Caught In Between

The look in Dana's eyes said it all. She was desperate and he knew her desperation would be an advantage to him. As much as she tried to resist, the temptation of getting paid five million dollars could not be overlooked.

Dana knew that deep down, she could not refuse his offer but to avoid seeming even more desperate than she already was, she stalled on her reply and pretended to be deep in thought.

"Do you accept my offer?" Blake asks, sounding both desperate and impatient at the same time.

"You need to chill out, buddy! You're not asking me to pretend to be your girlfriend, you're asking me to marry you. I need some time to think about it," she reminds him sharply and he sighs as his patience grows thinner.

Dana could already sense his desperation and she knew she only had a few minutes to give him a reply.

"I have a question to ask first," she blurts out and he narrows his eyes a bit, obviously trying to understand what kind of questions she would want to ask.

"Go ahead."

"Do you have a lover already?" she asks, and again he squints his eyes and tilts his head, obviously confused as he wasn't expecting her to ask such a direct question.

"How does that matter?" he asks.

"It does pretty boy because I need to know what to expect," she replies, and even though he still doesn't understand the reason she needs to know, he decides to satisfy her curiosity anyway.

"Well yes, I'm seeing someone at the moment," he tells her expecting a look of surprise, or at the very least, a different facial expression but he got nothing. She maintains an unreadable expression.

Dana didn't want to seem pushy but getting into a marriage with a total stranger wasn't a decision she was willing to take without satisfying her curiosity.

"Will he also live with us? Are you two going to keep seeing each other in our supposed home? How is it going to work between you two? I hope I won't be bothered," she says.

Blake was confused and uncomfortable. Shouldn't she have agreed to be his wife already? Why is she asking so many irrelevant questions? Is she really going to keep wasting his time like this? He wonders to himself, already itching to walk away from this conversation.

"May I know why you're asking all these unnecessary questions?" he inquires, trying as much as he could not to sound upset.

"Unnecessary questions? Really?" She scoffs with an irritated look on her face. "You're asking me, a total stranger to be your wife and you think my questions are unnecessary? Listen here, buddy, I need to know what to expect so nothing comes to me as a surprise in the future. If I'm gonna live the next five years of my life with a man who will never have anything to do with me, I need to expect the worst. So, don't you think my questions are in any way unnecessary, pretty boy," she fires at him harshly and he decides against saying anything else that would irritate her.

"Okay then. I guess I understand your reasoning and I'll explain all you need to know. Firstly, I have a lover and we happen to live together, which means you'll be moving in with us. Although, all three of us will have separate bedrooms because I don't want to be disrespectful towards you," he says, and she scoffs.

"I don't think that idea in any way lessens the disrespect but it's okay, carry on.”

"We'll both have our separate lives. I won't interfere in yours and you won't interfere in mine as well. We'll both try as much as possible to stay out of each other's lane for as long as we're married and when our deal is over, you move on with your life and I carry on with mine,” he explains easily.

'How bad could this be?' Dana thinks to herself as she starts to realize that having a gay billionaire husband who would be willing to shower her with all the money in the world wouldn't be such a bad idea. This could not possibly go wrong except if either one of them decides to trespass into the other's lane, something she doubts would happen if they both just stuck to their part of the deal.

"So, when is the introduction?" Dana asks. Blake is momentarily taken aback before finally realizing what she had just said.

"Wait, does this mean that you accept?" he asks, just to be sure he wasn't mistaken.

"Well, duh, of course I accept. Just let me know when you're ready to introduce me to your family and I'll make sure to make myself available immediately," she replies, and a sigh of relief quickly washes over Blake.

"Thank you so much, Dana!" He almost squeals in excitement but decides against it as they were in a public place, and he couldn't afford to embarrass himself.

"You can't imagine how glad I am that you've agreed to be my wife," he blurts out gratefully. Dana chuckles.

"It's an honor to be your lovely wife, pretty boy. Just don't forget about my money and please, when we get married, try not to rub it in my face that you're in love. You need to remember that I'm your wife and I have feelings too," she says jokingly. Blake is quick to understand that this is her way of trying to be friendly so as to avoid any awkwardness in the future.

"I'll try my best to keep that in mind," he replies with a light chuckle.

"It's nice to meet you, dear future husband," Dana adds, putting her hand out for a handshake and he quickly does the same.

"Pleasure is all mine, dear future wife."

Dana POV:

My name is Adriana Aldana Gonzalez, but I prefer to be called Dana, which is a short form of my middle name. I've always lived my life in the same pattern, which is, work, work, work harder, work even harder, eat, sleep for a few short hours, and get back to working even harder again.

Every day I ask myself what exactly I have done wrong to life for it to hate me so much. Nothing has ever worked out well for me, at least, not for very long. It's almost like I have a terrible curse around me that keeps snatching away every good thing from my life.

I was born into a family of four children and my family happens to be a Latino family and I unfortunately had the terrible misfortune of being the first child. It's not like I have anything against my siblings but being the first child actually sucks especially if you're from a family like mine.

My parents, Mariana Gonzalez and Aaron Gonzalez illegally migrated to the United States from Mexico when I was barely a few months old, so basically, I've lived all my life in the States but truthfully, it hasn't been very easy.

My mother, Mariana passed away about six years ago leaving me to fend for my three siblings, Jencarlos, my currently nineteen-year-old brother, Ximena, my sixteen-year-old sister and lastly, Carmen, my fourteen-year-old baby girl who is currently dealing with hereditary diabetes, the same disease that killed my late mother.

