C5 Off the market

Gabe woke up with a splitting headache. What happened last night? He remembered going to a bar and meeting a woman.

What woman?

Did he bring her home?

He'd blacked out and couldn't remember anything. Why did he drink so much?

He got up from the bed to realize that he was without clothes then he realized that he must have slept with the woman.

As he walked out of his room, something on the floor caught his attention.

It was a necklace. It had a little pendant and the letter 'E' was engraved on it.

It had to be the lady's because he had never seen it before.

"Mark" he called his butler after he'd put on his robe and left the room.

"Yes sir" Mark answered

"What happened last night? Did I bring a lady home?"

"Yes you did sir"

"Who is she?"

"I don't know sir, I could barely see her face and she left this morning without attracting attention"

He groaned in frustration. He wasn't supposed to bring women home after the ultimatum his dad had given him. Worst of all, he couldn't remember her!

But deep down, he knew that there was something different about the woman that made him want to break the rules. A little memory of last came in. A memory of how he was unable to resist her.

His phone rang, he looked at the caller to see it was his dad.

What did his dad want?

He picked the call.

"Good morning, dad" he said

"Take a look at this!" His dad said and sent him a link. He clicked on the link and an article popped up.

The headline of the article was; 'CEO of Konstantinou Cooperation seen with another woman this month. Is he off the market or still can't keep it in his pants?'

The article displayed a picture of him when he was kissing the woman in the bar.

It didn't show the woman's face though, her side view was blurred. How did the damned media get to him? It was partially his fault for going to a public place.

"Who the hell is that?" His dad barked over the phone

"It's not what it looks like, dad" he said, trying to calm the situation. He had to give a quick and plausible explanation to give his dad unless he was done for.

"You haven't answered my question. Who is that woman?"

"She's...she's my ....she's my..."

"She's your what?" He snapped in an impatient tone.

"Fiance! She's my fiance!"

That was the only thing he could come up with. His job was at stake.

"Since when?"

"We got engaged yesterday" he added quickly.

"In a bar?"

"Yeah. It was a spontaneous decision and that's her favorite bar"

"When am I going to meet her?" His dad asked

"Soon, dad"

"Okay" there was a little silence on the line before his dad spoke. "I'm going to take down that post and release the news of your engagement but I'll keep the identity of your fiancee hidden to avoid unwanted attention"

His heart skipped at his dad's calculative nature. His lie was already been acted upon and he couldn't take it back.

"Gabe?" His dad called

"Yes, dad"

"Well done son" he said and hung up.

Gabe was frantic. He needed to turn that little lie into the truth before it backfired.

But how would he go about it? He couldn't even remember the woman he spent the night with. He was so drunk yesterday.

He called his bodyguard.

"That woman I spent the night with. Find her right now! Whatsoever way you want to go about it, but make it quick" he barked

With all the money and influence he owned, surely it would not be hard to find a lady.

Like an hour and forty minutes later, the lady was found by his bodyguards.

They'd traced her location from this morning when she left his house and went to hers.

Gabe immediately dressed up and went there.

The house didn't look so bad but it didn't look like a rich person owned it.

He got to the house and knocked.

It took a little while but the door was opened.

A blonde lady of average height opened the door. Her eyes widened when she saw him.

"I'm sorry to show up like this but it's urgent. Do you remember me? We met last night" he began, secretly hoping to not embarass himself here. Not everyone went in search of their one night stands the following day.

"Come in" she said quietly.

She politely led him to sit down and offered him tea.

"Once again, I apologize for showing up like this"

"It's not a problem" she said. "Why have you come here?"

"I have a business proposal for you" he said. He had to present it this way. He couldn't ask her to marry him just because he spent the night with her.

"What's it?"

"I apologize again but I don't know your name"

"It's Elizabeth. Beth for short" she replied.

"Do you have a job?" He asked

"For now, no" she replied

He got a vague memory of her yesterday, complaining about stressful it is to get a job.

"I want to hire you to be my wife. We get married, stay married for a year and I'll pay you monthly and see to it that all your needs are met" he said

He added before she could talk. "Please understand that I'm in a tight position, hence my preposterous business proposal. I already told my parents that the woman I spent last night with is my fiancee, so I have to see this through"

She kept silent for a moment and then spoke. "How much am I receiving monthly?"

He called an amount that made her weak on the knees. Beth had hit the jackpot. Scoring a hot billionaire like this one, what a luck she had.

"I'll think about it" she said in order not to sound desperate.

"Okay" he said and gave her his card.

"Call this number when you agree. I'll send a car to get you and your things to my house"

"Okay" she said and saw him out.

Gabe got into the car and was driven to work. He was over an hour late, seeing that he usually came in at eight in the morning.

He was expecting his new secretary to resume work today. He hoped he or she would be better than the last.

Minutes later, his secretary entered with his coffee on a tray. Good thing she'd been briefed about his likes and dislikes.

Her hands were shaking as she approached him and suddenly, she froze and dropped the coffee.