Lily placed her hand bag on her dressing table. Her cats were waiting by the door, as always. "Hi Sammie, Catrina." She greeted them and they followed her into her bedroom.
She lived in a small apartment, in a block with five other tenants and no one got in one another's business.
Her job as a middle school teacher was suitable for her. She couldn't be more-happier; that was a lie, she could.
Making herself a meal of toast and eggs, she ran through her emails, waiting for her toast to be ready.
"When the first two were reminders of the teachers' meeting, she thought the third unread message was spam and was about to move it to the bin when the subject of the email caught her attention.
'Congratulations, your application was approved."
"But I didn't even apply for a job." She said to herself. Her eyes widened and her jaw dropped after she read the body text. She had been selected as Roman's wife. She laughed in a shaky voice and shook her head. "This just has to be a mistake."
She sniffed burning toast and unplugged it with an immediate effect.
Propping herself on to the counter, she reread the email as though it were her first time.
She exited the app and dialed her only friend, her mother.
She drummed her free fingers against the counter, waiting for her mother to respond.
"If you are not pregnant or engaged, hang up right away." Her mother called into the phone in her Mexican accent.
"Mama Johnson I have even weirder news." She informed. "Today in class, I applied to be Roman Dalmian's wife and you won't believe this but I was selected out of six million applicants?
Even saying the words sounded too unbelievable to her.
"It's a scam!" Her mother responded, so certain of her words.
"I don't think it is, I mean it has their official Dalmain logo? I really don't know mama Johnson." Mama Johnson was how they; lily and her siblings, referred to their mother.
"Why would they select you out of everyone?"
"Are you calling me ugly?" Lily placed her hands on her chest.
"No, but you don't make any effort to look good. Even if you went there, they would turn you down after seeing you." Her mother continued to say.
"I get your point." Lily rolled her eyes, jumping off the counter and pacing back and forth. "But then they must have chosen me for a reason, don't you think?"
"Whatever, just be careful and update me! Your sister's daughters are with me for the week and I have to go on and watch them before they burn our house down." Mama Johnson excused herself from the phone call, and Lily only nodded.
She put her phone down and knew her mother was right. She needed to look presentable, if anything at all.
She picked her phone one more time and checked the address and date.
"This Friday." She had three days to prepare and to request permission from work.
Kim smiled at the email and texted Mark as soon as she saw it.
James came into the living room with a tray that contained their dinner. "Well you seem exceptionally excited, what with the excessive smiling?" He sat the tray on the table in front of her and sat across from her, pushing locks of hair away from his forehead although they managed to trail back to his face.
"I am indeed happy James, I just got the biggest dealer." She flashed a grin at him.
"Another modeling job?" He stood and came to sit beside her.
"Even better." She placed her phone beside the tray and hugged him. "You'll find out soon." She felt she was being wicked with her actions but she had no intentions of stopping now.
"Well, this calls for celebrations then, doesn't it?"
"It does." She chuckled and yelped when the tray on the top of her on their cheap leather couch.
"James kissed her nose and trailed down to her neck. "Whatever makes you happy, makes me happy," he said and resumed kissing her.
Friday was finally here. It had been the longest three days for Lily.She was ready.No she wasn't.But she didn't put too much thought into it. Another lie, she completely did.She had taken a local bus, that was how much she could afford and while in the bus, someone had smeared her white gown with orange soda and that was when regretting her actions began.She had chosen the white shirt gown with the floral waist belt because it made her look 'rich.' It was expensive. 'Who sells clothes for a hundred dollars?' Mama Johnson had wondered.But here she was anyway.There was so much to do, and know. What type of questions would they ask her? She wondered as she stared at the building across from her.Her thoughts were disrupted when a splash from a puddle stained her dress.She shrieked in horror. The driver of the black range rover parked in front of her right away."Look what you've done!" She c
He felt her eyes on him and when their gazes locked, her soul left her body. This man was staring at her like he was a demon. He lacked emotions and intimidated her. She looked away and stared at her feet instead, as if they held so much importance."What do you mean send her in?" One of the men opposed. He looked way older than the other three and his hair was grey and thinning.Roman shrugged one shoulder, his eyes on Louise. "Do exactly as I say."Lily could not stop thinking about how she had spent the last few days on the internet, searching through this man's profile yet she had managed not to recognise him in their first encounter.To be fair, he looked like a completely different person in that white shirt and black shorts.Louise clearly took Roman's words, and left the room to do just as she had been told.Lily wished she hadn't left because now her anxiety was rising above the charts. Taking the details of the office i
"I think there's a mistake." Kim stood to her feet sharply. "I'm Kim!""Why would you choose this woman, she clearly had nothing to say, what has gotten into you?" His father banged his hand against the table aggressively."I got this email, I was supposed to get married to you! Are you just going to send me back like that?" Kim sounded like she was about to burst into tears."She's right. I don't understand how there was a mix up in the first place but sending her back is not the right option!" Their dad argued."I'll marry her then."Silence filled the air and everyone turned to look at the owner of the voice, Adrian.
"Your bedroom?" Lily looked around, wearing a look of confusion. Her face dropped in realisation, she was standing in his room."Oh my goodness, I'm not used to these halls yet so I-" she stopped, taking steps backwards after realising that he was taking steps towards her."Wh- what are you doing?" She swallowed."You didn't tell me the interview you were heading for was to be a wife." He said in a low bass voice."You didn't tell me you were the interviewer either." She tried to sound unaffected by his words but her voice was breaking her heart and deserting her.Something about him just seemed to terrify her. Was it his higher class? Or his expressionless
A knock on the door interrupted and Lily wondered what the hell had just happened.Roman pulled away slowly and cleared his throat before proceeding to speak, "come in." He called with a look of doubt on his face.It was another maid.Lily doubted she would be able to keep up with so many people."Your sister is here, sir." She announced.Roman shrugged. Emily was a celebrity. Not that the rest of them weren't famous, but she was in the entertainment industry and she was always away working."The whole family will be here for the wedding?" Lily wondered.
The security men seemed to hold him back like he had done something wrong until Fred stood from where he was seated and chose to intervene. "Hey, what's happening over there?"One of the security men came by his side and whispered a few things into his ears.After a few seconds, he pulled away to talk to Kim, "this man here claims to know you or something like that?"It was evident from his tone that he wasn't a fan of things like this happening."Yes, he's my older brother." Kim lied, glaring at James and hoping he would play along.James knew that whatever was going on, the only way he could get to talk to his girlfriend was if he played along
After the ceremony, when Adrian had gone to attend a meeting, Kim had hurried to seclude James from the rest of the party, not wanting to raise any suspicions.She knew Fred was not happy with her on this and she especially didn't want to get on his bad side. It was bad enough she had paid someone to be her father today, it would be worse if they found out she was in a relationship, or at least used to be in one."What are you doing here?" Kim whispered once they were out of hearing and sight."What am I doing here?" James had bloodshot red eyes. "Kim, you are fucking getting married while we are in a relationship, and you're asking me what I'm doing here? The fuck?""I know things look weird but I can explain." She
Warning: mature.Lily thought she would pass out from the way her heart was thudding, asking to be let out of its cage. For some reason, she couldn't look away from his dangling manhood. She had not been privileged to see one so close up before."My eyes are up here." Roman cut her thoughts short."How do you expect me to look at them when you're naked? What are you even doing here?" She managed to direct her eyes to his."Taking a shower?""Okay but I'm in here?" Lily read the lines out, he was acting so oblivious, it was starting to annoy her."And I'm not complaining?" Roman walked towards a cupboard beside the