Married With Me: A With Me In Seattle Universe Novel

by Bailie Hantam

  I smiled knowing I had his blessing. I didn’t need it, but it was good to know he trusted me with his sister. “Nope. He still doesn’t know that I know about him and Andi. I think it may be time to play that card.”

  “Well, don’t expect him to not take a swing at you.”

  “Better him than you. I wouldn’t want to damage those priceless surgeon’s hands of yours.”

  Denver may well want to punch me. Of all the three of them Denver was the one most likely to get into a fight. I think it’s a relic from his football days.

  I end the call with Michael and make my way outside to wait for Angela. About twenty minutes later she shows up, still in full makeup but she’s wearing her uniform sweats, hiding those delicious curves.

  “I’m yours for the rest of the night.” She gives me that slow smile that drives me wild.

  I pull her close to me and cup her face. “Well, I have a few things planned upstairs. I plan on us getting drunk and eating lots of desserts and carbs. And having lots of mind-blowing sex. Other than that, we’re going to do whatever you want.”

  “Can we start with a shower?” Her eyes are dancing, and I know she doesn’t mean she wants to get clean.

  Two hours, one steamy shower and some pretty fucking awesome sex later, we’re sharing room service chocolate mousse and raiding the mini bar. “Any ideas on what you want to do tonight? You know the city better than I do, and as long as we end up here in my bed, I’ll do anything you want to do.”

  I still haven’t broached the subject of seeing each other once we get back to Seattle. I want to keep tonight light. There’s already a little tension between us. A small part of us trying to make the most of the time we have here.

  “I do have an idea.” She crawls onto my lap and feeds me a spoonful of mousse. “But we may need our walking shoes.”

  “I’m listening.” I narrow my eyes. Everywhere we’ve gone this week we’ve walked. Why would tonight be any different?

  “I think we should do a crawl.” She quickly makes herself comfortable on my lap, brushing her body against my cock. “Just around this one block.”

  “Like a pub crawl.” Sure, there are few bars on this block, mostly in the hotel space, but it won’t take much time to cover them all.

  She shakes her head. “An everything crawl. We stop off at every place on this block and try what they have to offer. At least one dish and one drink or one activity from each establishment on the block.”

  I laugh. It’s novel, and different, and so Angela. “Sure, I can do that. Is that all?”

  “Actually, I want to amend the one drink rule.” She looks up with mock seriousness. “I don’t want to get drunk alone.”

  “I’ll drink with you. That was never a question.”

  She shakes her head. “I know you’ll drink with me. I said I don’t want to get drunk alone. Look at the size of you compared to me. If we match each other drink for drink, I’ll be almost plastered, and you’ll have a light buzz. I want you to get drunk too.”

  She has a point. There’s no way I could get that drunk if we both drink the same amount. “What do you have in mind?”

  “You should drink double what I do.” She’s adorable when she’s trying to pretend to be serious. “For every drink I have, you need to have two.”

  It seems like a fair compromise. She wants us both drunk, I can do that. “Sure. I’ll do double the amount of shots you do. I’ll have two whiskeys to every cocktail you have.”

  “And you’ll try everything with me.”

  I push a stray strand of hair behind her ear. “Of course, we’re supposed to enjoy tonight together.”

  She nods. “I’m not sure I want it to be over.”

  I know the feeling. “Let’s enjoy our everything crawl tonight. And we can talk about that while we’re nursing our hangovers in the morning.”

  “Oh, something to look forward to.”

  Chapter 7

  Justin

  There should be a law against phones so early in the morning. I pull the pillow over my head and try to ignore my phone. Eventually it comes to stop, only to start up a few seconds later.

  A kick to my calf gets my attention. “Justin make it stop.”

  I lift the pillow and open one eye. Angela is laying in a similar position, with her hands over her ears. I fumble around for a bit and find my phone. I check the caller ID and swipe the green button.

  I close my eyes and drop my forearm over my face. “Michael, this better be good.”

