by G. Benson
“Samantha.” George’s voice turned pleading, and Sam, about to walk out, paused. She looked down at him, her face blank. “Darling, your mother and I, we can help you.”
Sam shook her head. “This is something you can’t seem to grasp. I don’t need any help. Unless you and Mom can accept Jon and I for who we are, you’ll leave us all alone.”
Sam walked away, their hands still linked. As they reached the entrance, Hayden looked back one more time at George. His jaw was so clenched, she could see it from the doorway. His gaze caught hers.
“Great seeing you again, George.” Hayden beamed at him.
Sam didn’t falter, and when they stepped outside, the air was cold and frigid, but Sam’s hand was warm in her own. Snow was falling, the flakes tiny and barely there, and their hands fell away from each other as they tugged on their coats and scarves, then slipped back together again immediately. Hayden’s cheeks felt overheated, and all she wanted to do was have Sam closer.
A block away, she stopped and made that happen, pulling on Sam’s hand so that she turned, and they stood, hands between them, watching the snowfall. Sam’s eyes weren’t glistening. No angry red slashed her cheeks. Rather, she gave Hayden a tentative smile.
“You okay?” Hayden asked anyway. Her hands were trembling, and George hadn’t even been her family.
Sam stepped closer. “I am. I’ve been making my peace with this for a very long time.” Sam brushed her lips over Hayden’s, just once. “I have Jon. And you. I’m much more than okay.”
With fragile bits of snow falling between them, Hayden gripped Sam’s coat and kissed her, soft and slow. And Samantha Thomson, whom Hayden had written off as rude and cold, cupped Hayden’s cheeks with gentle fingers and kissed her back: leisurely, sweetly, with no need to rush. Hayden could really get used to this.
Ironic, really, that a sham marriage done for money had led to this, something that left Hayden breathless and—who’d have thought—seemed to have left Sam the same way.
Turns out this year was the weirdest of her life.
In all the best of ways.
EPILOGUE
A no-fault divorce was the best thing ever invented—it was fast and easy, almost too much so.
Once they decided to get divorced, the process began with barely any effort. They weren’t even required to appear in court for the hearing. The only thing they had to do was to file the paperwork together.
Although she had apparently gotten to like small amounts of PDA more, Sam was still much better at not appearing smitten than Hayden. At the notary, Hayden had to avoid looking at Sam too much in front of the stern-looking woman who witnessed them signing. With a pen in one hand, Sam’s knuckles grazed hers, and Hayden had to resist the urge to trace her fingers over the back of Sam’s hand.
They submitted everything to Sam’s attorney to put together the official paperwork on a day when Sam had to rush back to work, and Hayden to the continuing education day she was supposed to be attending. Even as petitioning for the divorce got closer, that hyperinflated feeling in Hayden’s chest that had been there for months whenever she thought about Sam remained.
Sam left her buoyant.
One evening, Sam walked in with a rattle of keys, and Hayden startled up and half-off the sofa. Frank slipped off her chest and fell onto her lap with a mostly good-natured growl.
Sam stood in the kitchen, flicking through letters. “Were you asleep with your cat at seven in the evening?”
Hayden cleared her throat, peering around the room. It had been bright as day when she’d lain down with the idea of watching a movie. But the light had clearly shifted; it was dark outside. “Uh, no.”
Sam didn’t even look up from the mail in her hand. “You’re a terrible liar.”
“This is not new information.”
But Sam had stopped listening to her, focused on something in her hand.
“Sam?”
She dropped all but one of the letters in her hand on the counter and walked over, dropping onto the sofa and throwing a leg over Hayden’s lap. Hayden tugged her leg closer and lazed back against the sofa.
Sam held the letter out, and Hayden almost went cross-eyed to stare at it. “What’s that?”
“Open it.”
Hayden’s brain felt filled with cotton wool. Night shift had only ended the day before, and she was still coming back to the real world. That morning, she’d poured juice into her coffee instead of milk. “Okay.”
