^~Keira Knightley~^

▫CHAPTER 10▫
F I A N C É E

Evelyn

"Excuse me?"

His poised eyes looked at me with all seriousness, "I know you were thinking the same. Don't even bother lying."

My own bewildered eyes stared at him for a whole minute, scanning his face multiple times for any signs of humor, and when I couldn't find any, I blinked twice and burst out laughing again.

He watched unblinking without a hint of smile and my laughter turned to crazy giggling, "You're-you're re-really funny, Gallagher!"

He fisted his hands and I could see his jaw twitching as he glowered at me, "I'm serious."

I nodded, hovering my hands above my lips in a feeble attempt to stop laughing, but with much difficulty manged to splutter out a few words in between the cackles, "Yeah, me too."

I looked at him after I'd calmed down,"Yeah, you're right, I did think about it, but it was only for a second before i remembered

"Look think about it," he exclaimed loudly and abruptly stood up from his seat, this time successfully making my laughter fade away and turn to him, "You're looking for a spouse. I'm looking for a spouse. we both know about this, so what if we get married? make everyone happy and after a few months, get divorced!"

I raised an eyebrow in understanding, I had to admit it was a good idea.

I turned to him to see him already looking at me eagerly, "Not bad, except I don't want to marry you!"

He sighed, disgruntled, "You think I want to marry you? I still don't understand what your problem is with me? I'm actually as you British would say a 'decent' guy."

Time to be honest, I folded my arms across my chest and leaned forwards,"Yeah and a decent guy would never say that. I'll tell you who you are. You're a faker. I've known enough people to see who is putting up an act, and you Gallagher, are by far one of the best."

He smiled but I could see it wavering, his illusion faltering in the slightest manner, unknown to him but not to me.

"I don't know what you're talking about." it was monotonous.

I nodded, having already been expecting the answer.

He regarded me aggravatedly for a few minutes and then with a new found energy triggered by my words walked closer to the sofa I was sitting on, his tone was bitter and his words rather harsh, "What about me? I'll be marrying you and between the two of us, I think I'm the one taking the bigger risk, you're crazy oh, yeah, but you're a psychopath compared to other normal women, you also come with extra features such as violence, bad manners, an unnecessarily huge mouth and at least one mental disorder."

The pent up emotions bubbled and rose, my fits shook and lips wobbled to subdue them but they finally exploded, in unrestrained anger I shot up from the seat, "If that's the case then why the hell are you wasting my time? Just go and marry a normal woman!"

With a last condescending glare of disgust, and hardly resisting the urge to spit on him, I maneuverd around him and began walking to the exit.

I had almost reached the elevator when I was held back by a force, warmth flooded across my cold hands when I realized he had grabbed my palm lightly and I felt the area on my skin that was in contact with the coarseness of his fingers tingle, static current? Or maybe it was my inbuilt resistance to assholes.

"I'm sorry." there was genuine regret in his voice that made me turn around.

I met his glazed eyes with my own cold ones, "Sorry isn't going to bring back my wasted time, you can still meet my mum, it's not like she'd let me keep you away from her anyway, but please just forget about me and the fact that we ever met, we can both just go back to our own lives. Good luck finding a wife!"

I flashed a fake smile and attempted to pull my hand out of his grasp but it wouldn't budge, my smile faded into a scowl as his fingers tightened around my hand.

"Let go, you bastard!" I seethed.

He didn't, instead he walked closer to me.

"You're hurting me!" I lied, his hold was strong but not enough to cause pain. It seemed from his unmoving eyes he knew this too.

A gasp broke out of me and my lungs stopped working altogether when all of a sudden he pulled me towards himself, with my body pressed against his and his hands placed on the small of my back to hold me in place. His short curls fell on his forehead and his warm breath fanned my face. I hated him still, but I couldn't hate those eyes no matter what. God damn, those eyes.

My own eyes widened more at the weird sensation on my skin than at him, when I finally found my mind again I yelled, "What the fuck?"

He didn't stir an inch, his jaw clamped shut, and he looked into my eyes as if he was looking into my soul, "You're real."

"What?" I asked, undeniably flustered at the intensity of his gaze.

"You don't pretend like the rest of us, that makes you much different from other women."

I don't know if everything he said was a compliment but I did know it made my heart skip a beat, he was the first person to give a thought to my character and the reason behind it but I chose to ignore all of that, because like I said, I didn't do emotions. Also, he could be lying, "But I won't do this with you. I abhor you Gallagher, not hate or dislike. You disgust me and I would much rather choose a sixty year old Columbian serial killer over you."

