From Crush to Husband (complete)

3 - It's in the contract

3 – It’s in the contract

I run out the house, I’m so mad. As if my weekend could not get any worse. First my f*****g shitty friends, now a contract to be married to the biggest man w***e known to this town. I do not think so. They can all bugger off. I knew I should have went travelling for a year after University, but dad persuaded me to get straight into the business, and now I know why. He knew about this bloody contract. Come on.

“Cassie” I heard a voice shout just as I’m about to get into my car. I stop and look up and see Alex running to me.  “Wait” he shouts as he gets a little closer. I close my door and wait for him and lean my body against my car.

“Did you know about this?” I ask not looking up to him. My blood is boiling at this moment.

“I kind of knew but I didn’t think my grandfather was serious.” He says as he leans against my car beside me.

“Marriage contract, really? We are in the 21st century. What are they thinking?” I say throwing my arms in the air.

“I know. I’m not exactly thrilled at the idea either. No offense.” He says as he chuckles at then end

“None taken. Not exactly thrilled myself. There has to be a way out of this” I ask, hoping there is a mistake in the contract so that we can get out of it.

“I haven’t read the contract, so I don’t know the details. Lets go back in and hear them out at least. There has to be a reason for it.” He says as he pushes himself of the car and holds his hand out for me to take. I look at his hand and back to his face. I shake my head and walk back into the house with him following closely behind.

When we get in the lounge, Jenny is in tears as Doug tries to comfort her, my dad is standing at the mini bar with a glass of scotch.

“I’ll have one of those” I say as I storm back in and throw myself on the sofa, Alex joining my dad to get me and him a drink.

I pick up the contract and start reading it. Trying to find a way out of it. I really do not want to marry Alex, as handsome and sexy as he is, it will never work out.  I scan through it more, its not a complicated contract but I can’t see a way out of this. There has to be, I scan through it again but nothing jumps out at me.

Alex comes over hands me my drink, while placing his on the table and taking the contract out of my hand and reading through it.

“Why?” I say to no one in particular.  No answer. Silence. All you can hear is our breathing and the pages of the file Alex is flicking through.

“Can anyone answer Cassie’s question?” Alex says as he puts the file down and picks up his drink and looking to me.

“When the companies merged along time ago, we have no idea why, but your grandfathers came up with the idea together. We found out about it a few years ago, when you joined the company.  We have spoke with the legal team and there is nothing we can do, we’re sorry” Doug says as he looks straight into our eyes the whole time.

“Nothing you can do?” I ask as I gulp my drink and slam the glass in the table. Making Jenny flinch and my dad just doesn’t even look at me.

“it’s the f*****g 21st century, you can not seriously believe I am going to marry him because of a bloody contract” I say as I point in Alex’s direction.  I look up and he seems a little offended but at this point I don’t care.

“Cassie, language” is all my father can say.  I sigh and sit back in my seat, with my hand over my face, trying to keep the tears at bay.

“If you don’t go through with this contract, the company will fail. The investors all know about this, most of the contracts we have with our clients are from when your grandfathers were in office, the whole business rides on this marriage,” Jenny says as she wipes her tears.

“Oh god” Alex says as he runs his hand down his face, “If the marriage doesn’t happen how much business would we lose?” he asks his father.

“90 percent” he responds instantly, no hesitation in his voice at all

I look up to Alex at the same time he looks down at me. I shake my head and lean my head back against the sofa, looking up to the ceiling.  What were our grandfathers thinking? I cannot believe them. As I was sitting thinking about all the times, we had huge family gatherings, my family and Alex’s, my grandfather always joked about me marrying Alex one day. He knew I had a crush on him it was kind of obvious when I was younger, I blushed every time he spoke to me or if we were made to dance with each other at functions. I remember when his older cousin got married, we were made to dance, I think I was about 10 at the time. I remember being dragged onto the dance floor by my grandfather and Alex the same and we were made to dance, I’m sure there is a picture somewhere of us at that wedding.

