My Pretend Fiancé

The drive home was awkward, as far as either of them was concerned. Lenina hadn’t spoken a word and only held the bouquet of flowers quietly on her lap, the one he bought for her earlier near the park. Time and time again, he would glance at her from the corner of his eyes, but never really caught her attention. Arriving right in front of the house, Leonard exited out of the vehicle to kindly open the car door for her. Again, nothing really happened; no small talk, no forced smile--it was just like the ride itself—no intimate eye- contact and brutally awkward. Surely, having a fiancé did not come with all these problems?

He unlocked the front door for her, as well, and watched her go in silently without even a word of goodbye; Leonard didn’t look like he would be joining her. As soon as the door closed after her, he went off again into his car and drove somewhere close for consultation.

~ • ~ • ~ • ~ •

“Hello? Tori? It’s me, Lenina,” she sighed into the phone.

“Lenina,” her friend repeated apathetically. “How are you doing?” There used to be a tone of life when Tori spoke, but today it sounded too bereft of it, leaving her almost lifeless. She sat down at the edge of her bed with her naked feet playfully dangling back and forth as she propped the phone in between her right shoulder and her ear. Her hands were brought to her face in agony, but Tori had cried enough last night; today, she would not allow another drop form her eyes.

“I, um… I wanted to say sorry about last night,” Lenina whispered shamefully. “I didn’t know I was getting in the way again. I really didn’t mean to, I promise you.”

Tori hesitated a response and sighed heavily. “Lenina, I think it would be best if we could have some time away from each other for now. I-I don’t think I can take talking to you right now. It just hurts too much. Okay?” Then with a gentle click she hung up the phone, cutting off Lenina on the other end.

• • • • •

Lenina was left with the deafening silence, and maybe it was not the silence that bothered her… it was knowing that she was alone in it without Tori. However, she would not allow for her hopes to falter now. Lenina knew that more effort would be needed to mend something she broke, and she was more than willing to try. Putting her shoes back on, she quickly ran outside the house to halt a cab.

~ • ~ • ~ • ~ •

His knocks were demanding, and although Danny heard it clearly, he continued to wash the glass he’d used to drink last night. After the third barrage of knocks, he couldn’t really ignore the noise anymore, and hesitated a second before deciding to make his way slowly to the front. “Yeah, yeah, I’m coming!”

Leonard tried his best to patiently wait outside, unfamiliar with the circumstance of being forced to wait for anyone else except for his dad. Secretaries were always ready to see him when he called in the office. Waiting for a man he didn’t even know an ounce of information about was highly insulting. Sighing with aggravation, he leaned against the side of his door but suddenly straightened up when Danny opened the door, and Danny looked to be quite surprised himself. “Yeah, do you need something?” he asked bluntly. Leonard’s face shifted uncomfortably.

“I need to talk to you-- Danny, was it?” Clearing his throat, he waited for his response.

The look in his eyes was unsettling and Leonard could feel every bit of anger he probably held within it, but Danny didn’t say much except: “Come in.”

•••• <3 ••••

“Tori, please open up!” Lenina called desperately as she banged on her door. The apartment building’s elevator was not working and Lenina was forced to walk up fifteen floors and was more than tired by the time she was begging. “Tori! It’s me, Lenina! Can you open your door, please?”

The locks shuffled robotically on the other side of the door, making Lenina hold her breath. When she saw an inch of Tori’s face as the door opened slightly, she blushed deeply. “Tori…”

“Lenina, you’re not supposed to be here,” she said quietly. “I didn’t ask you to come here. Did you forget already?”

“N-no, I just…I wanted to talk, To--“

“I don’t want to talk to anyone right now, Lenina.”

“No, please… Please talk to me.” Lenina was crying now and it hurt her to see that her best friend was refusing to open the door. “I know I did something wrong and I’m sorry, I really am.” On the other side, Tori hadn’t said a word. “Tori, please… you’re my only friend, and you’ve always looked out for me. You were always there for me throughout high school, and… I know I’m not the smartest person out there, but I would still want you to be my friend. You don’t even need to call me, and I’ll get up on time every day on my own for school. I won’t do reckless things anymore, and I… I’ll stay away from you if you would just have me as your friend.” When Tori closed the door completely, Lenina sobbed a bit louder and said goodbye.

----

“Lenina’s different now,” Leonard said hastily, not wanting to waste time in a stranger’s house. They came into the living room, and sat down opposite from one another, where they could clearly see one another.

Danny watched him suspiciously for a while, but rolled his eyes and said, “All right, before you go on about this, let me just say that I’m sorry for what I did last night to your…fiancé. I never meant to but it just kind of happened. I know you must hate me because I had no right to do that. But Lenina became someone important to me. She gives me the feeling of knowing that I don’t really need to worry about a lot of things because they're gonna turn out all right. Now, I don’t even know if she wants to see me anymore. What I did was stupid, but… each time she comes running to me because of an argument you two are having, I could barely get myself to listen because I know she’s hurt.” After a breath, Danny continued, “Maybe it isn’t my place to be saying this, but there are a lot of guys out there that would be more than willing to make Lenina smile everyday, make her happy, make her laugh, but with you… You take her for granted like you won’t lose her. Before you lose everything, I want you to realize how lucky you are to have her, because really… you’re not treating her right.”

Leonard never removed his eyes off this man who sat across from him. Of course he had no right to be saying any of this to him, but what caught him off guard was that Danny was observant enough to “see” that he was mistreating Lenina, when he himself would never have noticed. Danny looked like an honest man, and although he did something inappropriate last night, he still had enough moral to apologize. “Fine,” Leonard said, admitting to defeat. “So please explain to me what I’m doing wrong.”

