“Good
heavens,” she exclaimed. “I didn’t think you’d still be standing right there.”
Reaching
out, Mason gently took the glass from her hand and took a sip, his eyes on
hers. Surprised, he raised his eyebrows and nodded his head at the wine. “This
is quite good,” he acknowledged. “What is it?”
“It’s
an Italian Sangiovese.”
“You
know your wines.”
Emma
grinned. “Sometimes. Sometimes I just know my bartenders. That’s Leon,” she
added, smiling over at the young man behind the bar. “He recommended it.”
Mason
frowned slightly, and then motioned to the bartender that he would join her in
a glass of wine before they sat down for dinner. Moving to the stool next to
her, he helped her back into the seat she had just vacated. Leon placed a glass
of the Sangiovese in front of Mason, then winked at Emma as he turned away to
fill a drink order for a table.
“You
make friends quickly,” Mason observed.
“You
were late. And he’s a nice guy,” Emma said defensively.
“You’re
my wife.”
“Hard
to forget that. Especially given the ring on my finger.”
“Good.”
The satisfaction in his voice gave Emma pause, and she looked over at him
warily.
“Why
on earth do you care?” she asked suspiciously.
He
just smiled cooly at her. “A man likes to think that his wife recalls that
she’s married to him. Particularly if she just married him that morning.”
“I
see.”
“I
assume Leon did not get your number this evening?”
Emma
nearly spewed her drink out her nose. She looked up at Mason. Was he serious?
He thought that she was out picking up men the same day that she’d married him?
She shook her head in disbelief. “What exactly do you think I would say to the
man? Sure, here’s my number. Call me in three years?”
“You’re
an attractive woman,” Mason started to say.
“With
a wedding ring on her hand,” she said, raising her left hand and pointing to
the ring with her right index finger. “And a fairly strong moral compass. I
think you can rest easy that I’m not out picking up men on the same day as our
wedding.” She nearly muttered ‘you moron’ under her breath, but decided that it
might be a bad idea. Still, it looked like Mason got the unuttered message. He
simply chuckled, and then raised his glass to her.
“To
my wife. May our marriage bring us...” he hesitated, as if thinking of what he
should toast to.
“Peace?”
Emma contributed after a few seconds. “Friendship? Contentment?”
“I
was going to say mutual satisfaction, but perhaps your sentiments are more
suitable for a wedding day,” he acknowledged dryly.
Rolling
her eyes, Emma clinked her glass up against Mason’s.
“To
us,” she sighed. “Whatever ‘us’ ends up being.”
“You’re
hoping for more?” His eyebrows rose skyward as he looked over at her.
“I’d
like to think that we at least might get to be friendly. But I’d settle for not
killing each other.” Taking a sip of her wine, she turned in her stool to look
directly at him. Might as well get this out in the open, she thought. She
really wasn’t looking for double entendres, innuendos, or any kind of
flirtation, and she probably should make that clear.
“Look,
Mason. I was wrong about you. As I mentioned to you before, when Jen told me
that she was marrying you, I assumed you would be some sort of crazy,
reclusive, socially-maladapted man. It’s clear that you’re not. In fact, it
occurs to me that you are probably used to women falling at your feet, for any
number of reasons. But it’s important that you realize that I’m not planning to
do that.”
Hazarding
a glance at him, she realized that he was giving her his full attention.
“This
is only going to work if we treat it as a business arrangement. We have a
contract. Let’s keep things fully professional. And perhaps friendly, if we get
that far.”
Mason
smiled slightly as she wrapped up her argument. “Spoken like a lawyer. But I
agree. I want a clean relationship, with no emotional entanglements. So your
limitations work for me, and I'm happy to hear you voice them. Very well. Let’s
drink to a detached affiliation.”
Emma
laughed then. “Detached affiliation?”
“An
unemotional relationship. Same thing. To us, Emma.”
Emma
raised her glass. “To us.”
“With
that settled, shall we have some dinner?” he asked.
“Yes,
please. I’m starving. Leon fed me mixed nuts, but they only take a girl so
far.”
“Leon
again?”
“Yes.
I may leave you for him some day, Mason. He feeds me and places wine in front
of me. He sets the bar pretty high.”
Mason
chuckled, then helped her off her stool. Motioning to the hostess to indicate
that they were ready to be seated, he stood to the side and waited for her to
lead them to their table.
“You
must come here often,” she observed after they were seated with menus in front
of them. “They know you well.”
“Fairly
often. Mostly for business lunches, I’m afraid.” Nodding at the wine that they
were sharing, he added, “So I haven’t paid much attention to their wine list.”
“Too
bad,” Emma observed. “It’s a nice mix.”
“Then
we’ll explore it together,” Mason said. “Thanks for coming this evening.”
Emma
nodded seriously. “I realized that I have a lot to learn about you too.”
“Did
you get questions at work today?”
“No.
I moved the ring to my other hand and stayed in my office. But I’m sure that
word will get out at some point. Particularly once I let my secretary know of
my change in address,” she added dryly.
“You’re
right. Word will get out. I’d actually like to host a reception soon, Emma.
People will want to meet you once they find out that we've married.”
“Same
on my end. But we’ll need some semblance of a story, Mason, unless you want to
tell people that we met for the first time two days ago.”
“Do
you have a story in mind?” he asked.
“The
truth is always simplest. My sister introduced us.”
Mason
took a sip of wine. “That works as well as anything. I first met Jen five
months ago at a charity event. So you and I met shortly after that. The only
person who can refute that is Jen, and she probably won’t be putting in an
appearance any time in the near future.”
Emma
twirled the stem of her wineglass between her fingers as she thought about it.
“It’s still a whirlwind courtship,” she pointed out, looking up at Mason over
the top of her glass.
He
shrugged. “Five months is better than five days.”
