“Good morning, handsome. How’s your day going?”
I slumped in my chair, preparing myself to tell her that it was time. “That depends on how you respond to this question. Is tonight a good night to be my fake fiancée?”
I knew Ginger would go silent for a few seconds, but not an entire minute. I stared at the clock on my laptop, watching the seconds tick until she finally answered.
“Yeah, that’s fine.” Her voice was clipped, and suddenly I wasn’t so sure.
“Actually, maybe I should just have my lawyers take care of this Ginger. It’s not fair to ask you to do such a thing, and Ria really is intuitive. She might pick up that I’m lying, and it’ll only make everything worse.”
“Jorge, I have every intention of looking Ria right in the face and telling her that we’re engaged. I thought about it after our conversation the other day, and you’re right: this probably is the better way to go. And don’t worry about my being convincing. I took a few acting classes back in college.” I chuckled while picturing her playing Lady Macbeth. “Oh, crap. I can’t do it tonight.”
“Why not?”
“Guadalupe and Yuslan are implementing a new software system, and I have to merge all of the data onto the new one. It has something to do with it going out of business. Anyway, what about tomorrow night?”
Crap! Ria is not very flexible.
But I realized that I had to man-up eventually. “I’ll make sure that it happens tomorrow night, no problem.”
“Thank you! And I’m sorry about tonight, but it has to get done. Crap, I gotta get back to work now.”
“All right, sounds good. Let me email Ria back, and then I’ll text you all of the details. I love you.”
“I love you too.”
Despite having been with numerous women, I had never told anyone but Ginger that I loved her. And it felt amazing.
I took a long, deep breath and replied to Ria.
Ria,
Tonight’s not good. Even you acknowledged that I have a busy day. (Please stop getting my schedule from my secretary, by the way.) Tomorrow night, six o’clock, at The Spicy Pineapple for drinks. If you don’t accept this time and place, I’ll move forward with getting my lawyers involved.
Sincerely,
Jorge
Ria took her sweet time in getting back to me, which drove me insane, but I also appreciated not having to deal with her. I answered another few emails that demanded my immediate attention, all the while nervous about her response. At that point, Ria was likely to be so pissed off that she’d just say, “screw it” and screw me over altogether.
I breathed a sigh of relief when she finally emailed me back thirty minutes later.
Jorge,
I authorized a small increase in wages to employees in the African diamond mines. They’ve agreed to resume mining, but not for too much longer. It’d be a shame if I didn’t give them everything they wanted and they just up and quit their jobs.
See you tomorrow night.
Sincerely,
Ria
Feeling relieved at having dodged a major landmine, I called my secretary and rescheduled all of my conference calls and business lunch that day. I also forbid her from telling anything about me or the company to Ria. And being the great secretary that she was, she agreed without asking for any details. As for Ria’s threat about making the workers quit their jobs, which would cost me a tremendous amount of money, I knew Ginger and I could pull it off.
You’re about to be history, Ria.
13
Ginger
