Fake Marriage Box Set

Chapter Twenty-Six

Gretchen

I took my third day off from work to strictly pamper myself, spending most of the day lying out in the sun and reading a book. It was relaxing, but there was something hollow inside of me as I finished reading the last book and thought about things with Christian. It was enough to have me calling him up that night.

“Hey,” he said warmly when he answered the phone. “How's the solo day going?”

I sighed and shook my head. “To be honest, I miss you,” I said plaintively.

“Aw, baby,” he said. “What are you doing right now?”

“Curled up on the couch trying to watch some TV. Thinking about ordering a pizza or something for dinner, but not sure what I want.”

He laughed. “That sounds nice,” he said.

“What are you up to?” I asked.

I could almost hear his shrug over the phone. “Not much,” he admitted. “I went out with Mark and some of his friends, but they've all paired off, and I'm just sitting here now. It's kind of weird to go to a bar when you're not with someone, and you're not trying to take someone home.”

I laughed. “I can only imagine,” I said. Then, I blurted out, “Do you want to come over?”

“Are you sure?” Christian asked teasingly. “Or would that interrupt your personal day?”

“I've had enough of that by now,” I admitted. “I'd like to see you.”

“I'll be over in a minute,” he said.

In the end, we didn't have sex, but we did watch a couple of great movies and ate our way through most of a pizza. We passed out together on the couch, so I counted that as a success. At some point in the night, Christian must have woken up and moved us upstairs, because I woke up in my bed, with him spooning me. I shifted away from him and made a couple soft, sleepy noises.

“Good morning,” he said into the nape of my neck.

I hummed in response. “Thanks for coming over,” I said quietly.

“Thanks for having me over,” he retorted. “I needed this.”

I laughed. “We just saw one another the day before yesterday,” I reminded him. “And it's not like we had sex or anything like that last night.”

“No,” he agreed. “But, I can't stop thinking about the whole thing with Jeff,” he finally admitted. “I know I shouldn’t, but the guy clearly wasn't happy to see me. I should just let bygones be bygones.”

“He's your brother,” I reminded him quietly. “You can't just let bygones be bygones.”

He sighed. “I know.” He shook his head. “The thing is, I would never even be considering working things out with him if it weren't for you,” he admitted. “I feel like this is kind of silly, but I feel like I've honestly become a better person since I've known you, Gretchen. In so many ways. You were telling me the other day about how you think I'm a good person? I don't think I was, but maybe I'm starting to become one.”

“You can't just become a good person,” I said sagely. “You were always a good person, there underneath. Maybe you did some not-so-good things, but that doesn't mean that you were ever not a good person underneath.”

He sighed. “You have too much faith in me,” he told me.

“And you should make things right with your brother,” I said.

“I don't even know where he's staying,” Christian protested. “How am I supposed to find him? This island isn't exactly tiny.”

“In order to run into us the other day on the beach, he must be staying in one of the hotels near there,” I pointed out.

“Or at an Airbnb or something like that,” he reminded me.

“Start with the hotels, and if you can't find him, then we'll start broadening our search,” I said firmly. I sighed and rolled out of bed; no matter how comfortable it was, unfortunately, I couldn't stay there for the whole day. “I wish I could spend the whole day in bed with you, but I do have to get into work today, I've taken enough time off already.” Christian sighed, starting to get out of bed as well, but I put a hand on his shoulder. “I'm not kicking you out; you can stay as long as you want to.”

He fell back against the sheets, breathing in deeply. “You sure?” he asked, even as he pulled the blankets up around himself.