Married for a Month

by Cate Ashwood

  He checked Chase over, but his face was unreadable. The longer he went without speaking, the more anxious I became. I was fully aware I was being ridiculous. Who gets this worked up over a few hours of puking? But I couldn’t help it. When it came to Chase, everything hit me hard.

  “Vitals all look okay considering. The fever is low-grade. Without labs, I can’t make a completely definitive diagnosis, but it looks to me like you got hit with norovirus. It’s a nasty stomach flu. The good news is that it’s usually relatively short-lived. You’ll be feeling better in a couple of days. For now, I’ll give you a shot to settle the nausea, and then get as much sleep as you can. That’s about all I can do for you, unfortunately.”

  I exhaled. “Thank you, Danny.”

  My brother turned to look at me, his eyes filled with understanding. “It’s not a problem.”

  I watched as he drew up the meds and injected them expertly into Chase’s bicep. “This should only take a few minutes to kick in. It’ll settle your stomach, but it’s also going to make you very sleepy.”

  Daniel packed up his things, and I followed him into the living room. “Thank you again,” I said.

  “You’re very welcome.”

  “Anything I should know for later?”

  “Common sense stuff. Keep him hydrated—drinks with electrolytes if you’ve got ’em. Lots of sleep, and no making out with him until his symptoms disappear. It’s a virus. It’s contagious. You might already have it, so just be prepared.”

  Daniel walked to the door and pulled on his shoes.

  “Call me if he gets worse or if he can’t keep any water down in the next twenty-four. I’m close if you need me.”

  “Thank you,” I repeated for the third time. I’d always been proud of my brother for going through medical school. God only knew I’d never have made it that far. But I’d never felt this especially grateful for his knowledge. Yeah, Chase wasn’t on his deathbed. Daniel hadn’t cured cancer for him, but in that moment, it goddamn felt like it.

  Daniel smiled and said good-bye before ducking out of the apartment. I closed the door after him and went to check on the patient.

  Chase’s eyes were closed, though I couldn’t tell if he was asleep or not. I climbed into bed next to him, doing my best not to disturb him as I did. Resting my head on the pillow, I watched him sleep for a few minutes. He was still pale, and I was probably imagining it, but I thought he looked like he was already feeling better.

  He stirred next to me, reaching out for me in his sleep. I pulled him closer, settling him against my body, the heat from his skin almost too much. He mumbled something and nuzzled in.

  “What?” I asked softly.

  The response came, the words muffled against my shoulder, but they were clear enough to stab right through me, nestling themselves in my heart. “Love you.”

  I exhaled, letting the knowledge that Chase loved me settle over me like a soft blanket. Maybe he was confused from the fever or the meds, but I took those words and clung to them like a raft in a hurricane. I wasn’t alone in this, and even if he’d spoken out of delirium, there had to be something more there. It was enough to set me thinking, and I spent the next few hours making plans in my head about how to proceed.

  When the clock crept closer to midnight, I closed my eyes and concentrated on the sounds of Chase breathing. It was steady and soft, and the most calming thing I’d ever known. Christ, I loved him. It wasn’t something I’d expected to find when we’d started this insane bet, but I clung to the feeling now, letting it soothe me as I drifted off to sleep beside him.

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Chase

  “What do you mean you’re going to be late to Webster’s? Since when do you have after-work meetings?” I protested.

  “Since today. The government job is hitting the halfway mark, and I want to make sure we’re where we should be in terms of timeline and quality control. This is a huge account for us. If we do well with this, it’ll open even more doors for Liberty to work on more projects like this.”

  His explanation made sense, but I still didn’t like it. My whole body was vibrating with nervous energy, and I knew if I could see Alec, it would dissipate. He was my lightning rod, or something equally as fucking ridiculous. The point was, I needed him to ground me.

  I didn’t know why I was so fucking nervous. This was Friday night at Webster’s, just like it always was. Except it wasn’t. This was the dissolution of our fake marriage. I had a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach thinking about it, and even the thought of seeing Reid in a purple mankini did nothing to soothe the nausea welling up.

