A/N: I'm so excited about this story. I got the idea from RichonneFic's Rom Com Challenge, which was in Oct but my ass writes slow as hell. This story is a Richonne spin on the movie The Proposal with Ryan Reynolds and Sandra Bullock.
"What the hell was that Rick!?" After hearing the dial tone, Michonne ended the call and slammed her hands down on the marble desk in front of her.
"I…, I don't even know where that came from." Rick grabbed his head in astonishment as he paced back and forth in Michonne's small office.
"I knew I shouldn't have let you do the talking. But no, Grimes didn't want to be left out. You almost screwed this up for the both of us!" Michonne scoffed.
The two coworkers ended in a stalemate. Rick and Michonne were the top two book editors of their growing publishing company in New York City. For the past two weeks they spent their every waking day drawing up a book deal with a huge potential client, Oprah. Their boss Negan trusted them to close the deal before everyone came back from Thanksgiving holiday. It being their last day of business, Michonne suggested that she handle talking directly to the media mogul herself, rather than talking through Oprah's publicist like they had been doing.
"I was just trying to give her a compliment." Rick replied sternly.
"Telling her that it's outstanding that a dark-skinned woman with kinky hair like her had books flying off the shelf is not, and I repeat, not a compliment. Are you missing common logic and reasoning?" Steam practically rose from Michonne's head.
"It came out wrong," he groaned.
"Well hopefully she'll be able to look over your white ignorance and decide to sign with us. Let's give Negan this update and be done with it. This time I'll do all the talking." Rick silently mocked her as he let her strut past him toward the boardroom.
He hung back a few steps as Michonne strode past several cubicles in her 6 inch heels and tight pencil skirt with ease. For the three years that had Rick worked at the company he knew Michonne to be as serious as the day was long. She never partook in work room jokes, or after work happy hours, and seemed like a complete stick in the mud. He knew nothing of her life outside of work and she seemed to like it that way. She kept no photos of family in her office, nor did she ever mention them. He could not fathom how someone as pretty as her could be so cold.
Michonne wore her chestnut locs in a perfect bun every single day. Her look was just as precise as her daily routine. White crisp blouse, black skirt, black heels. Coffee, close the office door to work for six hours, bathroom, leave, repeat. The two weeks Negan forced them to work together was the closest he had ever been to her. The only new information that he gathered was that she had a best friend named Sasha who worked downstairs in marketing.
As Rick followed her a couple footsteps behind, Daryl caught up to him and asked. "You close the deal?"
"Eh, we don't know yet. Oprah said she wanted to review all her offers and make a decision by Monday."
"Damn, way to keep you on your toes."
"Tell me about it. To make matters worse, Michonne said I offended Oprah. So if this doesn't go through, Michonne is going to have my ass on a stake."
"What a witch." The scruffy friend shook his head and patted Rick on the back, allowing him to enter the boardroom.
Negan sat on the edge of the long boardroom table with his legs crossed at the ankle. He was a charming man in a large package. He loomed over the rest of the staff with his tall stature and could give a hug tight enough to wrestle a bear. Even so, he was very well put together. His hair was perfectly slicked back every day and he owned an impressive collection of dress shoes that completed his suit and tie look.
Michonne had already taken her position in front of Negan waiting for Rick. "Ah Rick, I was just introducing Michonne to Aaron from Human Resources." Rick then noticed the semi-familiar guy from the office Christmas party last year. He had short curly hair and wore a pair of glasses high on his nose. He was curious as to why he was needed during their report. Negan continued, "Since you're here why don't you two tell me how the conversation with Oprah went."
Rick began, "I-"
Michonne cut him off. "Negan, Oprah seems very impressed with our offer. Our small staff gives us clout over our big-time competitors. She can trust that we won't be harping her for a large percentage of her book's proceeds. She wants to review the other offers, but she said she'll have her manager call us with her decision by Monday after the holiday."
"Sounds great! I knew I could trust you two to get the job done. Speaking of the holiday, Grimes, can you grab that box and pass out holiday mugs to the staff. Be careful, those idiots didn't use bubble wrap so it's very fragile." Negan pointed to a dilapidated cardboard box in the back corner of the room. Rick walked back and struggled with picking it up. For a box carrying heavy mugs, the cardboard was nearly paper thin.
"Now Michonne, Aaron here informed me that you have an urgent matter regarding your green card." Michonne's eyes grew wide. She remembered getting an email about it a while back but with the company growing in status, she took on more of a workload, ultimately forgetting to take care of the paperwork.
"Michonne your green card status is up and you need to apply for naturalization immediately. Unfortunately you waited until the holiday, therefore I have no idea how you're going to get it done, but you cannot come back to work until your paperwork is completed. Otherwise the U.S. Department of Homeland Security has every right to deport you on the spot."
"Deport?!" Michonne raised her voice uncharacteristically. She heard the glass mugs clinking as the beat-up box nearly toppled out of Rick's arms.
"Michonne, they send out several warnings in the mail before it even gets this far. Regardless of whether you read them or not, you were legally notified." Aaron added pointedly.
Negan's voice took a serious tone. "So unless you plan on making a permanent trip down to South Africa, I suggest you get that paperwork to me asap. I'd hate to lose a senior partner in the making."
