18. Alicia and The Better Life

As hard as it was to fully admit, Alicia couldn't help but feel more and more conscious of how far apart she was drifting from her girlfriends. Like Wade had suggested on many occasions, she was quite simply moving in a very different direction to her friends. She was the first to have found a graduate job; the first to have gotten engaged and as of this coming weekend, she was to be the first to have finally moved out of their hometown. As much as she wanted to be as ecstatic about her life as she knew (and as Wade assured her) she should have been, she couldn't help but to feel guilty about having her personal and professional life in perfect order while the others were still struggling.

They were her best friends. Of course they were happy about her engagement; thrilled even. But they all had their own problems to worry about. How could a silly little ring compare? Eve was an extremely intelligent Ivy League graduate with no job offers to match, and Alicia had a sneaky suspicion that she was falling in love all over again with her high school sweetheart. Maria was forever the optimistic dreamer who couldn't stop chasing the wrong men long enough to follow her own LA dreams. Kelly was in relationship turmoil and could barely bring herself to be honest about the fact. And Kaitlyn? Kaitlyn remained as elusive as she always had been; her struggles existed but were shoved inside her purse and left for another day.

It frustrated Alicia. It frustrated her watching their dramas unfold. That damn party frustrated her. It was all just, as Wade would say, a load of rubbish. Why did it feel like she was the only one moving forward? She was sick of past boyfriends and past heartbreaks and past dramas coming back to haunt the girls. They had all made each other the promise that the future was there so why was she the only one living up to it? Why did she suddenly feel, as she sat in her boxed up childhood room waiting for her fiancé to come home, so alone? In just a few days she would be moving to New York, so, as Wade would say, she'd better bloody start acting like it.

"Why am I spending so much time in this damn room?!"

She sighed to herself as she ran her blusher brush against her cheeks. She and Wade had made plans to meet up in town for a dinner date, but as per usual, she was the one stuck at home while he was out 'on business'. She still had no idea what that even meant, but she had learned all too well back in college that Wade's professional life would always be totally lost on her.

Shoving her feet into a pair of Prada pumps (a gift from Wade), she grabbed her purse (Louis Vuitton; another gift from Wade) and headed out of the house. Just as she was stepping out of the door to the cab waiting outside for her, her phone buzzed. She glanced down at the screen which displayed a text from Eve.

"We've got an emergency on our hands... Call me?"

Alicia sighed. She climbed into the cab and allowed herself to sit comfortably before dialling Eve's number.

"Hey girl," Eve's perky voice called through the line. "I hope you're not busy?"

"No," Alicia said quickly. "I'm just in a cab heading downtown. I'm meeting Wade for dinner."

"Oh." Eve became silent for a moment. "I was just calling to let you know that Kelly's told me about everything... you know, with the Justin stuff?"

Alicia gasped in surprise.

"She did?!"

"Uh huh."

"Did she tell you why she had to leave the party so quickly?"

Eve's silence returned.

"Um, sort of. Let's just say our favourite peroxide asshole is back in the picture."

"No way!"

In a matter of seconds Alicia had gone from being distant to being fully switched onto the conversation.

"Has she told Maria and Kaitlyn about all of this?"

"Nope," Eve sighed. "She turned up at my job this afternoon-"

"Wait," Alicia interrupted, frowning. "What job?"

"Oh, didn't I tell you? I've got a short term trainer's job at Believers now."

Alicia let out a squeal as Eve giggled proudly.

"Congrats girl! I had no idea! I'm so happy for you!"

"Thanks! But enough about me for now; we've got to talk about Kells."

"You're right," Alicia agreed with a sigh. "What's going on?"

Eve quickly filled her in on the events of the past couple of days: Kelly's fears over Dolph; the texts on Justin's phone; his upcoming journey back to South Africa. By the end, both Eve and Alicia were in agreement over the whirlwind time of it all Kelly was having.

"So I was thinking..."

Alicia giggled. "I love it when I can practically hear your gears turning."

"I know, right? So, anyway, since so much is happening right now, and everything's changing, and you're moving away, I was thinking about inviting you all over to dinner at my place Friday night. You can bring Wade, Kelly can bring Justin, and me, Kaitlyn and Maria and I can bring... well, that part doesn't really matter. But I think it's time we finally met this British hunk of a fiancé of yours, and we can figure out Justin properly, y'know? I know it sounds crazy but..."

