THE CEO'S FAKE WIFE

I'm Not A Whore

Beatrice's mood changed instantly after Luke agreed to consider her request to start a fashion business. She excitedly made a cup of black coffee, tied her hair up, and turned on the laptop.

She looked for references for examples of professional business proposals, she also made a profit-sharing scheme between herself and Luke as the investor, she was so focused that she didn't realize she had spent four hours without moving anywhere at all.

After she finished making the proposal, she got up from her seat while stretching her tired body. Then she went to the kitchen to warm up a plate of ready-to-eat lasagna that she bought at the Italian restaurant she went to yesterday.

She took a shower, changed clothes, then returned to sit in front of the laptop in the TV room with a bottle of mineral water and a bowl of snacks beside her. She also brought a sketchbook and a pencil to draw the concept of a design that she would show Luke.

She tore her sketchbook several times because she felt the drawings were too ugly and ordinary. She closed her eyes trying to focus, she must be able to draw well, she had won a fashion sketch design competition from a well-known fashion magazine, there's no reason for her to fail it.

After tearing almost fifteen sheets of paper, she finally was able to draw a dress design that she thought was good and had a strong character. Then she started to draw some more designs until she didn't realize she was fast asleep on the carpet with her head drooping on the table and her hand holding a pencil limply.

An hour after she fell asleep, Luke appeared at the entrance with a paper bag containing Japanese food in his hand. He walked casually into the Penthouse and was somewhat surprised to find Beatrice asleep with her head drooping on the table. He even forgot that he had told her to show him his business proposal that night.

He slowly put the food he brought on the table. He winced when he saw the lumps of paper strewn across the carpet where she was sitting. He picked up some paper and opened it. He was a little surprised when he found that Beatrice's design sketch was quite good, beyond what he expected.

"Bea, wake up," he said, gently patting Beatrice's shoulder. She immediately woke up and gasped when she found Luke sitting on the sofa behind her. She hastily wiped her face and tied her hair back so it wouldn't look messy.

"When did you arrive?" she asked as she got up from the carpet and moved to sit on the sofa next to him. "Not long ago," he replied, peeking at the sketch in her book.

"I'm done with the proposal! Do you want to take a look?!" she asked with blazing enthusiasm.

Luke took a deep breath,

"I just got home from work, I'm starving!" he replied curtly. Beatrice sneered, she glanced at the bag of food that he brought, "Okay, let's talk while we eat!" she decided without asking for Luke's approval.

She swiftly opened the bag of food and took out several servings of sushi, octopus, Miso soup and placed them on the table. "Well, let's eat!" she exclaimed while holding out a pair of chopsticks to Luke with a cheerful face.

While Luke was enjoying his sushi, Beatrice turned on the laptop while occasionally grabbing some sushi and chewing it quickly.

"This is the first business proposal I've ever made!" she showed the proposal while smiling proudly.

Luke snorted holding back laughter when he saw Beatrice's proposal which looked very colorful.

"It looks so crowded," said Luke in between chewing his octopus. Beatrice smiled proudly, "This fits the theme I want to carry, chic and colorful!" she said then began to present the plan she made.

"So the segment that I want to go to is the upper middle class, I don't want to sell expensive designer clothes, the price is still competitive with good designs and quality materials!" she closed her presentation with a big smile.

Luke's face looked so flat, making Beatrice a little irritated. But suddenly he took her sketchbook and opened it page by page while carefully observing all the sketch designs that she had also colored.

"How? It's good, right? If it's not what you expected, I'll fix the design later!" Beatrice said pitifully because she didn't see any expression on Luke's face.

Luke grabbed a bottle of mineral water from the table and opened it slowly while staring at Beatrice's sketched design, seemed to be thinking, making Beatrice feel nervous. If he didn't agree to her proposal, she didn't have any other idea of what kind of business she was going to start.

"How much do you need?" asked Luke while looking at her with a flat gaze. Beatrice gasped, "How, what? Does that mean you agree with my proposal? I mean seriously?!" she raved with sparkling eyes.

Luke snorted, "Easy! I'll give you the details of the budgeting tomorrow," he said as he got up from his seat and left to his room. Beatrice jumped excitedly until she almost hit Luke who was walking in front of her, seconds later they both fell on the sofa.

Their eyes met, locked with each other. Time seemed to stop spinning, there was a loud pounding that deafened her ears, it was her heart that was beating so fast. She pushed him away as soon as she realized that he was looking at her with such a strange gaze. Without saying anything he walked away holding his left chest leaving Beatrice speechless.

She took a deep breath, holding her pounded chest. She grabbed a bottle of mineral water and took a quick gulp. 'Gosh, what's wrong with me!"

After she felt better, she continued to make budgeting proposals with enthusiasm until she fell asleep lying on the sofa. She was so sleepy she didn't realize that someone was covering her body and watching her sleeping with her mouth half open.

****

The next morning she was awakened by the smell of coffee that wafted into her senses of smell. She opened her eyes slowly and was surprised to find herself sleeping on the sofa in the TV room.

Her eyes glanced at the blanket that fell on her feet, she grabbed the blanket and stared at it for a long time, was it Luke who brought the blanket for her? She couldn't help herself but smile from ear to ear.

After tidying up the laptop and scattered papers, she went to the kitchen. There when she saw Luke sitting on a stool sipping coffee. With a sleepy face, she reached for a glass, opened the refrigerator, and poured a glass of apple juice.

Luke took a glance at her briefly, then returned to scroll his finger on his cellphone, making Beatrice sneer in disgust. Honestly, she was expecting a good morning or something better than that.

