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  "Marissa, what's going on?" The older man repeated.

  "Chase has sweetly brought my daughter to dinner with him. Looks like you're going to get to meet Sage after all."

  "So... what? Huh?" Case babbled. "Someone tell me what's going on here. I'm confused as my father is and I really don't like being that confused."

  I was the silent one. The pressure was leaning on me to open my mouth and actually say something. "I... uhh.... Hi, Mom." That was what my brilliant self managed to spit out.

  "Hi, Mom?" Case echoed. He looked at me. Then at my mother. Then repeated it a few times. "I... should have noticed the resemblance sooner."

  "Uh huh," I meekly added.

  "Case," the man who I presumed was Case's father said, "Is... is this the woman you're bringing me to show is your new fiancé?"

  My future fake husband didn't really know what to say on the matter. His mouth was gaping open. "Um, well, uh..."

  "So, Sage," my mother said, suddenly very much not pleased to see me. "You blew off meeting my fiancé so you could go to meet your boyfriend's parents?"

  I nodded. "Huh. Wait, did you say fiancé?"

  Old Man Williams ran his fingers through his hair. "Well, I guess that cat is out of the bag now."

  Briefly, I was overjoyed for my mother. She truly did deserve to find someone who would treat her right.

  My joy though was kneecapped when I started to draw connections that would soon be in place.

  If my mother was marrying Case's father, then...

  Slowly, I craned my head over to Case . He was suddenly experiencing a whole lot of the same doubts I was.

  "Case, um, son, didn't you say you were bringing your fiancée to meet me and my woman?"

  "Uh," The younger Williams replied, "Uhm, yes?"

  I hadn't mentioned the f-word to mother. Just kept it at boyfriend. Now, of course, that cat had escaped the bag.

  "Hello, Welcome to Santienzos!" A waiter stepped in, holding his pad. He paused and looked around at all of us and the weird shocked look that we shared.

  "So," Case said, "How about you just start off with some water as we gather and discuss what we want to do for dinner?"

  "Right. Sorry Sirs and Madams." He saw himself out of the situation as quickly as he had entered it.

  "Why doesn't everyone take a seat then?" Case suggested, pulling out a chair for me. It was the oddest of times to be chivalrous yet there he went.

  Everyone sat down.

  Yet it didn't do a whole lot to lower the tensions of it all.

  It was so damn awkward all of a sudden. Should I run away? Call this whole deal off?

  No. I couldn't do that now. I wasn't about to throw Case under the bus with his goals in front of his father.

  "So. Sage." My mother said, still trying to process this. "How long have you been seeing your fiancé, and when were you going to tell me?"

  "Um... uhh... a few months," I stammered. I couldn't tell the truth that it'd been less than two weeks because then it would seem we were rushing way too fast into this whole marriage thing.

  "Really. I didn't think you were seeing anyone. Never mentioned him or anything."

  "Well, Mom, it wasn't like you told me you were getting married, either."

  "I was about to tell you tonight, sweetie. Then you blew me off to go out with your boyfriend. Who happens to be my future step-son."

  The step-bomb was finally dropped. Everyone was thinking it and no one wanted to say it.

  Was it legal to marry your step-brother? It wasn't a question I ever thought I would have to consider.

  Case

  Everything was going perfect until it wasn't.

  I thought we would just show up, smile, play nice with one another, eat dinner, and move on with our lives, my father's desire for me to marry excellently filled.

  Now, though?

  I had no idea what the hell was going on or what I could do.

  Sure, Sage had mentioned her mother. She called her Mom, talked about her, disappointing her, and how it hurt her not to go and meet her boyfriend.

  Maybe I should have connected the dots, but I never once thought Marissa, the woman marrying my father, and Sage's mother were the same person. Maybe I was blinded by the idea of class, thinking Sage's mother couldn't be the same person. Where did my father even meet a woman like Marissa?

  I doubted it was through Craigslist.

  What followed that evening is the most painful and awkward dinner I was ever a part of.

  The feelings between my father and Marissa were real.

  The feelings between Sage and I?

  I couldn't be so quick to declare them fake, no matter how much I intended them to be.

  All the same, I wanted my father and Marissa to be together. Seeing what she did for him, he hadn't been that content in years.

  I should have broken it off. Confessed that it was all a sham between Sage and I.

  Yet every time I tried to move my lips to say the words, I froze.

  My fiction was that I had met Sage months ago, almost a year ago if I'm about to be marrying her.

  If I ended it here, I couldn't exactly get another woman and just try the plan again. I knew my father's retirement was imminent as well.

  My claim to the company would be in peril.

  Even that, though, was secondary.

  I looked over at Sage. I saw the peril, the confusion that was plaguing her. I wanted to calm her down.

  Fuck, everything Lauren had told me, had asked of me, and I was still pining for this woman.

  Why on earth did I go and kiss her? Why did I like it?

  I barely knew this woman. How could I claim to feel so strongly, and to believe she felt similarly.

  "So," my father went, chewing his food slowly obviously to buy him time to think. "Have you picked out a date yet?"