  “Fine,” I muttered, sounding very much like a five-year-old. “How late are you going to be?”

  “Not too late. Twenty minutes. Thirty tops,” he assured me. I wasn’t very fucking assured.

  “Fine,” I said again. “I'll meet you there. I can't believe you’re going to be late for our divorce, though. Doesn’t look good for you. The judge will almost certainly rule in my favor, and I’ll be getting custody of the waffle iron for sure.”

  The mention of our impending fake divorce had my stomach knotting even tighter. The last month had been life-altering for me, and I wasn’t ready to let go. I was pretty sure Alec felt the same, but I couldn’t be certain. I hated not knowing what he was thinking, and I came ridiculously close to asking him right then and there.

  “You don’t even know how to make waffles,” Alec reminded me, pulling me from the thought of what was about to happen.

  “I’ll learn. Just get your ass to Webster’s as soon as you can. I don’t want to face the wolves without you.”

  “You’re going to be okay. Just because you spilled almost every detail of our sex life to Jo and Reid last weekend doesn’t mean Serena and Brynn know.”

  I gave a disbelieving snort. Those two were the least of my worries.

  “Okay, so just because everyone knows we were sleeping together doesn’t mean they’re going to give you shit about it the second you walk in the door.”

  “It’s like you’ve never met our friends.”

  I heard someone talking to Alec in the background. The voice was muffled, but it sounded like Jewel. “I’ve got to run, Chase. I’ll see you tonight.”

  I grumbled my good-bye and hung up. I went back to work, although my mind was anywhere but on task that afternoon. There was too much to consider, too much riding on what would happen in a few hours, and I was still feeling somewhat cheated that we never managed to make it to New York the weekend before.

  It would have been such a perfect way for us to close out the month—just the two of us, holed up in a hotel room, the rest of the world completely forgotten. Life got in the way, though. The more I thought about the missed opportunity, the more apparent it became that in a way, staying home and letting Alec take care of me was almost as good.

  He’d been taking care of me in one way or another since we first met, and even though there was no sex and we didn’t get to stay in a swanky hotel, being home with him, just us, was kind of perfect. I just wish we’d had more time together as husbands. Now there was no way of knowing what was going to happen next, how I was going to go on pretending everything was normal as I nursed my broken heart over the loss of him.

  I loved him. So fucking much.

  I’d never been so knotted up over a guy, but then again, this was Alec. He was different. He always had been. It was only fitting he was the one who had me coming apart at the seams.

  I took my time getting to Webster’s, knowing Alec was going to be late. I timed it for half an hour after when we usually met, and when I didn’t see his truck parked outside, I dawdled, not wanting to go in without him. I paced the block a few times, my hands shoved in the pockets of my jeans.

  I saw Alec pull up and park in front of the bar.

  “Why didn’t you go in?” he asked as he climbed out of the vehicle.

  Christ, he looked good. “I couldn’t.”

  “Everyth
ing okay?”

  I nodded. “Yeah, I think so. Can we maybe take a walk? I wanted to talk to you about something.”

  “Sure, of course.”

  This was it. This was the vital moment where I spilled my guts, spewing all the emotional bullshit I’d pent up for thirty fucking days. This is where I admitted to Alec I was head over heels in love with him and I had no idea how I was ever going to go back to being just friends.

  My palms were soaked with sweat, and my burrito from lunch was threatening to make a second appearance. This was by far the scariest shit I’d ever done, and Jesus, I’d bungee jumped off a bridge with a seriously sketchy looking harness as the only thing stopping me from plummeting to my death.

  In this instant, I missed that fucking harness.

  I could do this, though. I had to do this. I had to tell him, and whatever his reaction, I’d deal with it.

  We turned away from Webster’s and started down the street. The evening was quiet for a Friday night, and we only passed a few people as we walked.

