Orson stops with a piece of sushi halfway to his mouth and stares at me, while Scarlett coughs into her water.
“What?” Orson says.
I try not to laugh. “You inspired me with your idea of a fake engagement.”
Orson starts laughing. “Oh yeah, a trophy wife.”
“This was your idea?” Scarlett says to him.
“He’s kidding.” Orson eats the sushi. I lift my eyebrows, and his eyes widen. “You’re not kidding?”
“Nope.” I eat the other half of the roll. “I thought it was a brilliant idea. It’s what the board wants—some kind of commitment to show respectability and responsibility.”
“Oh, the irony,” Scarlett says. “Sweetheart, what they want is for you to understand the benefits of being committed to someone. Not to fake it.”
“No,” I say impatiently, “it’s all about appearances. Nobody cares what I actually think or feel. It’s all about what it looks like.”
They exchange glances, then look back at me. “I think you’ve missed the point,” Scarlett says.
“I want to be CEO of the Foundation,” I point out, “not Director of Feelings and Emotions. I want to help the kids achieve more in their lives, to inspire them to do better. They don’t care about my love life. But I understand that it’s about presenting a respectable package, so I’m going to do what Orson suggested and fake it.”
“With whom?” he asks.
“Chessie Ross.” I help myself to another roll.
“Who?” Scarlett asks, puzzled.
“She’s an old friend of his.” Orson’s lips curve up. “She’s Joe Ross’s daughter.”
“Oh… from Ross Gardening?”
“Yeah. She and her brother, Mark used to play with Kingi and Marama when they were kids.”
“She’s in financial trouble,” I tell them. “Mark has run up significant gambling debts, and Joe remortgaged his house to try to pay them off. But now he’s recovering from a quadruple bypass so he can’t work, and the bank’s threatening repossession.”
“Oh no.” Scarlett presses her hand to her mouth. “That’s awful. What a worry for them.”
“Yeah, they just don’t have the cashflow to solve it.”
“Don’t tell me,” Orson says, “you asked her to pretend to be your fiancée in return for paying off the debt.” He glares at me.
I glare back. “What do you take me for? I offered to pay off the debt first, but she refused. The only way she’d accept it is if we made a bargain.”
“And she agreed?”
“Yeah, she texted me last night. She’s having trouble with an ex who keeps harassing her, and she told him she’d met someone else to get him off her back.”
“And then she agreed to marry you?”
“Tofakemarry me. Yes.”
Scarlett rolls her eyes. “Oh, this is going to end well.”
I huff at them. “I thought you’d both be supportive. She’s a good friend. It’s a brilliant idea.”
“It’s a shit idea,” Orson says. “You know what they say—having a female as a best friend is like having a chicken as a pet. You’ll definitely eat her one day.”
I glower while Scarlett subsides into peals of laughter.