Paul turned the radio on in his car, Stephanie looked at him and looked at Madison in the backseat, "if that radio wakes her up, I'll kill you." She crossed her arms, I never listened to the radio in my car."
"Well I did on the way to get Maddy. It was a pretty nice radio too." He smiled, getting on the freeway, "if you don't mind me asking, where did you live?"
Before she answered, she looked at the speedometer and saw the needle was pointing at 70, "there's a baby in the car, slow down." She felt uncomfortable, she'd never spent more than just a workday with Paul, here she was now in his car, headed for his house.
"I really don't want to get stuck in traffic, okay? It already takes about an hour to get to my house, with traffic, it would take as long as three hours." He switched lanes and weaved around two cars.
"I lived a few blocks away from the office. You live an hour away? Why even bother working for me?" She was holding onto the handle of the door, fearing the way Paul drove.
"The money's worth it." He smiled, "you know what I just realized, because you're with me, I get the carpool lane." He changed lanes to the far left, not answering her other question.
She sighed and looked out the window, seeing a sign for Malibu, "wait a second, you live in Malibu? I own where you work and you have the house in Malibu?" She was staring at him, wide-eyed.
"I don't have a nice big house or anything, but it's a nice little condo on the beach." He tapped his fingers on the steering wheel, "jealous?"
She bit her lip, "a little. I have a big house in Agoura Hills, and you have a condo in Malibu, must be nice." She folded her hands in her lap, thinking about her former fiancé.
It was silent for the rest of the ride home, until Paul pushed a button on the dash and his garage door opened, "welcome to my awesome, giant man-cave." He turned the car off and opened his door, "how do you plan on stay here without clothes?" He jingled his keys, "just wondering."
"Don't worry about that yet." She opened her door, "when we go inside, and I put Madison down, we need to talk, like, really need to talk."
"Are you gonna fire me or something? Cause if you are, just tell me now." He continued to sit in the car, "this whole time, I keep thinking that you're gonna be nice to me and stuff, and then fire me."
"Paul, if I were going to fire you, which I am not, I wouldn't have asked you to take me to your house and have me stay here." She closed her door and got Madison from the back, "I promise you that you aren't getting fired."
"That makes me feel better, even though at the same time it doesn't." He waited as she took the carrier off of the car seat, "what do we need to talk about?" He opened the door to the kitchen for her, his question completely ignored.
She put Madison on the counter, "just in case our little talk gets loud, where can I put her?" She unbuckled the straps but left her sleeping in the seat.
"My office is the guest bedroom, there's a hideaway bed in there." He led the way to the bedroom, "here it is." He went to the couch and pulled the cushions off, then pulled the bed out, "I have pillows and blankets in the closet here, take what you need." He crossed his arms, "does she sleep in there?" He pointed to the carseat.
"Yeah, I don't want to risk waking her up when I take her out." She put the seat down on the bed and cleared her throat, "okay, so about this little talk, let's go back to the living room." She followed him back out, "I need you to do the biggest favor ever for me."
His eyebrows rose, "a favor huh?" He opened his refrigerator and grabbed a bottle of water.
She swallowed hard and tightly closed her eyes, "I need you to be my husband." She waited a few seconds before opening her eyes to see his face.
He smiled, "what? Very funny, now what's the real favor?" He opened the water waiting for her response, worried when he didn't get one.
She shook her head, "Paul, I'm not kidding, that's the favor. I need you to marry me." She sighed and pushed her hair back, "I'm totally serious, I was born in Canada, and I blew off my paperwork because I was busy, they're making me go back. And I can't take Madison, she was born here, her father is a citizen here."
"Was." Paul snorted, "they have to understand, Randy's dead, where else would Madison go if she can't go with you? She's only seven months old." He put the cap back on his water bottle.
"I know Randy's dead." Her former fiancé, Randy Orton, died in a car accident when she was six months pregnant with Madison, every time someone talked about him, she wanted to cry, "I don't know what else to do. If I'm married to someone who's a citizen here, I won't have to go back. That's where you come in. And this is only because I trust you. If Randy were still alive, I wouldn't ask this of you."
