Chapter 49: Chapter 49

Isabella's pov;

"It's surprising since you were the one who made the call." Julian teased me while holding a glass of wine in his hand.

I said, "It's been a hell of a week and I needed a break." And placed the glasses for Carlos and Jack.

Carlos took a look around and asked, "How's your restaurant now? You changed the decor?"

"Yeah, I wanted some change and the restaurant is getting back on track. When we explained it to the people, some believed us and some didn't. Our regulars spoke for the restaurant and tweeted many good things about the restaurant. As a result, we started getting customers even though it's a small amount but it's good. We're catching up. By the way, Why didn't you bring Leah with you?"

"She's still in her hometown. What about Gia? Did you call her?"

"Yeah, I did. She said she's on a business trip." And drinked from my glass.

Zoey, "Bella, Can I leave? I have a class to attend tomorrow."

"Yeah, yeah. Just go. I'll take care of it."

After Zoey left, I said to Carlos, Julian and Jack, "If anyone wants to have a drink from the menu, let me remind you of this. Everyone left so I'll be the one to serve your asses so don't expect the drink to taste good. But I'll try my best."

Jack, "I don't want to be your laboratory rat."

Carlos and Julian laughed at me.

Carlos, "Actually, You should learn how to do it. What if someone barges in after the employees leave. What will you serve them?"

"That's why I close the restaurant after they leave." laughed and asked, "So what do you guys like to drink?"

Julian, "I don't want to risk it so I'll go with bottled wine."

I asked Jack, "What about you?"

Jack, "You just gave a disclaimer and asked us to be your experimental subjects? I'll go with wine too."

I looked at Carlos, and he said, "Wine."

"Okay, I'll pour wine for you guys as you wish. Don't forget to pay me. These are not for free even though You're my friends."

Carlos placed his wallet on the stand and said, "Take my card."

I opened the wallet and saw many cards, "Trying to flex? Well, I was impressed." I swiped the card and gave it back to him.

After I served them, I served myself by pouring wine into my glass.

Someone barged in. Mr Martinez? He walked towards the bar stand and took a seat among my friends.

I asked him, "How's your leg?"

"Fine." And signalled the bottle of wine and said, "Pour a glass for me too."

"You're not drinking. Leave."

"Why?"

"You just recovered from the leg injury. Don't drink alcohol for now."

My friends made fun of me by letting out a weird sound. While I was asking them to stop, Mr Martinez placed the money on the stand and said, "Now, pour me."

What's with his attitude? Did he have a bad day? I took the money and poured the glass for him.

He drank from the glass quickly and asked for another one.

"Hey, what's wrong? What happened?"

"Don't ask me anything. Just pour me."

"I won't."

He took the bottle from and tried to drink directly from it. I grabbed the bottle and didn't let go.

"Julian, help me." Since Julian was beside Mr Martinez, I asked for his help.

Julian and Jack held him while I was trying to take the bottle from him. Carlos stood from his seat and took the bottle from Mr Martinez while Julian and Jack were holding him and gave the bottle back to me.

"Thank you."

I asked Mr Martinez, "Why are you behaving like this?"

Julian, "Guys, let's leave."

Jack, "We just started."

Julian said with a firm tone, "Let's go."

Julian, Jack and Carlos left the restaurant.

They walked out of the restaurant so I sat beside Mr Martinez and asked, "What happened? Why are you like this? Is it related to the office?"

Suddenly, Mr Martinez hugged me all of a sudden. I patted him on his back and said, "Everything will be alright."

He broke from the embrace and looked at me while holding my shoulders. His stare was intense.

I asked again, "What happened?"

"Why are you looking at me with a worried face? Do you feel bad for me?"

I touched his cheek and asked him, "Don't I have the right to be worried?"

Suddenly, he came to kiss me but I placed my hand on my lips and stopped the kiss and asked, "What are you doing? You're engaged. You're getting married soon."

He hugged me again and said, "I miss you. Can't I kiss you?"

