Chapter One
~Cyrus Macnair~
“Hey, I can’t work tonight,” I reminded my brother Kyle as I reviewed the new schedule he posted.
“Oh, does Abigail have another date?” he teased, grabbing the clipboard from my hand and scribbling my name off the watch shift.
“It’s not a date,” I growled. “It’s two people eating food at the same table. And no. She will be having dinner with me.”
“Why don’t you just ask her to marry you already?” Kyle asked, his tone exasperated.
“That wasn’t the deal,” I told my brother for the twentieth time in a week.
It was a little ridiculous, that was true. But Abigail and I had been friends for ten years, since we met in homeroom our freshman year of high school. We’d been young and dumb and completely ignorant of how the world worked back then.
I still remember the night we made our pact like it was yesterday. We were eating Red Vines and playing Super Mario in my basement. She was wearing pale blue jean shorts and a tank top, one of the licorice strips hanging out of her mouth and her arms were bouncing up every time she tried to make Luigi jump over a Goomba.
Out of nowhere, she turned to me and said the words that would forever change the course of my life.
“If we aren’t married to anyone by time we’re twenty-five, we should get married.”
In that instant, my entire world view shifted. I’d been in love with her since the first moment I saw her, but I’d believed with all my heart that I’d been permanently relegated to friend zone status.
This information was intriguing. I knew I could wait for her forever, so that was never going to be an issue. But how I was going to keep her single was something I needed to consider carefully.
I knew I couldn’t be too overt. I couldn’t bad mouth men to her face. Couldn’t keep her locked away somewhere. And I also didn’t want to appear overeager to carry out the plan.
Deception wasn’t exactly my strong suit, but for Abigail I could do anything.
And so the games were on for me. In school, it was easier. I walked to her classes, carried her books, waited for her after school. As long as I was constantly in her orbit, the other boys would just assume she was mine. So, they all stayed away.
After high school, it was harder. She went to the local community college to major in communications, but I went straight to work for my family’s security firm. I couldn’t be with her constantly anymore, and it gutted me.
Fortunately, we remained close friends and she would always tell me when someone asked her out. Then, as if I were her confidant girlfriend, she’d give me every minute detail of the plans. And I always ensured that she knew I was fascinated by this information.
So, she would continue to tell me what I needed to know to interfere.
Tonight for instance, she was supposed to be meeting Mark Blanther at Diablo. Some hot new small-plate restaurant that was supposed to be impossible to get into.
Very impressive.
But not as impressive as I could be.
I ran out of the security office at four-thirty and raced across town to the restaurant. Every time a single man approached the door, I would call Mark’s phone and see if they looked at it.
Finally, I hit the jackpot. A frustrated man answered his cell with an annoyed “What?”
Oops, I guess he was tired of me calling and hanging up from an unlisted number.
“Excuse me,” I said as I approached him. “Are you Mr. Blanther?”
“Yes, can I help you?”
“I’m sorry sir, but a young lady was just here, Abigail Thomas?”
“That’s my date,” he said, his brows knitting together in confusion. “Is there a problem.”
I gave him my best apologetic look.