Married This Year

by Tracey Pedersen

  “Hang on,” he disappeared out the door and returned with another clean sheet. “Here, wrap this one around you and I’ll add the other one to the fuel for tomorrow’s fire.” She looked uncertainly at him and he turned his back, “Hurry up, before I’m tempted to peek.”

  He heard her get into bed, and he picked up the discarded sheet from the floor before running it to the laundry. He meant every word he’d said about burning the linen tomorrow. He didn’t care if he had to buy her a whole new set—the thought of Richard being here with her and then betraying her like that filled him with revulsion.

  Glass crunching under his foot had him pulling the broom from beside the fridge and sweeping up the remains of the broken vase. He bagged the broken pieces and put them on the table so Rex wouldn’t pull the bag open.

  Returning to Jordan’s room, he flicked off the light and climbed onto the bed, resting above the covers while she snuggled under them. She slid toward him and put her head on his shoulder as he wrapped his arms around her again. He felt her sob once or twice, and he knew she would have a restless night.

  Rex took the opportunity to jump up on the bed and push his way between their legs before turning around once or twice to get himself settled. He finally lay down with a contented sigh, and Luke smiled in the dark.

  I know just how you feel, buddy.

  ***

  The light streamed in the next morning, and Jordan had a flashback to New Year’s Day. Once again, she’d gone to bed late and had forgotten to close the curtains. Once again, she woke next to a beautiful man who should not have been in her bed.

  This time, however, she knew his name and could remember how he’d gotten there—not that she wanted to remember. Last night would go down as one of the happiest, and worst, nights of her life. She was still reeling over going from dizzying heights to the crash that had followed so swiftly. Although part of her wished Luke hadn’t been there to witness her meltdown, she worried that she’d still be face-down in the corridor right now, if he hadn’t shown up.

  She began to ease herself away from him, but he was onto her and he pulled her close again. “Don’t move. I’m really comfortable here. It’s so much better than the couch, mostly because the dog is asleep on my legs, instead of my chest.”

  She snorted and relaxed against him again. “That dog is a big fat traitor, but I’ll forgive him since he’d have chased Richard down the stairs last night, if I’d let him.” Just saying his name hurt.

  “He’s a good dog. I’m going to buy him a special treat today.”

  Jordan laughed again and did pull away this time. Luke groaned and rolled over to watch her, but he quickly shut his eyes as they fell on the bare skin of her bottom. “Hey, where are your clothes?”

  “You weren’t meant to be looking!” She quickly threw on a top and some shorts and headed to the bathroom to freshen up. When she emerged a few minutes later, he was in the kitchen making coffee, and her bed was perfectly made.

  Well-trained. Who knew?

  “What are you doing today?” he asked as he handed her a steaming cup.

  “I’m not doing a damn thing. I need a break, and today I’m taking it. No work, no checking email, and I’m going to turn off my phone. To hell with the world.” She plopped down on the couch and he sat next to her.

  “I have only one task, if you’d like to join me later?”

  “I’m not sure I want to do anything that takes much effort. What’s your task?”

  “I’m going to start that bonfire I promised you.”

  September

  Jordan watched carefully as the instructor explained again how they needed to position their legs when they landed. Luke’s genius idea to take her mind off things had turned out to be a skydiving trip, and she wasn’t amused. This was right up there with the shark diving experience, except on this occasion, she actually liked the person she was with. Luke had been kind to her all week, and she tried hard to pay attention, so he didn’t think she was lame.

  The instructions were confusing and the lesson was long. They were in a group with four other daredevils, and no one had jumped before. When the practical lesson was over, they sat in a small shed, waiting for the plane to land and for the instructor they’d been paired with to take them up for the actual jump.

  Everyone was nervous. Jordan could feel sweat trickling down her back and she knew it was from fear and not heat. She considered backing out, but then she remembered that she’d survived the shark dive. Compared to that, this was just one more adrenaline rush.

  The man opposite her was joking with his friend about how they might all die today. He made all the usual jokes about them jumping out of a perfectly good aeroplane, and Luke crossed his eyes and tilted his head where he was sitting across from her. The woman next to her was tapping her foot and clicking her fingers. Jordan imagined she was the type who would click a pen over and over, if she held one in her hand for too long.

  No one else was interacting, so Jordan thought she’d make small talk. “Do any of you know each other?” she asked, looking from the two men to the two women beside her.

  “Nope. Never seen them before in my life,” said her neighbour.

  “Well, do we all want to introduce ourselves?”

  “You want to chat before you fall to your death, is that it?”

  “Don’t say that,” the lady next to her said. “If we have an accident, it’ll be your fault.” She looked out onto the runway, craning her neck to see if the plane was coming. “I don’t know about you guys, but I’m freaking out.” She gave a single, nervous laugh.

  “Okay, then, introductions. I’m Jack, and this is Henry.”

  “My name is Rachel Canales, and this is my friend, Lori Shore.” Jordan thought it was strange that she gave their last names when the men hadn’t, but it must have been her nerves.

  Luke spoke up next. “I’m Luke, and this is Jordan.”

  “Are you two married?” They both laughed at the same time.