The letter was heavy. It was more of a packet. Sam propped her head on her hand and watched Hayden, something soft in her eyes.
“What?” Hayden asked.
“You look so sleepy.” Sam brushed hair off Hayden’s face, tucking it behind her ear. Her fingers trailed down Hayden’s neck.
“I really am.”
“Want me to cook tonight?”
“That would be amazing.”
“Would you like carbonara?”
“That would be even more amazing.”
“Done.” Sam nodded. “Now, open it.”
Hayden flipped it over and obeyed, pulling out the stack of paper—a summons and an index number for their court date.
“Is this—?”
“It is.”
“This is the paperwork, ready to file?” Hayden was grinning.
“It is.”
Hayden gave an incredulous laugh and dropped the letter, hooking her finger into Sam’s shirt and tugging her in to kiss her. “Do you think everyone reacts like this to impending divorce?”
“Probably not.” Sam was pushing her back on the sofa, and Hayden let herself go willingly, their legs falling together. Sam’s lips grazed her neck, making Hayden arch into her. “We could file it all tomorrow, if you like?” Sam offered.
“We can. And when we get the certificate, we could have it framed,” Hayden suggested as Sam’s teeth bit teasingly at her neck and Hayden’s fingers grazed over Sam’s back in response. “We could hang it over the bed.” Sam’s lips rested against the swell of Hayden’s breast. “We should have lunch to celebrate once we get it,” Hayden declared.
“Hayden?” Sam murmured.
“Mm?”
“Stop talking.”
“Or what—you’ll divorce me?”
But her witty riposte came out with a wavering delivery. Sam had slipped her hand up her shirt.
Hayden found herself happily wordless.
~ ~ ~
“This courthouse is a maze.”
“It really is,” Sam answered.
When they finally found the right place to file the paperwork, they stood in a line that absolutely crawled.
“You excited?” Sam murmured.
Hayden turned to look at her. “Is that a weird question about a divorce?”
“Most likely. But are you?”
Nodding, Hayden let their hands brush. “I am. Not that anything really has to change.”
Sam was watching someone sitting in a chair in the corner who was flicking through a pile of paper with angry mutters. She hummed. “I suppose that’s true.”
And it kind of was. True.
Hayden clutched the documents closer and stared at the back of the man in front of her as he stepped up to the booth.
This was the final step. File the divorce papers, wait for the hearing date, and bam. They would be divorced once it was processed.
“Hayden?”
Snapping back to reality, Hayden focused. The man in front of them had gone, and Sam had stepped up to the booth. The woman behind it eyed her tiredly.
“It’s our turn,” Sam said.
“Right.” Clutching the documents to her chest, Hayden stepped forward.
Sam twitched an eyebrow at her and turned back to the woman. “We wish to file our divorce package.”
The woman cracked her gum. “Slide the papers under the window, please.”
Hayden looked down at the yellow packet. She put it on the desk but didn’t push it forward.
“What i
f we didn’t?” she blurted out.
Sam blinked at her. As did the woman behind the glass.
“Excuse me?” Sam asked.
“What if, uh,” Hayden swallowed. “What if we didn’t get divorced?”
Sam had paled, and Hayden knew the pattern of every freckle that stood out on her skin. She knew a lot, now. She’d learned that Sam liked to go slowly in the morning, no matter how put together she looked when she was finally awake. She knew that Sam stuck up for her brother, and now for Hayden, before she defended herself. She knew that Sam liked chocolate but thought white chocolate was an abomination. She knew Sam didn’t like being interrupted when she was working. She knew Sam preferred a real book to an e-reader.
She knew they were married; the entire world knew they were. And they acted like it too.
“You don’t want to get a divorce?” Sam asked, and Hayden didn’t remove her hand from the papers, as if scared the woman would yank them away and process them. “But—this is what you wanted, Hayden.”