  “So,” I started. “I don’t know how to say this. I had it all worked out in my head while I waited for you, and then I saw you and you kind of obliterated it all as soon as you walked up.”

  “Sorry,” he said. His shoulders were tense, and fuck, he looked as nervous as me. My brain fast-forwarded to all the horrible possibilities, landing on the idea he knew what I was about to say and he was bracing himself to let me down easy.

  I took a deep breath and let it out, determined to press on, no matter what the outcome would be, but the longer we walked, not saying anything, the more anxious I became.

  “Well, go on,” Alec prompted.

  I took one more breath before I spoke. This was a weird feeling for me. I always said exactly what I wanted to say when I wanted to say it. It wasn’t that I didn't have a filter; it was more that I felt the filter wasn’t necessary most of the time. Yet now, I had a hard time formulating the words.

  “We’ve been friends for a long time, for all the years that count anyway, and you know me better than anyone. More than that, you’re the only one who willingly puts up with my shit.”

  “You’ve got lots of people who put up with your shit.”

  I shook my head. “Not like you do. And this whole thing—the marriage thing, I mean—started as a drunken joke, and there was seriously no forethought put into it. Jesus, this single month could have, and really still could carry the possibility of ruining years of friendship.”

  Alec looked at me, his eyes trained hard on me. “What are you trying to say?”

  “Just how fucked-up this could all get. We were friends and things were great. It worked. You get me and I get you, and fuck, I don’t want to lose that. But then we got fake married, and things changed almost immediately. I was annoyed, you were annoyed, and shit got tense between us for a bit, but we worked it out.”

  I stopped on the sidewalk and turned toward him. With one more deep breath, I kept going. “And then came the sex. And Jesus, Alec, the sex. If there’s one arena where we’ve never faltered, it’s in bed.”

  “True.” Alec laughed, and I wished he’d say more than one goddamn word, but I was on a roll now and there was no coming back from this. I needed to get it all out, to put everything on the table.

  I turned and started walking again. “And when this ends, I don’t know how we’re going to go back. Knowing everything I know now, I don’t know if I can go back. I don’t want to go back.”

  My heart stuttered at the words, having said them out loud for the first time. It hadn’t been an outright declaration of love, but it was fucking close, and it felt so good to tell him, but Alec didn’t respond. He was quiet beside me, and the longer the silence stretched, the more anxious I became.

  I looked forward, realizing we’d walked all the way to my park.

  “Alec?” I said. “Did you hear me? I said I don’t want to go back to just being friends. If that means awkward dating for a while until we find a new rhythm, then fine, but I don’t want to give this up.”

  Alec turned, crossing the walkway into the park, and I nearly lost my shit. I followed behind him and nearly ran into him when he stopped short. Alec turned to look at me.

  “Christ, Alec, are you going to say anything? I poured my fucking heart out, and you’re suddenly Mr. Silent.”

  “I don’t want to go back either,” Alec said.

  That handful of words punched me right in the chest. I exhaled hard, more relieved than I’d ever been in my life. “Well, thank God for that, but shit, could you have made it a little easier on me?”

  “Sorry, I wanted to say this right.”

  “Say what?”

  “I don’t want to go back. Not at all. Backward, I mean, and dating, the whole getting to know you thing—we’ve done that. I know almost everything there is to know about you. I love you.”

  “I love you too,” I said, feeling a weight being lifted from me. The anxiety and worry from moments before had melted away, leaving nothing but this glowing fucking feeling that seemed to radiate right from the center of my chest.

  He smiled at me and I swooned harder than a chick meeting Ryan Reynolds for the first time. This was a defining moment in my life. I was left suddenly speechless, overwhelmed with the enormity of what had transpired. Thankfully, Alec seemed to know what to say.

  “I think I’ve always loved you. I just didn’t realize how much until I married you.”

  Alec took my hands in his, and there, in the park I built, he dropped to one knee. He let go of my hands long enough to reach into his pocket and pull out a black velvet box. Opening it, he turned it so I could see the simple white gold band.

