The Billionaires Groom

The sound of rain drizzling wakes me, and I look at the time. I am thirty minutes early. It's still seven-thirty. I had to be at work by eight, so I lay on my bed and stared at my almost empty apartment.

I am twenty-seven, yet my life isn't as rosy as I imagined when I left school years ago.

Being one of those who had calculated life to be all merry after school, reality had gradually eaten away my delusion, and here I was still paying for my student loan.

A job that helps me get by after paying bills and having no mortgage, wife, kids, or vacations.

It can't get any worse than this, I tell myself.

I stand up and go to the bathroom and take a shower. I return and put on my only suit, a new one. I feel it's new because I took it to my dry cleaner, and he cleaned it too well.

I look at myself in the mirror and try a smile. Everything looks good except my eyes.

I look tired, too tired.

It's all Maria's fault, says my boss at AMT Internationals. She seemed to be sent from hell, always yelling at Arnold to do this and do that.

Walking out of my apartment building, I look up and notice the rain is getting fiercer by the minute. I turned to go back in to get an umbrella. I need one before I get a cab, and after,

Geeez! I have to walk back up!

I was about to turn when a voice called out to me.

Hey, do you need a lift?

I turn and look at Mercedes-Benz GLE 350 SUV staring at me. I walk up close, slowly. Her face shines into my eyes. I can feel the rain slow down when she asks, Do you need a ride?

"Hell yeah, I need a ride, I need a ride in a ride," but I reply with a nod and pull open her door and escape from the rain.

"Where are you headed?"

"May Street, AMT building."

"You work there?" she asks me.

"Yes, I do."

"So, what do you do?"

I hesitate for a minute as her blue eyes peel me open.

She hits the throttle and heads straight into traffic.

She says to ease the silence now looming over us,

"My name is Queenie Dale." I smile and say, "Arnold, Arnold Shaw."

And stretch my hand out. It was routine to do so after saying my name, so it happened as a reflex.

She stares at my hand and leaves a short smile that says, "I can't shake you now."

I don't mind. I put my hand by my side, where it belongs. And then I look out the window, counting the raindrops on it.

She asks again, "What do you do, Arnold?"

This time I say, "I help the big guys upstairs run analysis, just the paperwork."

"Okay," she answers, the traffic moves slowly, she puts on the stereo, and the beetles come on, and she sings along with them.

I watched her, and all I could notice was her cleavage. My eyes would not stay with me after that moment, and the question popped into my head about sex. "When last did I have sex?

And now it occurred to me, like a revelation, that I am deprived.

"Are you married?" She asks, cutting off my thoughts.

"What?

"I said have you married Arnold?"

"No, I am not married.

Okay, that is good. Let's have lunch then.

I watched her with my mouth open, wondering if I had heard her correctly.

Until she affirms again, I want to have lunch with you Arnold, and then she parks the car and says we are here.

I say "Okay." Not knowing which I was replying to. I drop down and hurry to my office building.

I enter the building, and Maria Caslov is on the ground floor waiting to yell "You are late!

"I don't care," I say, but I rush straight to the elevator and press the button continuously. But the door doesn't close until Maria enters the elevator, like a conspiracy.

I stand there and think about my morning as the lift takes us to the fifth floor.

I hurry to my desk and sort out the files piled on it. It's just nine o'clock, and the files here could pull a camel, a bit of an exaggeration. But that is how I feel right now like a camel being pulled by files.

"Listen up everyone. We have a new owner. I hear Maria Caslov," my immediate boss says.

AMT International has been bought by 'DALE Corporation.'

Miss Queenie Dale is our new boss.

The second shocking news for today. I rush to the bathroom and wash my face.

My breath skipping, I say it out loud so it would make any sense, but it freaks me out the more.

' I just got asked out by my boss!

I calm myself down before returning to work, but curiosity gets the better of me, and I look her up online. She was everywhere, from buying businesses to real estate and philanthropy.

Just everywhere, you pick your poison and paint a picture.

"Arnold, the boss wants to see you?"

I look up, and Maria smiles at me. Maria never smiles at me.

I stand, slowly letting sweat cover my whole body as I walk to the elevator and press the 13th number, the last.

I go upstairs and straight to her office and knock.

"Come in," I hear her sweet voice call to me.

I enter and stand a little distance from her large oak table.

While waiting for her to finish what she was doing, I looked around and admired the spacious and beautiful office.

"Did you consider my offer?"

"Yes, Miss Dale." without a second thought.

"Call me Queenie," she says, standing up with a warm smile. Come, she motions to me, and there it was a table set for lunch.

"Eat Arnold", she instructs with a smile.

I pick my cutlery and attack the steak gently, and then she speaks again "let's get married, Arnold.

She says it and sips her wine as her blue eyes poke for an answer.

The steak hooks in my throat and I try to push it down with water, my eyes turn red, and then she says to me" you will be compensated well for it".

"What compensation? "marrying you is all the compensation I would need, I say in my head.

I do not answer as my head repeats the word "prank" continuously.

"Ohh it is not a joke", she says reading my expression.

"You and I are getting married and I would like to call my lawyer now, she stands and walks back to her desk and places a call.

I don't hear anything, so I wait patiently for her to return, I font even get the chance to protest.

I see her walk back towards me in her suit and half skirt and heels, wh