"It doesn't sound crazy," Alicia said, smiling to herself. "It sounds fantastic. We'll be there."

She looked out of the window, watching as the cab driver pulled over by the restaurant.

"I've got to go," she said apologetically. "I'll call you later?"

"Of course! Enjoy dinner. And make sure you give your man my love."

Alicia laughed and ended the phone call, quickly paying the driver and entering Giovanni's; one of the fanciest (and most expensive) Italian restaurants in town. With a sigh, she looked around the place, signalling to the man at the door that she was with the large, dark-haired man who sat over by the window. Wade looked up as she approached, grinning as he stood to hold out her seat for her.

"You look stunning," he said proudly, kissing her on the cheek. She thanked him and took the seat opposite him, nervously smoothing down her dark red hair and orange mini-dress. "I told you that dress would look incredible on you."

She looked down at the garment as Wade watched her, pride returning to his eyes at the sight of how good his fiancée looked in his gifts to her. He had bought it after watching her pout after the dress while flicking through her fashion magazines, and when one day he had come home with it gift-wrapped especially for her, the look on her face was priceless.

"I love it," she grinned, putting her hand in his across the table. "Although considering we're about to move to a new apartment in a new city and we have rent and bills and-"

"And all that will be taken care of. Stop worrying about all of that, Alicia. What, I can't treat my fiancée here and there?"

She bit her lip and looked away nervously, eyeing the purse on the table and the shoes on her feet. Not to mention the diamond ring on her finger...

"I'm just saying," she continued. "It wouldn't hurt for us to be a little more careful here and there. You say the same thing to me every time I get tempted to buy a new pair of shoes."

He shrugged casually, sitting back in his seat.

"You know I've got some extra cash right now thanks to work. I love you Alicia, and when I asked you to marry me I did it with the intention of taking care of you for the rest of our lives. But if you don't want that..."

"Wade," she murmured, trying to keep her voice down so that the people around them couldn't hear her. "You know I didn't mean it like that."

Their conversation was interrupted by the waiter approaching to take their orders. Wade looked over at Alicia, prompting her to order first. When he noticed her hesitation, he cleared his throat and ordered for both of them; speaking in fluent Italian to the waiter. His expression barely changed as he looked back at her, even despite the look of annoyance on her face.

"What?" He protested. "It's your favourite, isn't it?"

"Yeah, but look how expensive it is here! Wade, this is exactly what I'm talking about."

"Okay, look, if money is so important to you right now, there's something I need do discuss with you. I've been holding off on it for a while, but I think it's time to get everything out in the open."

She frowned as he sighed and retrieved a stack of papers from his briefcase. He handed them over to Alicia and sipped his water coolly, eyeing her carefully as realization spread across her face.

"A pre-nup?!" She hissed, staring at him in disbelief. "This is what you've been busy doing all those times you've been on 'business'?! Is this why you've been buying me all this stuff?! Trying to butter me up or something?"

He placed a hand over hers and tried to pat it warmly, but she pulled it away.

"We haven't even been engaged for a month," she choked.

"Alicia..." he sighed. "Look, I've known for a long, long time that I want to marry you. And when you said yes, I got in touch with my family's lawyer and started thinking about all of this stuff. I know it sounds awful, but it makes sense. Obviously my family have a lot of money, and with my job I'm going to be making quite a bit..."

"And you think I care about your money? Do you think that's why I'm marrying you?!"

"Of course not. But, we've got to be sensible. I know your family has some money too, and with your new job you're not exactly going to be struggling either. Alicia, you know that I want to be with you for the rest of our lives, but we've got to be practical about this. It's to protect the both of us. Everything I do, it's to give you the better life that you deserve. That we both deserve. So please just be reasonable."

She bit her lip and stared at the stack of papers, trying to hold back tears. Then suddenly she rose to her feet.

"I need to go to the bathroom."

Wade called after her as she rushed through the restaurant and into the bathroom. Locking herself into one of the stalls, she buried her head into her hands.