  “What the fuck were you thinking? I trusted you and you did this…” I don’t catch what he says after that because I move the phone away from my ear.

  After several moments I listen again. “… And you better fix this.”

  “Dude, I have no idea what you’re talking about. But please could you make less noise.” I really don’t want to hang up on him while his sister is naked next to me in bed. He’s mad about something and he’s letting me know.

  “Who’s on the phone?” Angela’s voice is raspy, and she grabs her phone

  “Your brother. He’s mad about something.”

  “Mad? You bet I’m mad.” Michael was still shouting. “Did you marry her just to get into her pants?”

  Wait, what? “What did you just say?”

  “Oh my God.” Angela is staring at her hand, her left hand. The one with the fucking awesome diamond ring sitting on her ring finger. “What did we do?”

  My entire body freezes. I’m alert, my headache becomes a low priority. “Michael, I’m going to have to call you back.”

  I disconnect the call before he can reply. Memories of the night before comes flooding back. Double tequila shots. There was chocolate ice cream somewhere in the mix. The wedding chapel. Both of us are determined to sample everything on the block. Getting married was a no-brainer. We had more trouble deciding if we wanted to try the Thai restaurant after all the drinks we’d been doing. A minister, that was not Elvis. Two strangers as our witnesses, and then doing the same for them. Angela taking selfies, wanting to share the good news.

  I check the camera roll on my phone. I didn’t take any photos. I go through my recent text messages. “I didn’t send out any photos.”

  “Don’t worry,” Angela says, as she scrolls through her phone. “I had that covered. I sent it to all my siblings, your brother and both your cousins. Something tells me Michael is not the last call we get this morning.”

  Yeah, well. They can all mind their own business. I flip the volume button on my phone. “Put your phone on silent. We have a lot to deal with this morning, we don’t need them shouting at us.”

  I get out of bed and pull on the jeans laying close to the bed. I head to the kitchen, to put on a pot of coffee. I turn to Angela. “Just take deep breaths, we’ll work something out.”

  I’m not sure exactly what we’re going to do. We could get an annulment. I’ll get a lawyer to find out about that. Of course, a divorce would be less hassle. For a fleeting moment the idea of doing nothing crosses my mind. It’s not that I never considered marriage. There was always a plan to settle down and have a family one day. Not like this though. Not because we were both drunk and daring.

  Angela walks into the kitchen wearing only my T-shirt. The sight of her takes my breath away. “I’m really sorry. Last night was all my idea.”

  “I was there too.” I’m not going to let her feel bad about how things had turned out. “I agreed to everything. And I do believe I led you into that chapel.”

  She smiles as she sits at the dining table. “You did. What do you want to do now?”

  “I was just thinking about that.” I pick up my phone and check the time. “I need to cancel my flight.”

  “No.” Angela holds her hand up. “You’re not going to upturn your life because we made one mistake. I’m the reckless one, remember. If there is anything we can do from here, I’ll handle it.”

  “I can get my lawyers looking into what options we have.” I pull her from
the chair and hold her close to me. “I don’t want to leave you. Not like this. I was going —”

  She looks up and places her finger on my lips. “You get your lawyers on it. If there is anything that needs to be done here, let me know. We just need to decide if we want an annulment or a divorce.”

  I feel my shoulders sag. Why am I disappointed at her suggestion? “I don’t want an annulment. I don’t want anything about our time here nullified.”

  “Then we get a divorce.” Angela burrows her face into my chest. “It will be the best mistake I’ve made.”

  Mistake. “I don’t want it to be a mistake.” I take a deep breath and speak before I have a chance to think everything through. “I’d rather get divorced because we can’t see ourselves married to each other.”

  She pushes away from me. “What are you saying? Justin, staying married is… well, we hardly know each other.”

  I type out a quick text to my lawyer. “I know. I just… I don’t know. Let’s see what my lawyer says and go from there.”

