Modern Arrangements: Complete Trilogy (Modern Arrangements #1-3) (8 page)

On my way to the refrigerator, I caught
sight of the newspaper Lilli left on the counter. Black marks circled multiple
areas. Leaning in, I saw they were help wanted ads.

Was she seriously trying to get another
job? Jesus!

The flash of an idea reappeared in my
head. As I was thinking about it and looking over all the black circles, her
voice pulled me out of my head.

"You looking for another job?"

I turned. She wore a genuine smile.

"Sorry," stepping quickly to
the fridge. "I didn’t mean to pry, it just caught my attention." Leaning
into the fridge, I grabbed a beer.

"Not a big deal. It’s not a big
secret or anything." She shrugged as she sat back down.

"You seriously think you can take
on another job?" I leaned back against the counter and opened the beer.

"Well I am hoping to find one or
two better paying jobs, but if I have to add another one to my list then so be
it," she sighed and blew hair out of her face.

The idea flashed across my head again. I
cleared my throat.

"Lilli?"

"Hmmm?" She didn't look up.

"How much do you know about my
uh…situation?"

She looked up at that.

"Not a lot but, like I told you, I’ve
got a pretty good idea. You have to get married or something because of your
family, right?" Placing her elbow on the counter, she placed her chin into
the palm of her hand. In that moment, I noticed the depth of her eyes. It was like
she could see into my soul. Hopefully, I could get a small glimpse of hers.

"Sort of," I grinned
nervously. "I have to get married by February of next year or I lose my
inheritance." Her eyes widened and before she could speak, I continued.
"And…I have to stay married for four years in a monogamous and faithful
marriage." She looked a little too stunned to speak.

"That…that um….that kind of
sucks," she bit her bottom lip.

"Yeah," I rubbed the back of my
head. "Yeah, it does."

"So that’s the reason for all the
desperate attempts?" She smirked.

"Ha ha…I wouldn’t say
desperate," she raised her brow at my response. "Trust me, I am only
now starting to realize how hard this is going to be and desperation has now
set me forth in a different direction." I watched her face twist in
confusion.

"But, you could probably pick any
ex-girlfriend or girl that you meet and convince them to go along with
marriage," she looked at me like I was an idiot.

"Yeah, well it’s not that simple. I’ve
talked to some exes and some blind dates." I smiled at her knowing she
would be trying not to laugh at the ‘blind date’. She couldn’t fight it, she
laughed. "Plus there are other stipulations."

"Stipulations?" she asked.

"First tell me about your
father?" I watched her stop breathing for a moment.

"There’s nothing to tell."

"I call bullshit, Lilli. You can
tell me." I prayed that she would tell me, this was going to be hard
enough and I needed leverage.

She took a deep breath.

"My father has heart
problems." She took a deep breath before she finished. "He’s already
had a heart transplant a few years ago but he started having trouble
again."

"I’m sorry," I moved to stand
opposite of her. She nodded. "I have to be married by February of next
year, monogamous and faithful for at least four years and conceive a child
within the first year of marriage."

Her head popped up with wide eyes after I
finished.

"Wow…I…I really don’t know what to
say."

"Crazy huh?"

She nodded in response to my question.

"And, it is much more difficult to
accomplish than you would imagine," I laughed through my nose.

"I could…okay I couldn’t even
imagine," she shook her head. "So you are going in a different
direction you said?" she tilted her head to the side. "You don’t have
to tell me anything else if you aren’t comfortable—"

"It’s fine. Well, I figure that
some random person I don't know is probably not such a good idea for obvious
reasons, so I have been thinking about making it a business proposition in a sense."
I shrugged and sighed at the same time.

"A business…seriously?" she
wrinkled her nose and crunched her eyebrows together.

Not the reaction I would like to have
gotten.

"Yeah and I’ve recently gotten an
idea of what to do," I stopped, hoping she would bite.

"Hmm..." She seemed to think
over what I had and had not completely said. "Which is?"

There it is.

"Answer one more question for me,
first?"

"Uh...oh-kay." She drawled out
her words and there was now a slight narrowing of her eyes.

"You're in financial concern due to
your father’s health issues, right?"

Nodding, she opened her mouth and spoke.
"Yeah, but what—"

I could almost see the light bulb go
off.

"Aidan….I am not—"

"Just think about it. We could draw
up an agreement for marriage. I will help alleviate the financial issues your
father is having and help you financially to finish college without having to
work during the four years of marriage."

Shock and fear flashed in her eyes
before disgust replaced them.

"No. I don’t know what you seem to
think of me, but I'm not for sale, Aidan."

"I never said—"

"Hey, sorry it took me so long.
Celia called me," Dixon bounded back into the room. He looked between
Lilli and me. "Is something wrong?" He turned an intense glare on me.