“Maybe—maybe it’s not.”
Sam turned to the woman, whose tired look had faded and was now chewing her gum rapidly, gaze fixed. “One moment.”
She actually looked disappointed as Sam tugged Hayden out of the room and back through the maze of corridors until they were standing on the steps of the courthouse. Weak sunshine spilled around them as Sam faced her. Hayden tucked the papers into her bag.
“You don’t want to get divorced?”
Hayden opened her mouth, then closed it. She shrugged. “Apparently?”
“Apparently? What does that even mean?”
Hayden swallowed. “It’s just, why bother? I mean, we’re happy, and together, and everyone thinks we’re married anyway. Why not—why not just stay married?”
“But you don’t believe in marriage.”
Hayden shrugged again, hand rubbing at the back of her neck, wondering why this discussion made her so nervous. “I know. And, well, if we’d started dating and gotten together the usual way, maybe I never would have wanted to. But we are married now, and well, it’s been working out pretty well so far?”
Sam was staring at her as if she’d never met her. “So we…wouldn’t divorce?”
“Not if you don’t want to.”
“Well…” Sam looked lost in thought.
“You’re thinking about it?” Hayden’s tone rose with incredulity. “I’m asking you to stay married to me, and standing here like an idiot because I love you, and you’re just gonna—”
“You love me?”
Shit.
Hayden winced. “Yeah?”
Sam looked stunned. “You’ve never said that to me before.”
Hayden felt herself mirroring Sam’s expression. “I guess I haven’t. But I, uh, I do.”
Was that a smile? “You love me and want to stay married?”
“Yeah?”
Sam stepped right into her space, on the steps of the courthouse, with her hands cupping Hayden’s cheeks, her lips curved up still, even as she kissed her.
It was like their first kiss, a laughing one. Except this one was incredulous because she was just so damn happy and not because she had no idea what she was doing. This was one Hayden wouldn’t forget as long as she lived. The day Hayden had accidentally blurted out that she wanted to stay married and she loved Sam.
Who hadn’t said it back, come to think of it. Hayden pulled away, and before she could even say anything about it, Sam rolled her eyes at her.
“I love you too, of course.”
It was the most utterly unromantic declaration of love Hayden had ever heard of.
Or maybe it was entirely romantic.
Whatever it was, Hayden wouldn’t change it for anything.
“You do?” Hayden asked.
“Yes.”
“I thought we weren’t meeting you here for another twenty minutes?”
Both of them jumped and turned to see Luce and Clemmie. Sam and Hayden stepped back from each other but stayed touching.
“Hi,” Hayden said weakly.
Clemmie and Luce looked at each other, then back at the two of them, clearly confused.
“You do remember messaging me and telling us to meet you, don’t you?”
Right. Sam had suggested last night that, since Hayden hated lies so much, why not come clean to Luce, now that it wasn’t so important? After kissing Sam and doing some things that had distracted both of them for a few hours, Hayden had messaged Luce to meet them for lunch.
And, with everything, she had promptly forgotten.
Hayden still felt a little high from Sam’s sweeping kiss.
“Uh, yeah. I suppose we did.” Hayden chewed the inside of her cheek, looking to Sam. This had not been the plan. “Why are you two early?”
“Why is that even important?” Luce was eyeing her down, suspicion in their eyes. “You’ve been so mysterious. What the hell is going on?”
“You two look seriously high right now,” Clemmie said.
Hayden caught Sam’s eye. Should they tell them? They’d meant to come clean at lunch about everything and their new divorce, and the start of their “newly dating” status. Now they weren’t getting divorced?
Sam seemed to pick up what Hayden was saying with the widening of her eyes and gave the smallest, one-shouldered shrug, as if to say “why not?”
Hayden looked back to the two of them. “So, lunch? We have some celebrating to do.”
She stepped forward and dropped her arm over Luce’s shoulder, and they fell into step.
“We do?” Luce asked.
