Giana

"Is everything okay, dear?"

I look up from my laptop to see Grandma smiling from across the table. She just finished her physical therapy and is enjoying a cup of tea I'd prepared for her.

"Yup, everything's fine."

It's a lie but I need to keep things simple with Grandma or she'll be agitated if I give her too many details, like the fact that it's been two weeks since I asked one of Aunt Marlene's drivers at the reunion to drop me off at one of the hotels in town where Io picked me up the following morning. Two weeks since I left a message with Bryce telling him I was done with our charade and promptly drafted my notice at the firm, effective immediately. We lost the Camden project anyway. Henry pulled it the very next day.

Sure, I could have completed the final week of my arrangement with Bryce but I just couldn't. I was done with him and his family.

What's that saying? The apple doesn't fall far from the tree. Bryce would have fallen in line with everyone else. In time, he'd have put me down like his relatives did at the reunion and it's just not worth it.

If I have to make payment arrangements with the hospital, then so be it. Sure, things would have been tight but Grandma and I would have been fine either way. She's in a decent place, as it is and I have to stop dreaming of moving her into a better place for now. It means I'll have to live on a tighter budget and find a new job. Except for that last part, that had been the plan anyway.

But I had to choose the easy way, accepting Bryce's offer while secretly hoping it would work out for real. Even the likes of his aunt and uncle weren't fooled.

"Where's that handsome boss of yours?" Grandma sets down her cup of tea.

"He's somewhere." Bryce has been calling and texting every day but I've refused to pick up his calls or read his messages. It's not easy but I need to move on. It was a mistake. The whole arrangement was a big mistake.

I received a job offer from a small firm in Sacramento and I start in a week. It'll mean driving an hour and a half each way until I find a place but it will have to do for now. I don't want to live too far from my grandmother, not with her Alzheimers getting worse each day and the staff needing me to come over the days when she refuses to listen anyone else but me. It's only happened once in the last two weeks and thankfully, today is one of her good days.

Grandma takes a bite of her scone, dusting the crumbs off her fingers. "He likes you, you know."

I close my laptop and retrieve the stack of mail I'd brought along with me from the apartment. "Men like him like a lot of women, Grandma. The trick is not to fall for them." Or their ploys to get you into bed.

"But not all men ask a woman's grandmother for their granddaughter's hand in marriage."

I stare at her as her gaze drifts out the window. "What did you say?"

She turns to face me, frowning. "What, dear?"

"You said something about marriage."

"I did?" She thinks for a moment, then shrugs. "It must be a show I saw on TV this week. Gunsmoke."

I tear open the envelopes, pulling out their contents and stacking them in a pile in front of me. I've been waiting for the last of the medical bills to arrive so I can see what insurance paid for and what we'll end up owing the hospital for Grandma's surgery. Sure, her insurance paid for part of it but the balance is still substantial.

My phone buzzes as an incoming message from Bryce flashes on the display. I turn it over and return my attention to the bills again... or try to. To say it's been a tough two weeks is an understatement but we do what we have to do. Even Io understood even if she will never know that what Bryce and I had wasn't real.

"I have to run errands, Grandma." I gather all the statements and slip them into my carry-all. "Call me if you need anything, okay?"

"I'll be fine, dear," she says as I give her a hug. "I wish you'd smile more though. I haven't seen you smile in a long time."

"Don't worry about me, Grandma. Everything's fine." Another lie.

I drive to the hospital. I need to finalize the payment arrangements and move on. The sooner I'd know what my monthly payments are going to be, the better I can budget my expenses moving forward. If I have to get a second job, that's fine, too.

"I'm here to make payment arrangements for the balance owed after insurance paid their share," I slide the latest billing statement across the desk toward her. "It's for my grandmother, Caroline Moore."

I wait as she types in the information into her computer and peers at the screen. "I don't see anything owed on this account, Miss Avila. It's fully paid for."

"That can't be right. I just got this statement and it says balance owed." I point to the amount on the paper.

"Those statements are automatically generated by the billing department. You would have received an actual invoice if you owed any amount but it's been paid in full." She peers at the screen again. "As of two weeks ago."

My throat tightens. "That was a pretty substantial amount. Paid by whom, exactly?"

"We're not normally allowed to tell you, but the notation on the account says it was paid by Bryce Holden, Jr."

I sigh. Great. Just great. Now I owe the guy.

The drive to the place I hoped never to return to again is far from relaxing. My thoughts are all over the place. After two weeks of ignoring his calls and texts, what am I supposed to say?

I almost call Io so I can ask her if Bryce is in the office before remembering she's in Hawaii for a cousin's wedding. No, this one has to be all me. I have to take responsibility for this one.

No one stops to ask me who I'm visiting at the firm when I walk through the doors. The same security guard nods as I walk past, the same receptionist in the lobby smiles like she always does. Don't they know I left the firm? Why aren't they stopping me?

My floor is quiet as I step out of the elevator and I realize everyone must have gone to lunch. Still, the few people who are there simply wave at me as I walk past them. My cubicle is empty just as I left it. They haven't given it to anyone else.

I stop in front of Bryce's office, surprised to see someone else sitting behind his desk, an older man with salt and pepper hair who's currently on the phone. The sign on the door doesn't say Bryce Holden, Jr.

"Hey, Giana, you here to see Bryce?" asks Terry, one of the women I've worked with since the beginning but never really hung out with. "He moved to the sixth floor."