"Mom asked us to come to William Bridal for fitting after lunch, let's come together, you can come to the office before lunch," said Luke while typing fast on his cellphone. Beatrice just said 'okay' almost inaudibly.

Luke took a sip of his coffee, then got up and grabbed his suit that was slung over the chair and rushed out with just one word, "I gotta go..."

After Luke left for work, Beatrice cleaned the house, fed their virtual pets, Coco and Aragog, then rushed to take a shower. At first, she intended to continue making budgeting proposals before she went to Luke's office. But one idea came up, she thought about working on her budgeting proposal at the coffee shop in Luke's office building, so she could get a better feel for the business!

She walked around her walkin' closet, looking for clothes that looked casual office look. After thirty minutes of searching, she decided to wear a long-sleeved knee-length beige dress. She applied light make-up on her face and let her long hair untied.

Confidently Beatrice walked with her laptop bag in hand towards the door. But suddenly she realized something was missing, she should have brought her own car, but Luke had not bought her any. Whereas in the agreement they made, he should have bought her a car with the same brand as the one he owned, she didn't mind if it was different as long as it was better

But because she didn't have a car yet, she decided to take a Cab to Luke's office which was quite near to their Penthouse.

Twenty minutes later, she was already standing in the office lobby, ready to go inside. She looked around and observed people passing by, all people looking cool in nice work outfits that made her envy. She stared at her reflection in the large mirror on the wall, she looked no less cool than the others, she even look better!

"One croissant and one Ice latte, please," she ordered a waitress who visit her table. After the waitress left she opened her laptop and started working on a budgeting proposal that she wanted to send to Luke immediately.

Minutes later, her cell phone rang loudly, it was Luke.

"Hmmm," murmured Beatrice unclear.

"Don't forget we have an appointment at two," said Luke flatly.

"Yeah, you know what? I'm at your office already," she replied casually.

"What? What are you doing? Why did you come so early?" asked Luke, his voice turned into curiosity.

"You don't need to know, it's not your business," said Beatrice half-jokingly.

"Whatever, you're in the Coffee shop?"

"Uh-huh,"

"Okay, I'll be there later," said Luke before he ended his call.

Beatrice just shrugged, then continued typing on her laptop. Every now and then she sipped her coffee while her eyes stay focused on the laptop. Just when he was picking up a croissant at the end of the table, she accidentally dropped her wallet onto the floor.

She bent down from her chair to take the wallet, but surprisingly someone helped her. She looked up to say thank you but she got another surprise when she saw the one who was standing in front of her.

"Matthew?" she said with a surprised face. Matthew smiled broadly, "Hi!" he gave her wallet back to her and smiled casually. "Thanks," she said as she accepted the wallet from him. She felt a bit awkward meeting Matthew in that place, she was afraid that Luke would be angry if he saw them together.

But when she remembered about Luke's meeting with Rebecca at Gustoso Italian two days ago, she started to shake off her guilt and smiled warmly at Matthew who was expecting her to say something other than thanks.

"May I sit in here?" he asked, glancing at the chair in front of Beatrice. "Yeah, sure!"

"Um, are you working on something?" he asked, watching Beatrice who was busy with her laptop. Beatrice nodded, pretending to be busy. She didn't know what to do with Matthew. However, he didn't know that Luke and she were just a contract couple. So she had to keep her attitude as somebody's wife.

"Bea, there's something in your hair," said Matthew, pointing at Beatrice's hair. She was surprised and touched her hair, but couldn't touch the part that Matthew pointed at. Until finally Matthew swiftly reached out to touch her hair, picking up the splintered croissant that was stuck in there.

Just as Matthew's hand was on her head, Luke appeared from the Cafe entrance. He glared in disbelief when he saw Matthew was touching Beatrice's hair. With anger bubbling up to his head, he pulled Beatrice's hand roughly, surprising her. She stood staring at him, she was just about to explain to him what happened but she was too late.

Luke stepped forward until he was very close to Matthew, "If it wasn't in a public area, I would have broken your hand, don't you dare touch my wife! You understand!" he whispered sharply. Then he roughly closed Beatrice's laptop and pulled her out of the Coffee Shop.

"I haven't paid the bill yet!" said Beatrice half yelling. But Luke seemed ignorant, maybe because that Coffee Shop was under his company too, but Beatrice didn't aware of that information.

"So you want to meet that person that's why you came to my office earlier?" asked Luke curtly when they were in a rather quiet hallway.

Beatrice removed her hand from him, "What? ! I met him by accident! I didn't even talk to him other than saying hello!"

"Yeah? Then why the fuck was he holding your hair!" snapped Luke angrily.

"There's a fucking croissant on my hair! I didn't even know that he was going to do that!" she replied curtly.

"Are you always this cheap? Letting some random guy touching you?" said Luke curtly making Beatrice look at him with a sharp gaze.

"Cheap? Really? If I was that cheap I wouldn't be a virgin until now! I might be your contract wife but I'm not a whore! And keep it in your mind that he just touched my fucking hair! Even a hair stylist did the same thing!" she said annoyed and then turned around and walked away leaving Luke who was silent, feeling guilty.

Luke walked quickly after Beatrice who was walking fast in front of him.

"Let's go straight to Williams Bridal," he said after he managed to catch up with her. She didn't answer, still annoyed because she felt Luke has humiliated her.

After arriving at the parking lot, Luke ran to open the car door for her, something he rarely did, but that didn't make Beatrice feel better.

Along the way, she turned her face to the window, reluctant to interact with him. While Luke was driving awkwardly beside her, he occasionally turned to her, hoping that she would open her mouth and talk as much as usual. But at that time Beatrice was really angry, let alone talking, she didn't even want to look at him in the eye...

****