“Sam and I have a really funny story for you. One that has to stay between us four.”
Luce’s head whipped around.
“Hayden, what did you do?”
###
ABOUT G BENSON
Benson spent her childhood wrapped up in any book she could get her hands on and—as her mother likes to tell people at parties—even found a way to read in the shower. Moving on from writing bad poetry (thankfully) she started to write stories. About anything and everything. Tearing her from her laptop is a fairly difficult feat, though if you come bearing coffee you have a good chance.
When not writing or reading, she’s got her butt firmly on a train or plane to see the big wide world. Originally from Australia, she currently lives in Spain, speaking terrible Spanish and going on as many trips to new places as she can, budget permitting. This means she mostly walks around the city she lives in.
CONNECT WITH G BENSON
Website: www.g-benson.com
E-Mail: [email protected]
OTHER BOOKS FROM YLVA PUBLISHING
www.ylva-publishing.com
FLINGING IT
G Benson
ISBN: 978-3-95533-683-7 (mobi), 978-3-95533-684-4 (epub)
Length: 113,000 words (376 pages)
Frazer, head midwife at a hospital in Perth, Australia, is trying to make her corner of the world a little better by starting up a programme for at-risk parents. Not everyone is excited about her ideas. Surrounded by red tape, she finally has to team up with Cora, a social worker who is married to Frazer’s boss.
Cora is starting to think her marriage is beyond saving, even if she wants to. Feeling smothered by a domineering spouse, she grabs hold of the programme and the distraction Frazer offers with both hands. Soon the two women get a little too close and find themselves in a situation they never dreamed themselves capable of: an affair.
As the two fall deeper, both are torn between their taboo romance and their morals. But walking away from each other may not be as simple as they thought.
Midwife Frazer and social worker Cora have always grated on each other’s nerves, but they have to work together to start up a programme for at-risk parents. Soon, the unexpected happens: they tumble into an affair. However, Cora is married to their boss, and both know it needs to end. But what they have might turn out to be much more than just a little distraction.
YOU’RE FI
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Shaya Crabtree
ISBN: 978-3-95533-755-1 (mobi), 978-3-95533-756-8 (epub)
Length: 61,000 words (193 pages)
When poor college student Rose Walsh gives out an inappropriate gag gift at her office Christmas party, it backfires horribly. The gift’s recipient is her boss, the esteemed president of Gio Corp., Vivian Tracey, and the only thing that can save Rose now is her smarts.
Instead of firing her, Vivian blackmails math major Rose into joining her on a business trip to New York to investigate an embezzlement. A week out of state with a woman she can barely stand seems like the last thing Rose wants to do with her winter vacation. Only, maybe Vivian is not as bad as she seems. Maybe they can even become friends...or more.
COMING FROM YLVA PUBLISHING
www.ylva-publishing.com
FALLING INTO PLACE
Sheryn Munir
Romance is not for Tara. Embittered after a college fling, she vows to never fall in love again–especially since she believes there’s no future for same-sex love in her home in urban India. Then, one rain-drenched evening, an insane decision brings the bubbly Sameen into her life and everything changes. Sameen is beautiful, a breath of fresh air…and almost certainly straight. All Tara’s carefully built-up defences start to crumble, one after the other. But is this relationship doomed before it can even start?
THE BRUTAL TRUTH
Lee Winter
Australian crime reporter Maddie Grey is out of her depth in New York, miserable, and secretly drawn to her powerful, twice-married, media mogul boss, Elena Bartell, who eats failing newspapers for breakfast. As work takes them to Australia, Maddie is goaded into a brief, seemingly harmless bet with her enigmatic boss—where they have to tell the complete truth to each other. It backfires catastrophically. A lesbian romance about the lies we tell ourselves.
Who’d Have Thought
© 2017 by G Benson
ISBN (mobi): 978-3-95533-875-6
ISBN (epub): 979-3-95533-876-3
Also available as paperback.
