She closed her eyes and seriously thought for a moment. I began to panic that she would say no.
“Fine,” she said. “I promise to think about it.”
“Thank you,” I said, breathing a sigh of relief.
Harper and I worked at the restaurant for lunch, earning three hundred dollars altogether. It was a start. We had the choice of working The Bowery or heading toward The Hope House. We were sick of mooching off our friends so we opted for The Hope House. We sat outside the welcoming doors, not surprisingly the first ones there and settled on the sidewalk, leaning against the stone facade.
“How is this going to work?” She asked.
“Well, we sit here and around five o-clock when the line starts to swell to impossible numbers, we pray that no one tries to knock us from our choice spot.”
“Very funny,” she said. “I mean the marriage thing.”
“I’m not asking for a real marriage, Harper,” I said. Her eyes fell to her lap. “I propose an agreement.”
“Alright.” She brought her eyes to mine. “What are the terms?”
“We stay married until the end of the school year, then annul.”
“You can’t annul a marriage after a year, can you?”
“Okay, we divorce then but it’s not a real divorce, Harper because we wouldn’t actually be married. I mean technically we’d be married but we wouldn’t practice,” I said, clearing my throat at how uncomfortable the conversation had turned, “practice all the things married couples, you know, practice.”
“Got it out there, buddy?” She teased.
“Shut up,” I laughed, a red blush creeping up my neck and attacking my face. “God, this is embarrassing. Listen, I just want you to know that I wouldn’t try to take advantage of you. There would be an understanding between the two of us. We’d live together as roommates, just like before.”
“And if we, I don’t know, wanted to start dating other people?” She asked, averting her eyes.
Would she want that?
“Um, I don’t think that’s a good idea, Harper. It’s only for a year. Besides, I think we’ll both be distracted with school,” I offered, hoping she didn’t see my obvious attempt at making her stay single when I was around. I couldn’t stand the thought of another person liking her the way I did.
“That’s not an unreasonable request,” she said, shyly smiling back at me.
Oh my God. I think Harper is actually considering marrying me. My heart swelled in my chest and I felt an unbelievable amount of happiness roll over my entire body. Realization donned on me. I felt hot all of a sudden, unsure if I was fake-marrying her for the wrong reasons. Who was I kidding? I wanted to fake-marry Harper for the wrong reasons. Nothing alarming about that, old chap.
“Okay, let’s just get through this night,” Harper said, interrupting the alarming thoughts I cheerfully pretended didn’t exist.
“Alright, here, save my seat,” I said, standing up.
“Where are you going?” She asked.
I pulled the detective’s card from my back pocket and flashed it her way. “Just going to check.”
She nodded but I could tell by her tensed body language she was frightened.
“It’ll be alright, I promise.”
I walked to the payphone just across the street, still within view of Harper and stuck my quarters in before dialing the number on the card.
“Detective Mason,” he answered.
“Hi, Detective Mason, it’s Callum Tate. We just wanted to check on the status of John Bell’s case. Have they decided on the charges?”
He breathed hard into the phone. Not a good sign. “Yeah, the D.A. decided vehicular manslaughter fit best. Sorry, Callum, I know you were looking for more serious charges considering the circumstances. Erica’s family’s pretty upset too.”
“What about his threatening Harper?”