Page 35 of Surprise! I'm Engaged To My Boss
My curiosity about Michael Turner was solely and exclusively due to our agreement. And it hadn't even been that deep. I had simply focused on finding out and memorizing the information that was truly relevant about him, for dinner with our families. That was it.
“Hey, Cami...” Evy called me, still staring at her cell phone screen. “Does Michael Turner like pizza?”
“As long as it’s not pepperoni,” my answer came out automatically.
She looked away from her phone to look at me, biting her lips in a futile attempt to contain a laugh.
I grabbed a pillow and threw it at her, even though I wanted to hit myself.
Perhaps my curiosity about Michael Turner was a little, just a little, beyond what was strictly necessary.
Chapter Sixteen
MICHAEL
Through the large mirror on the wall of my bedroom closet, I took one last look at my appearance.
I didn't look much different from my day-to-day self in this current CEO version of myself, wearing an elegant suit, the kind I didn't usually wear at home. But the occasion called for it, after all.
Even if it was all a big hoax.
“Who in their right mind wouldn’t marry me?” I asked. But I wasn’t necessarily alone.
Sitting on the floor next to me, my dog Apollo looked at me curiously through the reflection in the mirror.
“Don't worry, Apollo, it's just a joke. We're not going to get a new human. The woman who will be able to tame me is yet to be born.”
“Honey, I'm coming in,” my mother's voice invaded the room and I groaned.
“Our old human is enough, right? No more women in charge of our lives, big boy.”
My mother reached the closet door and stopped, looking at me curiously. She looked very elegant in a long dress and her best jewelry, but that was nothing new either.
Despite having retired from the cameras many years ago, Trinity Turner was still an icon of fame and beauty. She had made her debut in a Hollywood film as a girl, at the age of fifteen, and since then she has achieved great fame and fortune, even receiving an Oscar nomination.
Whenever asked why she stopped making films at such a young age – still in her early forties – she would say that she did it to dedicate herself to her marriage and three children. But I knew that what forced her to do it was the pressure exerted by my father, who had never really accepted his wife's career.
And I thought that was absolutely absurd.
After his death, I tried to encourage her to return, but she responded by saying that the routine on a film set was very tiring.
“You're early, mom,” I commented, since she didn't say anything.
“I'm here. So that we can both talk and you can tell me what this crazy story is about you getting engaged.”
I looked back in the mirror, as I adjusted my tie.
“Actually, we're already engaged. I already asked, and she already accepted, we’re just make it official with our families.”
“For the love of God, Michael, you're not going to tell me you got another girl pregnant?”
I almost laughed. Her doubt made perfect sense, because I've never been a guy who, at any point in my life, has shown myself willing to commit to serious relationships.
“No, Mom, I didn't get her pregnant. Your only granddaughter is still Alice, and very soon she will be here at home.”
“I already told you that Alice will be very welcome, but she can call me aunt. I think 'grandmother' is too harsh, I'm too young for that.” She’s sixty, although she looked like she was in herearly fifties. But she told everyone she was forty-five. “But where did this girl come from, anyway? I think you have a lot of explaining to do to me, since all this came out of nowhere. I was with you less than fifteen days ago and you didn't mention anything about being in a relationship.”
“It's just... we wanted to keep it a secret.” I already had the entire script ready and rehearsed. Written and directed by Ms. Janet herself. “She was afraid that people would think she was a gold digger.”
