That Friday, evening Deacon had left work much earlier than he normally would have.
It was a point of contention between him and his PA, Millie. The woman often complained about the long hours that Deacon worked, which was rich coming from her, seeing as the two of them often worked late together.
But that Friday, she had left earlier, citing that she had a date.
She had even advised Deacon to leave with her, but he told her that he would be right behind her in just a few minutes. She had given him a look that said that she did not believe him. To be fair, she had been right.
Instead of leaving minutes after her, Deacon had left hours later, still earlier than normal, but definitely late.
So it was no surprise that given the hour, Deacon had been exhausted. He had not been in the mood for company at all, and he had seriously been considering calling Slater to tell her that they should reschedule their meeting.
But in the end, he had decided to just go on ahead and meet her, wanting to get things over and done with.
Upon following the directions that she had sent him to her apartment, Deacon had not really expected much. But he had ended up getting a free meal out of the meeting.
As well as some good company.
Back when Slater had been the CEO of Slater Group, being around her had always made Deacon feel on edge. The two of them constantly sizing each other up. But being around Haley Slater the photographer, had the opposite effect. It made Deacon relax, and seeing her in her large shirt, leggings and socks, had almost been enough to make Deacon forget about the stressful day he just had at work,
Then she had given him a plate of homemade pasta, completely blowing his mind with the simple yet filling dish. While Deacon had still been enjoying his food, Slater had started telling him her plans on what she deemed to be a good backstory for the two of them. And Deacon had been torn between helpless giggles and actually being embarrassed on her behalf.
Where on earth had she gotten those ideas from, at least she had been intelligent enough to realize that she needed help to come up with a backstory. If she gone on and told people her made up tales without discussing it with him first, there was no way they would have been able to sell their story of being an actual married couple.
But her very valid point that they needed a backstory, (something that Deacon had not thought of at all), had made him realize something else that they had neglected after deciding to stay married for a year.
Now as Slater sat across from him, one socked foot on the couch, a cushion held close to her chest, waiting for him to speak up, Deacon finally decided to say it.
"Slater we need to come up with a way to tell our families. In case you have forgotten, they do not actually get along,"
Letting out a huff Slater squeezed her cushion tight.
"How could I forget that Roth? One of the reasons that you and I freaked out so badly upon finding out that we were married is because we are married to each other. A Slater and a Roth, I feel as though we are going against nature,"
Wishing that he had not finished his food so that he had something to keep himself busy with while they talked.
Deacon, tapped his finger against the back of the couch.
"That is exactly my point Slater. We are the ones who are married and we already feel that it is weird. Imagine when our family members find out. We have to find a way to tell them that will not result in an all-out war,"
"Do you have anything in mind?" Slater asked him nibbling her bottom lip in a sign of nervousness. Shrugging Deacon decided to share the ideas that had just popped into his mind.
"We could drop them a text, you know, just send 'family, we, Deacon Roth and Haley Slater are married,' That should do it," Deacon was about to congratulate himself for such a straight to the point idea. But from the disbelieving look that Slater was giving him, she did not seem to see how great his idea was.
"Roth, I thought your reasoning behind this was to avoid starting a war. Can you imagine what would happen if we told them of our marriage in such a casual manner? They would not only feel disrespected, they would feel that our spouses were responsible for such bad behaviour and would take it as valid grounds to start fighting one another,"
Deacon had to admit that she had a good point, it would be so easy to just type out a text and send it. But it also would be very callous of them, which was not something that they wanted to do.
The situation was too delicate for that.
Frowning Deacon snapped his fingers as another idea came to him.
"How about we tell select members of the press first, then once they run with the story. Our families will approach us, instead of us having to tell them anything?"
Instead of clapping her hands at his genius and congratulating him, Slater was looking at Deacon as though he had grown a second head.
"Are you insane? If they find out that we told the press before we told them. Forget about fighting each other. They would both take turns, killing us and bringing us back to life just so they could kill us again,"
Thinking of how his father would take such an announcement, Deacon had to once again admit that she was right. But he was not just going to say it to her outright.
"You are not exactly brimming with ideas on your end, Slater. Do you have anything better?"
She gave him a look, then she squeezed her cushion tight like she was channelling anger into it. What a strange woman, why was she attacking a defenseless cushion?
"As a matter of fact, I do have an idea, and I think that it is actually a good one, unlike all of the crazy stuff you have just pitched," Deacon was instantly offended by that.
"So says the woman who wanted our love story to begin with me saving her from ten scoundrels,"
"Hey!" Slater looked ready to go to war.
"That was a great story and you would have been very heroic in it," Not able to argue with looking heroic, even if it was an fictional story. Deacon decided to let the topic go.
"Your idea, Slater what is it?"