My Pretend Fiancé

Lenina arrived back at the house shortly after five in the afternoon. Her class had ended after 3 o’clock, but Tori had asked her to hang out with her for a little while, and even treated her to a shopping spree. Now, as Lenina tried to work her way past the front door along with her three bags of new clothes, she grunted happily, but suddenly froze when she heard Leonard’s voice.

“I came back home when I was on my break,” he said as he helped pull the bags in, but Lenina remained quiet, almost in awe. She stood firmly by the door, unmoving, and slightly nervous. “Are you okay,” Leonard asked, noticing her abrupt change in personality. Scratching the back of his head, he sighed. “Uh, listen… I know you may be upset about the way I acted towards you the other night, but, um… I didn’t mean any of what I said, I mean… This is your house as much as it is mine. I was just feeling a little…jealous, I guess you could say, so I’m sorry.”

Raising her eyes to him, Lenina asked timidly, “You were jealous? Jealous of what?”

Leonard shrugged, surprised of not knowing the actual reason himself. He chuckled. “I don’t know! I have no clue why… I mean, this is only an arrangement, right? A mutual agreement between two people?”

Lenina nodded with her usual smile, feeling a bit more relieved to hear that he was no longer mad at her. “Well, at least you like me,” she said casually as she picked up her bags, and then struggled to the stairs.

“’Like you?’ What makes you think that?”

“Well, you can’t just ask someone to marry you without at least liking them, right?” Lenina had a point. Leonard thought about the apparent attraction he had for her the very first time he saw Lenina staring intently at his window. She was a very cute girl with soft waves of hair, and who needed a home right when the very thing he needed was a fiancé. He never did put so much faith into signs, but her existence at the very moment proved so much otherwise. Lenina came to his rescue at the nick of time, and now he wasn’t sure whether this plan was as brilliant as he first thought it was, or a trap he unknowingly set out for himself.

Thinking about the very thought which seemed to numb his mind, he called to Lenina before her back disappeared from sight. “So, um… you like me, too, is that what you’re saying, Lenina?”

“Oh, yes, of course! I wouldn’t have said yes to your proposal otherwise, you know!” Her footsteps finally subsided as Lenina closed her door upstairs, but Leonard could already feel the house warming up to its ordinary glow whenever his “fiancé” was around, and he was glad that he took the time to speak with her; it was never difficult talking to her, which he found coolly in his favor.

“Oh, wait—Lenina!”

Then a faint reply of “yes” was heard.

“Don’t you have work today?” he asked hopefully. He wanted to squeeze in some time before she left again.

“Tonight, yes, I do!”

“So I’ll drop you off, then, okay?” He started to turn for the kitchen, but stopped when he heard Lenina’s door open abruptly.

“Oh, no, thank you!” she said with appropriate volume to his ears. “I’ll have Danny drop me off, because he offered first. I-is that okay, Jimmy?”

The way she spoke his name almost brought a smile to his lips, but not quite. Leonard thought about having another talk with her about their agreement, but did he really have the right to tell her what to do? The agreement might as well be nullified if he kept treating her the way he did, with his sudden rage and jealousy. He would hate to admit that his emotions were on a rampage. “Um, okay,” he replied sadly. He honestly didn’t know whether his anger was necessary for the circumstance like the previous time, and if it was, Leonard decided that he would need to take anger management sessions. “So, can I pick you up after?”

“Sure, if you want to,” Lenina answered, and then headed back downstairs to Leonard. He was sitting down on his black leather couch in the living room and invited her to sit with a swift hand motion. Sensing her hesitance he said, “Well, you came down to spend some time with your fiancé, right? Come sit with me and maybe we could watch a movie together before you go to work. You want to do that?”

Lenina nodded happily and skipped over to him. After she maneuvered herself into a comfortable cross-legged position, Leonard then gently placed his arm around her small shoulders and reached for the remote with the other. “So, what movie do you wanna watch? Do you like comedy, horror, or what?” Leonard was finally easing into light conversations with Lenina, and he mused over the possibility of everything working out according to his plans.

“Ooh, I like comedy and horror!” She exclaimed as she tapped his ribs with excitement.

“Comedy and horror,” Leonard echoed, searching through the Movies on Demand. Reading the titles out to her, Lenina began to squirm with apparent anxiety. “30 days of Night…Romeo and Juliet…P.S. I Love You…Wow, there are barely any comedies or horrors on here, Lenina,” he finally said along with a sigh, but continued on nevertheless. “Um, Valkyrie, Unborn…” Then he chuckled. “Nemo.”

“Ooh, Nemo! I want to see Nemo!”

Leonard blinked apathetically. “Are you serious? Nemo isn’t comedy or horror. Huh, definitely not horror.”

“Yes, it is!” She gasped. “Nemo is both comedy and horror. How would you feel if you were torn away from your parents with an abnormal fin? It would be horrible!” She went on with more reasons but Leonard had given up and played the movie with the press of a button, but he secretly swore under his breath and thought, I wouldn’t mind being torn away from my parents, actually. But for a normal kid, I guess she has a point.

The sounds of the movie were defeated by that of Lenina’s endless praises for it, but Leonard didn’t mind, thinking that he’d rather listen to her voice than the movie itself; Nemo’s father was beginning to annoy him. Just as the movie ended, the phone began to ring without the relief of Leonard’s answer. This forced silence on Lenina’s lips as she grew curious about the mystery caller. “Aren’t you going to pick it up?” she asked as she felt Leonard’s arm untangle from her shoulders and sighed, seemingly disappointed. “What’s wrong, Jimmy?” she pried, slowly reaching for the pleading phone. Leonard didn’t see her as he stood away from the couch, and said when he finally turned to her,” Lenina, please stop calling me Jim- - No, don’t answer it!” He viciously whispered the last part, but unfortunately, she already had the phone to her ear.

She looked confused and wondered what to do next, but still managed to greet a soft hello to the caller. After a moment of silence, her eyes then fell over Leonard’s, and he angrily slapped his palm against his forehead. “Lenina, Lenina, Lenina,” he chanted plaintively to her as he shook his head in disapproval.

Lenina did nothing, more except pass him the phone, which he soon clutched in his hand, and a pang of pain and guilt jabbed at her chest when he did so. He began to speak into it with incredible speed, that the sound was almost inaudible to her.

“Yeah, bye,” were the only words he said clearly before he hung up the phone, forcing the decorative table beside the couch to shake from the instantaneous impact. He looked deeply into her eyes, waiting for the “appropriate” moment to say something, and when Lenina opened her mouth to say something, he snapped. “Maybe you should just worry about your own phone calls, alright?”

“I-I’m sorry,” she replied, and then Leonard, after a few more seconds of watching her intently, suddenly took her by the arms and kissed her full on the lips, and soon after walked away.