They look to each other and nod.
“Good. Now, that’s the last I hear about it. The decisions made.” Like that, he shoots them down, grabs my arm and walks, or rather drags me to the car.
I let him, because firstly, I don’t have a choice and second, there’s actually no way he’s serious about us getting married, so I’m keen to get to what he has planned.
Aka, letting me go.
I give it a good ten minutes to let the high-tension energy have time to dissipate before turning in my seat.
“Well.” I blow out a long breath. “That was unexpected.”
He doesn’t respond.
It’s okay. I can talk for the both of us.
“I mean, I’m super grateful that you didn’t hand me back. So, I’m not going to totally overstep and ask if you’d like to offer me your jet to drop me back home so I can get my stuff before I bounce again. If you wanted to , then by all means I’m not going to say no. But again, I’m very grateful I’m not going home with the crazy town tonight. You can just let me off at the airport. I can figure it out from there.”
Maybe I should tell him how truly grateful I am again, just so he really gets it.
He turns to me, his expression unreadable. “Were you not in the same meeting just then? Did you forget what you said?”
Hmm, this doesn’t sound promising.
I shrug, “Sometimes I just block out words so I wouldn’t be surprised if I missed something.”
He just stares.
It’s awkward, so I smile.
“Do you remember saying my name?” He cocks an eyebrow.
“Yep.”
We stare at each other, which for me is fine, I’m not driving, but he hasn’t taken his foot off the accelerator, and he hasn’t taken his eyes off me.
“Um… ” I point to the road.
He clears up the problem by abruptly swerving to a stop on the side of the road. Obviously, the SUV pulls up right behind us as well.
Great.
He turns his entire body to face me, staring again. I count to three and when it appears he’s not going to talk, I take it upon myself to do so.
“As I was saying.” I start slow, feeling him out. “I’m going to go out on a limb and say the jet is out of the question, so if you can drop me off at the airport, it would be very much appreciated.”
“You realise that is not going to happen, don’t you?"
“Do I?” I frown. “It just… obviously we aren’t actually going to get married. So, I–”
“What is obvious about that?”
“Umm, the fact I am not going to marry you.”
“Right.” He pulls out his phone. “Should I just call your father and tell him we’re going back to the original deal then?”
“Wait, wait.” I snatch the phone from his hands, and he does nothing to stop me.
And I realise it’s because it’s cracked, black and no way going to work. That was kind of my fault and when I look back up at him, he’s not happy at all.