Chapter 8: Forever With The CEO: Chapter 8

We were at Hugo’s office at seven thirty the next morning. I’d called him after I left Allison’s place, and he agreed to see us before his first client. He asked me what it was about and was shocked as hell when I told him.

He greeted us at the door. “Allison, Nick. Come on in. Allison, it’s nice to finally meet you in person.”

“Likewise,” she said, shaking his hand. She was wearing a suit again, and my imagination was already running wild.

He invited us to sit down. I’d never actually been here before. It was in a redbrick building downtown. His office was very spacious and lawyerly looking with bookshelves everywhere.

“Coffee?” he offered. “I have an espresso machine now.”

“Let’s get right to it,” I said. “We’re short on time.”

“All right, then.”

As we sat down, Hugo said, “I have to say, I was shocked when Nick told me what this was about.”

“So, you think it’s a bad idea?” Allison asked.

I looked at her intently. She was fiddling her thumbs and had moved forward to the very edge of the seat.

“No, I just wasn’t expecting it. When I gave you my advice, I was sincerely hoping that you were already in a relationship. That would have been an easy solution. A lazy one, but lazy solutions are usually the best. Everything else carries too much risk.”

Allison looked at me, and I nodded. “You take the lead with the questions,” I told her.

“Fire away with anything that’s on your mind. Don’t hold back,” Hugo said. “I’m here to listen to all your worries and tell you if they’re legitimate or not.”

“Could this backfire in any way? Like if anyone discovered it wasn’t for real?” she asked.

He shrugged. “Like any other marriage, it will either work out or it won’t. More than half of marriages end up in divorce anyway. If that were to happen after the dust settled in the custody battle, no one could blame you, and it wouldn’t negatively impact your keeping the kids.” He hesitated. “The grandparents could then make a case against you. But in my experience, once a judge grants custody to someone, they’re unlikely to revoke it.”

“That leads me to my next question,” Allison said. “How long would we have to do this for?”

Hugo placed his hands over the table. “Hard to say. Depends how long the custody battle takes. Could be a few months, could be a year, maybe two. But I can have the divorce papers drafted up and ready to go, so the minute you get custody, we can set the divorce in motion.”

She looked at her knees. “And we have to live together?”

I glanced at Hugo, waiting for his reaction.

He nodded once. “It would be for the best. It’s hard to make a case of stability if you two live in separate homes. It could work, but I wouldn’t advise it.”

I turned to face her. “Allison, we can solve that. It’s not an insurmountable obstacle.”

“What else do you want to know?” Hugo asked.

Allison laughed, looking at the floor. “Sorry. I just can’t shake the feeling that it isn’t real that we’re here, asking these things.” She glanced at me. “That Nick would even want this.”

Hugo stared at me, and I knew what he was thinking. Why the actual fuck was I considering this? We’d been friends for a long time but weren’t close enough for him to ask. I could tell when I set up this meeting last night that he’d been wanting to, and that he still did now too.

“For what it’s worth,” he said, “I think people get married for worse reasons. It’s commendable that you two want to make sure that the kids end up with someone who has their best interest at heart. I suggest you two sign a prenup so that there are no issues afterward. The divorce would then simply be a formality.”

“All right,” Allison murmured. “So, you think this could work? That I would for sure keep custody?”

“It would definitely work in your favor. You’d have a household with two incomes, plus a stable relationship. It’s good that you’ve known Nick for a while. We still have time to decide how we play this for the court. For example, should we say that you two have been together since you first met?”

“That would be at Nora and Jim’s wedding,” I replied.

Allison shook her head. “That won’t work. That was seven years ago, and we only saw each other a few times at birthday parties until they passed away. And I’m sure each of us has dated other people in between.”

“Then we could use that as your starting point. You two bonded after the catastrophe and so on.” Hugo spoke in a very matter-of-fact tone. Allison winced. I didn’t like it either. “Of course, that was only four months ago. But we live in an age where things happen very fast. The situation is unique and could spur a romantic relationship.”

Allison finally looked at him. “You’re certain there are no drawbacks? That there’s no other way I could keep custody?”

“There’s always a possibility that you could win in court against your sister’s in-laws. I wouldn’t discard that. But we’d need to smear them good. It could get nasty,” Hugo admitted.

“So we’re back to attacking them,” she said, sounding distraught.

I hated the stress this was placing on her. The more we discussed the marriage option, the more I could see ways I could help her and make her life a bit easier. And let’s face it, it was no hardship on me. I’d live with a beautiful woman and hang out with the two best kids in the world. I could do this for a while.

“Custody battles can be very dirty,” Hugo replied. “That’s why I don’t advise to actually go into battle.” He checked his watch. “Okay, I’ve got to get going. I’m sorry, but I need to jump onto a Zoom meeting.”

