The Marine Meets His Match

“The Marine who came to Becky’s school’s Career Day bought my building. And I’m engaged to him.”

“To Bossy Marine Man who scared my little girl?”

“Yeah.” Serena’s voice sounded freaked even to her own ears.

“Is he there right now?”

“No.”

“Then get out the Pistachio Pistachio ice cream, I’m comin’ right over.”

“Thanks, Lulu.” Serena used the nickname she reserved for special occasions, and this one sure qualified.

She and Lucy had become friends as freshman college roommates at UNCW. Lucy had gotten pregnant and married after that first year, but she and Serena had remained very close.

By the time Serena cleared the junk mail from her pine dining table and got the ice cream out of the freezer and the bowls out of the cabinet, Lucy was knocking on her door.

The first thing she did was put her hand on Serena’s forehead. “You don’t feel like you’re running a high fever.”

“I’m not.”

“If you’re not delirious with a high fever then why would you say you were engaged to Bossy Marine Man?”

“His name is Rad Kozlowski.”

“That doesn’t sound like a Marine name to me. The Marines I know have solid, tough American names like Harry or Bud.”

“His name is the least of my worries.” Serena dug the red plastic scooper into the ice cream and dumped a sizable portion into Lucy’s dish and then another huge scoop into her own.

“What did he do to you?”

“He bought my building and then offered to cut my rent in half if I’d help him.”

“The rat buzzard. What did he want you to do? As if I couldn’t guess.”

Serena withdrew the spoon she’d just offered Lucy. “Before I tell you anything else, you have to swear you won’t leak a word of this to anyone.”

“I swear.”

“Not even your husband.” Serena waved the flat-ware for extra emphasis.

“What if we need him to beat up your Marine?”

Lucy’s husband Alec was built like a linebacker, because he was one. He’d played that position in college. “We don’t need Alec to beat up anyone. Now swear, on this carton of Pistachio Pistachio, that you won’t tell a soul what I’m confiding in you.”

Lucy solemnly placed her hand over the Ben & Jerry logo. “I swear. Now tell me what the rat buzzard wants you to do. Wait, let me eat a bite of ice cream first….”

Serena quickly did the same.

“Okay,” Lucy mumbled around the cold dessert. “Tell me.”

“He wants me to pretend to be his fiancée.”

Lucy frowned. “Is he gay?”

“Thank you.”

“For what?”

“For thinking the way I do. I thought that was his reason for asking me and he acted like I was crazy instead of it being a reasonable possibility.”

“So is he?”

“No.”

“You’re sure?”

“Oh yeah.”

“That’s a very emphatic reply. Care to tell me how you can be so sure?”

“He almost kissed me. This is definitely a guy who likes women. Which is the problem. It seems there’s a general’s daughter who’s been chasing him, and—”

“He’s using a fiancée as an excuse to get rid of her.”

“Something like that, yes.”

“Why you?”

“My name just happened to slip out because the girl confronted him right after I met him at the school and we had a run-in.”

“You didn’t tell me you had a run-in with him.”

After taking a huge bite, Serena dabbed at her chin with a paper napkin. “I didn’t think it was worth mentioning.”

“Clearly it made an impression on him—you made an impression on him if your name was the first that came to his mind.”

“Do you think I’m really stupid to go along with this?”

“You haven’t told me much about what ‘this’ actually is.”

“Pretending to be his fiancée.”

“For how long?”

“As long as it takes for her to lose interest. Look.” She waved the contract at Lucy. “He even had this drawn up so I would be assured that my rent would be reduced, both for the store and the apartment. It’s all here in writing.” She jabbed the document with her index finger and broke her nail in the process.

Lucy took the paper from her and looked it over. “It also says that this is not a real engagement and does not constitute a proposal of marriage. I’d say the guy was commitment shy.”

“He has nothing to worry about from me in that department.”

“Because you’re commitment shy too.”

“With good reason.”

“Maybe.”

“Maybe?”

“Yeah, maybe. You don’t really give most guys a chance to screw up. You dump them before they dump you.”

“It’s safer that way.”

“Not all guys are like your father.”

“Most aren’t sweet like your Alec.”

“Yet here you are engaged to a bossy military man, your worst nightmare.”

“Yes, but I’m not really engaged. This is just a simple business arrangement.”

“It’s a lie. And you better than anyone should know how messy things can get as a result of a lie.”

“I don’t want to talk about that now.” Serena was upset enough with the present situation. She really couldn’t emotionally afford to dig up her past mistakes at the moment.

“Okay. I’m just saying that things can get complicated.”

“I realize that. But I couldn’t pass this up. The economic reality is that I need this decrease in the rent. Things have been tough.”

“You haven’t said anything.”

“Because I don’t like focusing on the negative.”

“Yeah, you’re just Serena Sunshine.”

Serena stuck her tongue out at her.

Lucy grinned. “Well, you are. You always try to find the good in any situation.”

“That didn’t always come naturally for me. Quite the opposite. But I’ve made a concerted effort to learn to look for the silver lining.”

