My Pretend Fiancé

Lenina heard the loud music coming from the basement underneath the house and approached the door with caution. She had looked everywhere else for him but he was nowhere to be found, so the basement was the last place to check for the M.I.A. Leonard.

"Jimmy?" Lenina shouted out over the music as she crept down the paint splattered stairs and saw a shirtless Leonard working on a canvas.

"Excuse me!" She shouted again and tapped his shoulder, shocking him and causing him to turn around so quickly that the dark red paint he was working with went showering onto her pretty white cami top.

"Oh, crap! Lenina, I'm sorry!" Leonard ran to turn off the music and Lenina giggled at her ruined top.

"It's okay, really. I wanted to tell you something." Leonard tried wiping off the paint with a rag but it only turned the paint from red to a smudged pink, and he was also wiping right by her breasts-- unbeknownst to him-- and Lenina just stared at him not really knowing what to do.

"Um..." Leonard then realized what he was doing and took the rag away from her chest, blushing like uncontrollably.

"Fuck man, I'm really sorry, Lenina. There was something you wanted to tell me?" Lenina smiled and nodded her head. Leonard stared at her for a moment, amazed at how bright her eyes seemed when just a moment ago they were rattled with confusion.

"Well, um, I got a job!" Leonard was surprised that she hadn't even been here more than four days, and already she had gotten herself a profession.

"Wow, congrats. When do you start?"

"Tonight."

Leonard's eyes went wide as he looked at Lenina's smiling face.

"Tonight?"

"Yeah. In the city, at a hotel. I'm going to clean!" Leonard's face almost turned ghostly white at hearing that. Late at night in the city, in a hotel? He wasn't about to let her go out and do that.

"Lenina, I don't think that's a good idea." Lenina's glowing face faltered at his statement and for some reason, Leonard felt a sudden twinge at his heart at making her face contort to such an expression, but shook it off and stood firm.

"Lenina, it's dangerous late at night, especially in a hotel where strange men can attack you!" Leonard started to clean himself off from the sweat and paint as Lenina's eyebrows furrowed together in confusion.

"But I need to pay you for the rent somehow and I really would like this job! Please? You can take me to work and pick me up if you would like?"

Leonard thought about it. It would be a good idea, to take her into work and bring her home to make sure she was safe. It would also be a good start easing his way into telling his father that he had to leave work to take his "girlfriend" to work. It was perfect.

"Fine. I'll take you to and from work. But you can't leave without me, understood?" Lenina rolled her eyes and sighed like a small child.

"Fine. I'm going upstairs to shower." Leonard watched Lenina walk up the stairs into the house, thinking that he should get himself to the shower, too. He needed one and then remembered that he had to finish up a presentation for Yellowcard. His father wanted Leonard to try and convince them to change PR representatives. Leonard sighed knowing that if the presentation wasn't done by tomorrow when he had to go into work, he would be in enormous amount of trouble once again.

--
Later that evening, Lenina came knocking on his office door all dressed and ready to go to work. Surprisingly dressed in white tights, white tennis shoes, and a white skirt that came up to her mid-thigh. She had a blue scarf wrapped around her neck and a white beanie hat on her head, smiling brightly at Leonard.

"Ready?" She asked as Leonard answered the door dressed in just jeans and a Nirvana t-shirt.

"Yeah, let's go." Lenina was smiling the whole time he was walking to the back door and grabbed the car keys off the wall and walked to the car in the driveway.

"Excited?" Leonard asked as Lenina rocked back and forth on the balls of her feet as he unlocked the car door.

"Yeah! It's my first job so I'm hoping that I don't mess up." Lenina was beaming the entire way over to the hotel which she now worked at.

Before she got out of the car, Leonard stopped her. "Lenina, if you need me for any reason. Call me." Leonard slipped her his card with his cell phone written on it and she smiled nodding her head.

"Of course! Bye, Jimmy!" She gave him a quick kiss on the cheek to bid him goodbye and walked out of the car and into the hotel. He smiled to himself and touched his cheek. Then he realized how sentimental he was being and shook it off and drove back home.

Interestingly enough, at three o'clock in the morning Leonard was still up and walking about. However, when he did see the clock hit three, he rushed out the door and into his car to go pick her up. He couldn't stop thinking about how she could have been taken, raped, or beaten. He imagined so many horrible things happening to her that he couldn't even think about going to sleep without her back in the house, but instead the thought of her cute smiling face being in pain. Now, that wasn't fathomable.

As Leonard pulled up to the hotel, he saw Lenina standing in front of it, wet and with a few bubbles in her hair. She had a sad face on, and tears were falling from her eyes. Leonard quickly got out of the car after he parked and rushed over to her.

"Lenina, what's wrong?" He grabbed her and took her in his arms, trying to calm her down. She quickly wiped away her tears and looking up at Leonard who wiped the bubbles off her chin.

"I almost wrecked the whole basement trying to wash sheets. I didn't know you weren't supposed to use that much soap... I'm such an idiot." Leonard smiled at her and hugged her even tighter.

"It's okay. Next time you just ask. Is there a next time?" Lenina sniffled and nodded her head.

"He said that I have only one more chance to screw up."

"Then you work hard not to, okay? Don't let this one incident get you down. Now where's that smile?" He poked at Lenina's side and she let out a small giggle. She smiled up at Leonard and hugged him tightly. He hugged her back, not used to doing this. It was new for him to be so emotionally considerate for the well-being of a woman. He was the "love 'em and leave 'em" type of guy, but since he needed a fiancé, then he needed to at least be a proper gentlemen that he knew he could be to her. However, lately he wondered if treating Lenina like this was starting to make him feel the way he was.

"I need to get laid." Leonard muttered and Lenina looked at him with confusion.

"You said something?" Her head was tilted to the side as Leonard started the car and just smiled at her, shaking his head.

"No, let's get you home. I have work in the morning." Lenina nodded her head smiling and looked forward. A small trail of white bubbles on the ends of her hair, the evidence that Lenina would need to work on her housekeeping skills.