Do We Have a Deal?

No matter how many times she thought about it, Violet could not think that her mother would agree to this arrangement.

However... her father might be willing to give this arrangement another try.

"You don't like the idea," Ryan spoke after a long silence between them. He had been observing her expression for a long time and was able to guess her thoughts.

"Of course I don't." Violet snapped angrily. Who in the right mind would agree to marry, let alone date a man with a bad temper and personality?

"Neither do I," Ryan said. "Look, let's think of this rationally. The way I see it, my mother dragged me to come over to your house means that she really wishes for this joint between our family to happen."

Violet narrowed her eyes as her brain whirled to think of what she should do. After a while, Violet let out a long, heavy breath. "Fine. Just give me a million dollars, and tell your mother that I'm just like any other girl. Would that work?"

Rather than getting engaged to this arrogant jerk, she would rather have her father pull out his investment in her bakery.

But of course, if she had a million dollars, she wouldn't have to worry about her bakery. Heck. She didn't have to worry about anything at all.

Ryan feigned a laugh. "I'm afraid that it was too late. I happened to hear a new interesting development. Because of what happened the other day, our parents wanted to give it a new chance. So, instead of an engagement or marriage, they wanted us to date and get to know each other."

Violet raised a brow.

What new development? This was what she had negotiated with her father earlier! She actually would not mind going to a trial date if only this arrogant jerk did not insult her in the first place.

A thought crossed her mind and Violet began to look at Ryan with pity. It seemed as if his situation was worse than hers. He was not able to say anything to object to his mother's suggestion! Meanwhile, she still could influence her parents to reconsider.

"There is no way I would ever agree to this stupid arrangement," Violet said.

"If you can convince our parents that this idea is all stupid, that would be good," Ryan muttered inaudibly.

"I thought it was clear that we hate each other. Why on earth would you think I will go along with my parents' plan?"

Ryan clenched his teeth, watching Violet step away from him. "You think I want to date you? I don't really have time for all this. But frankly, I would prefer dating rather than getting engaged."

"Well, I prefer none of them."

"That is not an option, although I wish it were. I did not like this arrangement more than you do. But, whether we like it or not, you cannot deny that we both are on the same boat."

Violet understood that there was something in the words he said. "What are you suggesting?"

Ryan massaged his temple. "Listen. We need to cooperate and think of something together. We need to help each other. If we can't go against them, all we need to do is to go along with their plan. When I said that, I did not mean that we were going to seriously date each other. Instead, we should be pretending that we're dating. When a month passes, we will tell them that we are not compatible with each other. They can't say anything more on the subject."

"You want me to deceive my family?"

"I think that would work," Ryan said. "Besides, we can't be deceiving them if we both are too busy with our careers to be seeing each other. I'm always busy with my work. Do you think I would have time to go out on a date?"

Violet bit her lips as she processed his words. "I need to think about this first." 

...

After dinner between the two families ended, Violet stepped out to the garden to find Ryan again after dinner and found him on the swings with his phone. She took a few steps towards him and coughed dryly to earn his attention.

"Have you made up your mind?" Ryan asked without lifting up his gaze.

Violet bit her bottom lip in hesitation. During their meal, their parents brought up the engagement again and persuaded them to try to date and get to know each other.

Although Violet wanted to say no, in the end, she could only escape by saying that she would give the matter some thought.

Then, Violet began to think over Ryan's proposal to pretend to date for a month during dinner. Suddenly, she could not shake off the guilt of having to lie to her parents. However, dating or engaged to Ryan was something she did not want. Not when he has been rude to her at their first meeting. But... if she agreed to Ryan's plan, she could save herself from marrying him and her bakery simultaneously.

"If I agree to your plan for this fake dating, I want to set a few ground rules first."

Ryan finally raised his head up. "Ground rules? Okay. Sure."

Violet clenched her fist to gather her courage as she watched him tap his fingers on his phone. "You must not insult me in any way. In fact, we should not do anything that would offend each other."

He looked up momentarily at her and nodded. "Okay. I will try my best not to insult you in any way." Ryan tapped at his phone again. "I think the most important is that we should agree not to tell anyone about this agreement."

"Not even my close friends?"

"Nope."

"Too late. My closest friends already knew about this plan."

"What?"

Violet heaved a sigh. "I consulted a few of my close friends about this whole new arrangement earlier. So they already know what we are planning."

Ryan shook his head in disapproval. "Girls. Why do they have to share everything with their best friends?" His voice was a whisper. He looked at the girl in front of him again and shrugged "Fine. Just make sure that they won't tell a soul. Or else, the blame would be on you."

"Don't worry. I trust them enough to know that they wouldn't betray me in any way," Violet told him. She let a few seconds of silence pass between them before she added another rule to their arrangement. "Within this period, both of us should participate in each other's activities or at least inform each other so we would have a matching story for our parents lest we could blow our cover."

"Agreed." Ryan nodded. He thought of something and said, "Neither of us shall seduce nor fall for each other."

"That... you don't have to worry. I have absolutely no intention to seduce or fall for you." Violet laughed sarcastically and rolled her eyes.

Did he think of him as Mr. Irressitable that she wanted to fall for him after what he had done? She was not that free!

"It wouldn't hurt to be extra careful. I didn't want you to fall for me and ruin my plan," Ryan said. "Do you have any other things you might want to add?"

"Not at the moment," Violet replied. "But we need to set something as compensation in case any of us breach the agreement," Violet suggested.

"What do you have in mind?" Ryan asked.

"If any of us violate the contract, we need to pay the other party exactly ten thousand Dollars," Violet said.

Ryan snickered at her suggestion.

"Look. I don't know what you would lose if your mother knew we had this agreement, but if my father learns about this; he would pull out his investment from my bakery. And I need that money to keep my bakery operational. I did not want to waste my time and come out empty-handed if you ever betrayed this contract."

"What will happen if you betray this agreement? Will you have money to pay me?"

The look on Violet's face turned ugly. She could tell that Ryan was trying to accuse her of wanting his family's money again. "You don't have to worry about that. I will find a way to pay you."

"Alright, I got it. Ten thousand dollars it is." Ryan tapped his finger on the phone again. Then, he looked up and extended his hand for a handshake. "Do we have a deal?"