Tristan Asher was engaged. Pretty soon he would be a married man.
He had a way out of the impossible situation his father had put him in. Asher Industries was safe, all was well, all was good.
But Tristan's mind was stuck in a loop. He just could not get over the fact that he was engaged. Not only was he engaged, he was taking a huge risk by marrying a stranger who was clearly desperate for money.
Not only was she desperate for it, she was also very bad at handling cash. Now that Tristan actually had time to sit and think about it. He worried that he might have exchanged one problem for another.
What if she had a gambling problem? What if she was one of those people who believed that money had to be spent indiscriminately to make room for more?
What if- Tristan cut himself off. He was marrying her, it would do him no good to build her up into some sort of monster in his mind.
When all was said and done, the two of them would become a single entity instead of two individuals. He had to find a way to stop himself from thinking too much on her motivations for agreeing to marry him. That road led to nowhere good.
The only thing that Tristan could think of to silence his thoughts was to meet her in person. There was no doubt in his mind that her physical presence would help to quiet some of his more paranoid thoughts. Pulling out his phone Tristan stared at Ariel's number. She had been the one to save it and it showed. Her name was bracketed by two heart emojis.
Something that he never would have done for anyone. But in her case, he let it stay. It gave more credibility to the story of them being a love match. Finger hovering over his phone screen, Tristan hesitated. It would have been better for him to just press the call button or to maybe shoot her a quick text, but he found himself unable to do so.
Running a hand through his hair in frustration, no doubt messing it up, Tristan let out a sigh. Putting the phone down, he buried his face in his hands. What even was this? Why was he behaving in such a manner? Everything was going according to plan. He and Ariel were going to get married, which meant that his position as CEO was safe. Which was something that Tristan had been aiming for all along. They had both gotten as much time as they could given the circumstances to let everything sink in. It was great news. Tristan should have been on cloud nine, 24/7. But now a problem he had no idea how to deal with had arisen. He found himself up at all hours of the night, wandering over Ariel's character. She was somebody who owed a million to a lone shark. But who also took the time to cook for a person she barely knew. That spoke of a kind and caring person, not a gold-digger.
The two versions of Ariel made no sense to Tristan, which was she? A money hungry woman or somebody who was genuinely nice? Not only did that question bother Tristan when he was at home supposed to be resting. It also followed him to work, which was currently the case. Rather than thinking about Ariel Jones, and the way in which she was confusing him. He was supposed to be hard at work. But the document he was supposed to be reading had long been forgotten. His laptop screen having gone dark the longer he had stayed away from doing any work. With a frustrated groan, Tristan picked his phone back up and stared at it. Then he put it down on his desk, face down. He was in no state to talk to Ariel over the phone, but the two of them still needed to meet. Thinking on it, he recalled discovering her address when he had been trying to find her. Reaching for his work phone, he called his PA in, and a few seconds later, she was standing in front of him.
"Lucy, I need you to take the rest of the day off and run a few errands for me." Her eyes widened at that, but she nodded.
"Of course, what do you need me to do?" She asked, lacing his fingers together. Tristan let himself think back to the shape of Ariel's body and also to her feet. Doing mental calculations, he came up with sizes that he was pretty certain were Ariel's exact measurements.
"Buy me an evening gown as well as shoes in these sizes," Thinking on it, Tristan decided to add something more. "...include a bouquet of flowers as well as a note. With this message..." Picking a pen up from the desk, Tristan grabbed a piece of paper and quickly wrote something down.
Wear these for our date tonight at 8 p.m. I will have a car come and pick you up.
Lucy took the note from him. Her eyes went over it briefly. Then her gaze slid over to him. The question there, clear to see. But she was professional enough not to say anything and Tristan was glad for that. Things were already confusing enough in his own head. He had no idea what he would say to others if he were forced to explain things. With Lucy-gone Tristan let out a soft breath, suddenly feeling nervous. He really hoped things worked out.