Started With a Lie – Chapter Six

I am an idiot. A complete idiot.

            “You are such an idiot,” Candy says, reading my thoughts. She lounges on the bed, going through text messages from Kevin. I think they’re on the verge of being official. We’re in her hotel room right now. She shares it with a girl named Lisa—someone in our class.

            I’m sitting on the opposite side of the bed, trying to think of ideas to somehow avoid tonight. So far, I have nothing.

            The party will take off in less than four hours.

            “Thanks for the support, best friend,” I say sarcastically. “What do I do? Lee refuses to help and I already told Karen I’d introduce him to her tonight.” I groan, falling flat back on the bed.

            “And this is why you’re an idiot.”

            I close my eyes and try to come up with ideas. Anything. I jolt up. “Maybe I can just like pretend to be sick. Or maybe trip down the stairs and sprain my leg!”

            Candy looks up from her phone, sending me a look. “That’s ridiculous.”

            “I know,” I frown. “I can’t think of anything though.” I run both my hands through my hair, messing it up into a wild frizz. “There’s not that much I can do—time is running out, too.”

            “Just go to Lee. Ask him for a favor—just this once,” Candy suggests. “Just tell him this is the last time before you leave him alone completely. Maybe, he’ll listen. If not, use some blackmail or something.”

            She has a point. A low blow but I’m desperate. I’m trouble-prone. It’s a good idea too. I could leave him alone after tonight. Just tonight. I just want one night where I can be right and have the better life. I just want to beat Karen—just once, at least.

            “I’ll be right back,” I tell Candy before I head out of the hotel room. I don’t think she heard me though. I walk down the hallway and into the elevator to get to the highest floor. Lee lives on the top floor—such a snob. He just has to live on the top floor like he rules the world or something.

            The elevator dings open and Lee’s standing in front of me. Talk about awkward situations of all time.

            I wave. “Hi.” He gives me a glare and I blush. This is embarrassing. He rejected me and kind of told me off. What’re you supposed to do in situations like this?

            Lee walks in the elevator, giving me the cold shoulder. I frown. It stings even though everything is my fault. His rich smelling cologne burns my nostrils. So, he wants to play the rude treatment? We’ll see.

            “What? Did you not take a shower today? Why the overflow of cologne?” I say, my voice flat. I don’t know why I’m mad he’s ignoring me… but it hurts.

            “Excuse me?” His eyes flicker over to me. He scoffs as if I have the nerve to even be talking to him. “Me? What’s with your hair? Did you fall off a cliff and run into a toilet?”

            What’s he talking about? I check my reflection on the silver part of the elevator. My hair looks like a ball of knotted yellow yarn. I remember I messed it up earlier when I was frustrated.

            Blushing, I pat down my hair until it’s decent. “Shut up.”

            Lee smirks, knowing he won. Maybe, I should try a different approach. I suddenly straighten up—causing him to look over. He gives me a confused look. I walk closer to him and he strays away from me as possible. His back is on the wall now.

            “What are you doing, Miss Ivory?” his cool voice says. Of course, he’d stay extremely calm in a situation like this.

            I put on my most seductive tone. “Doing what, Lee?”

            Lee’s face is blank. He’s just staring at me, now. I can’t tell what he’s thinking. His face gives off nothing. Is he going to fall for it? Will he start laughing? I can tell he’s trying to hold his laughter.

            Suddenly, it’s me up against the wall. Lee’s breath is fanned across my face—smelling of peppermint. What kind of businessman eats peppermint? I stray my mind away from these nonsense thoughts and back to what’s happening.

            Lee leans in until his lips are at my ear. “You’ll have to do better than that, Miss Ivory.” I start turning red. That was too embarrassing. It didn’t even work. What was I thinking? He starts laughing. “You are too funny, Miss Ivory.”

            My blood boils.

            I’m about to make a smart-ass retort but the elevator opens and suddenly he backs off and walks out of the elevator suavely. I scramble after him. We’re in the large lobby. There are tons of people everywhere. Everyone is either seated at one of the expensive looking sofas or at the front desk checking in.

            It looks like his suite except everyone can access it. Lee starts walking off down a hallway. A scrawny looking guy in a suit comes up after us.

            “Mr. Richardson! Here you are,” he says, pushing his glasses up his small nose. “I have left the files about the park reconstruction on your desk.”

            “Thank you, Ian. You may leave until further notice,” Lee says without even bothering to look at Ian. Rude, I think. He suddenly goes down the hallway and into a room.