It was no secret that Wade came from a well-off family. His parents had moved to the US back when he was in school after his father had become CEO of a big company and his mother's chain of boutiques had finally taken off in the States. Even back in England, the family's heritage was aristocratic. In short, money had never been an issue for Wade Barrett. But as she sat in the bathroom of the fancy restaurant, reeling over the bombshell he had dropped, she finally came to the realization that marrying him involved more than designer clothes and expensive outings. She was sure that Cinderella was never slapped in the face with a pre-nup.

By the time she had finally returned to their table, their food had arrived.

"Thank goodness," Wade murmured as she took her seat. "I was just about to send out a search party."

She gave a small laugh and then noticed that the papers were no longer on the table.

"I'm sorry about dropping all of this on you like that," Wade said in response. "I didn't mean to come across as so cold."

"You're not being cold," Alicia said with a sigh. "You're being... practical."

He shrugged. "Well, maybe sometimes I'm a little too practical. Like you said, we've only been engaged for a couple of weeks. It's far too early to think about all of that. We should be celebrating over a bottle of champagne, not rifling through paperwork."

She raised her eyebrows at the last statement.

"Okay, maybe we don't need the champagne."

Alicia giggled and reached her hand over the table to place in his.

"A bottle of wine will do for now," she said earnestly.

With a grin, he raised his glass and she clinked hers against it.

"Here's to marrying the love of my life," he said as he looked into her eyes. "May we have the best life imaginable."

"I'll drink to that." Alicia sipped her wine and placed the glass back on the table. "I love you."

"I love you too. Now eat up; this stuff isn't cheap!"

She laughed and kicked him under the table, watching him as he picked up his knife and fork and moved his attention to the meal in front of him. She went to do the same, but ended up putting the cutlery down again before even taking a bite.

"We're having dinner at Eve's house on Friday," she said, waiting for him to return his attention to her. "With the girls and their partners. Sort of."

He frowned, still looking down at the plate, but eventually allowed his expression to soften.

"Sounds good. And I suppose you're going to call a ladies meeting about the pre-nup?"

She paused for a moment, taken aback. Sarcasm was something she'd grown to understand and even appreciate about his British sense of humour, but she was always cautious of him veering off into rudeness.

"Don't be like that, Wade."

He shrugged and continued eating his meal, barely even bothering to interact with her. With her appetite suddenly gone, Alicia looked down at her plate and absent-mindedly pushed the food around it. Quickly remembering the price of the meal, she reluctantly took a bite. The two sat across from each other and ate their meals in a stony silence until they eventually finished. When the waiter returned with the bill, Alicia hadn't even had the opportunity to dig into her purse before Wade tossed some cash on the table.

"Can't I pay half?" She muttered. Wade paused for a moment before eventually taking some of his bills back and allowing her to replace them with her own. This time there was not a word of argument out of him.

They left the restaurant in silence and the silence continued as they climbed into the back of a cab. Throughout the entire journey Alicia stared out of the window and Wade remained preoccupied with his phone. The silence wasn't broken until they eventually returned to the house and Alicia's room, when Wade announced that he had to go outside and take a phone call.

Sighing, Alicia kicked off her shoes and sat on the edge of the bed. Spying Wade's briefcase sat open on the floor by her feet, she reached into it and pulled out the stack of papers. She flicked through it, trying to take in all the legal jargon. As she continued reading and became more and more fascinated by what the agreement meant for them, she barely even noticed Wade coming back into the room. He cleared his throat as he stood by the door. She quickly looked up and put the papers down.

"Sorry," she said nervously. "I saw them hanging out of your briefcase and I wanted to read through them properly.

Wade nodded, going over to the bed and picking up the papers before quickly scanning through the pages himself and putting them back in the briefcase with a sigh.

"It was my parent's idea," he admitted. "I told them a few months ago that I was planning on proposing and they refused to give their blessing unless we did this."

She nodded, already understanding him.

"I'll do it," she said quietly. "As long as I get to marry you I don't care. And I promise I won't tell the girls a thing."

Wade grinned and sat down on the bed beside her, wrapping an arm around her frame. She smiled as he kissed her forehead.

"So, what type of wine should we bring to your friend's house on Friday? I'm thinking a good bottle of red."