“Yes, of course,” Allison said. “Thank you so much for seeing us this early.”

The second we stepped out of the building, Allison sighed, putting a hand to her temple.

“Coffee?” I asked her.

Even though her head was tilted forward, I saw her lips curl up in a smile. It felt like a personal victory.

“Not a bad idea. I skipped it again at home.”

“When do you have to be at work?”

“I have a bit of time.”

I kept a hand on her back as I led her to the Starbucks down the block.

Even though it was early, it was already warm out. I didn’t know why I bothered with suits in summer. They looked good, but I got too damn hot in them.

I took off my jacket and pushed my sleeves to my elbows. I caught Allison watching me. When she noticed me looking at her, she immediately glanced away. I felt victorious again for no apparent reason.

Starbucks was all but empty, so after we got our drinks, I suggested, “Want to sit in here?”

“Sure, let’s go to one of those. They look cozy,” she said, pointing to the couches.

She sat down on the one farthest from the door, and I lowered myself right next to her. The couch was big, but I wanted this closeness. In Hugo’s office, I barely resisted the urge to pull my chair right next to hers.

“It was good that we went to see him. That he put you at ease.”

Allison shrugged. “Some things are clearer, but that doesn’t mean I’m more at ease.”

I nodded. “I know what you mean.”

“You do? You seem so blasé about all this. Like you’re not even the slightest bit worried about anything.”

“It’s a gamble. It’s definitely crazy. But is it worth it? I think so. And another one of my rules is if something is worth it, I go ahead with it. No matter how complicated or hard things may be down the road.”

“That’s a fantastic outlook on life. I’m the same, actually, but this is just so… you know, out there that…” She crossed her legs, sipping her coffee. Her skirt rode up a few inches.

I closed my eyes, looking away. The images in my mind had a life of their own. What the hell is going on? I opened my eyes, grabbing my cup from the table in front of us and sipping from it.

When I first met Allison at Jim’s wedding, I thought she was hot. But I also knew she deserved someone who wanted to have a relationship and the whole nine yards.

Fate sure was funny. Who knew that years later, I’d be carrying her over the threshold into a house with a readymade family to be a husband and dad?

Whoa. That thought made me take a deep breath. Fake or not, suddenly things got real.

“What would we tell our parents or our friends?” she asked, drawing me away from my thoughts.

Good question.

“Whatever we’re comfortable with. If we tell them the truth, no one will judge, at least not on my side. Then again, they can’t slip up and expose our ruse or this will all go to hell. I’ll need to think on that. What about your parents?”

“My parents are very kind,” she said with affection in her tone. “These past few months have been extremely hard on them.”

“I can imagine. Losing your child must be awful,” I said, realizing how much her entire family had been through these last months.

Allison winced. “Let’s not talk about that or I’ll become really emotional.”

“Sure. What else is on your mind?”

“He advised us to live together.”

“We’ll do what makes the most sense. I can sleep on the couch for as long as it takes. I don’t care.”

“Nick, my couch is tiny. Your head and feet won’t fit on it at the same time.”

I leaned in closer, narrowing my eyes. “We’ll buy a new couch.”

She laughed. “Right, I didn’t think about that. Guess we could have a pull-out and take turns sleeping on it. And—” She stopped abruptly and stared at her cup.

“What’s on your mind?”

As she took another sip of coffee, I noticed that her cheeks were tinted pink. What was she blushing about?

The mere possibility that her thoughts were as out of control as mine only fueled me more. I was so attracted to this woman that I couldn’t think straight. How the hell did I think I could live with her?

“During this time… would we be celibate?” she asked hesitantly. “Or would we have separate lives?”

“Fuck,” I exclaimed.

She laughed. “Finally, you’re panicking about something. I thought I was the only weird one.”

I burst out laughing. “I didn’t think about that. We’ll play it by ear, I guess.”

She raised a brow. “How could we play something like that by ear? It’s important.”

“Either of those two solutions sucks,” I told her openly. “So maybe we could come up with something else.”

“Like what?”

“No idea. Hence playing it by ear.” The more I thought about it, the more I found those options completely unacceptable. The thought of Allison going on a date with some guy was unthinkable. But being celibate was simply not possible. Slowly, I was starting to realize, there were no other options.

“I can feel you panicking,” Allison said, nudging me with her shoulder. She miscalculated the angle, though, because I definitely felt her breast brushing my chest. Her breath caught, and when she gasped lightly, her eyes snapped up.

Swallowing hard, I tilted my head, looking directly at her. She was so damn close, I could smell the coffee on her lips. Those perfect and inviting lips.

“We’ll work it out.” My voice was so rough, I almost didn’t understand what I was saying myself. “The important thing is that the kids stay with you.”

“Oh, what will we tell the kids?” she whispered.

Her chest was still rising up and down in labored breaths. Clearly the nearness was affecting her, and that just pumped my ego.

