The Perfect One

Chapter 4 - Dealbreakers : Part 1

A/N. Might be rife with grammatical and/or spelling mistakes. :D

After assuring that they were on the same page and that she wouldn't keep mentioning the blackmail henceforth, a couple minutes of awkward silence and a freshly brewed pot of tea later, they were both seated on either side of the huge window watching the sea-gulls flying. He looked at the clock to see it was already 10:30 am and decided they needed to plow on if they needed to get their stories straight by EOD.

He tried to unsuccessfully shrug the mental image of the two of them kissing. He need to get his head back in the game. He needed to focus back on what was important. Treat this like any other deal he'd made. Except the utterly beautiful woman staring out the window was making it difficult for him to keep his usual level-headedness. Especially after he'd gotten a taste of exactly what she was like when he had his lips on hers, exactly how she felt like in his arms, exactly how it felt like having his hands up in her silky hair...He physically shook his head. Focus. He need to focus.

He cleared his throat once he had taken a beat to gather his wits, and at once her razor sharp gaze settled on his. He spoke in a calm tone he used during meetings.

"So, ground-rules! I completely understand your point of view and I assure you I will not ever overstep or even think of doing anything that you are not consenting to when it comes to physical relations. You can dictate in entirety the pace and nature of intimacy in our relationship. All I ask of you if the liberty to portray appropriate amount of public display of affection. "

She looked a little disbelieving as she mouthed 'public display of affection' and then snorted in a weirdly delicate way.

"PDA? You want me to sign off on PDA?" She asked, her expression was somewhere between a smile and bemusement.

"Yes. The occasional hand holding, hugging, even a peck or so." He had no idea what she found so funny. He was being serious. There was no way they could convince people without showing some affection in public.

"Yeah. Of course. How else are we supposed to make them believe we are going out with each other and are madly in love."

"Okay good so we are in agreement. If you don't have any other of these ground rules can we move on to icebreakers?"

He asked attempting to get to the real meat of the matter. They didn't have more than half a day to learn everything about each other and come up with details about their love affair and rushed engagement.

But she was now looking at him with narrowed eyes.

"Not so fast. Do you have any ground rules or deal breakers?"

Patience. Patience. Patience. You are an exceptionally patient man. He chanted in his head, as he often did when she veered off of the topic at hand. He needed to give the woman what she wanted. It was perhaps better they were getting these things out in the open in the beginning itself.

He didn't think his deal breaker would be such a surprise. After all the woman had known him for about 5 years. Nonetheless he put his thoughts into words.

"For me...there's no deal breaker as such. But I need to make this extremely clear and on record so that we don't build our relationship on false hopes and a brittle foundation. It's simple. I don't want you expecting a romance. I am a practical man. A busy man. I have a lot of responsibilities and no time to invest into a sweeping romance. Also, I am what you would call 'emotionally unavailable'. So I would rather you not have any expectations from me in that regard. No flowers, no fancy diners that are not work-related, no emotional outbursts. I will be a faithful partner to you and share your troubles. That's all that I am offering."