Marry Me Now: An Arranged Marriage Collection

“Jasper’s father was demanding he marry in order to promote him. Jasper figured this would kill two birds with one stone. He marries for the promotion, but somebody totally inappropriate, someone his parents would think was a gold-digger just using Jasper for his money, somebody uncultured, so they’d be fine when he goes to—or, even encourage him to—divorce you.”

So that’s why. All Jasper’s talk about liking me for me, about how I wooed him with my love of cars, about how he couldn’t resist me… And all along this has been his plan. Seduce me because I’m the most humiliating option. The one who will never fit in, the one who doesn’t match his family at all.

“Is it really that surprising?” Greg asks, still with that sympathetic look on his face, which somehow makes it so much worse. “I mean, you met his parents, you saw their reactions even before I said anything. You were at the party tonight, too—didn’t you notice how you stood out like a sore thumb?”

The backs of my eyes sting. I have to get out of here. “I… I didn’t really…”

“Oh, Dee.” Greg reaches up to touch my shoulder, the sympathy melting into abject pity now. “I’m so sorry. I didn’t think ahead about what this would feel like for you. I thought you’d be prepared for it, but how could you be? I mean, dozens of people all disapproving of you, and those girls at the office spreading all those rumors… It must have been awful.”

It should have been, I think. But instead… Right up until this minute, right up until I learned what Jasper really thinks about me… Until now it hasn’t been awful. It’s felt like it’s worth it. All this pain, all the rumors and the gossip. It was worth it to be with him, to feel like I’d finally found a guy who gets it. Who gets me.

But he doesn’t. Not really. I’ve just been a ploy all along. Somebody to toy with and then throw aside. A tool to help accomplish his goals.

Tears spill over the edge of my eyes and track down my cheeks. “Yeah, I… It has been,” I whisper.

“Come here.” Greg pulls me into a hug, which surprises me, but I let him, sighing. “You don’t have to stay,” he says. “The main part’s been done. They’ve all seen you exist, they know who you are. If you want to go now, I don’t blame you. Hell, it could even play better that way—we can say something like, you didn’t like anyone here and decided to head home, and that will just make Jasper’s dad even more likely to regret forcing his son into this. And then you don’t have to stick around here feeling miserable all week. How does that sound?”

For all that he hurt me with what he said earlier, Greg is making a lot of sense. I bite the inside of my cheek and nod at him. Whether this messes up Jasper’s plan or not, I can’t stay here any longer. Not knowing what I know now. Not feeling how I do. I need to get out of here.

I need to go home.

13

Dee

Tears sting at my eyes as I grab my suitcase and stuff it full of clothes. I hear a knock at the door, and start to cross toward it, expecting Greg. He went to pull the car around and come pick me up.

But instead I hear Jasper on the far side. “Dee? Where’d you go?” His voice sounds nearly as slurry as mine—probably from the ouzo his cousins have been forcing on everybody in sight.

I cross over to the door and pull it open, without taking the chain off the lock, so it only opens a couple of inches.

The moment he sees my face, my eyes red and swollen from crying, his eyes go wide. “What’s wrong?” he blurts.

“Did you ask me to marry you because you knew your parents would hate me?” I demand.

He blinks a few times, clearly trying to clear his head. And failing. “Did I…”

“Did you choose me because I’m the most humiliating option?” My voice rises an octave now. I can’t help it. It cracks on the end, and another tear spills down my cheek. I wipe it away, trying to channel anger instead of pain.

“Dee, let me in and we can talk about this…”

“Why should I? You lied to me.”

“I didn’t lie—”

“You said you just wanted a fake wife. Not a fake gold-digger. Is that really what you think of me? You agree with all those angry girls at work, is that it?”

“No. Dee, listen to me, that’s not how I feel anymore.”

“But it was.” My eyes glitter now, the tears hanging suspended, unshed.

“Please, Dee. Let me explain.”

“You had weeks to explain, Jasper. You could have told me what the real plan was when we first met. Or any moment since. All this time, I thought…” A hiccup escapes my lips, frustrating me. “I thought things were changing between us. But I guess only for me.”

