The Marriage Pact: A Baby Romance

by Tia Siren

  “I don’t know.” I sighed.

  “Boy, this chick has got a spell on you.” He chuckled with an icy tone. “For real though, answer wholeheartedly. Would you really move to a big city?”

  “I know I’ve always been against it,” I admitted. “But, that doesn’t mean I can’t do it. I could adapt. Or, it might not be as bad as I think it’ll be. I’ve been wrong about things before.”

  “If she asks you to move in with her, don’t just say yes,” he said. “Know if you really want to do it. You’ve said no to this girl before, so don’t forget how.”

  “Thank you, Garrett.”

  “You wouldn’t live in a big city,” he said dismissively. “If it actually happened— like, if she asked you to move to Memphis with her tomorrow— I think you’d say no. You were messed up over this girl once already. I think you know you can’t just open yourself up to get fucked up again, man. They don’t change, dude.”

  “I just want to spend more time with Bailey,” I said. “She’s my friend.”

  “She hasn’t been your friend for six years,” he interjected. “And be real, Darren. You can’t say you’re going because you’re friends. We both know damn well.”

  “If we both know so well, why do you keep prodding, Garrett?”

  He softened slightly, looking away from me before he continued.

  “She’s stubborn about staying away from Rome. You’re stubborn about staying close to it,” he said. “You guys are gonna get hurt, one way or another. You’re high right now off the fantasy. Once it gets real, you both will end up in separate directions. I don’t want you to hurt yourself like that.”

  I was touched by the thought he’d put into what he said, but it didn’t change what I was going to do. It didn’t matter. There wasn’t anything that Garrett or anyone else could say to me that could’ve talked me out of it. I had imagined a time like this frequently in the past.

  Garrett was right about one thing: I usually fantasized and romanticized whenever it came to Bailey. She was the only girl that I ever loved, so she always dipped in and out of my imagination, which was already out of control to begin with.

  The way I saw it play out in one scenario was that we’d spend the time together, explore, and by the end of it, we would either be confessing our love to each other or running away from it. I told her exactly how I felt, and then I would either move to Memphis and buy a house or return to Rome and hope she would return to my door one day and kiss me.

  Sometimes, I imagined that we merely let our bodies do the talking. We’d have nothing but raw passion powered by an undying fire. Then, we would return to “back to normal.” In this case, I’d go back to Rome, work at Mel’s, and drink beer with Garrett, leaving Bailey back in Memphis. She would eventually sign a record deal and either move to Los Angeles or New York, two other big cities.

  I wasn’t sure what trajectory our trip was going to take emotionally, but I was antsy with anticipation.

  I went back to the house after work. Bailey had ordered us Chinese, and we planned to watch a movie and casually pack for the trip throughout the night.

  “Honey, I’m home,” I said more humiliated with each syllable.

  “Oh good, dear!” she said in a funny voice. “Dinner’s ready! Come get it while it’s still hot.”

  “It’s always hot when you’re around,” I said.

  “Ha. Get us drinks, will you? I’ll have water.”

  I joined her by the TV with her water and my soda. We sat close together, eating our delicious meals and staring at the screen in front of us without watching.

  “I so cannot wait for tomorrow,” Bailey eventually said.

  I squeezed her shoulders. “Me neither.”

  “This might be like weird or whatever,” she said with caution. “But were there ever times when you thought of what it would be like to come see me in Tennessee? Like did you ever daydream about what it would be like?”

  “Of course, I would.” I laughed. “You know me— absolutely I did. How could I not? I thought about what it would be like if you came back. I imagined what it’d be like if we’d met again in some other faraway place.”

  “Like where?” she asked in an amused tone.

  “Oh, no one place in particular over another,” I said. “I’d go to Panama City Beach and run into you one day when I walk down the shore. Or I’d go somewhere in Europe, be taking pictures, and then I’d see you on my travels.”

  “You would go to Europe?” she said skeptically.