“True.
But people will likely want more details.”
He
shrugged. “Tell them what you want to.”
“Before
then, we need to get a few important issues out of the way. Like Chaos. And my
parents. And my grandmother. I’m not lying to them, Mason. I can cope with
telling them a partial truth, but I’m not telling them that I’m madly in love
with you. They know me better than that. They’ll see right through it and
worry.”
“So
what do you propose, short of telling them the truth?”
“That
we met, we both see advantages to being married right now, but that it’s not a
real marriage. I want to leave Jen out of it.”
“And
that won’t worry them?” he asked disbelievingly.
“It
might. But less so than me covering for Jen, who seems to have disappeared off
the face of the earth with $300,000 of your dollars, and some guy that nobody
has met.”
“Are
you worried about her?” he asked quietly, realizing that while Emma was angry
at her sister, she was still likely to be concerned if she didn't hear from her
at some point.
“I
am,” she admitted. “I’m sure she’s fine - she’s probably just in hiding for a
while longer, until she’s sure that you’ve found another solution to your
problem. But I’d like to at least hear from her. Just to know that she’s OK.”
“Why
did Jen take the money?” Mason asked shrewdly. “Did she need it?”
Emma
shook her head. “I have no idea. But if she needed money, she could have at
least asked me, even if I didn’t have $300,000 to give. So I’m not sure what
all of this was about. Maybe she just got caught up in the idea of marriage.
Maybe she liked you. Maybe she wanted more than you could give her. I don't
know.”
“Do
you want me to try to find her?” Mason offered.
Emma
looked over Mason's shoulder to some point on the other side of the room. “I
don’t honestly know,” she said quietly. “Part of me screams yes, but another
part says that she’s fine. It’s not like she disappeared without warning. I
knew she was going.”
He
nodded. “So we’ll leave it for a while. If you don’t hear from her in a few
days or weeks, I’ll hire someone to find her. OK?”
Emma
smiled slightly. “Yes. Thanks, Mason.”
“Do
you want to introduce me to your family at some point?”
“Yeah.
Probably. But let me tell them about you first. Gran might have heart
palpitations when I tell her that I married a guy she never had a chance to
interrogate, so I want to prepare her. And that’s best done after she’s had a
few drinks,” Emma added.
“Interrogation?
What kind of interrogation?”
“Mostly
whether you know how to make a good martini,” Emma admitted. “But then she’ll
want to know what you do for a living, whether you plan to give her
great-grandchildren, how you feel about Chaos. My family loves Chaos. He gets
more spoiled when he spends time with my father than he does when I am feeling
guilty and lavishing him with treats.”
“I
don’t like dogs,” Mason reminded her.
Emma
rolled her eyes. “I know. And it’s one of those things that makes me question
your humanity, to be honest.”
He
sighed. “I might as well get this over with. When do you want me to meet the
dog? Tonight?”
“Not
tonight. I’m leaving early tomorrow for San Diego, so I’m taking him over to my
parents’ house tonight. I'm back on Thursday next week. I’ll pick up Chaos on
Friday when I join my parents for dinner. I’ll tell them about you then. So
maybe Saturday next weekend?”
“To
meet your dog or your parents? Which should I dread more, by the way?”
“They
all need to approve of you. But Mom and Dad will approve if Chaos approves, so
that's the big hurdle.”
“So
why do you call him Chaos?”
“Do
you really need to ask?”
“Please
tell me that my home will be safe.”
“I’ll
help you dog-proof it before we move Chaos in.”
“Please
tell me that I won’t completely alienate my neighbors.”
“Can’t
promise you that. But any that you alienate with a dog are neighbors you
probably shouldn’t be hanging out with anyway.”
He
just looked at her. “I don’t exactly ‘hang out’ with my neighbors.”
She
smiled. “I’m not surprised. Your neighborhood doesn’t strike me as the kind of
place that has block parties. Do you even know who lives next to you?”
“Of
course. I checked into it before I bought the house.”
She
sighed. “Of course you did.”
The
waiter, who had been hovering off to the side for some time, finally
approached. Mason asked Emma if she would like more wine, and she nodded, so
the waiter went off to fetch a bottle while Mason and Emma glanced at the menu.
“The
T-bone steak is delicious here,” Mason informed her. “And it comes with the
added bonus of a bone for your dog.”
“Why,
Mason,” Emma teased. “I think you’re trying to worm your way into my dog’s
heart. And I approve.”
He
smiled. “I’ve got some ground to gain, I think. Have you told him that I’m not
a dog person?”
“Chaos
won’t care. He’s a people dog. You’d have to seriously abuse him to get him to
dislike you. And since I won’t let that happen, you’re safe. So why don’t you
like animals?”
“Never
really spent much time around them, I guess. It’s not really that I don’t like
them. I just don’t know how to act with them.”
“You’ll
be fine,” Emma assured him. “And I’m not being patronizing. I just know my dog.
He’ll like you.”
The
waiter returned to bring them the wine Mason had requested, and to take their
dinner orders. When Emma asked for one of their signature pasta dishes, Mason
asked for the T-bone. “Medium-rare.”
“Chaos
will love you. We can freeze it and you can give it to him next weekend.”
“Nah.
We’ll get him another one next week. You can give this to him tonight. Just be
sure he knows it’s from me.”
Emma
laughed. “I’ll tell him.”
The
conversation shifted then, as Mason asked more about Emma’s work, and she asked
more about what Mason did. They compared childhoods, education, families,
dating histories, and what they liked to do on vacations. They talked about
books and movies, and even ventured slightly into politics and religion. By the
time dessert arrived, they each felt like they could handle questions posed to
each of them about each other. None of it was personal, but the entire
conversation was designed to ensure that they could pass as husband and wife -
people who had known each other for longer than a few days.