Rick knew he had no right to listen in on Michonne's personal information but he was stunned. He had assumed that Michonne was a black woman, yet he had no idea she was from South Africa. He had already heard too much of the conversation. "Excuse me," Rick needed room to get through the glass door.
Her brain skimmed through the four methods she knew to gain U.S. citizenship. Thoughts swirled in Michonne's head as she watched Rick walking cubicle to cubicle handing out the gifts. "Well, I wanted to keep this private as long as I could but," she took a large breath for dramatic effect, "the reason I didn't update my paperwork was because I'm getting married."
Negan's eyelids fluttered. "Married!? I didn't even know you had a boyfriend, let alone a fiancé."
Michonne had to stop herself from rolling her eyes. "I never speak about any of my personal life sir." Michonne kept a straight face, lying on the spot was the perfect skill for this moment.
"Who's the lucky son of a gun?" Negan bellowed.
Her eyes flitted toward the door as Rick re-entered the room with the empty box, Negan's eyes followed.
"Grimes! Grimes is your fiancé?!" The man was blown away.
Rick felt like he had walked right into the middle of a burglary. "What?"
"Sweetie," Michonne showed more teeth than he had ever seen before as she glided toward him, "the cat's out of the bag. I had to tell them."
"Huh?" Rick was not sure if he was more confused by the sudden sugary tone Michonne was using with him or the light rubbing of his forearm that was happening.
"Congrats Rick! You two had me fooled. This whole time I thought you hated each other. No wonder Michonne damn near begged me to let her work alone on the Oprah account. If I would have known earlier I would've thrown a party!"
"What?" Rick's words were stuck to the roof of his mouth like peanut butter.
Michonne turned her body in front of Rick's in order to hide her mouth. "You owe me big time! Just go with it. We'll talk about this later," she spat.
Michonne painted on a wide grin once more for her boss. "We would have said something but we know it's completely against work policy to fraternize within the building."
Rick swallowed hard. "Mhm."
"You can't help who you fall in love with though." She glanced at Rick, knowing she would have to find a good way to convince him to continue on with her plan.
"Ain't that something Aaron," Negan laughed. "They've been screwing this whole time. We'll figure out how to get around the whole fraternization thing when you get back. But be sure to bring Aaron here those marriage records. Lucille is not going to believe this."
Five hours had passed since Michonne left Rick gawking into space in the boardroom. She told him to meet back in her office at 4:30 pm and her irritation was growing that he was already two minutes late. Irresponsible, that's what he was. Rumors of their engagement had spread through the small office like wildfire. Although none of her coworkers spoke directly to her, she heard the whispers as she travelled to the break room to get coffee. She did not care about the details that they made up, as long as they believed it. She worked with idiots, of course they believed it. But she knew better. Not only was he irresponsible, but he was an overconfident know-it-all that did not take direction well. They would never work as a real couple. She was surprised they were even able to get through their assignment.
There was a knock at Michonne's door and Rick stepped through, his face still as stunned as she had left it.
"Michonne what the hell is going on? I've already had about ten people come up to me asking about a wedding I had no idea about a few hours ago!"
"Rick, Rick."
"Michonne, no. This is insane. I owe you one, true, but you've got to be kidding me."
With a stoic face Michonne ordered, "Rick sit down and shut up." He reluctantly followed her instruction. "Since you heard everything there's no point in me reiterating that I need a green card. You are going to help me get it."
"Why would I do that? I barely even know you." Rick grimaced.
Michonne sighed. "Here's what we're going to do. You and I will spend this weekend together, learn as much as possible about each other so that I," she stood up, "can pass this test for a new green card. We'll go to the courthouse, get a certificate. Wait a year, have a quiet divorce and go on happily about our lives. It's nothing but a legal document Rick."
"Well I guess I'll have to say screw finding the love of my life for the next year because I'll be stuck married to Satan himself."
Michonne folded her arms over her chest and squinted with distaste. "I'm sure I'll be doing the female race a favor."
"This sounds great for you but tell me why I won't just say forget this, let you get deported, and take your position as senior editor."
"Because if you don't follow through with this I'll have you reported and fired for discrimination. I will tell them that you are culturally incompetent and unfit to work with the diverse population this company seeks to reach."
"That's not true. You have no proof!" Rick leaned forward in his chair.
"Your ill-judged comment this morning is all the proof I need. I could easily get Oprah to confirm that you said it. Black women stick together. Maybe you would know that if you took your nose out of the air and wiped the privilege off your face. On top of that, you openly having a long-standing rivalry with the only black woman in the department does nothing to help your case."
Rick let her words sink in. "You're evil. You've been waiting to take me down."
"No Grimes, you did that fine all by yourself. You're too busy being buddy buddy with everyone in the office to actually be on top of your shit." Rick took a breath to cool off and think. She was right. There was no way he was getting out of this, but he was not going to let her control him.
"Fine," he ran both hands through his hair, "pack your bags tonight. We leave for Georgia in three hours." He briskly got up from the chair and held on to the office's doorknob.
"Georgia?" Michonne asked.
Rick slightly smirked. "Yes, I already had plans to go home so if we have to stick together you're coming with me. I'm sure you can find someone to watch your nine cats at home."
"Fine. Asshole."