  “I would visit Europe,” I clarified. “Same as I would visit Memphis or Nashville.”

  “Don’t tempt me to take us up to Nashville for a day, because I will,” she said. “When I know for sure that I’m going to be a famous singer, I’ll probably want to move to Nashville. Have you ever been?”

  “Can’t say I have. I’ve always wanted to go though.”

  “Maybe we could go up this weekend! I doubt I’ll need to be doing anything on Sunday. We’ll wake up early and spend the day there.”

  “Sounds terrific.” I smiled.

  She clapped her hands quickly and bounced in her seat. “I’m so excited for tomorrow.”

  “So, what about you?” I shot back.

  “What about me?”

  “Did you ever imagine what it would be like if we saw each other again out in the world?” I specified.

  “Maybe,” she conceded. “Sometimes.”

  “Care to share?”

  “Not really,” she said as her cheeks began reddening.

  “Aw, that’s not fair,” I said. “After I told you about what I thought about? We both need to give, Bailey Wright.”

  She stuck out her cheeks as if she was pouting. Her hair fell slightly over her eyes, and so I moved it with my hand. We looked into each other’s eyes for several silent moments, beaming.

  “We need to make a vow,” said Bailey.

  “And, what would that be?”

  “We need to promise each other we’re not going to over-think things,” she said. “We’re spending time together. You’re on vacation. I’m your tour guide, and we’re just going to be Darren and Bailey.”

  “If you’re trying to say we shouldn’t go catching feelings, I agree.” I laughed.

  “I don’t want to come off like a bitch.”

  “You’re not a bitch,” I assured her. “You want us both on the same sentence on the same page. I won’t complicate your life, I promise.”

  “Awesome,” she said. “Yeah. We’re not allowed to fall in love, so let’s just have a good, fun time.”

  “Well, you can’t exactly put a rule on that,” I said.

  “A rule on what?”

  “You can’t help who you fall in love with,” I said. “Stuff with the heart is usually out of our control. We can’t say we can’t fall in love.”

  “Sure, we can,” she said. “Don’t let yourself get carried away.”

  “But you see, you’re missing the point of ‘getting carried away.’ If you’re getting carried away, there’s probably little you can do to stop it. You’re being carried away.”

  “You know what I’m saying, Darren,” she said, slugging me in the shoulder. “You’re such a dork.”

  “You know how to bring it out of me,” I said tilting my head.

  “I don’t want to have a conversation like this when you’re in Tennessee,” she said. “I know sometimes we both say we’re cool when we’re not. I want to get a sense of what you feel about all of this.”

  “I feel a lot of things about you,” I said. “Just like I always have. That’s not going to change, whether I go to Memphis or not. I told you—you’re not like the other girls. I think more when it comes to you.”

  “So, I guess we are going to over-think things, aren’t we?” she asked rhetorically.

  “That was going to happen whether I came with you or not, also,” I said. “How about this: If I fall in love with you, I promise I won’t tell you. I won’t complicate your li
fe. But, same goes for you. If you fall in love with me—”

  “What makes you think I’d fall in love with you?” she interrupted.

  “Why wouldn’t you?”

  “For the record, most of why I wanted to have this talk was because of what you said before,” she said. “About how you never stopped loving me.”

  “That’s not what I said.”

  “The point is, I don’t know where you are or how you’re feeling, and I’m nervous,” she said frowning. “I don’t want to hurt you. I can’t mislead you in any way.”

  “Bailey, I swear you have nothing to worry about. There will always be a part of me that belongs to you. But, I know what’s going on, and I know where we are. Besides, I haven’t seen you in years. Even though in a lot of ways it feels like old times, in a lot of ways it’s foreign. I mean; we’ve grown, and we’ve changed. I just want to spend time with you. You also should understand that I’m still cool with doing anything you want to do. My feelings will only be hurt if I lose you for good again.”

  “I’m not going anywhere,” she said, kissing my forehead. “You’re still my best friend.”