  “No way. We are absolutely not married. We’re friends,” Luke said as he glanced at Jordan, who was glaring at the concrete floor.

  The man named Henry piped up as he addressed Rachel. “Want to make this interesting?”

  “What did you have in mind?”

  “Well, you’re single, right?” He waited for her to nod her agreement and then he grinned. “So far, so good. How about, if we survive this, you and I get married?”

  Luke laughed out loud, and Jordan glared at him, pursing her lips. Rachel looked flattered and laughed off Henry’s offer. She didn’t take him seriously, and her next words proved it. “I don’t think I can trust you to follow through on that promise. I’m gonna need you to propose, now, before we go up.”

  Lori giggled at her friend’s request, and Luke continued to chortle, as though this was the most amusing thing he’d ever witnessed. Jordan couldn’t believe that after she’d spent all year wasting her time on guy after guy, trying to find someone serious enough to marry her, these complete strangers were joking about it right here in front of her.

  “Deal,” Henry said, and he jumped out of his seat and sank to one knee in front of her. “Rachel Canales, would you do me the honour of being my wife… assuming we survive the next forty minutes of flying in a shaky tin can, strapped to a complete stranger who packed our chute and assured us we wouldn’t die today? If we survive all of that, will you take the next challenge and marry me?”

  She smiled at him and put out her hand, as though this was a real proposal. “I’d love to, Henry. If we live, I’ll definitely marry you.” They all laughed at this impromptu performance, and Rachel added, “I want you to buy me a ring on the way home, though!”

  “I promise,” he said solemnly. Before she could answer, their instructor appeared in the doorway.

  “Okay, jumpers, here we go. Everyone into the plane.”

  They filed out behind him, and they were soon in the tiny plane and heading for the end of the runway. Jordan felt u
nwell and considered backing out again. The wind whistled loudly through the plane, and the instructor had to shout to be heard over the roar of the engines. Each person was strapped into their tandem harness, and when they reached the correct altitude, they dropped out of the plane one by one.

  Jordan thought she would scream all the way down to the ground, but she was rendered speechless by the shock of the freefall. The ground hurtled toward them, and she prayed for the moment the chute was pulled. Somewhere nearby, she could hear someone shrieking, and she thought it sounded suspiciously like Luke. It couldn’t be him, though—this had been his idea.

  Before it seemed like enough time had passed, the chute was pulled and they were rushing toward the big cross on the ground with the instructor reminding her to lift her legs. They plopped down in the centre of the target, and relief rushed through her. She lay flat on the ground, unable to stand up as the instructor unclipped her harness. He helped her to her feet, and she saw Luke lying on the ground with several people gathered around him. She rushed over to see if he was injured, and when she pushed through the people, she laughed when she saw him on his back.

  Tears streamed down his cheeks, and he was babbling about how he’d just skydived three times: the first, the last, and the only time! The crowd laughed, and he eventually let them help him up. His legs were shaking so badly that he could hardly walk to the shed, and Jordan let him lean on her to steady himself.

  Rachel and Henry appeared to have taken their marriage pact seriously, and now that they were alive, they were making plans to have lunch together on the way home. Luke nudged her side as they overheard the two of them chattering away. Jordan ignored him and headed straight to her car.

  Before she unlocked it, she nodded in the lovebird’s direction. “See that problem they have now?”

  “What problem?” he asked, looking over his shoulder at them.

  “They both drove here. He has a car—that’s why she said yes today. Even without her checking first, he apparently has everything on the list!”

  ***

  The drive home was something of a revelation for Jordan. Luke insisted on mentioning Rachel and Henry around thirty times on the way, and she started thinking about how strange the world was. She’d tried so hard to get married, and here Rachel and Henry had appeared to hit it off straight away. Rachel hadn’t asked him any questions and couldn’t have known if he had job or a car, or what he wanted out of life, because they never had a chance to have that conversation. Maybe they were having it now over lunch, but Rachel had seen enough to give Henry a chance.

  Maybe that’s where Jordan had gone wrong. Maybe the app was a good idea, but the list of her perfect man was a mistake. All this time, perhaps she should have been letting the universe lead her to the right guy.

  Luke argued the point about this, of course. “That’s crap. You did give the universe a go. You said yes to every loser who asked you to go out with him, as long as they had everything on the list in their favour. You joined dating sites you never would have used otherwise to widen the net. Did it get you a better quality man? No!” He answered his own question before she had the chance. “Did it result in lasting love? No! Did you end up with a broken heart? Yes!” He looked guilty as he said this last bit, as though reminding her might upset her again.

  She glared at him as she drove. “It doesn’t matter. I’m not going to try that hard, anymore. What comes to me comes. I might even be a bit more relaxed about the whole waiting for sex thing. That didn’t get me anywhere good, either, did it?”

  ***

  Jordan didn’t attempt to meet a single man for the next three weeks, and no one strayed into her path or showed any interest in her. She was conscious that it was the end of September and her New Year’s resolution was dead in the water. She kicked herself that she hadn’t made several resolutions—that way, she might have had a chance of sticking to one of them.

