Page 4 of Fake Marriage with the Billionaire

“No problem,” he responded. “How are you feeling?”

She paused. She knew the correct answer was something along the lines of great or fantastic, but all she was feeling at the moment was anger. This was supposed to be her celebration and she couldn’t shake the incident with Stoney’s friend.

“Fabulous,” she said with a forced smile. Stoney raised his eyebrows.

“Convincing,” he said. “I’d hate to see you when you win the lottery.”

She sighed, stirring her drink. “I think these things are watered down. I’m supposed to be way more drunk than I am now.”

“You’re just not feeling it yet,” he said, taking a sip from his glass of whiskey and slurring his words slightly.

She watched him sorely. “I should have ordered a whiskey.”

He chuckled. “Oh, come on, Sell. What’s with you? I thought that you were glad to be finally away from that creep.”

She brought her drink to her lips and just before she took a sip, she said, “It doesn’t matter.”

“It does if you’re bringing the room down,” he said. “Come on, what’s eating you?”

She shook her head. “It’s stupid,” Stella said. “Hardly worth mentioning.”

He nodded. “Okay. I’m going to get another drink.”

“Stoney, you just got a drink,” she said with a laugh. “Let’s finish these first, huh?”

“What do you care? You aren’t paying tonight.”

She felt a cold kind of fear come over. The same fear that came over her in the courtroom once the gavel went down. She’d spent thousands of dollars trying to get divorced from Curtis. Emptied her savings and 401k. Not to mention the domestic terrorism that Curtis performed on her in the weeks leading up to her court date. She’d been through three jobs already.

Her thoughts must have telegraphed to her face because Stoney suddenly said, “Jeez, that was insensitive of me. Sorry about that.”

“It’s okay. I mean…I’ll find another job. That’s what this time is about, right? Rebuilding. Once I get another job, it’ll all start falling into place.”

Stoney sighed, drinking from his whiskey glass. “Assuming Curtis hasn’t trashed your name all over town yet.”

She gave him an annoyed look and he cringed. “Sorry…again.”

“You know, this is turning into a wake,” she said. “This is supposed to be a celebration. Goddammit, why did I have to lose everything just to get rid of that sonofabitch?”

Stoney was looking down at his glass, swirling the ice cubes around in the amber liquid. “Maybe you can find some rich old bastard to marry,” he said. “Like Rich’s stepmom did.”

She rolled her eyes. “Rich, your asshole friend?”

“Hey, he’s not an asshole. He’s just been through a lot,” said Stoney. “He’s a great guy when you get to know him.”

“I’m sure Charles Manson was a great guy if you got to know him, too.”

Stoney snorted a laugh. “He’s not that bad. You just had a bad first impression. Hey…” His face lit up, a slow smile spreading. “You know something. Now that I’m thinking about him, I think it would be in your interests to get to know him better.”

Stella listened while Stoney went into his friend Rich’s situation. As he told her about his father’s will and the stipulations involved, Stella immediately recoiled.

“Wait, wait, stop.” She was starting to slur her words and no wonder. Her martini glass was almost empty. “What are you saying? You want me to be, like, a Sugar Baby or something?”

“Well, no, not exactly,” said Stoney. “Look, Rich is a real pragmatic kind of guy, you know? He’s all about business and practicality. Money’s like, his main focus most of the time. I’m thinking that if you present the option to play his fiancée to fool the lawyers, like for a price, of course.”

“Why would I ever do that?” she said. “Don’t I have to like him to consider being married to him?”

“No,” he laughed. “That’s the beauty of it. You don’t have to like him or be his friend. You don’t even have to really marry him. Just pretend to be engaged…for a fee. You two enter a contract where he pays you to pretend to be his fiancée until he can work his shit out with his father’s will. He gets to keep control of his company and you get money to pay your rent. It’s a win/win situation.”

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