The sixth floor is where management is. Does that mean...? "Thanks, Terry."

"I figured you'd know, of all people."

I shrug, feigning a smile. "I forgot."

I find Bryce inside a spacious office with the sign Junior Principal Partner on the door. He's turned away from me, his hands in his pockets as he looks out the window into the distance looking as handsome as I remember. Why did I end the charade so quickly?

I clear my throat. "Bryce, may I talk to you?"

He spins around, surprised. He looks tired, dark circles under his eyes. "Giana, you're back."

I step into the office and shut the door behind me. It's glass and everyone can see but they don't need to hear what I have to say. "I only came back to thank you for paying my grandmother's medical bill. I need to make payment arrangements to pay you back."

He shakes his head. "You don't need to pay me back."

"I insist. I didn't complete our contract, Bryce."

"That doesn't matter."

"It matters to me. I have principles." Even if I threw them out the window when I agreed to the fake engagement in the first place.

"You can pay me back by hearing me out." He closes the distance between us. The sight of him so close to me takes my breath away. He still makes my heart thunder and the butterflies in my stomach flutter to life.

I wish I could stop trembling. I don't want to hear him out, but I also do. There's pain in his gaze, in the way he looks at me like he wants to reach out to me. But that's wishful thinking. What could Bryce want from me?

"I'm listening."

"I love you, Giana." When I don't say anything for the blood is rushing in my ears and my heart is pounding so loud, he continues. "I love you and I've never been more sure about anything in my life than I am right now."

"What we had wasn't real, Bryce. You have to understand that."

"Maybe in the beginning but it became real," he says. "Are you going to deny that?"

I shake my head. "But your family, your grand aunt... Uncle Thomas?"

"They can go to hell, for all I care."

"We lost the Camden account."

"We didn't lose it. We pulled it," Bryce says.

I frown. "You mean Mr. Camden didn't–"

"Dad and I withdrew our bid," he says. "Henry has to find another firm to do the project and that's going to be his problem."

"You must have lost a lot of money doing that."

"Nothing is worth the humiliation of being reminded you'll never be enough in some people's eyes. The same people whose opinions don't really matter in the long run," Bryce says. "Nothing is more important to me than you, Giana. You're worth more than all those people at that reunion combined. As for projects, we'll find more. I have no doubt about that. You and I make a great team."

"But I sent in my notice."

"Forgive me if I didn't accept your terms... which means I'm still your boss."

"Oh."

"But I hope you'll accept this." Bryce drops to one knee in front of me and pulls out a familiar box from his pants pocket. "I was going to stop by your grandmother's nursing home again and wait for you to drop by but since you're here–"

"Bryce, you don't have to do this."

"I want you to be my real fiancée, Giana. I want you to be my wife," he says. "No more pretense, no more charades. No more figuring out what our 'stories' are just in case people ask us. Just you and me, together." He pulls open the box and takes his grandmother's ring. "Giana Avila, will you marry me?"

I stare at him. "Wait. What do you mean by stopping by the nursing home 'again'? You mean you stopped by?"

"Yesterday," Bryce replies. "I asked your grandmother's permission to marry you and she told me to stop by today and ask you then. She said you usually stop by around lunch but I had a meeting go over so I couldn't make it. But you're here now." He pauses, a hopeful expression on his handsome features. "So what will it be, Giana? Will you marry me?"

I should say no, or maybe something like I need time, but my racing heart is screaming, what for? He's here and he just asked you to marry him and this, time it's real. 

"Yes, I'll marry you," I whisper as he slips the ring around my finger, a perfect fit.

Bryce rises to his feet and pulls me in a deep embrace as the people outside his office applaud and cheer loudly. But I barely notice them. All I see is Bryce with his deep blue eyes and his beard in need of trim. He smells as good as I remember and as he cradles my face in his hands and lowers his head to kiss me to the louder cheers of the employees, he feels just as good if not better.

"I love you, Giana, so much. You have no idea."

"I think I do," I whisper as his eyes narrow and I chuckle. "But I love you right back, Bryce. I just hope this doesn't mean we have to set a date right away."

He grins. "We won't. My mother's going to do her utmost to be patient although how long that will last remains to be seen."

I chuckle. "She does know everyone in town so that can be a bonus."

"There is that, but everything will be up to us this time."

"And Alton? What's going to happen to him?

Bryce shrugs. "He's in rehab. I heard Henry drove him there himself. The guy doesn't even remember the things he said that night, that's how drunk he was."

"I'm sorry for causing so much trouble."

"It's not your fault." He runs his fingers through my hair. "You're the best thing that ever happened to me, Giana. You really are. I'm where I am right now because of you."

I look around his office. "I did notice your new digs."

"Thanks to you," Bryce murmurs. "If you hadn't said what you said about standing up to my father, I'd still be working in the wrong department. It made me realize I'd stopped caring all because he refused to hear me or recognize my skills. But you did, Giana. You saw my strengths and you accepted me for who I am."

"Well, you are good-looking, too. You do have that going for you," I whisper, giggling. "And you are amazing in bed... and the dining table, the couch, the other couch, and the kitchen counter."

"We haven't done it in the game room yet."

"You want to?"

"Of course. But first, this." As Bryce kisses me again, there's no denying how happy he's made me or how complete I feel in his arms as if I were made just for him and him just for me. It doesn't even matter what everyone thinks or what they say. The only thing that matters from this moment on is us together. No more pretenses, no more charades.

Just us, together.

And this time, for real.