Free Falling into Black by Carrie Kelly

glass, the
man stood and glanced around the room. “If I may, Mr. Black?”
    Dorian clenched his jaw
and nodded. “Of course. We should get down to business.”
    “Very well. The board is
concerned about your current state of affairs.”
    The board members
murmured agreement amongst themselves, and Dorian sat so still he looked like a
statue. Glancing at Sylvia, I noticed a cruel smile on her blood red lips.
    What was that bitch up
to now?
    “What state of affairs
might that be?” Dorian finally asked, his voice dangerously low.
    “You’re almost thirty,
Mr. Black and you’re not married,” Mr. Bradley said.
    My eyes widened and my
stomach dropped. Married? Why should the board care if Dorian was married or
not?
    “As you know, Black Inc.
recently acquired several smaller publishing subsidies – profitable ones
– but they are all targeted at families and children. Like it or not,
this company is heading in that direction and we’re worried our CEO isn’t. It
looks bad overall, Mr. Black. You must realize this.”
    Black Inc. also
published a wide range of other books too! I wanted to shout at them. Not only family
books, but gay and lesbian books, fantasy and horror. Should Dorian marry a man and a woman? Maybe he should become a vampire and fight a dragon for
good measure! The whole idea was preposterous, and I couldn’t help but think it
was somehow Sylvia’s fault.
    I kept my mouth shut and
turned to Mr. Black.
    “What do you propose to
do about it?” he asked and sipped his wine. His expression was icy and
detached, but he gripped his glass so tightly I feared it might shatter in his
grasp.
    “We’ve come to an
agreement. You should be married before the year is out and start a family within
a year of marriage. If this isn’t reasonable then we’d like you to resign as
CEO.”
    Of course! I’d read all
about Black Inc. before I applied for the position. Dorian only owned
forty-nine shares of the company while the shareholders and board members owned
the other fifty-one shares. It split power between the board members and the
CEO – if they didn’t like something Dorian did, they could force him to
change it.
    My heart slammed in my
chest. This was it. Dorian would either lose his job or be forced into
marriage. No!
    I jumped to my feet
before I realized what I was doing. “That’s less than three months away! It’s
not fair!” I shouted.
    Silence draped the room
like a shroud.
    Oh no. What have you
done, Alicia?
    A strong arm wrapped
around my waist, and Dorian laughed. “Look! You’ve riled up my lovely fiancé.”
    “Fiancé?” Mr. Bradley
asked and raised a white eyebrow.
    Dorian nodded and
lowered his lips to my cheek. “Yes. Just yesterday, in fact. We were looking
forward to planning a fantasy wedding, right darling?”
    His fingers gripped my
flesh.
    I nodded automatically,
swallowing the lump in my throat. “Right.”
    What the hell was Dorian
doing? We weren’t engaged! We only started dating!
    Sylvia glared daggers at
me across the table.
    “We had no idea you were
even in a serious relationship,” Mr. Bradley said, his cheeks flushing.
“Congratulations.”
    “Let’s celebrate with
dessert,” Dorian said and pulled me down onto his lap.
    The rest of the meal
tumbled by like something out of a nightmare. I ate the chocolate torte Dorian
fed me without really tasting it as the other board members offered their
blessing to our happy union. While everyone seemed shocked, about half looked
less than happy about Dorian’s announcement. No one offered to extend the
marriage deadline beyond the new year.
    Damn! It was already the
middle of October. How was he going to marry before December thirty first? Not
to mention whom!
    Dorian patted my back as
he bid his guests goodnight, and I retired to the bedroom as fast as I could. Just
when something started going right, life had to come and mess things up. Or
rather, Sylvia did.
    Biting back the tears, I
washed my face and slipped