“No, they’ve changed for me too. Let me in, Dee, so we can talk about this.”

But I’m already pulling the ring off my finger and shoving it back at him through the crack in the door. “I’m done playing charades, Jasper. I’m done trying to fit in somewhere that I don’t. And right now, we’re both drunk, and in no state to talk about things, so please just…” I close my eyes. The tears spill over. “Please just go, okay? Please.”

He hesitates. Hovers before the door still. “Dee…”

“Please go, Jasper.”

“Okay,” he finally whispers, after a long moment. “But only because you asked me to. And only because you’re right, we should talk about this not…” He waves a hand in the air. “Not drunk.”

I wait until he’s gone. Until his stumbling footsteps fade down the hallway outside, until the hotel around me falls quiet.

Then I go back to the suitcase I have open on the bed, and continue to toss my things inside it. Ready to go the moment that… Ah. There it is. My phone buzzes with a single ring. The signal from Greg. I tap the screen and find a text from him. Downstairs waiting. Then I grab my suitcase, zip it shut, and I slip out of the resort.

I can’t wait around anymore. I can’t sit here and listen to more lies, surrounded by a family of people who despise me. Maybe when I get home, Jasper and I can talk about this on familiar territory, if he really wants to explain why he lied to me and hired me to be a gold-digger. But right now…

I’m going home.

14

Jasper

I stumble back upstairs to the party. The music is still playing, my cousins are still drinking and laughing, and the kids have gone to bed, so now the adults have really let loose. While I normally enjoy myself chatting to my cousins, especially Sofia and Chloe, tonight I can’t relax. I can’t think about anything but Dee, downstairs in our hotel room, her eyes red-rimmed from crying.

Crying because I didn’t tell her the truth. I didn’t tell her the whole story, which I should’ve done a long time ago. But I thought she’d react… well, like this, when I did. And I didn’t want to lose her.

The irony of that hits home like a bolt. I didn’t want to lose her, so I wasn’t completely honest, and now I’m probably going to lose her.

Someone slaps me on the back. I grimace and turn around to excuse myself, but then I freeze. Because I’ve just found myself face-to-face with my father.

“Dad.”

“Jasper.” He’s smiling, so that’s something. He also has the biggest glass of ouzo I’ve ever seen him drink in one hand, so that could be the only reason why.

I tense. The last thing I need right now is a fight, much less a fight over the propriety of the girl I’ve chosen. The girl he forced me into choosing.

The girl I’m about to lose, who just might be the best thing in my life.

“If you’re here to tell me to break things off with her, you don’t need to bother,” I say.

To my surprise, Dad’s brow crunches up in distress. “Why on earth would I tell you to do that, son? She’s your wife.”

She’s no

t. But at this point, she feels like it. She calls me husband. She’s wearing my ring—or, well… she was. I feel its weight now, heavy in my pocket, and it only makes my heart ache worse. “I thought you’d hate her,” I reply, my tone glum.

But Dad just laughs, deep and loud. “Son.” He claps me on the back again, and shakes my shoulder a little. He’s definitely had one too many of those ouzos. “Why would it matter what I think of her? What matters to me is that she makes you happy, Jasper. That’s all I’ve ever wanted for you. The same happiness your mother and I found together. The same happiness we found doubly strong when we had you. So, are you happy when you’re with her?”

I grit my teeth together. It’s hard to think about this right now, given the mess everything has become. But when I clear my mind and think back to all the times we shared … when I think about our first weekend away together—and not just about our hot our chemistry in the bedroom, but the times we had exploring the boardwalk and the shops, or the times driving around aimlessly, just enjoying the feeling of being on the road… Or the long talks we had late into the night, side-by-side curled up in bed.

I think about how much we have in common. How I light up every time she enters a room, even if she’s just walking past on the far side of the office, and I catch a glimpse of her on my way into a meeting.

I open my mouth, but Dad shakes his head.

“You don’t even have to say it, son,” he tells me. “It’s written all over your face. You love her.”