It’s Only Temporary by Iona Rose

Connor

I’d coaxed Mathew into driving me to Bianca’s apartment to pick her up and then to LaGuardia for our flight to Colorado. I couldn’t believe how much I was looking forward to the week at home considering Bianca was basically a stranger.

“You sure she said yes?” Mathew asked me for the tenth time since he picked me up.

I laughed. I’d found it hard to believe as well when I called her and she confirmed that she had said: “I’m sure.”

“What’s her story?” Mathew said as he expertly navigated traffic.

He was a lawyer but I always thought that he would have made a good cab driver. That’s why I’d asked him instead of Tony. Plus his job was flexible and he could take time out of his day to take me to the airport.

“What do you mean?”

“Why did she agree to go with you? What’s in it for her?”

It was a valid question. “She said she needed a vacation.” It sounded lame even to my own years.

“I think she has a crush on you,” Mathew said. “She always looks at you funny.”

I shook my head. “No, that’s not it.” Women who looked like Bianca didn’t need to go having crushes on strange men.

I was glad when we got to her apartment. I didn’t want to probe Bianca’s reason for agreeing to go to Colorado with me. I was just glad that she had agreed.

“I won’t be long.” I got out of the car and sprinted to the apartment building.

I hit the buzzer to her apartment and moments later the door clicked and I pushed it open. She’d told me that she was on the second floor and rather than take the elevator, I took the stairs. Any excuse to get in some exercise.

When I got to her door, I gave it a knock and waited. I’d promised myself that I would tell her that she wasn’t just going as my guest but as a pretend fiancée.

However, that thought escaped my mind as soon as the door swung open and Bianca stood there looking even more beautiful than I remembered. Why hadn’t I noticed her looks before? Okay, I had but I’d never thought of her as a woman.

The only problem was that she wasn’t smiling. She folded her arms across her chest, making me feel as if I’d gone back in time and was facing my old teacher Mrs. Harris.

“‘I can’t thank you enough for agreeing to this,” I said, a bit thrown off by her unfriendliness.

To my further surprise, she narrowed her eyes in obvious disapproval. “For the record, I don’t like this and I don’t approve.”

I was now completely thrown off. It was as if she had become a different person. Had she changed her mind about going to Colorado. “We spoke on the phone and you said it was okay but if you’ve changed your mind, all you have to do is say no.”

Giggles sounded from behind her before that person pushed her to the side and another Bianca emerged. A smiling Bianca. Blood drained from my face. I looked from one to the other, until understanding dawned.

“I’m an idiot,” I said. “I thought I was hallucinating.”

They both laughed. I stared at them stupidly.

“As you might have figured out, this is my twin sister, Eva and don’t let her frighten you. She’s a pussycat.” She draped a hand over her sister who still wore a scowl.

“Identical twin sister,” I said.

“Genius,” Eva mumbled loud enough for me to hear.

“You’re the cheerful one,” I said to Eva with a straight look and she cracked a smile.

“Please take care of my sister and don’t be a psycho. She’s the only one I can call family.”

“I promise I’m not a psycho and I’ll take care of her. Here, let me give you my number and the name of the lodge.”

She held my gaze. “I already have all that information.”

“Great.”

Despite her best efforts to be intimidating, she wasn’t and I liked her because she was clearly looking out for her sister.

“I’m sorry about my sister,” Bianca said as we rode the elevator down.

“Don’t be. I thought she was awesome looking out for you like that.”

“She’s always telling me to have more fun and now when I do…” her voice trailed off as she laughed.

It was a laugh I could get used to hearing.

Outside, I led her to Mathew’s car and opened the door for her. When she was comfortably inside, I carried her suitcase to the trunk.

“It’s nice to see you again,” Bianca was saying to Mathew when I entered the front passenger seat.

“It’s weird to see you out of the cocktail bar,” Mathew said and quickly added. “That didn’t come out right. I don’t mean that you look like a waitress. Not that there’s anything wrong with that—”

“Shut up Mathew,” I said.

Bianca’s laugh filled the car. “It’s fine. I know what you mean. It was odd seeing Connor at my apartment door. It looked wrong.”

That broke the tension and we joked and made small talk on the way to the airport.

“Are you comfortable?” I asked her as the plane cruised down the runway and rapidly gained speed.

She smiled. “I am, thanks.”

I was relieved that she was not a nervous flier. When the plane finished ascending, she turned to me.

“We have three and a half hours,” she said.

“Yeah, that’s how long the flight is going to be.”

She chuckled. “I mean that we have three hours to get to know each other.”

I settled back in my seat feeling more relaxed than I had in a long time. “That’s more than enough time. Do you live with your sister?”

“Is that important?”

“Well yes. I’d like to know who my girlfriend lives with,” I said. “Someone might ask.”

She laughed again. I liked it. I rarely made Angie laugh. What she did a lot was roll her eyes as if I was irritating her. It was refreshing to be with someone who found me a little funny.

“If you must know I live alone but my sister and I use my guest room as an office and studio.”

I was intrigued. “Oh, doing what?”

“We own a jewelry company,” she said.

I notice the matching silver necklace and earrings she’s wearing. “Did you make those?”

She nodded. “Yeah.”

“They’re beautiful.” They really are. I’d buy them for Angie or any woman I was dating. “You both make jewelry?”

“I’m the creative side and my sister takes care of the business side of things. Marketing, processing orders… basically everything else that’s not creative.”

“I’m impressed.”

“Thank you. You’re turn now. What do you do?”

I told her about my job working for an advertising agency.

“It sounds so fast-paced,” she said.

“It can be but I love it.” I loved the charged atmosphere when we were in the middle of a brainstorming session.