"If you want to kiss, go and kiss your fiance. Why did you come here?"

He broke the hug and walked out of the restaurant.

What's going on in his mind? I closed the restaurant and turned off the lights to go to sleep.

After some days,

Emily asked, "Why are you dressed up like this?"

"Why? Don't I look bad?"

I looked at my outfit, a white long gown.

"You look like a runaway bride."

I laughed and said, "I'm attending a wedding today so I dressed up early since I have to be there on time."

"Oh, okay. By the way, you look good in that."

"Thank you, It's called A touch of class. it's all the way from Napa."

"From Napa? Wasn't that distant?"

"Yeah, our neighbouring city. When I heard it's on a discount, I said YES to the dress and contacted the designer and asked where I could buy this. They said it could be shipped to my place. Do you know how happy I was?"

"Are you really going to that wedding as a guest?"

"Ofcourse, why?"

"Because guests don't go in bridal dresses to the wedding. Only the bride's do."

"Then, I wanna make a change."

Emily, "I couldn't believe I got a weird boss. Okay, I'll get back to getting the orders then."

I waved while smiling at her.

Alexander Martinez pov;

While I was wearing the tux, the guy who hired me came to me and asked, "Does that suit fit you, Sir?" After seeing me in the tux, he said, "It's perfectly fine, Sir. I'll go and have a look at the bride then." And he left the room.

After buttoning up the tux, I styled my hair and came out.

While I was talking to the flower arrangements guy, he said, "There is a five minutes delay in bringing the Bridal bouquet, Sir. Please forgive us for bringing it late, Sir."

"It's fine. Leave."

After he left, the door opened and I saw Isabella walking through the door wearing a bridal dress. She looked dazzling and beautiful in that outfit. She walked on the aisle and came to me.

"Hi!"

I was lost in her

"Do I have something on my face?" She took out her phone and looked into it.

I said, "No, you look beautiful."

She smiled and said, "Thank you." She took a look around and asked me, "By the way, am I early? Where are the others?"

"They're on the way."

She nodded and said, "You look good in tux."

"Thank you."

She walked to where the guest would be seated and took her seat. I thought she'll be late. Why did she come so early?

While I was looking at her, she smiled back at me and looked around the place.

The event guy ran to me and asked, "Sir…"

"Shhh! Let's talk over there." I signalled him to go to the corner of the room and asked, "What?"

"Sir, there's been a little problem."

"What is it?"

"The guests are ready outside to enter the wedding hall but…"

"But what?"

"But the girl who came to act as bride didn't show up yet, Sir. What shall we do now?"

"Make her come here."

When I turned, I saw Isabella standing near the altar which is close to the place where I talked with the event planner.

She said, "This place looks cool! Does every rich person get married here?"

She sounds like she didn't hear that. I let out a sigh of relief.

The event planner, "Sir, why don't we ask her to be the fake bride?"

SH*T!

Isabella asked, "Fake bride? Why do you need a fake bride? What happened to the girl you hired?"

What!?

The guy answered, "She hasn't shown up yet and is not taking my calls."

"Shall I make a call to her?"

"Thank you so much." When he tried to give the number, she said, "It's fine. I already have her number."

He nodded like an idiot.

She said after making a call, "She's not picking up my call too. Maybe she went to Oakland last night to meet her grandfather."

"What?"

I said to the guy, "Take all your guys and leave."

"But Sir, we didn't do the act. What if the girl you're trying to fool appears out of nowhere and what will you do being alone in the altar?" He asked Isabella, "You seem to be friend of him, and you dressed up as a maid, if you don't mind, can you take part in our little play by taking the role of the bride?"

She said, "But I don't have experience like many do."

I said, "Are you dumb? Leave at once."

"What if she comes…"

I pointed at Isabella and said, "Because the girl I was trying to fool was already here. Understand? Now leave."

He was shocked after hearing it from me. He didn't utter another word and left the place along with the people who came to act.

