Married At First Glance: I Am Not Ugly

“Someone is following us.” Alexander alerted Marissa.

“Who do you think IS following us?” Marissa asked, as she tried to look back.

Alexander turned her gaze to himself in order for her not to make it obvious that they were aware that someone was following them.

“Don’t look,” he said, holding her by her shoulder. “You don’t want to make it obvious that you know they are following us. Do we?”

Marissa shook her head.

“But who are they?”

“My guess is Jaime. He might have hired some people to try to follow us to our hotel room to steal the contract from us or maybe to know if we really are married.” he said.

Marissa was filled with worry as she didn’t know what to do.

“So what do we do about them?” she asked him.

“Well…. um… we act like we really are married to get them to report to Jaime and then he would call his men off. He wants to get evidence that we are not married so that he could use it to get the contract from us. We have to be very careful and act like we are really married. Can you do that for me, Marissa?” he asked her, looking into her eyes.

Marissa took a deep breath and nodded.

“Yeah, I can.” she said.

Alexander nodded relieved.

“So let’s make them believe we are married then,” he said.

“But how?” she asked.Property of Nô)(velDr(a)ma.Org.

Alexander thought about their situation for a moment before answering,

“We’ll have to show them what they expect to see – a happily married couple. It’s all about appearances.”

Marissa nodded, realizing that their charade was about to become even more complex.

“So, how do we start?”

“First, we should be affectionate with each other. Hold hands, maybe even a quick kiss when they’re watching. We need to create an image of a loving couple.”

Marissa felt her cheeks redden at the thought but understood the necessity.

“You want us to kiss, again?”

“Hmm-mm. That’s the only way they would believe us because they are going to be taking pictures of us, so we need to be as real as we can.” he said.

Marissa wasn’t comfortable with the idea as she wasn’t ready to become intimate let alone intimate with a fake husband.

She was silent for a while as she thought about the whole situation.

“Can’t it be a peck on the cheek or on the forehead?” she asked.

Alexander shook his head.

“No, it has to be a lip kiss. A deep one that would show that we are really married and not just business partners or a fake couple.”

Marissa sighed and accepted.

“Okay…… what else?”

“Well….. I guess after that, they should leave and then we go into our hotel room for the night and prepare to return back to New York.” he said.

She nodded.

“So… are you ready for this, Marissa?” he asked.

Marissa nodded.

“As ready as I can be, I suppose. Let’s do this.”

Marissa closed her eyes as Alexander leaned closer and kissed her on the lips deeply.

At first she was uncomfortable, but as they continued to kiss, she began to respond and she wrapped her arms around him and he did likewise and the continued kissing forgetting the people who were following them.

They were lost in their own world of passion. Alexander’s lips were soft and Marissa couldn’t stop herself as she allowed him to devour her lips.

After a few minutes, Alexander pulled away from her lips and opened his eyes gently, likewise Marissa and both of them stared into each other’s eyes , obviously expressing their feelings through their eyes.

Then Alexander turned his gaze and looked and realized that the men following them had disappeared.

“I guess they have stopped following us,” he said.

But Marissa was still in a daze as she never expected to get lost in that moment when it was all an act and not real.

Alexander noticed that she wasn’t responding and tapped her gently to bring her back to reality.

She blinked gently, trying to clear her thoughts. The kiss had been so intense, so unlike anything she had expected in their fake marriage.

It was a momentary lapse into genuine emotion, and it left her feeling disoriented.

“Sorry, I got carried away,” Marissa said, her cheeks flushed. She couldn’t meet Alexander’s eyes.

Alexander chuckled softly,

“No need to apologize. I guess we really got into the act, didn’t we?”

Marissa nodded, grateful for his understanding. They had taken their performance to a new level, one that had even surprised them.

But it had served its purpose; Jaime’s men were nowhere in sight.

“Let’s get back to the hotel,” Alexander suggested.

“We’ve got a contract to secure.”

Marissa nodded again, grateful for the return to the charade. As they made their way back to the hotel, she couldn’t help but wonder about the unexpected passion that had flared between them.

As they got into their room, Marissa went straight to her room and closed the door behind.

She was obviously still shaken by the kiss. She slumped on the bed and sighed.

“What the hell was that?” she asked herself, as she touched her lips.

“Was that an act or was it real? Did he kiss me to show that we were married or did he kiss me because he liked me?”

She got up from her bed and took a deep breath.

“Does he like me too?” she asked herself.

Marissa’s mind raced with questions and uncertainties. She couldn’t help but ponder the complexity of their situation, mixed with a touch of humor to lighten the mood.

“Kiss or no kiss, Marissa, you can’t just go on asking yourself these questions. It’s not like there’s a ‘How to Fake Marriage’ manual out there to consult,” she mused.

She flopped back onto her bed, staring up at the ceiling, her thoughts still swirling.

“Could he actually like me? But then again, he’s got Jessie, the successful, glamorous woman who could probably buy this entire hotel with her pocket change.”

Marissa couldn’t help but chuckle at the idea of Jessie purchasing luxury hotels casually.

“And what was that with ‘The Marissa Fever’? That doesn’t sound like a real thing, but it’s just ridiculous enough to make me giggle. At least we’ve got a sense of humor in the midst of all this mess.”

With a sigh and a shake of her head, Marissa finally decided to push her overthinking aside.

They had a contract to secure, and no amount of daydreaming would make that any easier. But one thing was clear, their fake marriage had gotten far more complicated than she ever imagined….