"What about this, you go back, you still own the tax place, I'll take care of Madison until you can come back. I promise everything will be fine. I have a video camera, I'll capture all her firsts for you. First word, step, curse word, I'll bet a curse word is gonna be her first word with you as her mother."
"I want to be there for all her firsts Paul, she's my daughter. All I ask is this one thing. Please." Tears were streaming down her cheeks, "plus, I can't be the owner of the tax place if I live in Canada, they won't allow it."
"Hell, that's better for me, does that mean it'll go to me? Why should I do this for you when all you have ever been to me is mean old witch." He bit his lip, "sorry, but you know, you have."
"I know." She wiped the makeup from her eyes, "I won't be mean to you anymore, I promise, and I'll give you a raise, how much do you want. Or do you want something else, tell me something you want and I'll get it for you. I'm only asking you to do this for Madison, if I didn't have her, I would go back and not have any issues."
Paul thought for a minute, then sighed, "all I really ask for, is for you to not be such a bitch to me, that's it. Don't yell at me, don't expect a whole lot at work from me now either."
"Are you saying you'll do it?" She smiled, "I'm not gonna be mean anymore I promise. And remember how I put Shawn in charge, this is why." She wiped her face again, "I don't even know how to thank you for this."
"Hmm." He took a drink, "do you drink?" He opened a small cabinet under the counter, "I think I need a shot of something, you know, to calm the nerves." He pulled a shot glass out of another cabinet and placed it on the granite counter, "you need something?"
She contemplated saying no, but after watching him shoot back whiskey, she sighed, "yeah, give me something." He handed her a full shit of whiskey, "what do I do, just swallow it all?" She picked up the tiny glass and smelled it.
"Yeah. Just do it and get it over with, one shot, stops the shakiness." He put the cap back on the whiskey bottle, "it burns a little going down but it's a good burn." He smiled as she swallowed it and scrunched up her face, "how you feel?"
"Fine." She cleared her throat, still feeling the burn, "I think my mom's calling me, she's probably wondering when she's gonna meet you." She grabbed her cell phone from her purse on the counter.
"Whoa, I just agreed to this, how does she know already?" He put the glass in the sink and the bottle back in the cabinet, "and we need to talk about who gets to know."
"I kinda assumed you would agree to it. So I told her, I don't care who we tell." She was holding her ringing phone in one hand with the other over her mouth, "I kinda just thought you would be okay with this."
"What if I hadn't? Then what would you have done?" He smiled, seeing her in distress made him laugh for some strange reason, "and another thing, don't you have any other friends who would have agreed to this? Why me?"
She looked down, the phone stopped ringing and it was silent, "Paul, you of all people should know I don't have a lot of friends. Mainly because I'm uptight and high-strung. I really don't know what I would have done if you said no."
"And she admits it." He nodded, a grin still plaster on his face, "that's what I really wanted, right there, I just wanted to hear you say that you're mean. And you did and I'm happier now."
She exhaled loudly, "your welcome, now I'm gonna call my mother back and tell her that its for real, I'm getting married."
"I have a question," he raised his hand, being sarcastic, "how were you born in Canada? Your mom lives here."
"The last time I saw my dad was when I was five, and I was in Canada, he still lives there, my mom got me here because he was an unfit parent. To get custody of a child away from the other side of their family is just more than I can handle, Randy's parents would never let me take Madison out of the country, ever. Even if it was for legal reasons."
"So asking me to marry you is easier? This is gonna be fun. Pretending to be married." He chuckled, a smirk on his lips, "if this doesn't go like you want, I'm out, if something happens, the first thing I'm doing is telling Immigration you made me."
An astonished and upset look took her face, "you would really do that? That's really nice of you. Really nice." She stomped to the extra bedroom, "I promise you, its not Immigration you need to be worried about."