Isabella, "Why did they leave? I was about to say yes to him. There goes my acting chance."

"Why did you come here?"

"Is that even a question, i came to attend your wedding but it ended like this… I'm so sad…"

I wrapped my hand around her waist and pulled her towards me and asked, "What are you doing?"

She gave me a smirk and asked in a polite way, "Aren't you happy for making me fool earlier? Why are you doing it again? Do you love seeing me get fooled that much? Okay, do you want to get married?"

I let go of her and tried to walk out of the place but she stopped me and asked, "Where's the ring?"

"What?"

"The wedding rings. Where is it?"

"Why do you need it?"

She checked my pockets and asked, "Is it in your pocket?" And checked every pocket by touching me everywhere and found the box in my pants's left pocket.

She opened and saw the rings, "Wow! It looks dazzling. Is it a fake too?"

"That's the only thing real here."

"Give me your hand."

"For what?"

"So many questions."

She took my hand and put a ring on my middle finger, before I could realise what happened, she gave me a peck on my lips. The flash fell on us which made each look in the direction of the flash.

She asked, "Did you hire a photographer?"

"No, wait."

I asked her to stay at the altar and came to the place where the flash came from. There was no one. When I looked around, I saw a guy running down the steps holding a digital camera.

I ran after him and finally catched him in my grip and asked about him. After hearing from him, I came to know that he's a paparazzi so I asked him to delete that picture which he took a few minutes ago.

Isabella came while I was talking to him and stared at me.

"I warned him not to publish those pictures. You don't have to worry about that."

She stared at him and walked downstairs. While I was walking after her, she turned to me and said, "I married you so don't go around and hire people to hold a fake wedding after this."

While she was leaving the place I said, "Stop! I didn't get my turn."

"For what?"

"I haven't put a ring on your finger."

"Why do you have to put a ring on my finger?"

"That's how marriage happens. Both the groom and the bride exchange rings."

"I don't need the ring. The only person who got married here is you. Not me. You didn't even propose to me. Why should I have to marry you?"

"Then, why did you put a ring on my finger?"

"Propose me and get approved. I'll try to keep the ring finger empty for you." And left.

What just happened here? She came and found it was a lie and didn't even get angry at me like she knew it from the beginning. Suddenly, she put a wedding ring on my ring finger and asked me to propose to her properly.

What did she mean by that? Does that mean Isabella is proposing to me???

The next day, in the office,

I looked at the wedding ring on my finger and looked at the other ring. She asked me to propose to her. Is that a challenge?

My assistant asked me, "Sir, someone wants to meet you."

"Who's it?"

"They said you know them."

"Send them in."

The door opened, and someone walked in. The person was fully covered from head to toe. That person sat in the chair and removed the cloth from face.

"Isabella? Why are you dressed up like this?"

"You sound like you haven't seen today's headlines."

"What is it?"

When I took the phone to have a look, she placed the newspaper on the table and asked me to take a look at it.

I saw a picture of myself kissing Isabella in our wedding outfits.

"I warned him not to publish it. I'm going to sue him for this."

"Don't."

"I know you don't like to punish people. You can leave it to me. I'll take care of it."

"I was the one who asked to publish it."

"What?"

"Yeah, what else do you want me to do? What if you plan another silly thing and make me go crazy? If everyone sees this, no one comes forward to act with you, I can be at ease." She placed the ring on the table and said, "And, This is my ring. People around me have already started asking me about the ring since I'm not wearing one. I don't want to explain things which are between us to others so I'm going to wear this as a dummy."

She stood from the place and said, "Since it's on the news, be prepared to answer them." And made a smile at me.

"You're getting revenge."

"Yup! Reporters are waiting outside the office so I'll just leave and make way for them. Enjoy your interviews. And, I hope you liked my marriage gift, honey. See ya." And left the cabin.

As soon as she left, the assistant said, "Sir, I tried to hold them but I couldn't…"

The reporters barged into my cabin and shooted many questions at me.