Chapter 7 - I Ordered Vegetarian

Noah's strange behavior at kicking me out of his penthouse didn't settle well with my brothers either. They had their own conclusions.

"What if he was dying from the smell of your body odor?" Arman suggested.

"I was wearing deodorant and perfume!" I said defensively.

I still checked my underarms and it smelled like baby powder. The brand wasn't lying about the forty eight hour protection. Zain would've also kicked me out of his Audi had I been stinky. My brother was evil.

"What if he's practicing his audition to become the first half Indian in a werewolf role in Hollywood?" Ishak pointed out seriously.

"Why werewolf?" Arman asked puzzled. I was about to agree when he added, "Why not dinosaur? They're probably making a new Jurassic Park sequel soon."

"Dinosaur doesn't even make sense," Ishak responded. "I'd say maybe a male banshee—"

"Dude, is that even a thing?" Arman asked skeptically pulling out his phone to double check.

"Guys, can you stop?" I asked frustrated. "I'm going to call and check up on him. It's probably just a panic attack."

"What if he has multiple identity disorder?" Arman said suddenly. "We're covering disorders in my Psychology class."

"We have known him since we were kids," I reminded him. "Wouldn't we have noticed?"

"Yeah," Arman nodded. "Plus, he would've needed to undergo severe childhood trauma for his personality disassociation to occur. The boy's got a nice life. His parents got him a penthouse and all."

"Exactly," I said.

I excused myself to give Noah a call while my brothers ate their favorite cereal for breakfast. It was ten in the morning. He should be awake by now hopefully. I didn't want to disturb him earlier if he was resting.

Noah answered the call in a hoarse sleepy voice as if I had woke him.

"Were you sleeping?" I asked cautiously.

"Ye—no, I was in bed being lazy," he replied before yawning loud enough for me to hear.

"How are you?"

"I'm okay," he replied curtly. I didn't know how to ask him what happened last night that he had to kick me out. Fortunately, he resumed, "I had an anxiety attack. I'm sorry I had to force you away from me. I can't calm myself if someone is with me."

Relief flooded through my veins at his words. For a second, I had started to believe the possibility of Arman's multiple personality assumption.

"Is there something I can do to make you feel better?" I asked. I had to make sure to treat him right. After all, we were legally married on paper. I was his wife and his well wisher.

I heard a soft chuckle. "Yes. I'll come pick you up. We have to meet our lawyer and then begin the wedding prep. Be ready. That's help enough."

He bid me goodbye without telling me when he'd come pick me up. He didn't even know for sure if I had gone back home last night. He didn't even ask if I was okay after the stunt he pulled.

It was alright.

He was my fake husband.

I told the boys about Noah and mine plan for today.

"You can still leave him," Arman suggested. "I don't want him to abandon you in the middle of nowhere in the future because of his anxiety attack."

"I agree," Ishak added. "What if he turns into a werewolf and that was his secret all along? The anxiety attack is just a cover up. Don't go anywhere with him on full moon."

"Aw, you two care so much about me." I rubbed the top of their heads earning groans.

As they finished their food, I got ready.

Noah arrived two hours later in a black leather jacket paired with black ripped jeans. His hair was styled and I wondered how I hadn't found him handsome back in high school.

"I wanted to apologize about last night" was the first thing he told me when I got in the car.

"For what?"

"For pushing you away. Were you able to find a cab at that time?" he asked worried. So he did care! Something about his worrying gave me the butterflies. "I should've called you right away."

"It's alright," I assured. "Your parents aren't happy by this decision of ours. We can still call it off if you want. I won't mind."

He shook his head. "No way. We're going through with this the whole way. You're not getting rid of me this fast."

I matched his smile. He was an incredible guy and Olivia was lucky he was head over heels for her.

The lawyer's office was half an hour away from my apartment. It wasn't until we arrived inside his office that I realized I was meeting Zain from last night.

He wore black pants with a white button down with his sleeves rolled up. A law book sat open on his desk  along with a bunch of papers. He collected it quickly and pushed it to the side when he saw us. He was quite handsome.

"Welcome," Zain said with a bright smile. "Noah. Seher."

"Hey," I said as I took a seat.

"You two met already?" Noah asked confused.

"We went to the same high school," Zain said flatly.

"He gave me a ride home last night," I explained to Noah. "It was hard finding a cab and he told me he was our lawyer. Plus, yes, we went to the same high school."

"Aw man, I wanted to see your reaction to his weight loss," Noah said disappointed. "I didn't even recognize him when I first met him a few weeks ago."

"I was your senior, so it's not surprising you wouldn't recognize me," said Zain. "Anyway, let's get to work. We have to prepare for your interview which starts with social media cleansing. Olivia has to disappear if we want to prove this isn't fraud."

"Lulu and I love each other," Noah said confidently which made me look at him. "Olivia is just my ex. Isn't it suspicious if I erase every single sign of her?"

"Isn't it more suspicious to have a thousand photos of your ex on social media?" Zain inquired. "Delete her like you did with your other exes."

Noah frowned at him. Even I was taken aback by Zain's last sentence. It didn't come out as an advice . . . it was more of a jab. Was there something I was unaware of?

"What do you mean?" Noah asked on the same page as me.