  “You’re still mine, Bailey.”

  Chapter 22

  Bailey

  I woke up early the next morning, jittery with anticipation. I soon became jittery from coffee, but I couldn’t hold still. I was thrilled to be going on a plane with Darren.

  Darren was less enthusiastic at first. The best flight I could book for us left at 4:02 Friday morning. So, we had to wake up at 1:30 to catch a bus to Atlanta to get us at our airport terminal before 4:02. He hated waking up if it was still dark outside. He slept on the bus and at every convenient stop until we got onto our plane.

  Once we got on, it became a claustrophobic nightmare. Darren and I were squeezed into a row with a rather portly gentleman that took up more than his share of the space. Neither Darren nor I were able to nap at all on the flight as a result of the tight quarters and the two loud babies behind us.

  During our time in the air, songs began to come to mind. While I was literally soaring through the clouds, my heart and my brain began to concoct some interesting rhythms and lyrics.

  For most of the flight, the most physical contact Darren had made with me was having his arm drape onto mine unintentionally or accidentally bumping my foot. Then, as our plane crossed into Tennessee, his hand began to slowly drift from his seat over into mine. His hand was on my thigh, lightly brushing it with his fingers. We didn’t look directly at each other, but we were staring through the corners of our eyes.

  Once our hands finally met and clasped together, I felt warm. Another song began its conception in my head the longer my fingers stayed laced with his. We leaned our heads together, laying on each other, never looking directly into each other’s eyes.

  When we landed, we were among the unlucky in the back that would have to wait for our turn for some time. It was 6:01, and there was nearly no light in the sky.

  Darren kissed me on the cheek. Our eyes finally met; his were swollen and exhausted, as mine likely were.

  “Welcome to Memphis,” I said to Darren.

  “Good to be here.” He nodded.

  “What’s the first thing you want to do, Mr. Holt?”

  He chuckled, unable to keep his eyes open all the way. “Sleep.”

  I took his hand that I was holding and kissed it.

  “Sorry,” he said. “I wish I could be more awake.”

  “Don’t be sorry. I’m tired too,” I replied. “We’ll sleep a while, then we can go out into the world. I know of a great bed-and-breakfast we can stay at that has all my shit in it. It’s got free Wi-Fi and cable.”

  “What’s the Wi-Fi password?” he asked.

  “Guitarchick32.”

  “What time is it?” he asked.

  “Time for us to get the fuck off this plane already,” I said while glancing at the standstill line of passengers waiting to disembark.

  “Time for me to a breakfast burrito or something,” he mumbled as he tried closing his eyes again.

  “It’s time for me to make a decision about my music career,” I added. “I need to meet up with Leah as soon as possible. She’ll probably be at the studio this morning. Maybe I’ll go while you sleep. I can take care of business before you’re awake, so we can go and have fun.”

  “No!” he whined. “I want to see where you work. Come on, let me sleep until like nine or ten, and then, we’ll go to the studio together.”

  “Deal,” I agreed. “Now, remember. I don’t live in a big, fancy house like you, so don’t judge the place too harshly.”

  “As long as your place has a really comfortable bed in it, it’ll be the greatest place in all of Memphis,” he said.

  Once we finally got off of the plane and were reunited with our checked luggage, we found a cab and rode straight to my apartment.

  I’d secretly been stressing about the idea of letting Darren into my apartment. I was incredibly self-conscious about it and was afraid that he’d somehow be turned off by my setup or my general living arrangement.

  Yet, after I unlocked the front door to my place and let him in, he indeed went straight to my bedroom to deposit our luggage and fall right into my bed and pass out.

  I watched him sleeping on my bed. It was something that I’d often imagined, but never believed I would see. I wanted to join him in bed and sleep beside him, but I knew that I wouldn’t be able to sleep.

