"No!" Amelia exclaimed instinctively. "No weddings!"
"Oh," Matteo said softly, and Amelia glanced at him from the corner of her eyes. If she didn’t know better, he seemed almost disappointed at her response.
Which was preposterous. Matteo didn’t actually want to marry her. How could he? They barely knew each other!
She reminded herself that she was just a means for Matteo to get out of his marriage with Emmeline. Their entire engagement was fake.
Now, the question was if Matteo himself knew that. He seemed awfully serious about her pretending to be his fiancée.
Well, there was no harm in humoring him.
"Do you want a wedding?" Amelia asked, trying for a joking smile. "I thought you’d be done with them, after what happened with Emmeline."
"In her case, the issue was not with the wedding. My problem lies with the bride," Matteo said. "If she’s not the woman in question, I am perfectly amenable to the idea of weddings and marriages. Now, are you allergic to the flowers in spring?" Matteo asked.
"No, I’m not," Amelia said. "But no spring weddings."
No weddings at all. She had just gotten out of one marriage, and she didn’t see the need to jump straight to another.
"We can shift it to another season if you prefer. It might not even be held in this country. If you wish to go overseas, that can be arranged," Matteo said, not dissuaded in the slightest.
"Overseas―" Amelia spluttered.
She had never even been out of the country! The furthest she traveled was by bus to the next town. She didn’t even travel overseas for her honeymoon with Caleb; they had instead opted to spend their time in a nice enough hotel room exploring each other’s bodies.
Now that she thought about it, she only felt disappointed in herself for not expecting more from him.
"I don’t know. I’ve never been abroad," Amelia said instead.
"That can be rectified soon enough," Matteo said easily. "Where would you like to go, if you were given the opportunity? I’ll bring you there. Money is not a question."
Amelia paused and thought about it, but her mind drew blanks. She had been perfectly content as a child to spend time with her parents in her home, and when she married Caleb, she was too busy making ends meet to even think of exploring the wider world.
"What if I said I wanted to go to space?" Amelia asked playfully, half-expecting Matteo to tell her to stop joking, but he nodded instead.
"Building rockets will take a while, but it’s still feasible. Do you have a proposed timeline or preferred planets to visit?"
"I’m just joking!" Amelia quickly said, before Matteo actually decided to purchase a rocketship and chart a course for the stars. "Honestly, I have no clue. You can surprise me, then." Amelia decided with a soft smile. "As long as it’s not too extravagant, I’ll be happy."
"Noted," Matteo said, an answering grin pulling at his lips. Amelia couldn’t help but note that Matteo somehow seemed brighter than before. It was as though the weight that had been on his shoulders had vanished. "I promise you, that you’ll have a good time, space or not."
They arrived home without fanfare. Matteo had to enter from the secret back entrance, to dodge the hordes of paparazzi camped at the gate like the vultures they were, desperate for a scoop. Amelia found herself slowly, but surely, getting used to this new part of her life.
Just as she was about to enter the guest room with her packed bags, Matteo held her arm, stopping her in her tracks.
"What is it?"
"You can sleep in my room," Matteo offered. "As my future wife, it’s your right to stay in the most comfortable room in the house. It also comes with an attached bathroom, so it’ll be more convenient for you."
"But if I take your bedroom, where are you going to sleep?" Amelia asked, cocking her head in confusion. "I can’t kick you out of your own bed!"
"You won’t be, because I’ll be sleeping right next to you," Matteo said, without hesitation, and Amelia’s face flamed when she realized what he implied. Her heart raced. Surely Matteo didn’t expect the both of them to continue the pretense at home!
Then Matteo’s lips twitched.
"I can’t believe you! Cracking such jokes..." Amelia exclaimed with a sigh of relief. He looked so serious, that she had almost been fooled by his proposition. Her heart rate was slowly going back to normal.
She tried to tell herself that she wasn’t disappointed. It was just a joke. They were only married in the eyes of the outside world.
"The offer is as serious as wanting to go to space," Matteo said.
Amelia couldn’t help but shake her head. She knew it. This was just his way of getting back at her for her answer. "Well, at least I’m glad you’re feeling better. You did seem very upset when Emmeline paid you a visit."
Matteo snorted. That was the understatement of the century.
"I’ve replaced all the security guards with my own people. There’s no way she will be allowed up to my apartment ever again," Matteo promised. "I have half a mind to bar her from the office too, come to think of it."
"You don’t need to go that far," Amelia said. "Now that everyone thinks that you’re engaged to me, there’s nothing much she can do even if she comes to the office. In case you haven’t heard, I’m an heiress too," she added playfully.
"Sure, I have no real clout or wealth yet, but at least I can make a mean dinner without burning everything."
There was a moment of silence as they both recalled the charred remains of Emmeline’s cooking attempts. Matteo snorted and then started to laugh.
"If she hadn’t drugged me, I would be in the hospital for food poisoning. I didn’t know how I managed to stomach anything without vomiting," Matteo confessed. "I would not feed her cooking to my worst enemy. Oh wait. I would."
"Who is your worst enemy, if you don’t mind me asking?" Amelia asked, curious.
"...It’s a tight race between my father and my stepmother," Matteo confessed with a heavy sigh.
"Good thing Emmeline cooked enough to render the death of an entire army then," Amelia said, trying to cheer him up. "Sorry I disposed of all her cooking. I didn’t realize we might need to weaponize them."
"It’s alright," Matteo said with a smile. However, his expression quickly turned serious. "And I need to tell you something."
"What is it?"