  “In the meantime, you’re going home. I’ll be there in a week and we can clear up this mess.”

  With a heavy heart, I start packing my bag. Angela packs her things as well. Once the room is empty, I arrange for my driver to take her home. She’s meant to meet her girlfriends for a farewell of sorts.

  There were no sad goodbyes. I didn’t expect there to be. We’ll see each other in another week. Things will be different, of course.

  A few hours later I'm on my way to the airport with Lia and Wyatt. I push my AirPods into my ears and lower my sunglasses.

  “Feeling a little worse for wear?” Wyatt shoots me a wry smile.

  “I don’t want to talk about it.” The last thing I want is to explain my quickie wedding to anyone. Thankfully, Angela hadn’t sent any photos to her parents. Knowing our siblings, no one will mention anything until they’ve all chewed us out. Oh, good. I cannot wait.

  Before long we’ve landed in Seattle. As we’re heading for the airport parking, Lia takes a call and excuses herself.

  Wyatt turns to me. “You know, there’s nothing stopping you from dating her while she’s here. Not everything that happens in Vegas needs to stay in Vegas.”

  “That wasn’t our arrangement.” I scrub a hand over my face. “And I’m not sure where she stands.”

  “Justin, I must admit that it’s good to see you so tied up like this.”

  “What’s that supposed to mean.”

  “You overthink everything. When you go into a situation, you know everything there is to know. You don’t allow yourself to get blindsided. And here you are in a situation that you have no idea how to handle. It’s nice to know you’re human, too.”

  “It sucks,” I say, offering him a chuckle. “But it’s more complicated than that.”

  “It always is. You think Lia and I just fell in love and found our happily ever after. She wasn’t divorced yet for fuck’s sakes.”

  I didn’t know that. Cheating was something Wyatt took very personally. There was no way he would’ve willingly got involved with a married woman. “But you wouldn’t—”

  “Yeah, you’d think I would come out of that argument in the right. But I was an asshole, because it’s never simple.”

  Just then Lia joined us.

  “Is everything okay?” Wyatt asked her.

  “Yeah, my assistant has a family emergency.” She looks a little harried as she scrolls through her phone.

  “Is there anything I can do?” I don’t know how I can help, but it feels right to offer.

  “Oh, no thanks. I think I have a plan.” She gives me a hug “Thanks for letting me join you guys this week”

  As Lia heads to her car, Wyatt claps my shoulder. “Remember what I said. Nothing worthwhile is ever simple.”

  The two of them head in one direction to their car and I head to mine. Maybe Wyatt’s right. Maybe I’m trying to oversimplify things. I should just wait until she’s back next week and deal with it then.

  Angela

  Lilly and Cassie showed up at my apartment earlier than expected. Since I was feeling less than stellar, we decided to have a girls’ night in instead of out. I told them I was still nursing a hangover from the night before. The truth was I was sad. And a little worried.

  I left Justin’s hotel with barely a peck on the cheek. I didn’t want him to see me cry. It was going to be hard enough seeing him back in Seattle, I didn’t want him knowing that I had started to develop feelings for him.

  Not that I think they were not returned. I think he did start feeling something for me. But it’s easy to get caught up with your emotions when you’re away from reality. And while this has been my reality for a while. Vegas, bright lights, performing, was part of who I am every day. It wasn’t his reality. Something he would see as soon as he landed and realized that his life did not include an unemployed former cheerleader. Even if she was now his wife.

  Wife. I was married, I have a husband. It was probably the stupidest thing I’d ever done and yet I cannot bring myself to regret it. Of course, I would get a divorce. I will not tie Justin down just because we got a little reckless one night. But I do agree with him. I don’t want to pretend as if it never happened.

  “Here, try this.” Lilly hands me a glass of sangria.

  I take a sip, the sweet liquid was doing nothing to improve my mood. “Needs more wine,” I say as I take another bigger sip.

