Nari parked at the end of her street and watched with growing disbelief. News vans blocked her driveway and neighbors stood out on the sidewalk watching. Some were even being interviewed. How could one single man wreak such havoc?
She slowly turned the car around and headed back to the nearest gas station. She was either going to have to fix this mess soon or break down and get a cell phone.
She called his mother again. "I have reporters at my house. How do I get ahold of your son?"
Christine was silent and Nari tamped down her frustration. The woman wasn't going to let Nari anywhere near Taeyong as long as she was afraid bodily harm was the order for the day.
It was; Nari just needed to hide it better.
Nari said, slightly more calmly, "No one can undo this but him. I need to talk to him. Could you give me his cell number? I don't need, or want, to see him."
She heard Ellen in the background and then a scuffle as the phone changed hands. "You two are going to fight this the whole way, aren't you? Call Taeyong; he's looking for you."
Ellen read off his number and the suite he was staying in and Nari hung up, rethinking whether she really wanted to talk to him or not.
She was going to fight it the whole way. But she knew better than anyone that Taeyong got what he wanted as long as it was worth the cost. He wasn't going to just change his mind about their pretend engagement; he thought it fixed all his problems. He would pay a lot for that, and considering that she was the one paying, not him, there wasn't much hope convincing him it wasn't going to work.
And she certainly wasn't going to win this battle by appealing to his better nature; he'd known before he started the ball rolling that it would disrupt her life and give her a heart attack.
She needed to either make him see that it wouldn't help him like he thought or make her terms too damn expensive to be worth it.
She dialed his number slowly, wondering if he would even pick up an unknown number, but it barely rang before his voice came on the line. "Nari?"
She let out a pent up breath. "My house is inundated with reporters."
"I know. I drove by trying to find you after you ran away."
She ignored his dig. "What are you going to do about it?"
"I think we should let them take some pictures. That's all they want."
"They want pictures of your fiancé. I am not, nor will I ever be, your fiancé."
He sighed heavily. "Nari, I know you normally wouldn't help me out for any reason, but I need you. I really do."
There was silence on the line as they both digested that. He didn't seem to like saying it anymore than she liked hearing it.
He sounded desperate. How in the world was she to fight a desperate Lee Taeyong?
He cleared his throat. "Come to my hotel. Or tell me where you are and I'll meet you. We can work out a mutually beneficial agreement, okay?"
She shuddered as he inadvertently mimicked his grandmother, then gave herself a shake. He didn't want kids, he wanted a fake fiancé. No need to make this worse than it already was.
She sighed heavily, leaning her forehead against the payphone box.
She was still trying to figure a way out when he said, "What number are you calling from? Is this your cell?"
"It's a payphone. I don't have a cell."
There was a long, confused pause. "You don't have a cell? Kindergartners have cellphones."
She hung up on him.
She was just getting into her car when the payphone rang. She stared at it, then stomped back to answer it.
"What?"
"We could meet at your place but you've seen the vans. At least the hotel will keep the paparazzi away."
She closed her eyes, sealing her fate. "Fine. I'll come to you."
"I'll have some dinner waiting. What do you like?"
She looked at the phone in frustration. "This isn't a date, Taeyong."
"No. It's a business meeting in my hotel room at a time most people have dinner. We'll eat and hammer out the terms."
Her stomach squished at the thought of being alone with him in his hotel room.
"Don't they have a restaurant at that fancy hotel of yours? Make a reservation."
She could practically hear him shaking his head. "You know that's not going to work. We can't have someone overhearing this particular negotiation, can we? Besides, I get the impression you're going to need to yell at me some more."
She almost smiled. "You got that right."
He said, "I'll order something chocolate. That'll help."
She hung up on him again. He'd better have a lot of chocolate.
 
And back downtown she went. His suite was on the top floor of the hotel, of course. Nothing but the best for Mr. Lee.
She stood in front of the panoramic windows, staring out over the city. Lights glittered in the night and she watched the red and white stream of cars on the freeway below them.
Taeyong walked up beside her. "It would've just gotten worse and worse with the tabloids. I have a lot of ex-girlfriends."
She couldn't help but laugh at the understatement and he flashed a wry grin at her before looking back over the city.
She said, "Have you ever thought of taking a break? Do you always need a girl on your arm?"
"I know this sounds conceited but a girlfriend is sometimes the only defense I have. Women just. . ."
"Throw themselves at you?"
He nodded and she rolled her eyes. "Have you ever considered just saying no?"
He turned toward her. "I don't think you understand what it means to have someone throw themselves at you. Every time I step in an elevator, there's a woman waiting for me. Every time I sit down at a restaurant, a woman slides in next to me. Numbers in pockets, whispered invitations. A simple 'I'm a one-woman man' saves face and ends the confrontation quickly."
"Along with a smile and a 'honey'."
He smiled slightly. "I only call you honey."
She didn't know what to say to that and he laughed.
"Honey comes from bees and bees have stingers. No one has a bigger stinger than you." He shrugged, still smiling. "It makes me laugh. And you don't like it, which makes it even better."
"Yeah, I can see how everyone is going to believe we're madly in love."
He took her hand. "We have something together. Heat. It may be antagonistic heat, but it's there. Any idiot can see it. We were in the National Enquirer."
She took her hand back and put it in her pocket. "My claim to fame."
He looked out at the city and she silently watched him for a moment. "You're not going to let this go, are you?"
He met her eyes and shook his head. "I know your weakness, Nari. If I ha