  "Um," I grit my teeth. "No. Not really. What? Are we suddenly in a race?" Whoever's first isn't marrying a pseudo-relative?

  I spent much of the rest of the night keeping steady breathing, trying to keep everything under control.

  No one really wanted to talk.

  I couldn't blame them.

  We ate. It was quite possibly the worst five-star meal I've ever had, but I hardly held it against the restaurant.

  Part of me wanted Sage to do the hard part. Break it off. Improvise some drama.

  Yet she was a smart girl. This is why I wanted to make sure I didn't put an idiot in this role.

  If she was an idiot though, I wouldn't be fighting myself. Everything would be easier.

  Awkward silence.

  That described the meal. That described the drive back to Sage's house. That described how we said goodnight to one another.

  With the night coming to a close, I was still faced with the terrifying reality that I may want to end up marrying my new step-sister.

  Sage

  That night, I stared blankly at my ceiling.

  I may as well have been dreaming, because none of this felt real.

  Pretending to be Case Williams' fiancé was definitely one thing.

  Doing it when he was going to be my step-brother in a few months?

  It went to absurdity.

  Seven times.

  That's how often I grabbed my phone, where I wanted to call him and call this whole thing off.

  Yet there was a growing anxiety inside of me.

  Calling this off wouldn't mean I'd never see him again. No. He was going to be my step-brother.

  Even if we never tempted fate again, we still had that kiss.

  We'd go to Thanksgiving Dinner, Christmas dinner, our parents wedding.

  Staring at one another. Remembering that embrace.

  How good it was, and how great it would be to have it again.

  This wasn't temptation I ever expected to have to deal with.

  I wasn't going to fall asleep.

  On the plus side, it wasn't as if I had to currently worry about getting up early tomorrow for wor
k.

  I contemplated telling my mother everything about the whole deal and how I was hired and everything else.

  Yet I couldn't.

  I hated lying to her.

  Caffeine. That's what I decided I needed. Get that flowing; figure out something to waste my time on the computer with.

  I left my room, descending the stairway.

  My mother was there. She was sitting in her armchair, wide awake as I was.

  Did I dare say anything to her?

  What, to feed her more lies?

  She caught my eyes. I froze.

  I then scurried back up the stairs and into my room like the rat I was.

  I didn't need caffeine that badly.

  My hand ran through my hair, grabbing a chunk of it. The contemplation to rip it out of my head was strong, but I resisted. Maiming myself wouldn't solve anything.

  Fuck. I just had to hope Case had some absolutely brilliant plan to fix everything.

  Case

  I had no absolutely brilliant plan to fix everything.

  I, in fact, had nothing.

  In my office, I rocked back and forth in my chair, my mind blank and unable to put its energy into anything useful any longer.

  "You're becoming a bit of a hermit, aren't you?" said Lauren.

  She came into my office and sat down across from me as she had so many times before.

  "You know you could be doing some actual work instead of just staring at things."

  "I've reviewed all the files and have made decisions accordingly, Lauren. I already mailed them out. I have nothing left that is awaiting me to do something."

  "Huh?"

  "I shotgunned all my duties straight through to keep my mind off things. If I'm going to be an anxious wreck, I figure I may as well be a productive anxious wreck."

  "Wish I could do that. When I'm in a fucked up situation, all I can do is eat a pint of ice cream and then hate myself because it's bad for me."

  I drummed my fingers on the desk. "Is there anything else I can do that's mind numbing for you?"

  "Might be a tad suspicious if the boss's son is suddenly working in the mail room again, so I got nothing for you, Case."

  I sighed. Lauren was one of the only people in the know about the recent developments.

  Beyond my father's recent engagement, anyway. That was the big news, and it got everyone scrambling that the old man was going to call it quits soon.

  He had the money, he was about to have the beautiful wife, so it seemed like a good deal.

  The fact that I was 'engaged' to Sage Bush, the daughter of the woman my father was marrying?

  Yeah, we were keeping that quiet.

  Lauren and I talked at length about the details. Legally, no, there's no laws against marrying your step-sister. Incest laws are mostly concerned with blood and nothing more than that.

  Common sense thought the same. We'd only be siblings by marriage, and genetics doesn't care about such a contract.

  The optics, though?

  Oh man, the optics. I could see that smarmy asshole Mike running it down my throat that I was fucking my sister.

  Which wasn't even fair because I haven't fucked her.

  Yet.

  God, it felt weird that I was still hanging on to the possibility that me and Sage could be a thing.

  "More than ever," I recalled Lauren going on in our conversation about this, "You really need to stay professional about all of this. If you fall in love with your step-sister, that's a whole new level above pissing where you eat."

  Back in my office. I was deep in thought. And that was terrible. "Should I just call this off? Should I really be worried about my father giving the company to some kiss ass?"

  Lauren sighed. "I honestly can't really say, Case. He's so traditionally driven, but there's nothing traditional about marrying your step-sister" She paused. "Now, your cousin, that's pretty traditional throughout human history even if we've determined it icky now."

  "Focus on the issues, Lauren. Cousin marriage and its past and present normalcy isn't what I'm concerned with right now."

