January 11th, 2014: Yeah, um, it's been a while hasn't it. (smiles sheepishly) I've been suddenly hit with renewed inspiration to continue this story. So today I opened up the doc and finished the editing of this chapter. Yes, this is an edit of the original chapter, and even though it's still not terribly great, it's a heck lot better than what it was before. (And for those of you who are waiting for updates for Pick Up Lines and Up In Smoke, don't worry, I'm almost done those chapters. And even though I still have to edit them I promise they will be out with the next four weeks. Bear with me though because exams are approaching.)

Disclaimer: Shoutouts to PJO and Just Go With It for being awesome

And now to the story. (This sentence must be read in a weather reporter voice.)

Chapter One: The Origin Story

"Katie." I say. I take a few extra quick steps to catch up with her. It is only the beginning of a busy day and she seems to be already late as I see her running to get to each office doing whatever she does each morning. Stoll Tower is a lucky enough building to have elevators but Katie isn't on to use them, something about being fit, longevity, or something of those sorts.

"Katie, I need to ask you something." I say, pausing to take a deep breath. Without as much of a glance in my direction to at least acknowledge my presence, she keeps running. I make a point to stare at her back in disbelief. As if she has eyes in the back of her head and x-ray vision to see through her hair, she turns around to hold up a finger to signal 'one second'. With that, she runs down the last stretch of the hallway before disappearing behind one of the stair doors. I lean against a wall and begin feeling incredibly grateful for the existence of air.

"Are you done dying?" A voice asks beside me.

"Actually, I've barely started." I answer while straightening up to show how athletically fit I actually am.

"I want you to pretend to me my wife." I ask, half confident and half terrified that Katie's going to slap me.

"Come again?" Katie asks.

"Well, my soon-to-be divorcee." I put on a weak smile while hoping it doesn't sound as crazy as it does in my head.

She blinks. By the look of her expression, I can tell that she just put my name under a title that reads 'crazy'. I take a deep breath.

"Come on, it's just for one night." I insist, grabbing her arm. Katie continues to stare in an comprehensive way, as if she's debating whether or not putting me in an asylum and secretly running the company herself under my name would be a good idea or not.

"Look, not to be rude or anything but, no thanks, I'm your assistant. My job is to help you run Stoll Enterprises, not to pretend to be your wife. Or divorcee, or…whatever." She raises an eyebrow while taking a call on her Bluetooth as if to prove her point.

She starts to walk down the hallway, blatantly ignoring me. I roll my eyes and start to follow her. When I catch up, I pull on her wrist to get her to face me. The look on her face sends a clear message that says something along the lines of 'I don't what to talk'. I do anyways.

"Look, you're my best friend and I thought best friends did each other favours." I looked at her pleadingly. Her attention goes to the Bluetooth.

"Yeah well, when will be the next time you help babysit my kids." Katie asks, turning her attention back to me.

"Please, for me?" I beg, Katie is the only person whom I can ask for help.

Katie rolls her eyes before saying "fine, I will."

"Yes, thank you so much." I thank her feeling relieved. "You do not know how much I like you right now."

Katie rolls her eyes again, but this time with a suppressed smile. "Okay, but can you at least explain why you want me to do this, because the least you could do is supply me with a decent explanation." She crosses her arms.

I take a moment to contemplate over the details before complying, "fine, but promise me you won't call me an idiot."

"Okay, I agree, but this better be a great story because I am now really excited." Katie says.

(Chances)

"Hey Travis, you're here." A voice shouts from behind. I turn around to find the owner of the disembodied voice. "Man, the party don't start 'till you walk in."

I come face to face with my good friend Luke who is host of this party.

"Hey what's up." I nod in acknowledgement. A look of surprise finds its way onto my face. How did he find me, I just came a minute ago and there must have been at least 50 people on this floor.

"So I'm guessing you're single today." Luke says with a smirk, noticing my vacant arm.

"Yeah well, got to be ready for the ladies."

He laughs. "That's great, in fact, I wanted to introduce you to a colleague of mine. She works with me at Goode Elementary."

Luke turns around to call someone over and a really cute around 20 year old girl with wavy blonde hair suddenly appears.

"This is Brooklyn." Luke says when she comes over.

"Travis," I say, taking my hand out of my pocket to shake hers, "nice to meet you."

Behind me, I hear a crash and a faint 'Luke' that follows.

"Kay, well, I have to go, but uh, you two get to know each other." Luke says, rushing towards the voice while winking at me.

I feel the sand beneath me crunch as I walk along the beach with Brooklyn. I notice her hand is really soft and suddenly I feel oddly self-conscious about my own. To take my mind off it, I decide to ask some questions.

"So you're a teacher?"

"Yeah, actually, I teach the sixth grade."

I tried to recall my sixth grade teacher, and like I predicted, I don't remember anyone this hot. Then I start to think about how clammy my hands are again, and I start to panic a little.

As if sensing my insecurities, she starts laughing this really nice laugh. "Okay, this 'pretending that you're interested in conversation' thing does not work for you."

"Thank you." I do a mock bow, still holding onto her hand. As I dip down, I lean a little too far and I lose my balance. A mouthful of sand greets me as I meet the ground.

That's when she starts laughing really hard. Guffawing, you could say.

"Hey, that's not nice you know."

Brooklyn continues to laugh.

"Okay, you know what, here's some sand for you." And I pick up a handful of sand and throw it at her.

Once I notice the change in her expression, I immediately start to get my feet and run away. She begins to chase me. For a middle school teacher, she is pretty darn fast. So after about a minute, I decide to slow down and let her catch up with me.

"Hey old man, did I ever tell you that I'm on the track team?"

"Hey, just because I'm 28 does not make me an old man."

