JACKSON

My mother decided to stop by again and made sure I have woken up, took a shower and got ready for the meeting.

"I thought you said just relax? But what with all this visit?"

"Well yeah, relax at the meeting. But not being late for the meeting," my mother replied back.

She looked at my wardrobe closet in despair. I had too many clothes. She started to take a look. Not a suit, too formal for a first meeting. But not my usual T-shirt, beanie, and jeans for a first meeting. Maybe a casual shirt and jeans would be okay. How come she forgot to ask Grandpa Liu what she'll be wearing?

"Oh, come on, maaa... I can dress up myself. Now just wait in the living room," I pushed her out of my room. I decided to just wear what my mother has taken out from my closet. But maybe not this jeans. Another darker one, the one that's not ripped like this. Dress shoes or sneakers? Sneakers. I had to wear something to cover up. But with a shirt it would be weird to wear beanie. Hats? Or just sunglasses? I decided to just use sunglasses. I might mess my hair if I wore any hat or beanie. I believed the meeting would be in private room, so I might not need to cover up as much.

"Did you make the reservation, ma?" I shouted from my changing room.

"Your dad did. At the XX Restaurant. He has booked the private room," she answered in loud voice as well.

"Should I bring my manager with me or just the bodyguard?" I asked again.

"Just let your manager rest for a bit. He could wait here. Just bring the bodyguard with you."

"Are you waiting here or what?"

"No, I'll ride with you and your driver can drive me home after dropping you off at the restaurant. Are you ready? Let's go," my mom stood up and started to walk. The appointment was at 9 AM so we should left now if I didn't want to be late.

"Oh, I just asked your dad to send you the girl's picture. She might not look the same as it's been years since the picture was taken, but at least you'll get the idea," she told me while we were in the car. I checked my phone and saw my father's text. I'd open it later because I saw my mother extended her neck to peek at my phone. So my mother didn't know how she looked like either, I thought. This might be an advantage.

ELLIE

[Meeting at 9. Don't forget.] Grandpa Liu texted me to remind me about the appointment. I was just finished taking shower and started to dry my hair when I received the text. I decided to dress casually. Jeans would be okay, I decided. But maybe heels, not sneaker to spice things up. I put on light makeup and walked out my apartment. I should leave now if I didn't want to be late.

Honestly I didn't know the person I was going to meet at all. Grandpa Liu said he was famous. I should've find out about him last night, but I was too busy preparing for my scientific paper, so I forgot about it. Well, maybe he had my picture. Oh wait, whose name I have to mention at the restaurant? Oh right, Wang. His name is Wang. I arrived just in time and told the receptionist that I was there for Mr. Wang and the receptionist led me the way to a private room. Oh wow, maybe he was really that famous that we had to meet in private. I just waited for a few minutes when the door was opened again.

A slim man with sunglasses walked inside the room. He was quite tall, but not super tall. Just regular men height. He colored his hair to light brown. He didn't take off his sunglasses even after he sat down across me at the table. And I saw a glimpse of a bodyguard in front of the door before the door closed. Wow, so this how a famous people did their meeting.

"Hi, I'm Jackson." he started to reach out his hand.

I shook his hand," I'm Ellie."

"Have you ordered anything yet?"

"No. I just came in as well."

He asked the waiter to bring us a menu book and started to choose the food. I let him choose the food and then he told them to give us 15 minutes before bringing the food in. How authoritive, I took notes.

He took off his sunglasses after the waiter has left. I was in awe, he was really handsome when I finally could see his face.

"So, I heard you're Grandpa Liu's granddaughter."

"Adoptive. I was adopted."

"Yeah, adopted. But he must have see you as his own, that he went all through the trouble to remind my father about his promise with my grandfather years ago."

"Yes. Grandpa Liu raised me himself, so I guess that's why he thought of me as his own."

"Really? Oh.. I didn't know that," he seemed surprised. 

"Well, you grandfather died 7 years ago, so your family was out of touch with Grandpa for awhile. He didn't even know that your family moved here. Your dad wasn't close to Grandpa, so it's natural that he didn't know much about me."

"So..." he let his sentence hanging, giving me the chance to cut him.

"Let's cut the crap, shall we?" I was not fond of sweet-talking, so I thought it'd be better for both of us to just get into the matter.

"Oh, okay," he seemed surprised again.

"You know that we're here because your grandpa made a promise with my grandpa, right? And even though they said it was just a meeting, for us to know each other, you knew that this is a marriage arrangement, didn't you?" I saw him just nodding his head without saying anything.

"So, you're against this as well right?" he started to open up his mouth.

"No. It'd be a waste to decline it. You've never been in this situation, haven't you?" he just nodded again.

"Well, I've seen my adoptive cousin going through her marriage arrangement. She refused it at first, but they kept pushing her, told her to meet him again and again, until she gave up and married him at the end, so no, it'd be tiresome and time consuming to say no. I don't have the energy and time to spend for this matter," I said firmly.

