Page 24 of Semblance

“Look, I selected you as my woman in front of the entire Midnight Society,” he said, “So it’s expected that we’re seen together at least a few times.”

“You want to go on pretend dates?”

“Yeah,” he said. “Exactly.”

“Why should I do this for you?”

“Because I can give you everything you want--a career for starters.”

Tempting. But I was still skeptical. “And then what? We get engaged and at the last second I call off the wedding because I got cold feet?” I asked.

“No,” he replied. “After the second date I’ll tell everyone that I made a mistake in choosing you and I’d rather have you as a close friend.”

“Why am I the one who gets dumped? How come I can’t dump you?”

“It’ll look bad on my family name,” he said.

“What about me? It’ll look bad on me too,” I said. “I have to think about my illustrious career too you know.”

“People will sympathize with a heart broken woman,” he said. “Use that to your advantage.”

“Ugh. You’re such a dick.”

“A flaccid one according to you,” he smiled. “Apparently I’m hanging around low and lazy.”

I couldn’t help but snicker also, but I scrunched up my face quickly after, showing him that I was displeased at the prospect of being dumped by a guy I wasn’t interested in, despite his hotness.

“Two public dates,” Shadow said. “We’ll put on a show and when it’s all over, I’ll give you everything you need to kick-start your music career. And then I can have my life back to normal.”

“What’s normal?”

“You’re very inquisitive.”

“All part of my beautiful personality,” I said.

“It’s annoying.”

I shot him a dirty look.

“So do we have an agreement?” Shadow asked.

“How do I know that after two dates, you won’t become infatuated with me and then force me to marry you?”

“I’ll draft up a contract, if that will make you feel any better.”

I eyed him suspiciously.

“A contract?”

“Yes, those pieces of paper with written agreements on them that we both have to sign afterwards.”

“I know what a contract is,” I said. “It just seems so…business-like.”

“I do run a business empire in my spare time,” Shadow said. “A contract will protect both of us.”

After giving it some thought, I finally agreed. “Draft it up,” I said.

We headed back into the estate in silence, which was good. It gave me time to process all the strange events that had occurred overnight.

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