Marriage of Unconvenience

That would have to be enough.

“I missed you. I know it’s only been like, a few hours, but I did miss you,” I said, holding my arms out. She scooted over and hugged me, but let go quickly.

“I missed you. Even though we were under the same roof, it was like you were a million miles away. I didn’t like that feeling at all, and I’d rather not go through it again. Ever.”

“Same,” I said. The ice had been broken, and we fell right back into how we’d always been, and I breathed a sigh of relief. I could deal with this. I could wait until she was ready. I could do the right thing for her.

ANSEL APPARENTLY HAD a great date because he would not shut up about the girl he’d met.

“She’s just... so...” he sputtered and threw his hands up in the air.

“Wow, speechless Ansel. That’s something I thought I would never see,” I said. He and I were doing a friend date because he’d gotten out of work early.

“Honestly, I have never felt this way about someone. I’m trying not to get ahead of myself. I can’t let my heart get broken. It’s so fragile.” He rubbed the left side of his chest over his heart.

“Poor Ansel,” I said, rubbing his shoulder. He pouted. “But maybe it will work out. You never know.”

“I mean, I’m convinced that everything good in my life will blow up in my face, so I’m going to try to think that way. Or at least hope that this won’t be as bad as my last breakup.” He didn’t talk much about his ex, I didn’t know her name, only that she’d wrecked him and had stomped on the pieces as she left.

“If things go well, I want to meet her. You know, give the stamp of approval. Plus, if she’s as great as you say, I want to be friends with her.”

“Maybe. We’ll see.” I had a good feeling about this girl. Firstly, she had a career as a mortician, did roller derby on the weekends, and spoke four languages and was learning two more. Seriously, who wouldn’t want be friends with her? Hell, if she was into girls, I would want to date her. Sadly, she was not.

“And what about you? What are you going to do about dating now?” I started laughing because that was so far from my mind right now.

“I can’t really date when I’m married to someone. I mean, I’m not polyamorous, and it would just be weird. Like ‘oh, sorry, my best friend slash fake wife is calling, got to go’ on a date.” That sounded painfully awkward. No thank you.

“What about Cara? Is she also doing the no dating thing?” I had no idea. She hadn’t talked about guys in a while, and hadn’t dated one in at least a year. All her boyfriends had been short-lived, except for one she’d had our freshman year of college who had been pretty serious, but it turned out he had not only one other girlfriend, but two on the side, and Cara wasn’t cool with that when he’d said they were exclusive. What a dick.

“I haven’t asked,” I said. The very idea of Cara dating made me want to throw up. Of course I wanted her to be happy and be with someone who treated her the way she should be treated, but I had a lot of doubt about any guys being good enough for her. There probably weren’t any that were good enough, and I was never going to change my mind. Still, if she found one that she fell in love with, I’d do my best to be supportive.

“Huh,” he said.

“What does that mean?” I asked. He finished his drink and set down the empty glass, crunching on an ice cube.

“Nothing. Just making sounds with my mouth.” I squinted at him in suspicion.

“Something you want to share with me, Ansel?” He shook his head and fished out another ice cube.

“No, Lo. Hey, can I ask you a question?” He was definitely trying to distract me and I went ahead and let him because I knew that if I tried to get whatever it was out of him, he’d snap shut like a clam shell and would refuse to talk. I’d been there before, and it wasn’t fun.

His question ended up being about whether it was too early to get his new lady friend flowers, so we talked about dating and what a minefield it was. You never really knew what to do, and you always felt like you were doing it wrong, or you weren’t doing it right.