I knew Annie meant well, but thinking back to that moment always made me want to cry.
“I’m doing better, thanks for asking. It’s just a lot to take in, you know?”
“Absolutely. What about Gavin? How’s he holding up with everything? I’m not surprised he agreed to do this for you, but this is even so…well, you know, he has to be under a bit of stress himself.”
We started walking under the tall trees in the back yard.
“Gavin’s doing much better than I am. I was so worried when I asked him to do it a few weeks ago, but he didn’t hesitate to say yes. He seemed more into it than I was at first.”
“What about now, Crystal? Are you more excited about it?”
I thought about spending time with Gavin in Moldova, and I realized that I wanted to play house with him. I wanted to see what it’d be like to be a wife, even though we wouldn’t be married.
“I think so. I mean, the way I look at it, it’s a vacation that I’ll return from a hell of a lot more financially secure.”
“Which is ironic, seeing as how it’s usually the other way around. People go on vacation and then return having gone into debt, but you get to visit a foreign country and come back a millionaire. I’m not sure there is a downside to this?”
We sat down on two benches, and I realized that I was happier about going on vacation with Gavin than I had led myself to believe. I was so worried about getting caught in a fake marriage that I forgot we’d be away, just the two of us, and how romantic it could be. Plus, there was no reason to worry. The documents he drafted up fooled me, so the Moldovan judge would hopefully believe them too.
“That’s true. Once this is all over, Annie, life is going to be so much better for me. I’m going to be more financially secure and also free to expand my horizons.”
“Even though you’ll be a millionaire, Crystal? I thought by now you’d rather retire and just travel, you know, enjoy life.”
“Teaching people about holistic medicine and yoga makes me happy, Annie. I don’t want to be one of those people who gets all of this money and then becomes a shut-in. Plus, it’s not like I need a lot. You know me. I’m kind of a minimalist. As long as I have a backyard, a garden, and a decent-sized kitchen, I’ll be happy.”
“Let’s not forget about that, Lamborghini. You’re keeping that, right?”
“Really, it’s only mine because my name is on the title, you know. Gavin drives it more than I do.”
“Which name? You’re real one or your… married one?”
We both giggled and hugged each other’s necks.
8
Gavin
After I left Crystal’s apartment, I grabbed a bite to eat and a coffee at Starbucks before hurrying home to shower and change into a fresh suit. Before nine o’clock, I was at the Lamborghini dealership picking out Crystal’s new car.
The minute I saw the red one parked inside the showroom, I didn’t even look at the price. Instead, I asked the receptionist to page Frank, the head of the sales department and a friend of Richard’s.
Within less than an hour, I had taken the beauty for a spin and returned to the dealership to draw up the paperwork. Frank promised before noon he would have the rare model delivered to Crystal’s apartment downtown. In the meantime, Frank had directed the body shop to buff out the small scratch on the fender of my BMW left from my first encounter with Crystal.
Then, after surveying the repair work approvingly, I got in and drove off. A smile ventured across my face as I pictured the expression on Crystal’s face when she would first see the cherry red Lamborghini at her door. I turned left past the downtown area where the accident had happened, passing the cafe and shop she had teased me about last night. My destination was Richard’s mansion. It was the location for our morning meeting.
Today was unusual because Jake had been invited to attend. Up until recently, Jake and his father were only cordial at best with each other and never—I mean never—mixed business with family visits or family matters.
I had heard snippets of conversations between Richard and his father and gathered tensions were beginning to ease between the two men. Naturally, I was curious about the outcome of our meeting. I was regularly checking for a text from Crystal waiting for the meeting to start, watching Richard busily painting the new nursery.
Their home had been entirely redecorated to Julianna’s taste, which meant a more ornate design mixed with his preference for modern, clean lines. I didn’t think they could pull the two different styles off, but their home looked like something out of an HGTV show. It was odd seeing him be so domesticated, which was a far cry from the man he used to be. Yet, there was no denying, I had never seen Richard happier.
Within an hour, Jake and Mr. Truman joined us for a casual business meeting as Richard continued to paint, listening.
Mr. Truman pulled out his tablet and set in on a chest of drawers covered with a tarp to show us the latest spreadsheets on some of the projects he was developing. He cocked his head to one side and spoke to me while Jake and Richard listened.
“So as you can see, everything seems to be going smoothly with the recent acquisitions. I’ve negotiated the prices down by thirty percent. Although I tried for forty, but the sellers wouldn’t budge, and neither would I. However…” Mr. Truman turned to Jake, “Jake has decided to start negotiations of his own separately to see if we can put the squeeze on them. If Jake is successful and closes a deal, Richard and I will buy up the contract. Then, based on my calculations, we should see a steady increase in revenue over the next business quarter if things go as planned.”
I noticed that Richard was more concerned with painting than with the business meeting. “Did you hear what he said, man, or are you too focused on not getting any paint on your crown molding?” I asked, teasing him.