  As tired as my body was, my mind was racing enough to keep me wired. I was on autopilot, unable to end my indecisiveness and start down a path. Leah had been getting contacted by many interested parties wondering about my prospects. I hadn’t even checked my email or social media pages since my dad’s funeral.

  I wanted to believe that if I asked the producers to hold off or if I told them no, maybe they would still offer something in the future. I’d found throughout the years that if you told someone no, they usually tried harder. The offer as it stood, along with my doubts, made me lean towards declining the offer.

  I also wanted to believe that if I did sign with them, and wasn’t satisfied with them or simply wanted a change, there would be no hard feelings and a separation wouldn’t mean the end of the world.

  I wanted to believe in a lot of things. One thing I knew for sure was that Darren Holt looked like an angel when he slept.

  I split the difference and woke him up at 9:30. He immediately smiled when he saw me. I waved.

  “Hey,” he said.

  “Good morning.”

  “We heading off to the studio?”

  “Don’t we need to eat breakfast first?” I said.

  “I guess so,” he said groggily. “I want to grab a shower before we head out, too.”

  “Then, you get a move on, mister,” I said slapping his chest.

  “Can’t,” he said smiling. “This bed is too fucking comfy.”

  “I’m glad you like it.” I giggled.

  “That was the best sleep I think I’ve had in years,” he said.

  “Ha!” I said. “You slept for like two hours!”

  “Your bed is really fucking comfortable,” he said. “I’ll be honest. I’m really looking forward to sleeping in it again.”

  “Oh, you think we’re sharing the bed tonight?”

  “Are we not?”

  We gave each other a funny look, neither of us breaking.

  “Go take a shower,” I said.

  On cue, he smirked and threw off his shirt, revealing his tanned, strong body. I wanted to bite his tattoos.

  “Where would clean towels be?” he asked.

  “They’re in the bathroom closet.”

  He got out of bed and marched into the bathroom, closing the door behind him.

  Instantly, I began to fantasize. I thought about opening the door, pulling back the shower curtain and getting in there with him. I wondered what it would be like. How long would we end up being in there?

  He turned the shower on an
d got in. While he was bathing, I finished putting on my outfit and applying my makeup. I wasn’t sure who all I’d be seeing that day, so I was going for smart casual.

  As I was finishing up, I started hearing Darren singing in the shower. He was quiet, but it was audible. He was singing Bobby Darin’s “Beyond the Sea,” and he sounded marvelous. Part of me wanted to sing with him, belting into the door for him to hear. I held my tongue and hummed along.

  He quickly got dressed and ready. We got into my car, and I drove us out of the parking garage.

  “You excited to see Memphis!?” I asked him.

  “Absolutely.”

  “We can’t see too much yet,” I said. “I need to have my meeting with Leah, and deal with a bunch of boring business crap.”

  “Sounds like fun.”

  “You wanted it, you got it.” I laughed. “You’ll get to see what I do, and you’ll probably fall asleep.”

  “Nah, I’m not sleeping again until I get back into that bed,” said Darren.

  We drove down part of the market district, where I was showing Darren some of the places around town that I liked. We had a light brunch together from a diner I’d never been to that served excellent eggs and fresh juice.

  I took us on a few scenic routes to the studio so that I could point out more of what Memphis had to offer. While I was explaining things to him, he was skimming through the car’s radio stations never staying on one for long.

  “What are you doing?” I asked him.

  “I’m trying to find a station that’s playing the new Bailey Wright song.”

  “Oh, stop it!” I said waving his hand away from the radio. “No, I hear my voice every day. I don’t need to hear it on the radio.”

  “Why not?” he asked. “I really like the song.”

  “I like it too,” I said. “I’ve sung it hundreds of times and want to go on tour and sing that song. So, I’m okay with a break from it every once in a while.”

  “Geez, sorry,” he said. “Would you listen to my song if it was on the radio?”

  “Honey, are you kidding?” I said. “I’d probably be your music producer if you were putting out songs on the radio. You know I’ll listen to your music.”