Marriage For One

For a second there, I thought I had felt his erection against my stomach when he grasped the back of my shirt and pulled me in closer. I had encountered them in the wild before. I wasn’t imagining that. I might have imagined—because of the damn dream—that he was really into the kiss as well, but I hadn’t conjured up that erection in my mind.

He was a great kisser; there was no arguing with that. He was just a little rough and completely consuming, just as I had imagined he would be, and I thought I had a completely different stance about PDA after the weekend. I didn’t think he’d fall for the ‘practice kiss’ again, so I was going to have to make the kissing in public thing…well, a thing for us—only to make our marriage more believable, not for myself or anything.

Then again, who was I kidding? Everything about Jack was starting to become too appealing for me. I was starting look forward to seeing his stony and sometimes aloof expression at the end of the day…every day. I chatted more than him, but he was talking, too, much more than he had in the beginning. I hardly did the ‘talking to myself as Jack’ thing anymore, and when I did, it was for the fun of seeing his troubled expression as if he was considering his life choices of ending up in a fake marriage with me. I wasn’t making fun of him or anything even remotely close to that. I just enjoyed the way he glowered at me a little too much.

It was the highlight of my day.

And that smile…gosh, he had finally smiled, and it had absolutely been worth the wait to see his face transform. You could fall in love with that face, with that smile, even if the package came with the frown and the prickly personality. I just couldn’t decide which expression I preferred more on him, because I thought you could easily fall for that stony, grumpy expression just as hard. Then again, the way I was feeling after that dream, my unexpected attraction to Jack had tripled overnight. Clearly I couldn’t be trusted to be around him until the effects wore off.

“What are you smiling at? That was a complete disaster,” Sally mumbled as she sidled up next to me, licking her fingers, presumably after snacking on sticky banana bread.

I stopped daydreaming about Jack and tried to focus on Sally. She wasn’t exactly pouting, but she was getting there.

“I didn’t realize you were interested in him,” I replied, ignoring her question.

She reached for a mint from a small bowl next to the cash register, unfolded the wrapper, and popped it in her mouth.

“I can see how it might be a little too late to ask after what you just witnessed, but do you have a rule against employees dating?”

Stacking the last turkey sandwich, I put the glass dome back in its place and turned to Sally, thinking about my answer for a moment. “I mean…you two are my only employees, obviously, so I’ve never even thought about it. You’re into him that much? I thought maybe you were just messing with him.”

“Why would I do that?”

“Because it’s fun to get him all riled up?”

Sometimes I thought it was fun to rile Jack up.

“Nope.” She shook her head and glanced toward the kitchen over my shoulder. “I mean, he is really attractive, don’t you think?”

I looked over my shoulder to try to see what she was seeing. Owen was rolling the dough, his biceps flexing. He actually was attractive when you took a long look at him, not in the sense that Jack was attractive, but in a more…different way. He looked more like a French guy without the romantic and charming part. His brown hair was curly and fell over his forehead, and you could see the edges of the tattoos on his strong arms curling under his shirt. He was skinnier than Jack but still lean. Jack felt stronger to me. When I looked at Owen, I didn’t feel like You know what, I think I would like to hug that. He was just…Owen, a friend. When I looked at Jack, I was very interested in hugging him and staying in his arms for as long as possible.

Sally waved her hand in front of my face. “Earth to Rose?”

I snapped out of my Jack haze.

“Sorry. I guess he is attractive.”

“And he has this intense air about him. It seems to be working for me. I don’t know, I wouldn’t say no to a date.”

“Well I think it looks like you’ll be the one asking in this case.”

I reached for the brownies and pushed them in front of the chocolate muffins, rearranging things so the sandwiches would be on the far left next to the register, tempting the customers.