After Seeing the Comments, I Forced the Male Lead to Love Me novel · Chapter 2 of 24

Chapter 2: Arrivals

I greet Noelle at the airport with two glitter banners and she turns out to be warm, funny and not at all what the comments promised, until she tells me Rosalind invited her for a reason.

The top comment on Friday morning said to go to the airport and be gracious.

It had 1,800 likes and a heart from someone named tea_and_spoilers.

"bookbabe_91: Wife, you can't win by hiding. Bring a sign. Make it big. Be NICE. (1,800 likes)"

So I bought a welcome banner with 4.7 stars, "Welcome Home" in gold glitter, and a second one that said "Noelle" in case the first was unclear.

Dennis drove. He is Tobias's driver and assistant, a broad man with a sandy beard who has never once looked surprised.

He looked at the banners in the back seat for a full block.

"Mrs. Renner," he said, "if she cries, I'm taking credit."

Tobias was already at the arrivals gate when we got there, with his hands in his coat pockets.

He saw the banners and closed his eyes briefly.

"Hallie."

"It's gracious," I said.

"It's glitter."

"It's four point seven stars."

Glitter had already transferred to his coat. I did not mention it.

The doors slid open and a woman in a paint-spotted denim jacket came through towing a suitcase with a broken wheel.

She had a dark pixie cut and brown eyes, and ink under three of her fingernails.

The comments came in so fast the boxes overlapped.

"noelle_stan_4ever: SHE'S HERE!!! (2,203 likes)"

"pagefive: Look at him. Look at his FACE. (1,540 likes)"

Tobias's face was doing nothing at all, as usual.

"Tobias," the woman said, and hugged him hard around the middle.

He patted her shoulder twice.

Then she saw the banners.

I held up the first. Then the second. Then, because they were stuck together with glitter, both at once.

Noelle read them out loud, slowly.

"Welcome Home Noelle."

Her mouth twitched. Then she laughed so hard she had to put a hand on the suitcase.

"Is that glitter? I haven't been welcomed home with glitter since I was nine. I love it. You must be Hallie."

I had a speech ready. It was gracious. It went out of my head.

"I'm Hallie," I said. "I'm the wife."

"I know. He told me about you."

Tobias looked at a pillar.

"Every week, for three years," she said. "I know about the lemon tarts."

"Noelle," he said.

"What? It's a good tart, I'm sure."

I smiled and said it was very polite of him to write.

The comments did not like this.

"noelle_stan_4ever: SHE'S SO NICE. THE WIFE IS PLAYING HER. (1,102 likes)"

I wanted to tell them she was nice because she was nice. I could not tell them anything. I carried her tote bag.

The suitcase wheel gave out entirely in the parking garage.

Dennis picked up the whole bag in one hand, set it on his shoulder and said, "Ma'am, I've got it."

Noelle looked at his shoulder for a moment longer than she needed to.

I noticed. The comments did not.

At the house, Pearl was waiting in the front hall with her cane and her cardigan with the deep pockets.

Pearl is Tobias's grandmother. She is eighty-one and she rates people out of five stars out loud.

She looked Noelle up and down.

"Four stars," she said. "Good posture. Ink on the fingers."

"Thank you," Noelle said.

"It wasn't a compliment. It was a review."

Then Pearl turned to me.

"Four. You're trying too hard, and you have glitter in your hair."

I touched my hair and my fingers came away gold.

"What about me?" Tobias asked.

"Nobody asked you," Pearl said. "Zero."

Rosalind came down the stairs next.

She is fifty-eight, with a smooth auburn bob and pearl earrings, and she hugged Noelle with both arms.

"Darling, it's been too long. I put you in the east room, right next to Tobias's. Just so you're comfortable."

"Next to the guest room?" Noelle said. "Where Tobias sleeps?"

"It's a very good mattress," Rosalind said warmly, and went to find the tea.

Nobody said anything about why the husband slept in the guest room.

That evening, after dinner, I carried the tray up to the east room myself.

Noelle took it from me at the door, and then she looked both ways down the hallway.

"Hallie, I should tell you something."

The comments piled up at the edge of my eyes.

"Rosalind called me three weeks ago," she said, very quietly. "She said Tobias needed a friend. I don't think you're going to like why she really did."

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