“I’ve always thought a cross-national merger would be problematic. We may need to seek an affiliate on our own soil,” he said.
“Now, Mr. Domingo,” Harvey began, “I can assure you that we have plenty of bilingual employees in our legal department ready to explain anything that you have doubts about.”
“I don’t think that’s what he’s saying, Harvey,” she put in, and everyone at the table gaped at her as if the napkin ring had started speaking instead of another person.
A man nudged Harvey. “Keep the maid in check.”
Harvey stood up. “Leave.”
“Excuse me?”
“You heard me. Leave. Now. Or I’ll have you thrown out on your sorry ass. Nobody talks to my fiancé in that matter.”
Huffing, he immediately left.
“I’m sorry about that, darling,” Harvey said.
“Well, if it’s okay if th
e maid speaks freely, I would like to say something.”
“Uh, what do you think is the problem then?” Harvey asked her.
“Well, help me out here, Mr. Domingo, and tell me if I’m wrong. I think the problem isn’t whether your staff is bilingual. I think the problem is that HR hasn’t been involved in the strategic planning up to this point, and maybe Mr. Domingo is worried about employee retention and the integration process.”
“Exactly!” Mr. Domingo said, seemingly relieved. Harvey looked from the men to Bella and back again.
“I’ve been studying mergers and acquisitions recently, and this is a major hang-up in a lot of cases and can even cause a breakdown in communications.”
“So, building on what Bella identified as the issue here, do you feel that a Skype with HR at Bellingford would be useful to you? We could clarify the exact direction we want your company to go once it’s under the umbrella of Bellingford and also work to preserve as much personnel as possible going forward.”
“Yes, that would be most satisfactory,” Mr. Domingo said, cutting his steak. Harvey looked at Bella, obviously impressed with her, and she was so pleased that she felt it right down to her toes.
Instead of being mere decoration, she had been of use to him in his negotiations and had been able to apply some of what she’d learned in her coursework. She was proud of herself, and she was proud to be a credit to Harvey as well.
When they got home—and she’d started to think of the mansion as home—Bella was happy to relax in her room with some TV and a bagel with cream cheese. After the whirlwind of Mexico and the proposal and San Francisco, it was good to have some quiet time between public appearances. After a few days of swimming, reading magazines and planning her future, she was bored. She caught up with Harvey in the hallway after he’d changed clothes to go to a dinner meeting.
“What am I supposed to be doing exactly?”
“What do you mean? You’ve come to all the appearances PR staged for us. You’re doing plenty. Our price per share is soaring and I’m back in the board’s good graces. It’s all good,” he said as he straightened his tie.
“I mean during the day. I have nothing to do.”
“Go shopping. Go to lunch. Take a yoga class. I don’t know,” he said with a shrug. She covered his hands with hers.
“Here, it’s still crooked, let me fix it.” Bella straightened the knot and smoothed the silk of his tie regretfully. She missed him already, “We haven’t seen much of each other, and I just wondered if there was anything I needed to study up on for our upcoming events or something.”
“No. After you saved the Spanish merger for me in San Francisco, you’ve more than earned your keep. Just have fun, Bella. You’ve earned it,” he said and kissed her cheek absently before he left.
Right then and there, she decided to double her course load. She was already way ahead in the classes she was taking. She could handle more work and make progress toward her degree. Bella registered for additional classes and set to work. The next few weeks were a blur of required reading, essays, and citations, mixed in with a couple of staged dates per week with Harvey.
They went to an outdoor concert, a wine tasting, and a few charity events. They did a 5K to raise awareness for Alzheimer’s disease and the picture of them embracing after they crossed the finish line hand-in-hand was all over the Internet and trended with the hashtag #relationshipgoals. He had picked her up and spun her around, her head thrown back laughing. They were the picture perfect couple.
She was lonely. She was using college classes to fill the emptiness she felt when they weren’t together. She realized she was falling in love with him. And now she was lost. She’d fallen for the ruse they set up to dupe the board. She’d believed things she knew weren’t real. He was just a handsome guy who was nice to her and that was all it took. That and a Corvette and a diamond, both of which existed to support his public image and probably had nothing to do with her personally at all. Still, they were trappings of the greater problem, the real feelings born from the fake romance.
Dating a fake, pretend fiancé sucks.
Bella was losing sleep. She’d go to bed at a decent time only to lie awake daydreaming about Harvey, about the dancing and talking and kissing that they’d shared and their agreement to keep it platonic. She’d overanalyzed his every word and gesture a hundred times, worse than any middle schooler with a crush, trying to convince herself that he liked her as more than a friend, a partner in crime as it were. She wanted him to feel that same damning rush of affection and lust that drove through her every time she saw him.