  "Right. I've been watching too much History Channel. So Sage. This isn't working now. Problem is, it's not like you can try this plot again with someone else."

  "True. Maybe he would look at it as mature if I stepped away from my relationship so he could have his?"

  "You know your father. He'd feel guilty as hell about breaking up his son and his one true love for the petty reason of his own happiness. Even if your relationship is fake and it'd be no big deal."

  I hadn't confessed any further feelings to Lauren. She had more faith in me than I did myself. "So, what, we let it get out I'm marrying my sister?"

  "Hmm. No. We shouldn't do that. People don't have to know your personal life though."

  "This seems like something especially hard to keep a lid on, Lauren."

  "Well, you're going to have to make a decision. I just hope you make a decision with your head, and I'm not talking about the one in your pants."

  "I would never be so foolish as to think with my dick," I smirked.

  "Ah, there we go, there's the Case Williams smile I was after."

  I perked up, looking over Lauren's shoulder. "The hell is going on out there?"

  Standing, I walked out. There was a group of people swarming my father's office.

  "What's going on here?" I called out.

  "Someone call an ambulance! Now!" One of the secretaries called out.

  A chill went down my spine. No. Not now. Not ever. I needed him.

  I pushed my way through the crowd.

  My father was there on the floor, breathing heavily. "Dad!'

  He was gasping for air.

  I wasn't a paramedic. I didn't even know CPR.

  All I could do was hold his hand and stay with him.

  Sage

  The cold war with my mother ended in the oddest of ways.

  "Charles is in the hospital," she cried out. She was panicking, pacing back and forth, a gibbering mess. "I find someone, I find him, and then this happens, why does this..."

  "Mom?" I came down the stairs to her. I hadn't heard anything from Case or the others in quite some time.

  She pushed right past me. "I need to go to the hospital he's at. Now."

  In her panic, she rushed to her keys, grabbing her jackets. She was a mess, that much was clear.

  "Calm down, Mom. I can't let you drive like this."

  "I need to get to him. I need to be there. In case... In case..."

  "Chill. I'll drive you. I'll get you there, Mom. Don't worry." It was more than a simple kindness of being her chauffeur. If something worsened, I needed to be there for her.

  I needed to be there for Case.

  He would be there as well. I had no doubts about that.

  We were on the list, the people allowed to visit the patient in this most tense of times.

  Through the hallways I followed my mother who was surprisingly sprinting toward the room.

  She never did that for anything. How much she cared for him was surprising me.

  It made me doubt what I was doing more and more. Was what Case and I agreed to, even beyond the whole step-sibling thing, just a mockery of the love my mother and his father had?

  We reached the outside of the room we were told to go.

  My mom didn't even bother to knock. She just turned the handle and bolted straight in "Charles. Charles are you still with us?"

  "Woah, calm down a tad." Case was already in there. He took note of me coming from behind.

  I wasn't the focus right now.

  My mother needed a man's calming hand more than I did.

  Case approached her, and wrapped his arms around her. "He's doing okay. He had a minor episode of cardiac arrest."

  "A minor heart attack? Heart attacks aren't minor!"

  "They aren't. But as heart attacks go, my Dad took the full brunt of it and is still standing."

  Charles Williams was lying in his
hospital bed. He was hooked up to the EKG machines and the like, but the lines were stable. As well as I could tell, I wasn't much of a doctor.

  My mother took his hand. "Charles, can you hear me?"

  "Nope. He can't." Case was calm. Apparently he had already been through all of his panic already and had come back down to earth. "They knocked him out cold. Said he needs to take it easy for awhile. It's the same old story of too much stress at his age doesn't make for a healthy ticker."

  My mother grabbed a nearby chair and dragged it across the floor, and immediately sat in it. "I didn't want to be that naggy wife who told him to watch what he eats and shoved steamed broccoli in his face."

  I took a breath myself and approached her, holding her on the shoulder. "It's not your fault, Mom."

  "They said with the amount of morphine they gave him, he'll be out for the rest of the night." Case continued. "There's no worry of it turning south from the doctors. They just rather be safe than sorry when it comes to sending him home, and given the circumstances, Dad wasn't in any rush to leave."

  "You two go off and do whatever," my mother said. "I'm going to stay here and be there for Charles when he wakes up."

  "They don't think that's necessary, Marissa."

  "Too bad. I'm staying. They can escort me out if they think it's an issue."

  Case went to open his mouth again, but I was quick to whisper in his ear. "I know her at this point. You're not going to move her, and I pity security if they try."

  He chuckled. "Alright. You have my number if you need to call me, Marissa."

  I sighed, and handed my mother the car keys. "Here you go if you want something besides hospital food. Or if he wakes up and wants something that's not hospital food."

  "Yeah, I'm doubting a heart attack is enough to get him on the steamed vegetable train."

  "How will you get home?" My mother asked me.

  "I'll just call for a ride. Don't worry. I want you to be prepared to keep yourself, and your fiancé, comfortable as you can."

  Mom nodded. She gave me a hug, a tight one, the first one I'd had from her in quite some time. "Be good, Sage. I love you."