Brooklyn smirks, "and how can you prove that?"

"Well…" I pretend to look around for an answer before cupping her face with my hands and lowering my head to kiss her. Her arms immediately cross around my neck and I put my arms on her hips. I feel her smile against the kiss. Suddenly, the smile turns into a frown and I notice that her hands are closed around something around my neck. She breaks the kiss.

"I can't believe you." She says, looking disgusted.

"What?"

I feel something sharp tear my neck. Brooklyn takes a large step away from me, dangling a necklace in front of my face, one newly torn with a gold band strung on it.

"What's this?" Her voice overfilling with accusatory disgust.

"A circle?" I try for a joke. As I expect, her expression doesn't change.

"You're married and you dare to kiss me?" Oh, I am such an idiot." She puts her face into her palms. "Nice meeting you and all, but goodbye." With that, she turns around to leave with a look of disappointment while dropping the necklace like it's toxic.

"No wait, it's not like that." I say, though my voice seems to die with the passing wind. I bend down to pick up the remnants of my necklace. I stare at the ring. Memories of my old wife flash before my eyes. She died in a car accident six years ago. It'd been a really hard time for me. Ever since then, I'd been wearing the ring around my neck, to keep her closer to my heart I guess.

I glance back up and Brooklyn's receding figure and my hand closes around the ring. I haven't felt anything like this with another person since before my wife died. I need a way to get Brooklyn back, but how?

(Sparks)

"And that's about when my amazing idea to pretend to divorce my 'wife' it would just make things a whole lot easier for me and Brooklyn." I conclude.

"So, now what? How are you even going to tell her anyways about the 'divorce' anyway? It's not like can just randomly drop by her house." Katie asks.

I smile and pull out a piece of paper from my pocket. On it is a phone number written with neat printing. I notice Katie raise her eyebrows.

"Well, from past experiences, I learned that you should always, get her number first."

I take my phone out of my pocket, type the number and wait for the tone. For the sake of Katie, I put the phone on speaker. As the first series of chimes starts to ring, I can practically see Brooklyn taking her phone out of her purse and debating whether or not she should answer. Though I guess the decision was made fairly quickly as she picks up on the third ring.

"What?" She asks, very straight to the point.

"I, uh, decided to explain." I close my eyes. That stumble does not usually happen when I talk to girls. I must really like her.

"Look, I don't date married guys." I as I hear the tone in her voice, I grimace. It's the same tone she used on the beach.

Following my silence, she continues. "I just know how this is going to play out; this is the reason why my mom and dad divorced. I am not going to be the other girl."

Katie tries her best not to burst into laughter; this is not going well for me.

"But, I divorced."

"Oh, really?" Brooklyn inquiries, though the cold tone doesn't fully disappear.

"Yes, but…it's a horrible marriage." I cringe, my time with Paris was never horrible.

"Really."

"Yes, I just have to sign the papers and she's going to be dead to me." I cringe again at my choice of words and I close my eyes. I can feel Katie's concerned stare, she was one of Paris' friends and she definitely knows how I feel right now commenting on her death.

"Ugh, Mrs. Stoll." For some reason, I just can't bring myself to say Paris' name.

A long silence follows.

"Um, you mean her first name. Her first name." I look frantically towards Katie who shrugs. "Well…it's Soul." Katie smacks me. Most definitely because I used the name of the one person Katie has ever disliked in her life. I'm not sure why that name came up, though I recall a conversation with her yesterday about how Soul was thankfully unheard of for a couple years.

"Soul." Brooklyn repeats.

"Yes, isn't it an odd name?" I say while Katie wordlessly agrees with me.

"We're splitting up; I caught her cheating on me, with another man."

"There's another man?" Brooklyn asks now sounding genuinely concerned.

"Yes, Connor." I mentally face palm myself while being extremely happy that this was a phone call and not an actual conversation. Connor's the name of my brother, I really am bad at on-the-spot thinking aren't I. Though, I have to thankful that I didn't say a girl's name.

Another silence fills the air. Brooklyn must be really thinking this through. I am truly worried now.

"Okay, I believe you." She finally answers.

"Really?" Disbelief washes over me at the same time as relief. Katie smiles, giving me a thumbs up.

"Yeah, I just need to hear it from her."

I turn to look at Katie whose expression silently tells me that she dearly wishes that Brooklyn did not just say that. I can practically hear Katie rehearsing her telling me that she didn't want to pretend to be my wife any more.

"How about if she texted you, would that be good?" I ask desperately.

"I need to meet her."

"Okay." I turn to Katie while covering the mouthpiece.

"Please, just this once, I promise." I whisper.

"Katie stares at me with an eyebrow raised. "Really?" she whispers back.

"Yes."

"Once."

"Yes, please." I beg.

Katie sighs exasperated.

"Fine."

I smile, taking my hand off of the phone to talk to Brooklyn.

"Sure, I'll meet you at La Verre a block from the Empire State Building. Tomorrow at 6 in the evening, does that sound good?"

"Okay," Brooklyn replies finally, "can't wait to meet her."

With a pointed look in Katie's direction I say, "I can't wait for you two to meet either."

"Sure, bye." She says

"Bye."

I end the call and put the phone back in my pocket.

"So it's set." Katie says. "You're going to meet her tomorrow, bring me along with you, pretend to be your wife so you can enforce your life and walk away with the prize."

"Yep, glad you understand Katie." I smile.

Now I really hope things go according to plan.

Mwahaha foreshadowing like a boss (do people even say that anymore or is that like a 2012 thing?)

Anyways, hope you enjoyed it :)

And don't forget to review, I will be more thankful of those than Travis is of his air XD And they might even make me update faster (hint, hint ;)

Smiles,

Elaine