My Pretend Fiancé

“Your mother and I were talking about it, and we’ve decided that we want to meet your… girlfriend.” Leonard’s father, Gregory Kingsley, said over the phone quite bluntly.

Leonard’s eyes flew open at his words. It was way too early in the morning for his crap, but in a way there was a spark of satisfaction for Leonard; something about the slight anxiety his father voice sounded good to him.

“Oh, do you now?” He teased his father. “Well, I don’t know, dad. You may scare her away.”

“Oh, nonsense, boy! We want to meet her, so let her know about that soon. Come on, now, we don’t bite.” His father sounded even more excited now by his son’s dissuasion, but he would not falter with his mission. If he had to kill someone just to marry off his son to his ex-fiancé, he would. “Now see here! I will give you no more than five months to set up this appointment with your Ms., er—“

“Yes, dad,” Leonard sighed. “I’ll be sure to tell her.”

“Alright, then,” Gregory said strictly, getting ready to hang up the phone, and the disappointing conversation along with it.

“Wait, dad,” Leo called, and he waited a few seconds of silence for his father to privilege him with a moment’s worth of attention. “Her name is Lenina. Don’t mispronounce it, don’t misspell it, and don’t forget it, old man.”

--

“Yes, of course I’ll go!” Lenina giggled over the phone with Danny. He was smiling on his end, too, and even though he told himself earlier not bother with this girl anymore, he found to his surprise that not only was he breaking his own morals, but also jading his reputation of being a gentleman by involving himself with another man’s fiancé.

“Great, so, uh, you can invite your friend, Tori, alright?” He wanted to get to know Lenina a bit better if he would not be able to make her his. Anyway, there really isn’t any harm in friendship, is there? Most of all, if he was going to invite Lenina to his house, he wanted her to be as comfortable as she can, and what better way than to have Tori over, as well?

“Yes, I will! Thank you!” When she hung up the phone, Leonard was knocking on her door.

“Lenny?” He called. “Are you busy?”

Rushing to the door to open it, she saw Leo in his white beater this morning and complimented him on it. He leaned against the side of the door, and yawned. “Uh, thanks,” he replied and scratched the back of his head. “Listen, uh, my parents wanna meet you soon, so I think we need to start talking about how you’re gonna be acting around them. Is that alright?”

“Oh, yes, I almost forgot! Yes, of course we can talk about it. Well, just tell me how you want me to impress them.” Being tired as he was, though, he was not able to take a swift notice to what she was wearing…until he yawned a second time and his mouth never really closed.

“Lenny, oh, my God, what are you wearing?”

Lenina looked down to her feet and replied happily, “Oh! Tori gave these to me. She said I could hold on to it until she’s able to have them back. Does it look bad?” She shifted her body this way and that and examined her lingerie. Leonard shook his head hysterically and looked away for obvious reasons. Another glance at her and he would get the hard-on of his life.

“No, no, it doesn’t look bad at all, it’s just, uh… You know what? Just come meet me later in the kitchen or the living room, or—dammit, just see me when you change into something else, alright?”

“Okay!” Lenina watched Leonard rush back down the stairs, practically tumbling down, but she smiled to herself and closed her own door to prepare herself for yet another day of excitement. She secretly hoped that she would be able to please them.

It took her no more than ten minutes to start making her way downstairs and meet Leonard. He looked a bit grim as he propped his chin up with his palm, and locked his gaze onto hers. Lenina froze by the doorway with her mouth slightly open, and allowed for the moment to linger on for a few more seconds until Leonard couldn’t help but chuckle at her reaction. “What is it?” he asked, motioning for her to take a seat in front of him.

Lenina blinked once then sat down. “Um, you’re very handsome.”

Leonard’s eyes flew open with surprise, and quickly took a moment to regain his calm composure by clearing his throat and straightening his body in his seat. “Oh, uh, thank you.”

“You’re welcome!” Lenina’s attitude was simply too adorable to ignore, but it was definitely in a good way, and as he watched her closely now, he suddenly remembered kissing her not too long ago… and most of all, the warmth of her lips to his very own. He still didn’t know what drove him to do it—and with such horrible attitude, too. Ashamed, Leonard looked around the kitchen as he began, “So, uh… about my parents, they’ll be meeting you soon, but I wanted to get to know you first before they get the chance to. So I want us to go on dates together at least three times a week, is that okay?”

“With me?”

“Uh, well, since you’re my fiancé, I would hope so,” he repeated with slight annoyance in his voice. Who else would it be?