“What good reason do you have for me to tell you?” Danny asked as he crossed his arms and leaned back on his seat and watched his guest intently. If he came here just to ask what he’s been doing wrong, there must be a decent reason why.

“Because… I don’t want to hurt her anymore.”

Danny was a bit astounded to hear the words come out, but they did and they were sincere. His chest almost ached because he knew that as oblivious as Leonard was, he was still willing to make changes because of his newfound affections for Lenina. Neither of them wanted to lose her, but then again, only one of them could have her; he knew this. “Well, then. First of all, just because Lenina acts like a child, it doesn’t mean she necessarily wants to be treated like one. She’s a woman, Leonar--“

“Call me Leo.”

“All right, Leo. But anyway, Lenina needs to be treated like a woman. Kiss her as if she were already your wife. Your wedding’s coming up soon, right?”

“Uh, yeah,” Leonard nodded. “Soon.”

“Yeah, well… start fixing things between you and her. Let her know you love her or something.” Danny’s eyes then locked into his. “’Cause I can tell that she loves you, whether you’re aware of it or not. It actually makes me wonder why you’ve decided to ask her of all women to marry.”

Not having much else to say, Leonard stood up and carefully watched Danny. “I’ll be going now, then. Thank you for taking the time to speak with me.” Danny nodded and walked him to the front door.

“Take care of her, Kingsley.”

• • • • • • •

The day carried on its duty way up until the night took its shift. The air was a bit cooler, and although she had work tomorrow, Tori decided to go for a drive around Lenina’s neighborhood at one in the morning and saw that the lights were still on in the top floor. It wouldn’t come easily to talk to her now, she thought, as she drove on pushing the tears away from her eyes. It would hurt too much. She ended up somewhere else she didn’t quite expect.

“Danny, can you talk?”

He stared at her, wondering why he was having guests today all of a sudden, especially now at this time of day. “Yeah, come in.” He held the door open for her and watched her make her way into his living room. The sight of Tori always reminded Danny of Lenina, no matter which way he looked at her, because whenever Lenina would come over to his house, Tori would inevitably be with her. Now, the air felt sorrowful without Lenina by her side for a visit. He wished that he hadn’t done what he did last night. The situation was definitely taking its toll on him now, risking his relationship he had with the girl he loved because of a small mistake…Well, he thought to himself when he followed Tori into the room, maybe not that small of a mistake.

In the living room the curtains were closed, and the only light that was on was in the very room they both stood in with sullen hearts. “You all right, Tori?”

“Yeah,” she said, blowing out a big sigh and falling down onto the couch behind her. “Hey, can you pass me a beer or two?”

“No, now’s not the time for you to get drunk,” Danny insisted. “Lenina might need you t--“

“I’m not talking to her right now, Danny,” Tori said calmly. She brought her thumb and index finger to her eyes and rubbed away the sleepiness her body was fighting. This was not good. Work would be in a few hours and bags under her eyes would not please her photographer; everything seemed to be going downhill. She suddenly wondered what Lenina was doing at this time. Sleeping, maybe? Snuggled up next to her future husband…

~ + • + • + • + ~

“Lenina! Can you please open the door?” Leonard pleaded while his head rested against her bathroom door. Inside, he could hear his fiancé crying hysterically as she let the water run in the bathtub. With one hand, he shook the knob gently, but Lenina would threaten his attempts with the volume of her cries. Sometimes when she heard that he put more effort into shaking the knob than the previous time, she might even raise her pitch; he liked to smile about that. So from time to time, he even got caught up with trying to conduct the pitch and tone of her sobs just by the knob alone. Lenina didn’t seem to notice. “All right, I’m gonna go and get the key,” he warned, but when he didn’t hear a pause from her, he left to go downstairs and came back a few minutes later.

When he finally got the door to open, his heart fell deep into sadness when he saw Lenina in the bathtub full of water with the shower on and endlessly raining down on her. She still had the dress she wore earlier for their date, but this was not how he wanted for it to end up looking on such a beautiful woman. She was completely soaked, yet somehow, Leonard was able to tell which liquid her eyes bore, and which came from the shower above her.

Kneeling beside her, Leonard asked her what was wrong, but Lenina could only do so much as shake her head in reply. “You don’t wanna say?” he cooed, wrapping his right arm lovingly around her making the water overflow a bit from the tub. So with his left hand, he reached for the knob to turn off the water altogether and for a second he never realized how much noise the water was making. Now it was only Lenina’s small hiccups that fought against the silence, which surrounded them. She was beginning to calm down, and he was glad.

He slowly took her by the chin and lifted her lightly so even though her eyes refused to look into his, at least her face was well in his view. Leaning in, he kept his lips securely against hers and kissed her again a moment later on her forehead, and then a light peck once more on her lips. When he pulled away, he might’ve sworn that she finally looked at him but he decided not to return the glance in case she became timid again. Yet still, her gaze on him never felt so soothing.

Fully embracing her this time, Leonard pulled her out of the bathtub and got her to stand up next to all the towels beside the tub and right across the toilet. Lenina had stopped crying, and the only trace of it was her constant hiccups, which still brought a smile to his lips. Taking a beige-colored towel off the handle, he helped dry her hair, but in the end Lenina ended up taking care of it herself. All he could do was watch her but from that alone, he was satisfied. Her dress was drenched in her idea of staying in the tub, but it only emphasized the beauty of her body as a woman as it clung closely to her skin, undaring to spare a small minor detail to his eyes. He wanted to leave the bathroom suddenly, but she stopped him with a question. “Can I…can I sleep with you tonight?”

Leonard looked back at her with a handsome smile. “Get in your pajamas, then.”