I was such a bastard. I was telling this woman that she could count on me, that I was willing to marry her so she could get custody of the twins, yet at the same time, I was fantasizing about making her mine and enjoyed the way my touch rattled her.

“This will confuse them,” Allison added.

“Yeah, there‘s no way around that. Us living together and telling people that we’re married, yet at the same time sort of living separate lives, is fucked up. As a kid who’s been in a fucked-up family situation, that doesn’t sit right by me.”

Her eyes softened. “They’d love having you at the house. They constantly ask when you’re coming over. I know having you as a dad, or at least a father figure, will be really easy for them to adjust to. Are you ready for that?”

“Fuck yes! I care about them a lot. And even after the divorce, I’d still be around—I’d make sure of it. I’ll spoil them to the moon and back,” I promised.

“That makes two of us. Before, spoiling them was my job, since I’m their aunt. But I can’t seem to get out of the habit.”

“So what? I think you can spoil kids and make sure they have a good head on their shoulders at the same time.”

“True.” Seemed like she needed more convincing.

“That’s what my grandparents always did. Granted, we were older when we actually met them, so it was a different situation, but they balanced that very well.”

There was a pause, and then Allison asked, “How do you think your grandparents would take this?” She moved a bit farther away from me—another sign that my nearness affected her.

“They’re usually very supportive, but they don’t condone deception.”

She scoffed. “What a good word to describe this.”

“I have no doubt that they’d be supportive, no matter their opinion. But lying to them would be hard.”

“It’s good that you can count on your family’s support.”

I blew out a heavy breath. “It wasn’t always like this. For the longest time, there were two separate groups: my brothers and me and our half brothers. Two of them preferred to pretend we didn’t exist, and I don’t blame them. They were older when everything started. They had a front-row seat to the whole thing and what it did to their mother.”

“Oh,” Allison whispered. “Did she ever recover? Is she okay now?”

“Unfortunately, she got sick and passed away shortly after.”

She winced. “That’s terrible. Poor boys.”

“Exactly.”

“I’m almost afraid to ask… but how is your mom?”

I grinned. “She’s living her best life, actually. She’s traveling the world, doing odd jobs, mostly teaching yoga and Pilates. My brothers and I do take care of her financially, but she insists on having at least some income of her own.”

“You’re good sons.”

“We try to be. She deserves the world. Things were difficult for her even before things came to light. Actually, I think they might have been even more difficult before because she was struggling to keep up with all our expenses.”

“What do you mean? Your father wasn’t contributing?”

I shook my head. “Only minimally. He gave her a bullshit story about his father, our grandfather, controlling the finances of the company and him being on a very strict leash. So she worked two jobs.” Her own parents had cut off contact with her because they didn’t approve of her having children without being married.

“But your father is a Whitley.” The way she said our last name made me feel funny. There were pluses and minuses to the legacy for sure.

“Yeah,” I said through gritted teeth. “Unfortunately. Thankfully, he lives in Australia now. We don’t deal much with him. You know, when you first mentioned that you’re willing to go to any lengths to get custody of the kids, I started thinking about my own parents. The whole situation. How my father lost interest in all his sons after the scandal. How he just up and left.”

“Oh, Nick.”

I had no idea why I’d even brought this up. She didn’t need to know. It had been a long time ago.

“So, you grew up without him?” she asked.

“Yes. In retrospect, it was probably better. Things were tense with everyone even with him out of the picture. But as a kid, it felt terrible. Like we weren’t wanted, didn’t matter, and no one was in our corner.”

Her shoulders dropped. “That’s a really terrible thing to do to your kid.”

“We’ll make sure the twins never feel that way,” I said, deciding to stop bringing up negative stuff. What was up with that? I rarely spoke about the past. It just made no sense. It was part of the past, and it wasn’t affecting the present in any way.

Allison smiled from ear to ear. “This is batshit crazy. We can’t think through every scenario and foresee everything that can go wrong. But for the first time since I got their email about trying to get custody, I’m feeling hopeful. And I should tell them that we’re…”

“Engaged.” The word felt completely foreign. “You should definitely tell them.” I shifted on the couch so I could lean closer. I put a hand on the backrest, bringing my mouth almost to her ear. “I promise you, Allison, we’ve got this.”

“You’re awfully sure of yourself!” She was back to teasing me, which was a good sign. She’d been so tense in Hugo’s office that I wasn’t certain that she’d relax at all today.

I flashed her a quick grin. “Always. It’s the secret to my success.”

“What is?”

“Blindly believing in my ability to achieve something. It’s served me very well, and I’m sure we can apply the same strategy here.”

“Nick, this isn’t a business project.”

“Nah, it’s far more than that. But we’ve got this, Allison,” I repeated. “You and me. We’ve got this.”