"No," Lilli said flatly.
"I was just heading to my room." Standing, she walked away.

Without one look back, she left the
room.  I watched her leave with a rigid spine and a rush to her steps.

Once she was out of hearing distance, Dixon
turned on me. "What the fuck did you do?" he hissed.

"Nothing."

He glared and took a step closer.

"I simply told her about my
situation that’s all." Shrugging, I headed to the couch.

I was thankful for the knock on the door
as Dixon headed in my direction, still glaring at me.

"Hey man," Oscar greeted
Dixon.

"What’s up?" James spoke next.

The three of them entered the living
room. I sat thinking over what just happened between Lilli and me.

How can I convince her to do this? I
thought helping her father would be my ticket to closing this deal.

"Aidan!" Dixon boomed from the
chair across from me.

"Huh?" I shook my head and
looked at his frustrated face.

"I think you need to tell me what
the hell happened, don’t you? I won’t let you do something to her," he
threatened. James and Oscar look back and forth between us.

"I already told you—"

"And the rest of it?"

"I may have proposed a business
arrangement with her." I shrugged.

"You did what?" Dixon jumped
to his feet.

"Calm down," I stood up in
front of him. "She told me about her father’s health and financial
concerns and I told her about my ‘situation’. Then I proposed that we make an
arrangement. I would help her if she helps me. I wasn’t being an asshole or
whatever, it was just a suggestion."

"Dude…" James said low and shook
his head.

"Aidan did you just..?" Oscar
looked like he couldn’t even find the words.

Dixon just sat down roughly on the couch
and got redder in the face.

"I wasn’t trying to do anything
mean. I just thought, actually I still think, we could help each other
out."

"Leave her the fuck alone."
Dixon seethed.

"Just listen to me."

Dixon started shaking his head.

"Just listen!"

At my insistence, he glared.

"If she agrees to marry me I will
arrange for all the financial issues to go away for her and her father. During
the four years I will make sure she finishes college." Looking around to
each of them, "I think that it’s a win-win idea."

"And what about the kid?"
Oscar added. "You expect her to sleep with you and give you a kid, knowing
that in four years you will be splitting up? I don’t understand your
thinking."

"It’s fucking brilliant."
James exclaimed. Everyone turned to look at him. "Oh come on! The company
needs to be kept in our family and, if it will help them both out, then what is
four years? And as for a kid…hell, people raise children in separate homes all
the time. Aidan works hellacious hours as it is and would only have time for
weekends, so it’s perfect." James looked as if he had it all figured out.

"Fuck you!" Dixon glowered.
"This isn’t just some girl we are talking about! This is my best
friend." He looked at me with a death glare. "This is someone who is
so much better than you using her and throwing her away when you are
done!"

"Dixon, I would never hurt her or
force her to do anything she didn’t want to do. It was simply an idea." He
wasn’t buying it and he really shouldn’t, because, truth was, I wasn’t going to
let it drop that easily. This situation had the makings of the perfect modern arrangement.

"Fuck you, Aidan!" His words
full of venom.

"I think I should go." I stood
up and headed toward the door.

"Yeah, I think you should."
Dixon yelled following me. As I walked down the hall to the elevator, he yelled
again. "Stay away from Lilli. She’s not one of your sluts!"

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Another week passed. I waited without
contact for a reason. I hoped she would think more on my suggestion and perhaps
start to see the positive of my arrangement. Tonight I would finally see how
close I was to succeeding.

At eight o’clock, I sat at the bar with
the large envelope in front of me. She appeared behind the bar in tight black
denim and tiny halter top. When she saw me, irritation tightened her face. Like
a woman on a mission, Lilli walked my direction.

Chapter Seven
Lillian Snowe

Lilli

From the moment I first saw Aidan, he
was ridiculously attractive. I mean his thick, messy, reddish-brown hair and the
shadow of a beard tracing his jaw line. Then those gray-green eyes and thick
lashes, I mean, why do men always get those eyelashes? To top it all off, his
lean but muscular build was pretty close to perfection—even through clothing.

My body definitely reacted to his
appearance; however, my empty wallet curbed any or all bodily reactions at this
point in my life. The only relationships I had were with my closest friends.
Any interaction outside of the friend circle were only at the bar with
customers and my purely physical relationship with my
friend
Demitri.

Having taken care of my father for so
long now, it was my life. Since his heart attacks and the eventual transplant
he needed, we are financially stressed. His funds from his previous fisherman
job paid for as much as possible but there were still past due medical bills.

Having been away in college in New York
when his transplant was needed, I started working to help pay for my own
personal expenses as well as help my father out. Soon, one job became two and my
classes started to suffer. I'd actually bought my father’s home so the money he
made from the house could be used to pay medical bills. My debt increased
dramatically. On the verge of dropping college, I spent a lot of time searching
for a better paying job or more hours, something to get us by. Moving back to
Winter Harbor with my father was also becoming a real possibility.

