Take Two

5. Hailey

Once the loan shark guys were out of sight, I let out the breath I had been holding in.

"What's wrong with you!" June grunted, spinning me around by my arm. "I perfectly had it under control!"

"You young lady, need to learn a few things about life. You aren't always right or the strongest one," I answered.

"And you think you are? Just because you earn a lot of money, you think you have the right to order us around?"

"Of course, I don't, but at least I know that mitosis has five stages and not six." With those parting words, I strolled back to the booth and sipped on my coffee while she cursed me with some indistinct words.

"Hailey, we need to talk," Noah declared appearing on my table, but the twins beat him to it.

"You were amazing!" One of them flashed his thumb at me.

"The coolest!" The other one asserted as he slid next to me in the booth.

"Umm okay..?" I stuttered.

"Would you like another cup of coffee? On the house?" The first one winked at me.

Noah stood there looking annoyed, with his hands on his waist, and the next moment he grasped them by their collars and hauled them away from me murmuring something about a pay cut.

"Get back to sweeping you two!" He shouted, and the two rolled their eyes and clambered back to their work. He then slid inside the booth opposite me.

"Hailey-"

"Look, Noah, we have known each other for some time now, I think it's only right that I help you when you need me."

He had his fingers weaved before him on the table with his eyes lost in some thought.

"Hailey, it's my responsibility. I think I can handle it."

"I do not doubt that. You just pay it back to me and not him."

"It's going to take a long time before I can do that."

It doesn't matter to me, Noah. All that money is useless if it can't buy me a life. I might as well do one good deed before I leave.

While my altruistic mind wanted to extend that help for free, my logical brain was working out a contract of its own. I couldn't pinpoint it, but I had some plan brewing at the back of my mind. I think I could be evil when I wanted to be.

"Or you can not pay back at all." I blurted out. I couldn't believe my own words. He stared at me with wide eyes for a moment and then opened his mouth to speak, but I beat him to that. "Instead, I want something else. Let's make a deal."

"What else can I offer?" He urged.

And then all the puzzles fit in my mind. I knew what I fancied from him. For a minute, it all felt so hilarious to me. It was precisely the situation you would see in romance novels, where the girl is getting chased by creditors and gets saved by a rich guy, but he asks for something in return. The only difference here was the gender switch.

"Be my husband, for exactly six months!" I exclaimed, flashing up six of my fingers.

He gawked at me, and his words died down in his throat. He just sat there with his eyes wide open for a minute, and I wondered if he was still breathing.

"Hello..?"

"You will pay me five hundred thousand dollars to marry you, and only for six months..?"

I nodded eagerly.

He stared at me again and then pulled out his phone.

"It isn't April fool's today... What's the catch?" He mumbled.