His eyes flashed briefly with what looked like hurt, but of course, he masked it within seconds, "So you're into old dudes?"

"God! Just let me go!"

He didn't release his clutch and instead raised out joint hands between our chests, "Don't worry darling, I don't like you much either. Which is why this is perfect, we won't ever have to worry about hurting each other."

I cocked a brow, "What? I won't be able to hurt you? I bet I could break your jaw in two seconds."

He didn't laugh, but let an air of melancholy surround him and I could see the sadness in his eyes, "But you wouldn't be able to break my heart."

Oh God . Emotions. Since I didn't have my own, I was terrified of any display of others emotions and tended to say the exact opposite of what they needed to hear.

"Well yeah the heart is a muscle so hypothetically speaking it would be impossible to break it, I could tear it, or slice it, or-"

"You see what I'm talking about?" he laughed softly and I was grateful there was no sign of sadness anymore, "This is the only way it would work. And we won't have to worry about finding anyone else for a while,
It would save time, energy and make my family and your mum happy, it's perfect!"

It was convincing but I was still extremely uncomfortable with the whole idea. So I looked away.

He sighed, looking burned out but still tried, "How about we make a deal and sign a bunch of contracts and all? We won't have to do all those things couples do, we won't even have to talk, we'll just get married and then get divorced! It sounds easy, come on?"

"How do you think will anyone believe that all this is genuine? especially mum, she knows that I hate you!"

He didn't look discouraged by any means, "We can hate each other when we're alone, but we'll do our best damned acting in front of others."

I shook my head and tried to get up from the couch, "Look I'm sorry, but this is ridiculous, it won't work, it will be too hard to convince people, and I'm not just talking about people we know, you're famous! We'll have the whole nation or hell-world, watching us! And it will be embarrassing for both of us if someone found out!"

I thought in distraction he'd let go of my hand, he didn't, he was too busy staring at me with wild eyes, "What if they won't? What if we're cautious."

"I-I-Ill need some time-to think." I manged to say but this lightened up his eyes considerably.

"Okay." he nodded slowly.

"Um...can you?" I gestured with my eyes at his hands which were still holding me.

He cleared his throat awkwardly but nonetheless dropped his hands to his side and drifted away.

I simply nodded a goodbye at him and without awaiting a response went back to the elevator. He didn't say a word as he stuffed his hands inside his pocket and watched me enter inside and press the button with the number one on it. To avoid his eyes I looked at my shoes and as soon as the doors clanged shut, I slumped against the surface behind me.

I had just sat inside the car when my cellphone buzzed, I shut the door and took the device out.

It was a text from the hospital, reminding me to collect mums prescription from its pharmacy.

Almost instantly mums words swam through my mind slowly and mockingly.

I have only four months left.

If I had one last wish would you grant it?

I just want to see you walk down the aisle once.

I have four months left.

Fuck it. Even I knew it was impossible to find a man in less than four months and convince him to marry me. It wouldn't be impossible if it was any other woman, but hey, I was me.

Before I knew it I was bursting through the gates without the guards stopping me this time, apparently Adrian had granted me permission for this, and barreled towards the elevator just in time.

I ignored the looks directed my way as I panted loudly and slammed the button to his floor. I was still breathing heavily from my earlier sprint when the elevator dinged to announce my arrival.
Trying to control the heaving I held my hand to my chest and walked to where I knew I'd find him.

And I did find him.

Sitting on the same sofa where I'd been on not minutes ago with a blonde woman straddling him.

My breathing must have indicated my presence because two pairs of eyes snapped to me. One filled with confusion and the other filled with anger.

The woman inclined her head and examined me from head to toe, although it might have been painful as she was sitting in the opposite direction. We had a stiff staring contest, while Adrian just glanced between the two of us, after which she got up from Adrian's lap, rather dramatically I may add, and stood up to face me. I knew her face from one of those fashion magazines Liz was obsessed with. Some model who's name I didn't remember..I wasn't sure if she was wearing a black dress or swimwear, because it barely covered her bony thighs. I don't even want to get started on the way her cleavage was oh so modestly covered-by practically nothing.
Long blonde hair fell down her shoulders as a scowl made way to her tanned face.

"Who the hell are you?" she asked in a nasally voice.

She was most probably the Infamous ex or...another bimbo from Gallaghers black book. I didn't really but his celebacy bullshit, anyway.

I glared at Adrian who just shrugged at me. Wrong move. I turned the glare to the blonde and my lips twisted into a devious smirk, "Hi, nice to meet you, I'm Adrian's fiancée."