“Good for you,” Bianca said. “Too many people complain about their jobs then do nothing about it. It’s nice to meet someone who actually enjoys what they do.”

“You sound like you enjoy your work too,” I pointed out.

“I do. I waitress on the weekends to make extra money but that’s over for now.” She told me about being laid off but from what I could make out, she had no money worries.

We spoke more about our work and then she asked me about my sister and her husband to be. Bianca was easy to talk to and we chattered for the duration of the flight.

Only when we heard that the plane was about to land did we remember our original purpose which was to get to know each other better.

“I think we did, only not in the way we had thought we would,” I told her with a chuckle.

February in Colorado was harsh but I had no issues with the cold and the snow. Probably because our family fun revolved around snow and the harsh winters.

We bundled into a cab for the hour-long journey to the lodge. Bianca was nicely bundled up but for most people, our winters were unbearably cold.

“Cold?” I asked her.

She flashed that gorgeous smile at me and shook her head. “I remember the winters here. My dad used to bring us here for skiing vacations. It’s nice to be back.”

“You ski?” I asked her.

“It’s been a while and I’m a bit rusty but yes, I do.”

“In that case, this mini vacation is going to be loads of fun for you. The lodge is on top of a mountain and skiing is one of the main activities.”

Bianca was full of surprises. Angie could not ski and she hated the snow. I was glad it was Bianca I had come with. Guilt flooded me as soon as that thought popped into my brain. I told myself that Angie was the one who had broken our engagement and thus I had no reason to feel disloyal. Still, the speed at which I was moving on to another woman was frightening.

“I should have asked you this before we left. What is the cost for the lodge? I want to pay my share,” she said.

My admiration for Bianca went up a notch. “Everything’s taken care of, don’t worry.”

“I want to.”

“The lodge is closed to visitors for a week and my parents own it. No one is paying anything. That’s their gift to my sister and her husband to be.”

“Oh,” she said. “Is that where you grew up?”

“Yes, but it was much smaller then and more of a bed and breakfast. They’ve expanded it over the years and it can now accommodate up to a hundred guests.”

“That’s the coolest thing I’ve ever heard. I don’t know people who own a lodge in the mountains.”

I laughed at her awe. “Now you do.”

“Didn’t you want to stay and work there?” she asked.

“No. I love New York and I always wanted to work in a fast-paced environment. My sister works at the lodge so when my parents retire, she and Brian will probably take over.”

“Sounds perfect,” she said and then glanced out the window. “Aww, would you look at that?”

The snow-covered mountains rose majestically in the distance as we followed the winding road.

“It’s magical,” Bianca said, her nose pressed against the window.

“It is,” I said. “I always feel as if I’m being transported to another place and time when I come home.”

“You’re so lucky to have this.”

We were getting nearer to the lodge where all my family were waiting and I hadn’t sorted out a few things. Like the fact that they were expecting my fiancée, not just my girlfriend.

I cleared my throat. “There’s one little detail I forgot to let you in on.”

Something in the tone of my voice made her turn to me startled. “What?”

“Hey, it’s not a biggie,” I said, a longing to wipe off the worry from her face. “It’s just that I was supposed to attend the wedding with my fiancée. So my family is sort of expecting my fiancée.”

She paled and her mouth fell open. “What?” she shifted in her seat and glanced out the window as if she was contemplating getting out of the car. She turned back to me. “I don’t get it. You have a fiancée?”

“Past tense. I had a fiancée. She dumped me that night at the bar.”

Bianca’s face reddened and the eyes that were previously warm turned cold and distant. “So in essence I’m here as another person?”

The beginnings of a headache were forming around my skull. “Not really. They didn’t know her name. You’ll still be Bianca.”

Then she turned away abruptly but not before I saw the tears that had sprung into her eyes.

Fuck. I was an idiot. I had handled it so badly.

“I’m sorry but I didn’t think it was a big deal,” I said lamely. “I should have told you the whole story.”

“It doesn’t matter,” Bianca said. “Why did she dump you?”

I already looked like a loser so why not go all the way. “She wants to be a model and our relationship was holding her back. That’s the explanation she gave.”

A chuckle sounded from the front. “I thought I’d heard it all,” the cab driver said.

I ignored him and turned to Bianca. “This doesn’t change anything, does it?”

For all I knew, we could get to the lodge and she would go back to the airport in the same cab.

“I’m already here,” she said but the carefree mood that had been between us was gone.

I hesitated before removing the jewelry box from the pocket of my jacket but I had to give it to her if this was going to work. I slipped it out and opened it. I’d picked the prettiest, simplest engagement ring I could find.

Bianca looked like a woman with a classy but simple taste. I hoped that I was right.

She glanced at it and then took it out and slipped it onto her finger. It fit perfectly. “I’ll take care of it.”

“Don’t worry about it. It’s yours anyway.”

“I can’t keep it,” she said and then looked away.

I let out a breath I hadn’t known I’d been holding.

A huge sign indicated the turn for the lodge which meant we were less than fifteen minutes from the lodge. I searched Bianca’s face. It was a poker face and I couldn’t tell what was on her mind but I had a feeling that by leaving it so late to tell her, I had changed things between us.

“How can you lie to your family about something so big?” she finally asked in a low tone.

I gave her question some thought. I don’t know what it said about me but it wasn’t such a big deal. “No one will get hurt. If anything, it will give my mother peace not to have to worry about me and my love life.”

“You make it sound as if it’s a good thing and we both know that it’s not. I’m not close with the rest of my family but I would never lie to them like this.”

She looked disturbed and I couldn’t figure out a way to make her feel better about things.