Page 14 of My Fake Fiancé

“Oh, you spent a long time with her today.” My mom sounds like she is smiling. “How is she doing?”

“She’s well, mom. Are you calling about something in particular?” I finally pull out of the parking lot and set my phone in a cup holder messing with the buttons on my steering wheel to get the call through my car speakers.

“Oh right, well I was thinking if we wanted to do something more intimate for the engagement party, your dad and I could host the party at our lake house.” My mom’s voice comes over loud on the car speakers and I turn them down a bit. “You know I love the golf club but maybe we can save that for the wedding reception or even the venue of the ceremony.” She takes a breath and I chuckle.

“Wow, you’ve really been thinking about this a lot, haven’t you?” I keep my eyes on the road and switch lanes finding my exit. “Uhm, yeah, I’ll let Juliana know. Did you have a date in mind for the party?”

“I was hoping to have it, not this coming Saturday but the following. So that gives us about two weeks to prepare for everything. Would that work for you and Juliana?”

“I will have to check with her but I think that should be okay. Far enough out that I shouldn’t have anything scheduled. I do have to be in court on Monday morning but it isn’t such a challenging case. I’ll only need Sunday to look over everything one final time.” I stop at a stoplight a couple of lights away from my apartment, and check the time. It’s getting late, I should stop for dinner or groceries and actually make myself something for dinner.

“Okay! Great! I will start planning and confirm the time with you later! Please let me know if something comes up and the day doesn’t work for either of you.” Mom sounds excited and eager to get off the phone to begin planning.

“Alright, will do. Love you, Mom.”

“Love you lots Kurt! Send Juliana my love as well.” We say a final goodbye and then hang up.

The parking garage is mostly full when I reach my apartment and I pull into my spot. Walking into the building and to my apartment I pull my phone out again and send Juliana a text, updating her on my mother’s plans for an engagement party. She doesn’t respond right away so I figure she is busy but I follow up with a text asking when she wants to meet up again.

Once I get settled in my apartment, I find some food in my fridge and decide I can make a meal for myself. It doesn’t take me long to whip something up. I’ve just sat down at the table to eat when I hear keys in the door. I look up right as Ashley enters the apartment.

“Uhm, hello?” I stand up and meet her in the entryway. She shuts the door behind her and tosses her keys on the counter. Well they aren’t her keys, just my spare set of keys. I really should have asked for them back, when we first broke up.

“Hey cutie,” Ashley smiles at me, her eyes a little glossy. She staggers a bit as she walks over to me. I grip her arms to steady her and she seems to enjoy the physical touch so I release her as soon as she’s steady.

“What are you doing here, Ashley?” I turn away from her and towards the counter. Messing with her keyring, I slip off my spare set and pocket them before she notices anything.

“You’ve never been opposed to me showing up at your apartment.” Ashley points out and while that is generally true, I seem to remember telling her she couldn’t do it anymore.

“Ashley, I told you, we aren’t together anymore. This isn’t like our breakups before. This one is final.” I turn to speak to her face to face. As I am speaking, I realize that I’m not just saying this because I’m going along with the fake fiancé idea but I am saying this because I am finally done with Ashley and our on-again/off again, love/hate relationship.

Ashley is silent as she takes in my facial expression and body language. She seems to get it and her demeanor shifts. “But..” she stammers, then closes her mouth.

“Here, let me walk you down and get an Uber for you.” I hand her back her keychain and gently take her elbow, turning her back to the door and leading her out of my apartment.

“I don’t think this will be the end,” Ashley states and works her arm away from my guiding hand and then she links her arm through mine. I let her stay that way as we ride the elevator down to the lobby. “I’m sure we’ll be back together in no time. Even if you do like that little girl I caught in your apartment, there is no way you can stay away from me. She’ll probably break your heart anyway.”

Ashley’s words are cruel and hopefully untrue. I can tell she’s been drinking so I try to ignore her words for the most part. Ashley has always been a jealous or competitive person. I don’t think she even likes me that much but once she has her hooks in someone, she thinks they are hers forever. Or at least until she gets tired of them.

“Okay, Ashley. Stay safe.” I stay by her side until a car pulls up in front of us. I check to make sure they’re here to pick her up then confirm the address before helping her get in the car and shutting the door before she can say anything else.

With a sigh, I go back to my apartment to finish my now cold meal. I look up at the microwave to check the time and see that it isn’t very late but I am already exhausted. Eating the last bite of my dinner, I bring my plate to the sink. Once the kitchen is cleaned, I make my way to my office and grab a couple of folders then come back out to the living room and spread my things on the coffee table. I sit on the edge of the couch and then slide down onto the floor, spreading my legs out in front of me. I pull the coffee table over my legs to bring my work closer to me.

My phone buzzes a couple of times on the table and falls off into my lap. I pick it up and see that Juliana has responded to my texts. I wonder if I should tell her about Ashley stopping by tonight. I decided against it and then read her texts.

Juliana : Yikes. I guess that’s fine. I am free then, I’ll mark it in my calendar now.

Juliana: Want to meet up Wednesday? I get off work at 5. We can go to another coffee shop if you want.

I check my calendar for work to see if I have anything that might run long on Wednesday. Looks like I have a meeting from 2-4, it might run long so to play it safe I should see if she can meet around 7.

Kurt: I can make it Wednesday but would 7 work for you? We can grab dinner.

I text her back then set my phone aside to get to work. I just have some paperwork to finish up but I’d rather get it done now so I can shift my focus to other open cases. A few minutes later my phone buzzes again and I lift it to see Juliana’s response.

Juliana: 7 and dinner sounds good. Nothing too fancy tho, please :)

I chuckle out loud and then try to go back to focusing on my paperwork. Only a half hour has passed before I get distracted and start thinking about ideas for dinner on Wednesday.

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