"I meant you must have other exes," Zain said casually now. "You have to delete them from your social media. Olivia is the same. We need to see more photos of you and Seher—"

"Lulu, not Seher," Noah said annoyed. I could feel temperature rising for some reason. Why did he come to Zain if he didn't like him? Plus, Lulu and Seher made no difference. My mother was however the only person who called me Seher. It reminded me too much of her.

"It doesn't matter," I said quickly. "We'll take care of the social media. What else should we do, Zain?"

Zain met my eyes for a brief moment. "Wedding. Parties before wedding. Reception after wedding. The court marriage and the actual wedding date shouldn't be too far apart. We don't want the immigration officers to be suspicious if the gap is too long. We can easily say you wanted to get the paperwork going while you did the wedding preparations. Having no grand wedding ceremony is suspicious because Noah hails from a rich family."

Zain indulged into more advice that seemed to put Noah at ease and me into worry. How was I supposed to afford everything for the wedding? I wasn't working anymore. If Noah paid for everything, his mother would have a heart attack.

Wait, our goal was for her to despise me.

Once we bid adieu to Zain and got back to the car, I turned to Noah.

"Can you pay for all the wedding events and parties?" I asked unabashedly.

He eyed me before nodding. "Don't worry about it."

"I'll pay you back separately on the side," I promised. "It's just if you do it, your mom will hate me more. Because it's her family's money going out on me. I do promise to pay you though . . . in installments."

"That's not necessary—"

"No, I have money saved up—"

"I got it, Lulu."

"Then let me pay the lawyer fees," I said. "I can't let you pay for everything. Please. Don't say no."

I gave him my best puppy dog look to which he inclined after a minute or so.

"Fine."

His answer satisfied me but it also put me in a conundrum. While I had money saved up, the lawyer fees wasn't going to be less than ten grand. I needed to find a job or some strategy to make money to take care of my brothers too. We still had to pay rent every month.

Once we arrived at Noah's penthouse and we retired to our rooms, I called Catalina.

"Where have you been?" she asked me immediately.

"Chica, I have so much to tell you."

I launched into the story of everything that happened since I left work. She listened with great interest and gasped at the right places. When I finished I asked her about job opportunities at places I could get paid under the table.

"Let me see what I can do," Catalina told me. "My aunt's friend works at a supermarket where they pay her cash. I'll ask her to see if they'll hire you."

"Thanks so much," I said somewhat better. "I owe you. Let's catch up one of these days."

"No problem. Definitely."

She talked to me for another hour telling me how work was after I left. A lot of employees were paid cash and had to leave after the homeland security check. She talked about her husband getting a new job and making better money. By the time we finished talking, it was dinner time.

I was going to make something but Noah ordered pizza for the both of us.

"I ordered vegetarian. I wasn't sure if you ate meat or not," he said as we sat down on the sofa.

"I don't. Thanks," I said gratefully taking a slice. I had given up meat and fish because it gave more portions to my brothers. The vegetarian diet wasn't horrible after a few years. I no longer craved meat.

"I was thinking about hosting a get together with my friends here," he said. "You can invite yours and we'll announce our wedding. We'll have enough photos for proofs."

"Great idea," I said impressed. "I don't know how I'll ever repay you for all of this. We were never close enough in high school for you to go to this extent for me."

He leaned in closer to me. "Lulu, I like that I can do something for you. Remember how often I'd get mad at you when we were young?"

I felt heat rise to my cheeks at his closeness. His musky soapy cologne filled my senses.

"We were kids. I used to annoy you too," I admitted. "Remember I collected all the dead bugs in the neighborhood in a shoebox and gave it to you on your birthday."

He chuckled remembering it. "I thought you were a psychopath."

"I'm sorry I didn't know you had anxiety attacks," I said. "I would've never pulled a stunt like that. I was stupid."

"Don't worry. Now, we can laugh about it."

"You got so angry that day and threw that box," I said as I recalled the incident. "You also cursed frantically." Noah and I had only known each other for a year then. We were decent friends and I thought it'd be funny to do this to him. He was quite upset with me.

"You gave me the silent treatment," he said quickly. "Rather than you apologizing to me for the bugs, I had to apologize for losing my temper. That was unfair. You weren't even my girlfriend."

"Oh so you only apologize to your girlfriend?" I raised an eyebrow.

He grinned. "I was going to ask you on a date when I first moved into your neighborhood." I stopped in my tracks. "No, no, don't make it awkward. I know you never liked me. You had a massive crush on Johan—"

"What? No, I didn't!" I denied immediately even though it was true. Johan was the star soccer player in our school. Everyone adored him including me.

"You told all the neighborhood girls and they often talked about it," he said. "But sure, keep denying it."

"Okay fine, I liked him," I confessed. "But it's not like anything happened. He never even talked to me."

"Isn't it sad we often love people who don't return our feelings?"

He held my gaze and I didn't know if his words held a different meaning than the one I thought. I agreed along with his words and silently ate my food.

He put on a movie for us to watch in the living room. We sat on different sofa chairs curled up in our blankets we had collected from our bedrooms.

My mind kept going back to Noah's words.

I was going to ask you on a date when I first moved into your neighborhood.

Did he really like me?

Someone actually liked me?

I didn't know when I fell asleep, but for the first time since my mother's death, it was blissful.

* * *

A/N

Yo, you guys are gonna go crazy when you read the whole story. I don't want to give anything away but I'm pretty proud of the thriller.

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