The Boss 5

Zayden

I went into the bank feeling good. The curious gazes of all my employees upon my arrival did not bother me at all; rather it gave me a sense of pride: they were looking at me because they knew. They knew that I had managed to get the most amazing woman in the world to agree to marry me. Whether they were jealous or judgmental or just plain curious, none of their whispers and gasps bothered me in the slightest. In fact, it was probably their lucky day because I was suddenly in the mood to issue an office wide bonus. Grinning wildly, I approached Aria’s desk.

“Hi,” she said, beaming.

Instead of responding to her greeting, I leaned in and kissed her in front of the whole office. Aria broke off first, perhaps feeling uncomfortable by my show of affection in the workplace. But the smile on her face continued to be radiant.

“My office, fifteen minutes,” I said. Then I added loudly, “I love you.”

Aria’s face went completely red as she mumbled something that sounded like, “I love you too.”

Exactly fifteen minutes later, my fiancée was sitting across from me in my office, her huge ring flashing the bond that now tied us together.

“I don’t want to wait, Aria,” I said simply.

“What do you mean?” She looked confused. “I already said yes, I don’t know if you remember. I mean, maybe I remember it incorrectly too. It was all happening so fast it’s hard to hold on to the memory exactly as it transpired. That doesn’t of course, explain the ring,” she added cheerfully, surveying her hand. “This is too big, Zayden. I hope you didn’t pay a fortune it’s not worth it.”

“Don’t you dare ever tell me you’re not worth something again. You deserve the very best of everything in the world and I’ll make sure you have all of it. But I can’t wait, Aria, to get married to you. To make you mine irreversibly forever.”

She grinned. She was obviously in a playful mood. “I’m not too sure about the irreversible part. People get divorced all the time—”

“Don’t ever say that again, either,” I snapped.

“I was,” Aria said, screwing up her mouth. “You know I was joking.”

“Me too. Just wanted to make sure you knew it was permanent.”

“Permanent isn’t a long enough time to be with you,” she said and winked.

I needed to get to the point.

“Three weeks. I want to get married in three weeks. Does that sound okay?” I asked gently. I didn’t want to make her feel inundated in case she needed more time. At the same time, I also couldn’t bear to think of not being married to her any longer.

She opened her mouth wide in shock. “Three weeks? But…planning…and invites…I don’t even have an idea of what to do about my wedding dress.”

I reached over and covered her hands with my own, flashing a reassuring smile. “Aria,” I said lovingly. “It’ll all be taken care of. I already booked Fiona Davis to be your wedding planner and she will be contacting you shortly about all your needs. Fiona usually has a waiting list of about two years. She is the most sought-after wedding planner in the country.”

She gasped. “Stacey knows all about her. She will kill me.”

“We will book Fiona for your friends’ wedding too then, but since they don’t plan to have the ceremony for another year, we can surely worry about that later.”

“Wait,” she said suspiciously. “How do you know when they plan to get married?”

“Your friend Stacey may or may not have gone with me to purchase your ring.”

She gasped loudly, looking amused. “You aren’t telling me she approved of this magnificent gazillion dollar ring are you?”

“Yes, but it’s no big deal.”

“Whatever you say,” she said, grinning.

“Fiona will be in touch with you shortly. She has already booked the Plaza for three weeks from tomorrow. They are usually pre-booked years in advance but between my influence and Fiona’s, getting that date was a piece of cake.”

“Wait, wait, wait,” Aria said holding up her hand and looking utterly confused. “The Plaza. That’s where all the celebrities get married. It is also in New York. Did you actually think this through?”

“Oh, right,” I said with a content smirk. “I forgot to mention, we are getting married in New York.”

The effect of those words on Aria was exactly what I had hoped. She gasped so loudly a few people came and poked their head in to see if everything was okay. Her eyes started drowning in tears of happiness once we were alone again.