignition and turns on the heat. I hadn’t even realized I was shivering until the warm air blows my hair from my neck. The billionaire’s jacket is still wrapped snug around me, making me feel like a tiny doll in the black heap of fabric. It smells like him, and I tug it a bit more around my body under the guise of being chilly.
“He seems sweet.” I offer, uncertainly. I’d barely spent five minutes around the man, it was hardly enough to form an opinion.
“He’s a genius.” Maddox replies with a firm nod, “He’s going to make it big one day. When his confidence improves, I suspect. He doesn’t need to be an assistant. He could be some wealthy business tech tycoon.”
“Maybe he doesn’t want that?”
The man in the front seat twists slightly, frown illuminated by the other cars’ headlights.
“What do you mean?”
“Maybe he doesn’t want to be a wealthy tycoon. Maybe he likes being an assistant.”
A scoff twists Maddox’s flawless face, “That doesn’t make sense.” He chuckles, “Why would anyone not want to be wealthy?”
“Said like a true billionaire.” I sigh with a slight shake of my head.
“What you think I don’t understand the plebeians?”
When I roll my eyes and turn an undignified glare back at him, that lopsided, teasing grin is back on his lips.
While I shake my head again, he revs the engine and pulls away from the curb.
The slight swerve and lilt of the car over hills and winding curves of the highway lulls me in and out of sleep. My eyes crack every now and then, watching Maddox guide us carefully towards him.
It occurs to me, though I can’t seem to free myself from the lull of booze induced fatigue, that I’ve never even told Maddox where I live.
Soon enough, I wouldn’t even live there anymore.
I’d be living with Maddox.
That thought alone was enough to sober me, at least a little, my blood turning icy.
“Maddox?” I say abruptly, shifting upwards in my seat. He’s turned down the heat now so that that AC is running slightly cooler, beads of sweat on his brow.
He grunts in reply, sucking in a soft yawn. A night dealing with his parents was always enough to exhaust him. I couldn’t blame him for that.
“When’s the wedding supposed to be?”
I don’t miss the slight twitch of his face as he carefully arranges his expression, pretending to be concentrating on the empty miles of highway still between us and my street.
“… Maddox.” I say slowly, sitting straighter and turning to face him.
His silence was definitely not a good thing.
The streetlamps on this part of the highway are far and few between. They occasionally splash his frowning face with golden light.
“A week.” He finally whispers, shooting one glance at me then back at the road, “We have to be married within the week.”
I twist forward once more so my back is pressed against the seat. If I wasn’t stone cold sober a minute ago I was now.
A week.
I only had a single week of my life left before I became someone else. I wouldn’t be just Ava anymore. I’d be Ava Dodge, wife of Maddox Dodge, family of the Dodge’s.
I’d be Tatiana’s daughter-in-law.
The thought made my stomach twist with revulsion. I had the distinct feeling she would not make that position easy on me.
In a week I’d be moving, leaving my home behind, everything that was familiar, and my last name and starting a new life with someone else.
How had it happened so fast?
I almost wanted to be angry at Maddox, but I couldn’t muster up the emotion.
“How are we going to plan a wedding in a week?” I finally ask, rubbing my temples.
When Reagan got married, it’d taken her years to put together the perfect affair. Which it had been, of course. Absolutely lovely.
Maddox laughs and it jerks my attention back towards him. How could he manage to laugh at a time like this?
“What’s so funny?” I scowl.
“It’s not funny. You’re really going to hate this. But I’ve been letting my mom plan the entire thing. She’s been doing it for months now.”
“…Tatiana is planning our wedding?”
“Don’t worry. She won’t make it horrendous just to spite you. It’ll be the social event of the year so it’ll be lovely, totally perfect.”
“Wait, so she’s been planning your wedding for months but we only came up with this deal recently?”
Maddox laughs more, gripping the steering wheel as he pulled off the highway onto my exit. His laughter is like music, deep and growling but hearty. Though I wasn’t sure why it surprised me, the sound was beautiful.
“Yep.” He finally smirks, glancing at me at a stoplight near my street, “I have no clue what I would have done if I didn’t meet you, Ava.”
I wanted to ask him what it was about me that caught his eye. I wanted to ask how it so happened that he stumbled into my café that day.
But words were never my strong suit.
Instead, I pointed to an oak grove shaded lane down the street, “Turn there.”
He did so obediently, following my directions until his car rumbled to an easy halt outside of my apartment building.
“You live here?” He asks curiously, leaning against his window so that he could gaze up at the tall, old building.
In the summer, window shaker AC units would line the front of the building and buzz like a herd of bees. His car was the nicest in the entire area and stood out like a sore thumb.
I just nod, throwing open my car door and climbing outside. He glances at me in surprise, following suit as he steps out of his car, his keys sliding into his pocket.
“Do you want to have coffee?” He asks, his voice rippling through the dark like a luring song.
I can’t see his eyes. The street has no light aside from the dimly lit windows that still remain on even in the lateness of the house.
So entranced by his tall, rugged figure am I that I stumble over the curve, hurtling downward onto the sidewalk. The gnarled pavement rushes towards my face in slow motion, my lips parting in a desperate, silent scream of surprise and anticipated pain.
No pain would come however.
With the ease of a superhero or otherwise sexy man with a cape, he sweeps a strong arm around me, saving me from busting my face on the gum covered cement.
Maybe I wasn’t as sober as I thought I was.
Thank god for that. I don’t think Tatiana would have allowed me to walk down the aisle with a scar on my face.
“I guess I owe you that coffee now.” I murmur into the dark stillness of the night, clutching the front of his shirt.
The suit jacket he’d wrapped over my shoulders flutters down to the ground, landing softly, my body still warm in the sturdy embrace of the stranger I would marry in only a week.
If I was going to marry a stranger, I was glad that it was one who would bother to catch me from falling – though would he be able to prevent my heart from doing the same?