Now, Donald was sick again and in and
out of the doctor’s office and hospital. The bills once again piled up. The
mortgage for the house was about to default. When Donald used to have moments
of feeling better he would work under the table for friends but now he was too
weak, too sick.

Aidan was a frequent visitor to the
apartment and old friend of Dixon, so it wasn’t uncommon to see him around.
He’d become a fun acquaintance. It also didn’t throw me off guard when he knew
slightly too much about my life. Dixon always acted like a gossipy woman. However,
when he suggested he could buy me for four years to be his incubator, I almost
punched him in the face.

Did he think I was for sale? I was his last
act of desperation? Really?

Walking into work, seeing him sitting
smugly at the end of the bar brought the hairs on the back of my neck up. Anger
flared in my chest. I stalked down to the end of the bar towards him, his eyes
intently on mine.

"What the hell do you want,
Aidan?" I snapped. "You here to throw money at me again, did you want
to talk with my pimp?"

"Lilli, I never meant to insinuate anything
like that," he ran his hand through his already mussed hair. "I don’t
think that way about you. I just think that this is a good arrangement for both
of us. It would help us both."

"You’re out of your mind if you
think you can buy me for four years to be an incubator," I spit out and
turned on my heels to walk away.

"Wait," he shouted.

Spinning around. "What?" I
snapped.

"Just take this and think about it…"
He was pleading with me, not only in his words but with his eyes.

Grabbing the large envelop he was holding
out, I walked away.  I threw it in the trash can and started my shift behind
the bar. Later, I glanced back down the bar. He was gone. Breathing a sigh of
relief, I went about my night dealing with overzealous frat boys and arrogant
businessmen.

At the end of my shift, I grabbed for my
bag. As I reached in for my sweatshirt, I found a large envelope. THE large
envelope.
How the hell? How dare him!

I must've had one hell of a look on my face
because Celia put her hand on my arm.

"Are you okay?"

"No," I growled.

"What the hell is that?" She
motioned to the envelope.

When I was finished telling her about
Aidan's proposal, she looked thoughtful.

"Celia?" She didn't look
pissed like me.

"Lilli," she sighed.
"Lilli, do you want me to be honest?"

I stood for a moment not responding and
then nodded.

"You work, what, three jobs?" I
nodded, again. "And this would take care of all your debt and
college?" Anger began to boil in my chest. "Lilli honestly, if it
were me, I would consider it. Given everything you're struggling with right
now, if I were in your place, I would probably consider it heavily."

"How could you sell yourself?"
I seethed.

"Because it would help my family,
if I still had one." A moment of sadness flashed in her eyes. "I
would do it now if someone told me they could bring them back to me. I would do
it." Her voice lowered during the last sentence.

"You could have a child with
someone you don’t even know, knowing you will be divorced in four years? How
could you do that to a kid?" I still couldn't believe what she was saying.

"Well, it’s not a preference but,
at the same time, the child would be loved and well taken care of. I would just
make sure that my child always felt that, no matter what was going on, I loved
them." She looked me straight in the eye.

"I can’t do it. I’m not for sale
and neither is my uterus." I argued.

She shrugged.

"I’m just saying you should at
least think about it. Besides, who says you have to agree to all of these
terms. If this is a
business
arrangement
, as he calls it, then
you can always counter offer." She smirked and put her arm around me walking
us out of the club.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Over the next couple of days I couldn’t
get it out of my mind. The nerve he had to ask this of me, how right he was
about me needing the money and Celia being so blasé about the situation. It all
infuriated me even more. I decided to call Phoebe.

"Hey doll, what’s up?"

"Oh, just wait till you hear
this!" I groaned.

"Ooohh…hold on…let me grab some
Twizzlers."

There came a rustling of clothing and
drawers opening then closing.

"Okay, Go." She said,
excitedly.

"You remember Aidan, right?"

"Mister marry me and have my babies?
Yeah." She started to get a familiar tone in her voice.

"Oh, no, no, no, it’s not
that!" Before she got it in her head that we were hooking up.

"Damn," she pouted.

"What the hell, Phoebe?"

"Well," she whined, "I
wanted to hear details about his man candy." She huffed. "Just from
sitting and looking him over,
thoroughly
, I can only imagine what
his—"

"Stop!" I couldn’t take
anymore, not right now. I launched into the story of Aidan in my kitchen and
then him showing up at the club. Phoebe didn’t say anything for awhile and I
was starting to get angry. "Hello?"

"I’m here," she said flatly.

"I swear, if you agree with Celia I'm
going to lose my fucking mind." I threw myself down on my bed. The soft
light blue cotton blanket and pillows engulfed me.