I had zoned out completely, thinking of all the times my grandfather joked about it, I felt a tap on my shoulder. I looked up to see Alex

“Come on, we need to discuss this” he said as he pulled me up and we left. I didn’t even say goodbye to my dad or Maggie. Oh well. I’m sure we will have plenty to discuss in the future. A bloody wedding to organise.

I climbed into my car as Alex got in the passenger seat. I just stared at him, not knowing where we were going or what to do.

“Head to my place, it will be quieter, unless Beth is out we can go to yours?” he says as I start the car and head out of the driveway.

“Beth will be back in an hour, we will go to yours” I say as I head in the direction of his place. I may not like the guy very much but we work together and off course I know where he lives. The drive there was silent, neither one of us talking, not even the radio playing in the background.

We soon pull up to his house, yes, he has a house or more like a small mansion. Its only a ten minute drive to the factory and offices from his place.  He climbs out the car and I follow locking it behind me and follow him into his house.  He holds the door open for me, taking his shoes of at the door and putting them in a shoe rack, he tells me to do the same. I slip my heals of and instantly feel cold, my feet touching the tiled floor of the entrance hall. He hands me a pair of fluffy slippers, I refuse thinking about how many sluts have had their feet in them.

“They are my mums, Cassie, give me some credit” he chuckles as I slip them on thanking him. He walks down the hall and into an office and straight into the mini bar in the corner.  He holds up a bottle of scotch, offering me one. I shake my head, thinking I’ve still got to drive back home after this.

He sits down on the couch by the window and I follow. I slump down with my hands in my hair, totally at a loss with this whole situation.

“Did you read the contract?” he asks breaking the silence.

“Not really, I couldn’t take the words in” I tell him as I get more comfortable on the couch.

“well, we have 6 months to get married. After the wedding, we’ve to live together, work together, no infidelity and we have to have a kid before you are 30.” He says all very matter of fact.  I laugh. I really do not know how to react to all this information.

“Yeah. Sure. No problems.” I shake my head as I look up to him. I wished I had not looked up to him. The way the light is shining through the window, just shows how gorgeous he is. He is just so handsome and the fact that he knows it makes this so much harder. I mean he had been with models, mostly the models we use for our advertising campaigns, I can't help but smile at his looks, the perfect facial features, eyelashes to die far, perfect skin, sexy smirk, big manly hands not to mention a few arm tattoos that are barely visible when he wears his dress shirts at work.

“Why are you smiling?” he whispers. I shake myself out of my daydream.

“Nothing. Do you know any other lawyer that can look at this, to see if there is a way out?” I ask as I pick up the contract from where Alex threw it when we came in.

“If dad says he has spoke to legal, they probably were the ones who wrote it, most of the legal team were working for the business when our grandfathers were in charge.” He says with a sigh at the end

“You think we should go through with it?” I ask, hopeful he has another solution. I mean, being married to this god of a man, would not be that bad, but I know his reputation and that is a big no for me. I mean the amount of women he has had, is not healthy and the fact that I am nothing to compared to them, I don’t even consider myself as average looking, I’m less than average looking and Lana and Neve always said ‘you are average looking Cassie’.

“Its in the contract. We kind of have to. We will lose 90 percent of the clients if we don’t. They are not that easy to replace, all the high end stores and one of the biggest online catalogues is on that list of clients.” He says as he stands up and gets another drink for himself.

“You would be happy to marry for someone like me?” I whisper, not sure why I even said it. I’m not really thinking at all clearly.

“What do you mean someone like you?” he says as he sits back down elbows on his knees as he sips his drink

“Below average” I say as I get up and stand and look out his window. Nice back garden, I think to myself.

“You are not below average Cassie, far from it.” He chuckles to himself. I stand and stare for a moment longer. Can I really do this? marry the guy I have had a crush on in the past, the guy who has a different girl in his bed almost every night or so he tells us at the office. Hell, what has my grandfather done to me?  It is all in the contract. So, he will be my husband by contract, how will that even work?