Page 24 of Dr. Billionaire's Fake Marriage

****

"How was your date with Dorothy?" Mother asks before I can sit at the dinner table. She looks at me, wondering why I am silent for a long time.

I look around; Henry and Amelia are seated next to each other, and there is one last empty seat beside Amelia. It was the seat Camile always sat at whenever Mother invited her to dinner.

I wonder why Mother didn't invite her today. Is Mother slowly returning to her senses now knowing that family dinner is strictly for families?

“How was your date with Dorothy?” Mother asks again. Now, everyone at the table looks at me.

"It was awful," I say, and Henry snorts. Mother doesn't look surprised; she digs into the steak on her plate.

Henry says he wants to hear everything that had happened on the date. Amelia looks interested too. I sigh, "She brought her dog, who she has named Dorothy, and she wears a matching hair band like the dog."

I hold my head in my hands. “No one should go through the torture I went through today.”

“Time is not on your side,” Mother reminds me. “If you can’t choose for yourself, you have to go with Emilie.”

Her words feel like a dagger is being driven into my heart. I stand at the dinner table.

I can't figure out where I am heading, but I hope Camile also has a bad day, and she needs company.

I call Camile. I don't wait for too long before her voice sounds across the line. "I was wondering if we could have the pizza date tonight. I can use some company."

Camile doesn’t protest, and I can only guess she is also having a share of a bad day. She comes to the hospital a few minutes later.

She wears a white and blue flower print blouse over a pencil skirt. She has her hair up like she does whenever she is at work, but she has light makeup on her face.

"You had a bad day?" she asks as she opens the door to my office.

I look up at her. "Today was the worst."

She smiles, bringing out a bottle of wine from her bag. She hands it to me. "I know you are used to better wine. It is all I can afford."

I shake my head and mutter, "You don't know what I am used to." She motions for me to sit across from me, but I don’t. "This is not a consultation section, is it?"

I lead her to the couch in a corner of my office, where I attend to my not-so-formal visitors. I have the pizza on the table across from us, and I open it for her to have a slice. She takes it.

"So, do you want to tell me how bad your day was?" Camile asks while she has a bite in her mouth. I rub my eyes, and she can tell that I have had better days. "Was it that bad?" she giggles.

I explain, "My date brought her soul-sister dog to the date." She doesn't laugh yet, but I can see the smile forming on her lips.

"It was awful. She wore a matching hairband as her dog and demanded that the waiter give the dog the same meal she had ordered."

Camile bursts into loud laughter. I shake my head as she guffaws.

I watch her enjoy the ridiculousness of the whole date. "I have another date tomorrow, and I know it will be worse. I brought you here to ensure I am still sane before tomorrow.

I see the surprise on Camile's face as I tell her that she is the only person not driving me crazy. I wonder if she takes it as an offense or a compliment.

She pours herself a glass of wine and asks if I must go through whatever my mother wants. I know she knows all about Mother's plans to arrange my marriage because she must have gossiped with Amelia and been at dinner on one of the days when Mother mentioned my matchmaking marriage.

“Yes,” I say. “I have to go through with it. It has been the family’s tradition for several generations.”

I try to take the attention off of myself. “How was your day?”

Camile raises her head from the pizza. She says nothing for a few seconds. "Come on, I just told you about my awful date; the least you can do is share yours too. No judgment."

"Mother obsesses over my father, who walked out on us when I was little. To me, he is dead, but she thinks he is coming back someday." She pauses and goes on, "It makes me go crazy, you know. I just want to be where no one reminds me of the douchebag."

---