“That would be wonderful!” Lenina jumped and hugged him from across the table. She giggled like a little girl, and when she began to pull away, Leonard’s arms entangled around her with gentle, yet firm hold. “Jimmy?”

“Call me Leo,” he said, closing his eyes in her hair, not yet ready to let go.

“Leo,” she whispered, this time for her own pleasure, and with a smile held him tighter. It was nice staying in his embrace, because Lenina hadn’t received one since she moved in. Everyone she knew just seemed to have drifted away from her emotionally, and without Tori’s help, she could never keep them close to her.

The embrace they shared in those few moments together seems to have triggered something both to their liking because during the following weeks since then, although Lenina’s friendship with Danny have been progressing exceptionally well, she was also growing a special bond with Leonard. Leonard also liked being welcomed by his fiancé, a woman he was undeniably growing strong affections for. It was only getting easier and easier for the two of them to be in the same room, and whenever Leonard teased her, Lenina would blush and run away from him with childish embarrassment, but before she’d get the chance to seek refuge elsewhere, Leonard would already have her by the waist and twirl her around in midair until all that was left to be heard were their laughter.

But something would rouse Leonard’s emotions and sexual tension each time he carefully placed her back down from the air, because when he did, Lenina would always allow her body to slide down along his, even though Leonard tried his best to keep their distance a decent amount away from each other. From another woman, the message would be clearly conveyed, but this was Lenina; she might not have even known what she was doing! Most of all, it was getting especially difficult for him to keep his hands to himself anymore, as he would sometimes rub his thumb at the small of her neck whenever she greeted him by the door. Wondering if she knew what the consequences were to her provocative actions each time they touched, Leonard finally asked, “Do you do that on purpose, Lenina?”

“Do what on purpose?”

“Your hips never fail to touch me when I bring you back down…because I feel like I should let you know what it does to me each time you do.”

“I know, but there’s something about us touching that makes me feel happy or closer to you,” she said after a few moments of thinking. “And I thought that I should try to keep doing this because we don’t get close through words because you never want to talk to me.”

“Happy?” he repeated. “What do you mean by that?”

“I’m not sure, yet. I like how your body feel against mine, I guess,” Lenina began to explain, but the more she used words, the more she realized how futile and useless they were to help justify how she felt. “My body just knows that it’s you, and that I have nothing to worry about. I think us touching is my most favorite part of the day.”

“When we touch?” Leonard asked pensively.

She nodded in simple reply. “Something inside tells me it’s right to hold you. I haven’t felt anything like it before, so I think I should ask Tori soon.” When she began to hum an odd song and turned away from him, Leonard stopped her with a question.

“Do you ever wonder what it’s like to kiss me?”

Everything in Lenina’s body stopped working except for that single order that told her entire being to face him. “I already know how it feels to kiss you, remember? When you walked away from me that night.”

Leonard winced at the thought of how sad it was that a moment such as a kiss would be remembered that way. Now that he thought of it, Lenina had a certain something, which made him realize things on his own. And for once, her tone wasn’t so childish; she sounded like a mature eighteen year old who had some sort of invincibility hold on him. And he was afraid of whatever else she would be capable of doing to him.

After three months of strong bond and gentle conversations, Lenina have visited Danny’s house with Tori about seventeen times, and simply couldn’t stop talking about the new things she had learned from Leonard. Danny would not even look the slightest bit impressed, but he still smiled at her handsomely, and kept on listening. Never bothering to bring it to Lenina’s attention, Tori has inevitably noticed the jealousy in his eyes, and in his heart, the way Danny’s jaw always tightened each time Lenina mentioned Leonard’s name—and with much enthusiasm, too. Nevertheless, everything was seemingly perfect to Lenina, and that was all that mattered to everyone around her, even Danny.

One morning, when Lenina walked downstairs to greet Leonard a good morning, she found him lying down on the couch in his living room with an open magazine over his face, and an arm over his head. His right leg was dangling off the edge, and he snored lightly. Walking over to him with much caution, Lenina whispered a soft “pssst,” and took the magazine off his face and tilted her head to one side with wonder; he was not usually so tired from work that he would overexert himself to sleep. But this time, it looked to be just that. “Okay, I’ll make breakfast, then, Leo, okay?” she whispered.

“Nnn…” was all Leonard said in answer, but after a second, Lenina shrieked when he suddenly grabbed her wrist. This woke him up further, and with his other hand rubbed his eyes. “Lenina? Um, good morning.”

“Yes, good morning. I was about to make breakfast, but I saw you lying here, and thought—“

“My parents, they want to meet you tomorrow!” he gasped.