Taking care of all three of them has been the most difficult task of my life, and unfortunately for me, my no-good deadbeat dad was of no use in our lives. About two years before mom's death, dad completely changed. He suddenly became a heavy drunk with no exact purpose in life and about a year ago, he suddenly stopped showing up in our lives.

I have no idea as to whether or not he's actually dead or alive and frankly, I don't really care. He hasn't exactly been much of a father to us in the last eight years and I'm way too busy trying to get by to actually give a damn about his whereabouts.

My life has always happened to fall in place the same way and since all I ever do is work, I never have time to tend to my relationships which eventually leads to them to either cheating on me or with some of them boldly telling me to my face that I wasn't good enough for them. So instead of wasting my precious time on such relationships, I spend more time focusing on my life and on my goals, which were making sure that my siblings end up having a better life than mine.

I haven't exactly achieved my goal because being an illegal Latino in the United States can make life twice as difficult, but I refuse to be pushed down by the odds for the sake of my siblings who desperately need me.

Presently...

I'm walking out of the cafe hurriedly to avoid being late for my next job. I currently juggle three day jobs and an overnight job, and to be very honest, it hasn't been all roses for me.

Imagine being a nail artist from 8 a.m. to 12 p.m. From 12:30 p.m., I have to work three hours as an art teacher for kindergarten kids. Then from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m., I work part-time at a cafe before heading back home and getting some shut eye for about three hours. By 11 p.m., I have to head out to the nightclub where I work until 4 a.m. before eventually heading back home and getting another few hours of sleep before doing it all over again.

Like I said earlier, my life is hard, and I cannot afford to do anything that I'll consider as whiling away my time cause in my world, time is actually real money.

I'm heading out of the cafe and on my way home to finally take a shower and get some shut eye before heading out again. I'm waiting by the pedestrian walkway for the light to turn green for us so I could get across the street and take a bus home, but I'm distracted when my cellphone starts to ring and when I check the caller ID, it turned out to be none other than my sister, Ximena.

I contemplate on whether or not to actually go ahead and pick her call. If there's one thing about my family, it's that we don't just call each other except we actually need something or if there is some sort of emergency and right now, neither one of those options sit well with me.

"What is it Ximena?" I question tiredly, after reluctantly picking her call.

"Jeez sis, can't you at least pretend to be excited to hear from me? We haven't even seen each other in days,” she says, and I could not help but roll my eyes. I realize that the light had already turned green and I proceed to walk towards the other side of the road. If you're wondering why I haven't heard from my very own sister in days, well, like I explained earlier, I work all the time which means I'm not very privileged to hang out with them or even see them except maybe on weekends when I'm less busy.

"Ximena, do me a favor and tell me exactly why you called. I'm in absolutely no mood for your nonsense,” I snap harshly.

"Okay fine, Dana. I only called you to tell you about a school trip that I want to go on and that you need to pay for,” she blurts out rudely and my blood boils.

"Really, Ximena? Really? You know very well that I don't have any money to throw around for something as insignificant and as useless as a school trip and yet, you audaciously call me and without any show of respect, you ask me to just pay for one? What exactly is wrong with you, young lady!" I yell furiously at her, attracting the unwanted attention of the people at the bus stop but at this point, I could honestly care less.

"You don't have to yell at me, Dana. I know you consider these school trips useless events, but I actually want to go on one, Dana. I'm sick and tired of never being able to do the normal things my friends do. It's so sickening that I have to always deal with your constant refusal to do absolutely everything that normal teenagers my age do. School trips are actually not useless and maybe if you were actually a little more open minded, you would know that!" And with that, she hung up.

That rude brat actually just hung up on me for no reason at all.

Sometimes, I wonder why I didn't just throw all three of them under the care of the government when I had the chance. They all happen to be legal citizens anyways so it would have been the reasonable thing to do. My life would have been ten times better without them in it, but I unfortunately made the regrettable choice of taking up the responsibility of a mother of three at the young age of twenty and those brats still turned out to be ungrateful little midgets.

I lazily climb into the bus with my shoulders slumped and my mind all over the place. Nothing feels worse than working your whole life to make sure you give the best to people and never even for once getting thanked for it. A tear unknowingly slips from my eyes, and I aggressively wipe it off with my left hand. I cannot possibly break down now. If I did, it means I'm finally letting life beat me and once I allow that happen, I lose and I can't afford to lose.

Ximena and Carlos may be the most ungrateful brats to ever exist, but I have no other choice than to keep dealing with them and looking out for them. I've already come way too far, and I can't imagine giving up on them now.

I know I sound a little too cheesy right now, but come on, I'm sure you get my reasoning. Imagine working so hard for so long and then suddenly giving up in the middle and all for what? Simply because I don't think they appreciate me enough? If I stopped now, then they would never get the chance to actually look back at everything I've done for them and appreciate me for it. I also have to think about my precious little Carmen, who spends a good number of her days in hospitals getting treatment for her diabetes.

If I decide to give up now, who's gonna take care of her? She has no one else but me.

I let out a shaky breath and decide to stare out the window to clear my mind a bit. Two classy looking girls who seemed to be around my age walked past the bus and got into the red convertible that was parked in front of it. I know for a fact that I'll most likely never get the pleasure of getting into such an expensive car, wearing such expensive clothes, and putting on such luxurious shoes and accessories. Even their tiny handbags screamed expensive.

The bus starts to move, and my mind starts to wander all over the place. What if maybe something crazy happens from one day to next and I happen to become privileged enough to get into such a beautiful car and wear such an expensive clothing paired with a luxurious handbag that cost a fortune? I know it's currently nothing but wishful thinking but who knows, maybe, just maybe life still has something good in store for me and I just have to patiently wait for it.