The Lucky Doberman

Chapter 41: Planner...?

Mr. De Luca and I were back in the car and it had been quiet for too long.

"So..." I began. "You must be Carmine's sister's son. Because he doesn't have a brother."
"Mhm." he replied nonchalantly.
"I'm sorry for your loss."
He didn't respond.
"Cancer sucks."
I heard him scoff.
"What?" I wondered.
"That what they tell you? Cancer?"
"Yea...wasn't it?"
"No. It wasn't."
"Then what was it?" I asked.
He didn't respond. I chocked it up to Carmine telling him not to say anything to me. Which I hated. I'm a very curious person.

"How did you think I was Carmine's blood niece if you knew he only had one other sibling? Your mother."
"I don't know, assumed he had a brother nobody talked about. I heard uncle and that was enough."
Well, I clearly wasn't his mother's for obvious reasons so I guess long lost brother was a decent assumption.

"You got a new job." he finally spoke.
"What is it?"
"You only work on the wedding."
Right. The wedding. The one I lied about being happy about.
"You got no hands in my work other than wedding issues. You focus on that and nothin' else."
"Okay...? Do I work with Viviana then?"
"No. Fuck no."
"Okay,...so I'm planning a wedding without the bride being of assistance. Great."
"You got any questions then you tell me and I'll ask her."
"Okay..."

He grabbed his phone and began typing while driving.

I heard the car begin to ring once his Bluetooth connected.

"Hello?" Viviana answered.
"Lucky's planning the wedding."
"What?" she asked.
He didn't respond. He really hates to repeat himself.
"I don't want her to!" she shouted.
"I told her to. She'll ask you shit if she needs to but it's in her hands."
"The whole thing...?" I whispered.
He didn't reply.
Damn it.
"I was gonna get a bunch of people on it because I want it soon."
"How soon?"
"Two months tops."
"She'll do it."
"WHAT?!" I shouted accidentally.
He looked at me once he stopped at a red light.
"I'm sorry. But who can plan a wedding in two months?!"
"Is that her? Lucky!" she called me and I just stared at the Bluetooth screen. "Lucky!!"
"Ma'am...?"
"You make zero decisions unless you check in with me! This wedding better be fucking perfect and if it isn't I will blame YOU!"
"Um...Ma'am...you want this wedding done in two months...that means at least once a day we'll have to be in and out of stores or communicating with planners."
"YOU ARE THE PLANNER!" she shouted.
WHAT?!
"I-...I um...I can't..."
Mr. De Luca hung up.

"I can't do that. Especially not in two months." I panicked.
"Yes, you can. Whatever you need just tell me and I'll get it."
I just sighed.
"I'm bringing you home so you can get started."
"What?! Already?!"
"Yes."
"But..." Well for one my car is at the office.
He looked unfazed.
"I don't know the first thing about planning a wedding. I've never been to a wedding! Let alone planned one!"
"Figure it out."
I was hyperventilating.

~~~

We arrived and I looked at Mr. De Luca.

"Come with me." I instructed.
"Why?"
"Because I don't know where to start!"
"Me neither."
"So?! It's your wedding!"
He just stared at me.
"Just come with me! Please?!"
He sighed and rolled his eyes before unbuckling his seatbelt and getting out of the car. I followed behind.

"Okay, so weddings typically need...the priest, the place to hold the ceremony, decorations, suits, dresses, the reception, the dinner rehearsal, the rides to the wedding...oh my god I'm gonna pass out." I said as I unlocked my apartment door.

We walked in and I saw Nikki eating ramen in the kitchen.
"Oh hi," she greeted.
"Hi." I replied.
Mr. De Luca followed inside behind me.
"Oh...?" said Nikki. "Are you two about to..."
"No!" I answered.
"I'm going to my room." she stated and took her food and drink with her.

Mr. De Luca shut the door and walked to the couch.

I grabbed a notebook and pen before sitting next to him.

"I'm gonna write down all of the things that I know we definitely need, okay?" I stated and began writing.

He didn't respond so I just looked at him to see if he was listening.
He was sitting next to me, manspreading with one arm over the back of the couch behind my head and the other in his lap as he looked at me.

I wish he'd stop looking at me like that.

"You gonna write?" he asked.
"Yea...yes..." I focused back on the notebook and continued writing things down.

But I still kept feeling like I was being stared at. I looked back at him and I was right.
"Stop looking at me like that." I instructed gently.
"Like what?"
"Like...I'm prey. I feel like you wanna eat me." I looked back at the notebook.
"I do."

Record scratch.

I looked back at him.
He was still staring at me.
His eyes went to my lips.

"You're engaged." I reminded him.
"And?"
"And it's not to me."
"That upsets you?"
"It upsets me that you keep looking at me like you want to kiss me which means you want me to help you cheat."
"Wish you'd stop acting like this wedding is out of love. It's for work. Nothing else."
I rolled my eyes.
"You don't wanna kiss me?" he asked.
"That's not important."
"It is."

I continued writing.

'Flower girl.
Groomsmen.
Cake.
Tailor. (For suits and maybe dress?)
Bridal shop'

I put my pen down when my face was grabbed and pulled to his.
He didn't put his lips on mine he just stared at them.

His phone rang.
Without taking his eyes off of my lips, he answered it.

"Speak." he commanded.
I stayed close to him as one of his hands held the side of my face and his thumb lightly grazed over my lips.
"Alright."
I wondered what was going on.
"I'll handle it."
My heart was racing and I wished it would stop.

He hung up and looked back at me.
"I gotta go." he stated.
"But...the wedding stuff...?"
"Get dinner with me." He stood up and walked towards the door.

I just sat there trying to make sure I heard that correctly.

"I'll pick you up at 8."
"Wh-...Like...Like a professional dinner, right? Because you're engaged."
He just looked at me then left my apartment.

I am feeling a rush of several emotions and don't know where to begin.

"NIKKI!" I shouted and ran to her room.

She was sitting on her bed and watching a movie.

"Yea?" she asked and turned the tv down.
"I am going through hell."
"Oh?"

~~~

I'd explained everything to Nikki and she sat there trying to grasp it all.

"Okay...so your boss, who you have been sexually involved with and have a crush on, is marrying a woman he doesn't love, so that he can get a job done, but keeps flirting with you, and asked you to dinner? While also making you plan the wedding he is having with another woman."
"Yes."
"What the fuck..." she sighed. "This is the most toxic thing I think I've ever heard."
I sighed and laid on her bed. "I know."

"But he's so hot..." I added.
"Zoe..."
"I know! I know that doesn't mean anything, but...he's also really nice to me. In a...nonchalant and dry kind of way."
I looked at her and she just stared at me.
"Like...he's listened to me vent about Josh. I've cried in front of him and each time he wiped my tears and solved the problem. He kisses where my tears fall."
I sat up. "Nikki, I had an asthma attack and he held me while helping me use my inhaler. He even did the countdown."
"Hm..."
"I know this entire situation is basically considered a red flag, but...I don't know..."
"You still, regrettably, like him." she stated.
I nodded, disappointed in myself.

"And..."
"And?" she asked.
"He's like..."
"Like??"
"Really good in bed..." I murmured.
"Zoe!" She threw a pillow at me.
"IT'S TRUE!"