            It’s an office. His office.

            There’s a marble floor, white walls, a big desk, and sofas. He takes a seat at the desk and goes through a couple of papers—the files Ian was talking about.

            “Who was that?” I ask.

            “Ian,” he says, not listening. I realize Lee’s wearing glasses. Big-rimmed glasses around his eyes that sort of makes him look… cute. I scrunch up my face in disgust. What am I thinking of?

            “Yes, I know that, I heard you.” I take a seat in front of his desk. “But what does he do for you?”

            “He’s my secretary,” Lee says. He signs random papers with paragraphs of writing. He looks up at me. “Wait, why are you still here?” He’s so bipolar. One minute, he’s calling me ‘Miss Ivory’ and all that jazz, and the next he’s rude.

            “I need a favor.” I finally said it.

            “What kind of favor?” he asks, taking his glasses off. His cool demeanor is back. It makes me even more nervous. I have to tell him now. There’s no going back.

            “I need you to be my boyfriend—”

            “We already discussed this. Not happening,” he cut me off.

            “—for tonight only.”

            Now, he’s really confused. His eyebrows are arched and I stare straight into his eyes. I need to seem calm and collective. I breathe in and out. He’s waiting for my response.

            “What?” he finally says. “What do you mean tonight only?”

            “You know the party?” Recognition fills his eyes. “Yeah, I need you only for that event. I promise not to bother you after.”

            “No.”

            “There’s nothing to lose, though! Soon, I’ll be out of New York City and back to my town and we’ll never see each other again. My friends will believe you and I are together and you can go back to your hotel running business. It all works out.”

            He scratches his chin—a sign for him thinking seriously? “That doesn’t sound too bad,” he says.

            “See!” I beam. “Nothing to lose!”

            Lee folds his hands together. “I didn’t say I agreed.” I frown. “We still have to go over some things—rules. Things we are not allowed to do. Things that might end us both in trouble.”

            “Okay,” I nod. “Let’s write this down.” I randomly grab a notepad and pen from his desk, earning a glare from him, which I ignore. Together we start naming all the things we can’t do tonight, or we’ll both sue each other.

            In the end, our list concluded of the ten most things we couldn’t do: No kissing. Physical contact such as hand holding and small things are okay. No talking to any media. Ignore completely. No stretching the lie even further. No more of this relationship—only tonight. No telling anyone the truth about this, except for those who already know. No real physical contact between each other. No contacting each other after tonight. No being indebt to each other. No falling in love. No lying to each other. No falling in love.

            I am pretty happy about the rules. None of them were a problem to me. It was a win-win situation. I grin at that.

            “Sign it,” Lee says, pushing the paper to me.

            “Seriously?” I say, raising my eyebrows this time. “You want me to sign a piece of lined paper with rules as if it were a real contract?” I laugh.

            “Yes,” he says seriously. I stop. Offering a small smile, I take the pen and scribble Ivory Flores in the best handwriting I can muster. Then, he takes the pen and signs it too.

            “Wait, who’ll keep it?” I ask. “Don’t we both need a copy?”

            “I’m pretty sure I’ll remember these rules, Miss Ivory,” he says. “But you? I think you should keep this paper tucked in—just to remember every so often.” Lee smiles a devilish smile.

            I glare. “Of course, I’ll remember, Mr. Richardson.” I grab the paper and stuff it in my pocket. I stand from my seat. The clock on his desk reads 7:34. I’m late. “I’ll be late. See you at the party!”

            He just smirks as I rush off back to the suite.

I’m groomed and ready in two hours.

            My blonde hair is pulled into an elegant side bun with a few strings of hair falling out intentionally. My blue-green eyes are outlined with mascara and eyeliner. I look and feel older by looking so fancy.

            I put on some blush and lip-gloss before putting on some red heels to match my strapless red dress. It’s just right for the party—elegant and suave at the same time.

            After grabbing my purse, I head out to the living room of Lee’s suite. I’ll never get used to how beautiful and expensive his place is. I realize he’s not in the living room and frown.

            Where is he?

            I walk to his bedroom—across from my room—and push open the door. The next moment goes by in a blur: a scream, a six pack, a room filled with ties and suits everywhere, and the door slamming in my face within six seconds.

            I stare at the door for five straight minutes before processing what just happened. I just saw Lee Richardson in his boxers. If it weren’t for the fact that my face was red as a tomato, I would probably laugh in a situation like this. How do I face him now?