  “Chase Edward Bradley? Will you marry me? For real this time?”

  I dropped to my knees and grabbed him, kissing him hard enough he almost dropped the ring box.

  “God, yes,” I said before he kissed him again.

  After a significant amount of time making out in public, we finally tore ourselves away from the park and headed back to Webster’s. We walked in, Alec’s arm draped possessively over my shoulder. I didn’t want him to ever let go.

  Happiness suffused me when I realized he didn’t have to. Alec was going to be my husband, my real husband, and a month ago the thought of marriage might have scared me. Now, the idea I might never have realized what was right in front of me was even more terrifying.

  “You owe me fifty bucks,” Brynn said smugly, turning to Serena as soon as we were close.

  “What?” I asked.

  Serena looked annoyed. “We had a side bet going that you’d end up together for real. Brynn said it wouldn’t take you the full month, and I thought you two dickheads would be more stubborn than that. I bet it would take a week after the divorce for you to get your heads out of your asses.”

  Alec held up our hands where our fingers were still intertwined. My ring glinted even in the dim light of the bar. “Anyone bet on this?” he asked.

  “Oh my God, congratulations!” Jo cried, throwing her arms around both of us and hugging us tightly.

  “Speaking of bets… where’s Reid?” I asked Jo.

  She giggled. “He’s hiding in the bathroom. I told him he had to face the music, but he insisted there was no need for him to embarrass himself until you were both here.”

  “I’ll go get him,” I volunteered.

  Anticipation bubbled in my belly as I made my way through Webster’s to the restrooms at the back. Inside, I noticed one of the two stalls was occupied, and when I ducked to peek under the door I almost lost my balance from laughing so hard.

  Hairy man-toes spilled out the front, and calloused heels hung over the back of a pair of gold peep-toe slingbacks.

  “Reid,” I started.

  “I’m not coming out,” came the obstinate reply.

  “Oh, yes you are. A bet’s a bet, and you lost, fair and square.”

  There was a beat of silence before I heard the lock slide back, and the door opened
to reveal Reid stuffed into a purple floral bikini, the bottoms barely holding in all the bits that needed to be held. I immediately broke down into fits of laughter.

  Reid tried to slam the stall door shut, but I caught it with my hand and held it open.

  “It’s not funny, asshole.” I could hear his ego bruising.

  “I beg to differ. This is the most hilarious thing I’ve ever seen. You got yourself into this mess, let me remind you.”

  “Whatever.”

  “Come on. Let’s go join the others.”

  “You’re really going to make me leave this room dressed like this?”

  I shrugged. “You’re the one who drew up the contract. And you got yourself in here. How bad could it be to walk back out again?”

  “I barely made it in here. I don’t know how girls walk in these things,” Reid replied, lifting one foot to show off his glitzy heels.

  “Maybe you’ll appreciate your wife a little more now,” I said. “Double win.”

  Reid rolled his eyes.

  “Let’s go, Gisele Bündchen.”

  I held the door open and Reid walked ahead of me, his hands flailing in a feeble attempt to cover his exposed flesh. I broke into laughter for the third time in as many minutes when I saw a collection of Justin Bieber faces jiggling on Reid’s left butt cheek as he walked.

  “Nice ass,” I said, reaching forward and giving him a sound slap. “Though I don’t recall requiring a whole collage of The Biebs.”

  He glared at me over his shoulder. “We couldn’t find one big enough. This was Jo’s solution.”

  “Remind me to tell your wife how much I love her.”

  “Good Lord,” Alec said, stifling a laugh as we finally approached the group. We’d attracted funny looks from almost every person in Webster’s on our way, and even in the dim light I could tell Reid’s blush was approaching nuclear levels.

  “Doesn’t he look fabulous?” I asked, pushing him forward so Alec could get a better look at him.

  “Stunning,” Alec deadpanned.

  “All right, you guys have had your fun. Can I put some clothes on now?” Reid said, the desperation dripping from his voice.