  “Too bad. You don’t look like you should be drinking too much, anyway.” She settles herself on the couch alongside me. “So, are we going to get all the hot-sex details of your last night with Justin, or not?”

  “She owes us a whole week’s worth of hot-sex details.” Cassie chimes in, taking a seat on the armchair opposite us. “Don’t think we haven’t noticed how we’ve hardly seen you this week.”

  I roll my eyes and shake my head. “The sex was hot. In fact, I can say without a doubt it’s the best sex that I’ve ever had, but that’s all you’re getting from me.”

  “How rude.” Lilly pouts and slinks back in her chair. “I never hesitate to give you all the details when I have sex with a new guy.”

  This is true. “And we have told you, numerous times, that you don’t need to do that.”

  “In fact, we’ve mentioned how much we would appreciate it if you didn’t,” Cassie adds then turns to me. “This was more than a fling, wasn’t it?”

  I consider telling them how it ended and then decide against it. “I expected him to signal the end of this part of my life. You know, screwing the guy I had a high school crush on.”

  Lilly rolls her hand, gesturing for me to continue. “But….?

  “Well, I didn’t get what I expected.” I’m not sure what I expected, but I really like what I got. “He’s smart, wicked smart. And funny, but not in a corny way. He’s kind and thoughtful. No one should be all of that, and good looking, and awesome in bed. I never stood a chance.”

  “So, what you’re saying is that he’s perfect.” Cassie lifts a perfect eyebrow. “Honey, you’ve been duped. No man is perfect.”

  I shake my head. “That’s the thing. He’s not.” I think about the time I’d spent with Justin. “He’s very guarded when he thinks someone will judge him. He overthinks everything. Not to mention that he’s very accommodating.”

  “That’s not a bad thing.” Lilly’s face scrunched and she’s looking at me like I’m crazy. “Wanting to do things you enjoy is normal when you’re with someone.”

  “Yeah, but we did everything I wanted to do.” I sigh trying not to sound like a spoiled child. “I still don’t know what he enjoys doing but he knows everything about me.”

  “Okay.” Cassie takes another sip from her drink and pulls out a slice of pepperoni pizza. “But maybe that was part of the Vegas fantasy for him. Living it through your perspective. You might find that once he’s back in Seattle, he does more of what he enjoys doing.”

  “I won’t be seeing him that way in Seattle.�
�� I swallow back the tears that are threatening. “We agreed that it would only be for the week he’s here. Once we’re back home, we have family to contend with. Our lives are entangled enough as it is.”

  “It’s not like I’m a relationship expert.” Lilly adopts her very serious face. “But don’t you think you should at least tell him how you feel instead of assuming it won’t work?”

  “No.” That’s a terrible idea. “If he doesn’t feel the same way it will make things awkward whenever he’s around. And he will be around. My two oldest brothers are his best friends.”

  Though, I’m not so sure after this morning’s conversation. From what I could hear and understand Michael was pretty pissed. Neither Denver nor Andi are returning my calls. I’ve not heard a peep from my younger siblings either. I think it’s safe to say that everyone is mad at us. At least I’m confident none of them will rat us out to my parents. God alone knows how I’m going to explain this to them.

  I lean back into my couch and tuck my feet under me. I press play on the remote. “I think we should watch the movie instead of discussing my non-existent love life.”

  Lilly mumbles something that sounds a lot like hardly call it non-existent, but I choose to ignore her. We’ll just end up talking in circles.

  Curling even further onto the couch, I watch as the hero and heroine embark on their epic love story. By the end we’re all clutching tissues, drying our eyes and sniffling as the hero died in his lover’s arms.

  “Right, I think we need something a little more upbeat next.” Lilly’s already scrolling through our Netflix favorites.

  I head to the kitchen to find more alcohol. My phone buzzes from the coffee table and I rush back to answer it. I dismiss the pang of disappointment that it’s not Justin. He must’ve landed already. I was hoping to at least get a text to say he got home safely. Instead the Caller ID says Amelia Montgomery.