"Well, honestly, she has a point
about the benefits; however, before you go all bitch-face on me, I think it’s
shitty he would assume just because of your da…your situation that he could buy
you like that," she huffed. "Plus, who is he to make you his act of
desperation?"

Finally! Someone understood!

"Thank you!" I breathed out in
relief. "Then, to top it all off, Celia’s comments keep playing around in my
head and I can’t seem to get them—"

"That’s because she’s right,"
Phoebe blurted.

"What the—?"

"Lilli, I said he was shitty for it,
yes, but that doesn’t make Celia wrong. It would be like the best thing to be
able to take care of everything for your dad and college without having to work
four million jobs and dropping out."

"Who told you that I was
drop…Dixon," I growled.

"Oh, hell, Lilli, do you think
Dixon doesn’t talk to me about everything? Please. We’ve been friends for
years. Don’t act like it’s a surprise." She said nonchalantly. "I am
surprised that he didn’t call me and tell me about this though, since you took
forever," she huffed.

"Well I’m sorry I couldn’t
entertain you sooner, asshole."

"Hmmm…I don’t know what you want me
to say Lilli. This is your decision but I think you should think about it all
before you make a choice. Don’t do anything you will hate yourself for later.
Make this decision about you and not about someone else because then you will
regret it and resent that person, even if you have good intentions when you do
it."

I sighed, loudly. "I’m not for
sale, Phoebe."

"Sounds like you know what you want
to do then," she laughed weakly. "Can we talk about man candy
now…cause Oscar—"

"Phoebe! I have to see him here
with Dixon. I don’t want to hear about his man candy," I made fake
disgusted gagging noises.

"Oh, if you were sucking on his man
candy you would be gagging for real," she blurted out quickly.

"Good bye, Phoebe!" Hitting
the end call button before she could say anything, I dropped it to the bed.

Why are all of my friends insane? Or is
it me?

I headed out to the kitchen and pulled
out some Pillsbury already made chocolate chip cookie dough. I spooned the
dough onto the cookie tray—one for the tray, one for my mouth, one for the
tray, one for my mouth.

Once they were in the oven, I plugged in
my IPod and decided that cleaning will help me work off some of the tension. Getting
out the cleaning supplies, I started with the counters then moved on to furniture.
The Swiffer became my microphone and dance partner. I spun around with the
Swiffer on the floor and sang out the words as Fergie sang them to me. "
Shopping
for labels, shopping for love
—" The oven beep interrupted my
performance.
Cookies!

Climbing onto the couch with my cookies,
a large glass of milk and the television remote, I tried to ignore the large
envelope I'd thrown on the coffee table. The more I tried to ignore its
presence, the worse my curiosity ate away at me.

"Damn it!" My curiosity won. I
opened the envelope and started reading over the papers.

He wasn’t kidding when he said he would
take care of it all. He had more than enough money arranged to go into my
personal account to cover my father’s expenses and to pay off the house. Then,
there were the terms of college. The amount that he had allotted was more than
enough to cover the remainder of college that I needed.

I threw the papers back down and took a
large bite of a cookie. Chewing on the cookie, I reached over and picked the
papers back up. Basically it was marriage and a child. In return I would get
money, security, a college fund and future assistance with the child.

I can’t even remember the last thing I
was thinking before I fell asleep but it led to me waking up panicked from a
horrible dream. I had dreamt about having a little boy holding his arms up to
me, no matter how hard I tried to reach for him I couldn’t. I felt his little
fingers as he seemed to be pulled away from me and then he was in the arms of a
faceless man who was taking him away. It was horrible.

I grabbed the papers from the coffee
table and threw them into the garbage can.

"God damn him!" I shouted to
the garbage can. I went to my room to get ready for another night at the club.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The club was packed tonight and I didn’t
get a moment to think about anything other than work, which was great given my
current train of thought. As I finished shaking up a couple of drinks I noticed
a familiar face at the end of the bar. I poured the cocktails and placed them
in front of the group that had ordered them before heading down to the dark,
handsome man.

"Hey you," I smiled and leaned
forward to kiss his cheek.

"Hey," Demitri replied back.

"Haven’t seen you for awhile?"
I smiled again. "What’s going on?"

"I’ve been traveling for the past
few months, overseeing different projects."

 I nodded as I poured his whiskey and
placed it in front of him.

"So…?"

"So?" I teased.

"Such a tease. What time do you get
off tonight?"

"Not sure, how quickly can you make
that happen?" I winked and he swallowed a gulp of whiskey.

"You never change do you?" He
smiled.

"Would you want me to?" I
batted my eyes.

"Never," he winked. "How
about you let me drive you home tonight?"

I nodded and was just about to speak
when Celia interrupted.

"Demitri, when did you get in town?
We haven’t seen you around here in forever." She leaned forward and kissed
his cheek.