JACKSON

Wait, what? I thought she would be on the same page with me, refusing the idea of being in a marriage arrangement, but she was into it? Was I being fooled? Was my family being fooled? Was this girl a gold digger? So many questions popped up in my head when I heard her comment.

"Wait, what?" I said in disbelief.

"I'm saying we should just pretend to give up. Get married, and then get divorced after a few years," she said with flat face.

"What?" my voice raised even higher as I couldn't believe what I just heard.

"If you don't have any problem with being a divorcee, then we should just get married and then get divorced after a few years. But since you're a celebrity, then we should make a contract to make everything clear," she said with a flat expression on her face, making me hard to guess whether she was being serious or not.

"Okay, I'm listening."

"In our contract, we should stated that we should get married for about 3-4 years before getting divorced. Let's say the reason was I couldn't give you any offsprings. We're not allowed to see other people while in contract because our family would be suspicious then. I'd bet you'd be busy with your work, and I'll busy with mine too, so 3-4 years would pass without us realizing it. We should live in the same house, but in a different room. But let's pretend we only have one bedroom when the family visit us, so they don't suspect anything. But I'll modify the study room or maybe just use a sofa bed to sleep there." I just listened so she kept on going.

"Since you're pretty famous, it'd be a good reason to keep the marriage a secret, so when we finally got divorced, it's up to you whether to tell the public about our marriage or not. For money, your money and income would be yours, and mine would be mine. Your belongings before we got married will still be yours when we get divorced, my belongings will still be mine as well. We might have to open a joint account, for the house utilities, like water and electricity, and maybe a housekeeper to keep the house clean, but we have to discuss about the amount later. For birthdays and special occasion, we might have to buy your family or my family some gifts, so let's use the joint account for that purpose as well. As for the wedding gift, let's say we don't want a wedding party since we try to keep it a secret, so just a marriage registration and maybe a family gathering? Any gifts received during the wedding occasion will go into the joint account. If any jewelries received, I'll give back to you if it's from your family and I'll take what my family gave me. Any objections? Or maybe more ideas?" She finished her speech.

I took a deep breath before saying anything. But my 15 minutes warning was up. The waiter knocked the door and brought the food in. We started to eat. I kept thinking about her ideas while eating. I knew she's right. It would be a long fight if we said no. After all, these days people were married and divorced easily. That was not a bad idea, I started to think that way. After 3-4 years, I would be old enough to have a family, one that I wanted to have myself, not because of a marriage arrangement.

"Give me some time to think about your proposal. But it's an interesting proposal. Have you been to a lot of marriage arrangement that you came up with such proposal?" I asked.

"No. This is my second one. But I've observed my family, my cousin, to be exact, and some of my colleagues. All failed to dodge the marriage arrangement, even after refusing it for a year. So, I've concluded that it'd be the same with us. Especially with my grandpa saying your grandpa would out of his grave chasing him to keep his promise. It'd be a lost cause to fight. Your grandpa has died already, who could fight against a dead man? Plus I don't want to disappoint Grandpa Liu. He has raised me all this time so I wanted to repay him. It would hurt him if I reject this arrangement."

I nodded. She made a good point. "What about the other guy that you've met?"

"Well, he declined my proposal because he really wanted to get married, so he politely told his family that he didn't like my job. Saying he wanted a housewife, so he had to decline the arrangement. My grandpa obviously felt insulted by his reason so he agreed when the other party bailed out."

"Wait, what's your job again?" I suddenly asked, did she tell me already?

"I'm a surgeon. It's perfect right? I heard that you're a celebrity, an idol? I bet you have to work weird hours, out of town events, and late night recordings? I might have emergency surgeries, long work hours as well, so we won't be seeing each other much."

I looked at her carefully this time. She had brown hair, I was wondering whether it was natural or dyed. She cut her hair just over the shoulder and didn't do anything to her hair. Pretty plain. Maybe because she was busy being a doctor. But she was quite pretty. Her skin was glowing even though she mentioned her long work hours. Her body. Oh well, she was already sat down when I came into the room, so I haven't seen her body just yet. But from her torso up, she looked slim, but fit. Not super skinny. If only her skin was tan and not pale porcelain, she would be my type, I thought silently.

"So, what are you suggesting we do next?" I was curious. Did she plan everything already?

"If you decided to be in the same boat, then we should find an attorney to legalize our contract. One that would keep his mouth shut and not tell anything to our family about our contract. We should discuss the details so we don't miss anything in our contract."

I had someone in my mind. My current attorney was quite discreet, but he should sign another NDA, just to be save. I took out my phone and checked my schedule.

"Is next week okay? Another Saturday? I should pick you up so my mother won't be suspicious. Then we could head to the attorney together." I saw her checked her phone as well.

"Next week is okay. Do you know my place?"

"No. Do you know my phone number?"

"No." We exchanged each other's number and she texted me her address before leaving. I was still sitting in the room, thinking. Wow. She felt like a storm. She came out strong. She knew what to do and how to do it. I never met any woman like her before. I was surprised our meeting went well and ended in a surprising note.