            Great! Another awkward moment with Lee, I think sarcastically. I scold myself for not knocking or this whole thing wouldn’t have happened.

            Before I can react, Lee opens the door in a tuxedo except his collar is unbuttoned and he has no tie on.

            “S-Sorry for, um, barging in,” I apologize, looking at my feet. Lee coughs uncomfortably before glancing at me. His jaw falls just for one mini-second before quickly remaining cool again.

            “I-I wanted to know if my tie should match with your dress,” Lee says, avoiding all eye contact. “I could wear a red tie or I could just go with the casual black or something.”

            “Yeah, that’s fine. You should wear the red,” I say. He nods in silence. I can almost feel the awkward tension in the air. “I-I’ll go wait in the living room. Don’t be too long.”

            “Okay,” Lee says before I go to the living room. I text Candy: Ready 4 the party? R u bringing Kevin? I add a semi-colon and parenthesis at the end for an attempt of a wink. I end up watching some television before Lee emerges from his room.

            He looks… hot.

            So hot that my mouth is still hanging open even after he grabs his suite keys and tells me to get going. He’s smirking at me—as if he knew I was going to be drooling over him. What an arrogant guy.

            We ride the elevator in silence. The party is in the ballroom of the hotel. The hotel is bigger than it seems. I had to find out the hard way when I had tried to find my way back to the suite earlier after talking to Lee about the rules for tonight. Speaking of that, I have the paper tucked into my purse.

            Lee and I walk through the lobby, earning various stares from people—even some classmates from my school. Seeing them, I sneak my hand into Lee’s. He looks at me with a weird face before following my gaze to the classmates in the lobby. He nods, understanding, before we walk to the ballroom.

            When we walk into the party, soft violins are playing in the background and champagne classes are being clinked. But all of it stops when we walk in. It’s as if there’s a stage-light pointing straight at us.

            People gasp and whisper as we walk in. I spot Karen, Peter, and Candy in the crowd. They’re all separated in the crowd but their eyes are on me—like everyone else. I didn’t think tonight would have this much of an impact.

            I find Candy as Lee finds some of his friends and the stares settle down. “That was so embarrassing,” I say to her. “Everyone was staring at me like I was some exhibit.”

            “Well, you are Lee Richardson’s girlfriend for the night. How can that not be big news?” Candy says, smiling. She’s in a gold cocktail dress that looks beautiful.

            We talk about some small things and she introduces me to Kevin and we eat dinner together. Everything’s fine. Nobody’s asked me anything. I’ve stayed with Candy and Kevin throughout the entire thing—dodging everyone else.

            But it doesn’t last long.

            A reporter comes up to me when I go get some punch alone. I feel stupid for going alone. I should have brought someone.

            “Is it true you’re Lee Richardson’s lover?” the reporter asks, setting his camera up for a picture. Why was he even invited?

            “Er, I have to go, now,” I say, about to walk to walk off when he suddenly grabs my hand. “Excuse me.” He doesn’t let go. “This is physical assault. Please, let go.”

            “I just want to know. Is it true?”

            “Let me go, you creep!” I shout. People look over—eyes landing on me. This is not good. Not good at all. I’m such an idiot.

            A soft hand rests on my shoulder. I look over. It’s Lee. His face looks angry but cool and serene at the same time. “I think the lady told you to let go,” he says calmly even thought there’s a angry, possessive undertone.

            The reporter lets go and snaps a picture. Soon, all reporters surround us along with some guests. Questions are thrown everywhere.

            “Are you dating?”

            “When did this start? Are you eloping together?”

            “How did you two meet?”

            I’m about to deny this all because of the rules we had agreed on but I lock eyes with Karen in the crowd. She’s smirking her I’m-about-to-win smirk. This gives me all the motivation to do what I do next:

            I kiss Lee right on the lips and say, “Yes, we are dating.”

            I’m breaking so many rules. I know this. I know I’m ruining everything. I don’t know why. Cameras flash and snap pictures of the kiss and confession—some even video cameras. People are gasping and whispering all over again. I did all of this.

            Lee is giving me a confused look through his eyes even thought he is smiling. He’s telling me to stop all this through his eyes…

            But I just smile back with careful eyes.

Here you go, hungry readers.

I'm so happy so many people are reading and commenting and voting. I feel so honored to get all this love. thank you so much! c: I never would expect people to actually read this. it was just a fun story. 

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