Billionaire's Curvy Bet by Annabelle Winters

Author:Annabelle Winters [Winters, Annabelle]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Rainshine
Published: 2020-06-19T16:00:00+00:00

5

INDIA

“There’s no time for that,” Ingram says urgently, grabbing my wrist and whipping me around to face him. “The sun’s on its way down. We need to do this now, India. I told you, I don’t think our money’s at stake any longer. It might be our lives. If we aren’t married by sunset, it’s going to set off a chain-reaction of conditions in this fucked-up game of matchmaking.”

I’d been shocked when Ingram and James knocked on Janelle’s door, and even more shocked when Ingram excitedly explained how Mother and Father were using his and James’s own words as the conditions of the game.

But I wasn’t as shocked about the game as I was about the words.

Words that I’d used myself a long time ago.

“Janelle, do you remember that bachelorette party down in Atlantic City just a couple of years after grad school?” I say. She nods, and I can see those words are as fresh in her mind as they are now in mine.

“You said you’d rather die than get married,” Janelle says. She pauses, and her voice drops an octave. “And I said I’d rather kill someone than get married to someone.” She shoots a quick look at James. “Nothing personal,” she says, almost flirting with him in a way that makes this crazy situation feel vaguely surreal, almost playful, even magical.

“Um, I’m the one who should take it personally,” I remind her, smiling as I think back to the scare Janelle gave me with that look. Janelle’s always had a dark edge to her, but not that kind of dark. No way.

“Are we finished here?” Ingram says, one hand still on my wrist as he checks something on his phone. “Fuck. City Hall closed at five. Maybe we can call a Justice of the Peace at home. Or maybe fly to a different time zone fast enough.”

I glance over at Ingram, and then I look down at the way he’s holding my wrist. His grip is surprisingly tender, but at the same time firm and unyielding. He’d seemed wired at first, but now I realize it’s excitement, not panic. It’s almost like he actually wants to do this.

Suddenly I’m taken back to that moment at the Club, when I faced my own prejudices and beliefs about marriage. And while I haven’t suddenly changed all my beliefs, I can’t help but feel that something’s changed.

Is it because I’m no longer analyzing marriage as an abstract idea based on statistics and anecdotes and instead looking at it with a specific man in mind? Am I drawn to Ingram because of the heightened urgency and feverish excitement of the day? How can I analyze all the data fast enough to make a decision that’s gonna impact the rest of my life?!

My breathing starts to quicken, and I shift restlessly on my feet as all those old habits of sitting alone in a room and overthinking my life to death make me sick to my stomach with anxiety. Overthinking and overanalyzing

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