  The date she was going on today was one of the ones she’d booked right after the girls had informed her she was cheating the system. At the time, it had seemed ludicrous that she’d need to meet these guys, yet here she was, getting ready to go to the movies with one of them. Richard’s betrayal still hurt, and there was less chance of her opening up to a complete stranger, now.

  She met Tom at the cinema. She no longer gave anyone her home address and mostly drove herself, because she didn’t want anyone else to know she lived above the coffee shop. It was bad enough that Richard knew, and every so often, she worried that he might come around. She needn’t have wasted her energy, though—she hadn’t heard a word from him since that awful night.

  Tom was charming.

  They all are, at the start.

  The movie was hilarious, which helped them both loosen up. When he invited her to his place to play backgammon, she forgot her inhibitions and agreed. She followed his late model car to his house, and they were soon sitting on the floor, playing a competitive game complete with enough shouting and laughing to wake the neighbours.

  Tom’s hand crept toward hers as they started their third game, and for a second, she stared at it and considered pulling hers away.

  What the hell? I’m having fun.

  She let him cover her hand with his, and they continued playing. After five games, he suggested they make it a little more interesting. Against her better judgement, a game of strip-backgammon was initiated. It was about that time that Tom’s luck ran out, and he lost the next three games.

  As his clothes dropped to the floor game after game, Jordan laughed and laughed. The annoyed look on his face was so funny, and she knew he’d thought she would be missing a few items of clothing, by now. While she set up the board to play again, Tom went to the kitchen to get them both a drink. When she stood up to stretch her legs, she jumped as there was a loud knock on the door.

  Tom sprang from the kitchen, much to her amusement, but her laugh was cut short as he grabbed her and her handbag and shuffled her off to a room in his house. “Hide in the closet,” he said. When she didn’t move, but frowned at him, instead, he opened the closet door and shoved her inside. “She’s crazy,” he whispered. “You don’t want her to find you here.” He shut the door as she heard the knocking on the front door grow louder.

  Jordan’s heart was pounding, and she looked around the tiny space she’d been squeezed into. She heard raised voices in the lounge room and thought of the backgammon board set up on the coffee table. Surely whoever was now shouting in the other room would know someone else was here? With panic gripping her, she edged some of the hanging items to the side, so she could slip behind them.

  This is fucking insane!

  She pulled them in front of her and then froze as the door to the room opened, and she heard a woman shouting at Tom. “You better not be lying to me, Tom Sinden. We’re still married, you piece of shit! Until that divorce is final, you better not be trying to hide anyone from me.”

  “I’m telling you, Diane, there’s no one here. You need to leave right now.” The door banged closed, and Jordan breathed a sigh of relief.

  Her ordeal wasn’t over, though, and she could hear cupboards and doors being opened and banged shut all through the house. The door to the garage opened, and more banging followed, as well as the sound of a car boot closing.

  What the hell is she doing to him?

  Diane, who, it seemed, was the crazy ex he’d mentioned earlier, continued stalking through the house, looking for the woman she was sure was there—looking for Jordan.

  Ten minutes later, she could hear the conversation calming down. Tom spoke in soothing tones, and Diane was almost convinced that no one was in the house. Jordan’s heart rate slowed from the hammering she’d been enduring, and she prayed that Diane would leave, so she could get herself home as fast as possible. As she was wondering how long she’d have to wait after the woman left, the bedroom door opened again and Jordan stopped breathing.

  “She’s in the closet, isn’t she?”

  No!<
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  “For the hundredth time, there’s no one here. Come on, it’s time for you to go. I have an early start tomorrow.”

  “You better not be lying to me. I don’t even know what I’ll do if I find out someone was here.” Their voices were right outside the door, and Jordan stood statue-still and slowly counted to one hundred in her head. She wanted to get out of there so badly, but she knew if just one coat hanger squeaked along the railing, she’d be found.

  “Come on, sweetie. Let’s get you home, and you can call me tomorrow.” Tom’s soothing voice was back. “How about we meet for lunch tomorrow?”

  She finally relented, and they left the room again. She heard the door click quietly as it was closed, but she dared not breathe. What if it was a trick? What if Diane had somehow tricked him and was waiting for the sound she was sure would come from the closet.

  The front door banged shut, but she stayed where she was. She heard the curtains being pulled closed in the room, and then the door opened on Tom standing there in only his pants with an apologetic smile on his face. “I’m so sorry about that. She shows up from time to time. I guess we got unlucky tonight.”

  Jordan let out a weak laugh and finally let her legs start shaking like they’d wanted to do for the last twenty minutes. She bent over and sucked in big lungfuls of air as he rubbed his palms against his thighs..

  “I’m really, really sorry. I’m guessing you want to flee home, now?”

  “That’s probably best. Should I wait a little while, though? Do you think she’d be watching?”

  “Probably,” he said with a flippant tone that told Jordan he put up with this behaviour from his ex quite often. “I’ll make us a coffee and tell you the whole sordid tale, if you’d like.”

  “Can’t wait.” She sat on the couch where they’d laughed earlier tonight. All the fun had drained out of the room, though, and she wanted to get home to lie on the couch and be greeted by Rex.