“Well, you’ve been successful at it. Except where it applies to guys.”

“Hey, I’ve dated several men recently, but none of them really made that big an impression.”

“Because you tend to go for the bland, bookish types.” Lucy brandished her empty spoon at Serena as a reprimand.

“Well, I sure don’t usually go for the dark, brooding Adrian Paul type.”

“Aha, so Bossy Marine Man is a hunk, huh?”

“He’s good-looking in a big, broad-shouldered, sexy-gleam-of-humor-in-his-eyes kind of way.”

“I thought you said he was the dark and brooding type.”

“He is. Then he’ll get this gleam of humor in his eyes and they kind of light up…” Serena paused as a vision of Rad’s face filled her mind.

“Uh-oh.”

“Uh-oh what?”

“Your cat is eating your ice cream.”

“Bella, you little squirt!” Serena picked up the sleek, small gray cat and set her on the floor. “Now you know why I call her Bella-That’s-Mine. She thinks everything in this house is hers. Oshi would never dream of stealing my ice cream.” Serena had found the mother cat and her tiny kitten hidden near the Dumpster behind her building. She’d managed to coax the mom inside once she had the kitten in her hands. To her surprise, Oshi had taken one look around the apartment, walking around the perimeter to check things out, and then curled up on Serena’s favorite area rug and started nursing.

Serena had had the two of them for almost a year now, and had gotten both the mom and her kitten spayed. The two of them provided Serena with some much-needed company and plenty of laughs.

Bella licked her chops, her pink tongue swirling over her black whiskers, before jumping onto Serena’s lap where she curled up and started washing herself.

“Just be careful that you don’t fall for this guy. I know how you are about strays.” Lucy pointed at Bella. “Look at that cat. Living in the lap of luxury.”

“Rad isn’t a stray. He’s a completely self-sufficient Marine.”

“If he were that self-sufficient he wouldn’t have needed your help, now would he?”

“Everyone needs a little help now and then.”

“Help him and then get out.”

“That’s the plan.”

“Good. Just be sure you stick to the plan.”

The next morning Serena tried to focus on the fact that her rent was cut in half for the next year and not the fact that she’d agreed to pretend to be Rad’s fiancée for an indefinite period of time.

Focus on the positive. And stay away from the chocolate. After Lucy had left, Serena had eaten half-a-dozen dark chocolate lemon-cream truffles from her hidden cache in the Shakespeare cookie jar. But then it wasn’t every day that a girl got engaged, even if it wasn’t for real.

The young woman walking into The Reader’s Place in the low-riding jeans and skimpy designer T-shirt was for real, however. And she was looking around with the kind of dismissive attitude that immediately put Serena on edge.

Reminding herself that she was good with people, Serena was about to ask if she could help the woman when she spoke first.

“Does Serena Anderson work here?”

“I’m Serena Anderson.”

Instead of introducing herself, the woman frowned at Serena’s simple denim dress and sandals as if she were a fashion dinosaur.

“And you are?” Serena prompted her before reminding herself that getting aggravated with someone because they were younger, prettier and skinnier than you was not a good thing.

“My name is Heidi Burns. My father is General Burns.”

Yeah, I was afraid of that. “Hi, Heidi. Rad told me about you.”

Her face lit up. “Like seriously? He did? What did he say?”

Serena couldn’t tell the truth of course. “Just that you know about our engagement.”

“It’s kind of sudden, isn’t it?”

Serena just shrugged. It gave her a moment to collect her thoughts. She hadn’t expected Heidi to show up so quickly. When had she and Rad said they’d met? Her mind suddenly went blank. Why hadn’t she taken notes during their dinner last night?

“You’re not wearing a ring.”

“It’s being sized.” Serena had planned on stopping by a few stores later that afternoon to find something reasonable.

“So how did you two like meet?”

“Through a mutual friend.” That was right, wasn’t it? Wasn’t that what they’d finally decided? After the falling in love at first sight nonsense?

“A mutual friend?”

Serena nodded. Surely there had to be some advantage in being older than Heidi? Wasn’t she supposed to have more confidence and stuff like that?

Why, oh why had she eaten that carton of ice cream last night? And the chocolate.

Heidi probably never ate ice cream. She nibbled on lettuce to fit into those size zero jeans.

Or maybe, even worse, Heidi was one of those horrible people with a fast metabolism who could eat like a horse and never gain a pound. If that was the case, then Serena granted herself permission to really dislike Heidi.

At least Serena was taller than Heidi. Big deal. Guys didn’t lust after gawky giraffes, they went for the petite little things with big breasts.

And okay, yeah, Serena could hold her own in the bra-cup division—without any artificial assistance from implants or water bras, thank you very much. But her big breasts were matched with a big bottom. And while Jennifer Lopez might make that look appealing, the star was much tinier than Serena.

Okay, stop it. You cannot have a self-image meltdown in front of this girl. Healthy women have curves. You’re a healthy women with lots of curves. So stop with the criticism, Serena ordered herself.

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