Fake Marriage Box Set

I took a deep breath. I didn’t want to tell him. I knew he would feel terrible. Then I realized his fate was probably far worse.

“Oh no! Did she fire you?” I asked, suddenly feeling guilty. He had a lot more to lose than I did. Kind of.

He cleared his throat. “No.”

“Oh, thank God. So, are you suspended or what? What happened?”

“She sent me home for the day.”

I blinked. I must not have heard him correctly. “What?”

“I was sent home for the day, and she rescinded the offer for me to return next year,” he said in a low voice, laden with guilt.

I had to take a minute. My head was spinning out of control.

“You know, I need to go. I, uh, I have to finish washing the dishes,” I stammered. “I’ll talk to you later.

“Tessa, wait—”

I hung up. My eyes were burning, and I felt betrayed from every direction. My world had been turned upside down and inside out, and he was given the day off? I was sure it would be a paid day off, too. How backasswards was that? I lose everything, and he loses a day of teaching. A half day at that! So much for equality and all that other women’s lib crap.

It was bullshit and incited my anger even more. I needed to plot my revenge or at least my way back in. I had to graduate. I can’t imagine the past four years going up in flames over a few rounds of sex. I was filled with anger to the point I couldn’t sit still. I turned on the speaker, pulled up my angry playlist, and cranked it as high as it would go. I grabbed the cleaning supplies, dropped to my knees, and scrubbed the kitchen floor with a small brush.

By the time I was finished, I felt a little more relaxed but still pissed as hell. The old tile floor had never looked better. I could eat off of it—or? Despite everything, I was still thinking of where to have sex with Ian next. We’d always been at his house. Now that I wasn’t a student, we could fuck anywhere and everywhere.

Wow. Where did that come from?

He obviously had me under a spell. That was the only explanation.

The scrubbing had been cathartic, but now I needed to put away the rubber gloves and figure out my next move. I yanked open the freezer and nearly jumped for joy when I found a pint of Ben and Jerry’s Rocky Road. Apparently, there was a God, and he had abandoned me, but at least the ice cream fairy hadn’t let me down.

Maria was calling my phone. I didn’t want to answer. I was feeling humiliated. She obviously knew by now what had happened.

“Hello,” I finally picked up the phone.

“Oh. My. God. You have got to be shitting me!” she yelled. “Why didn’t you call me?”

I blinked back tears. Hearing her confirm what my brain had been trying to push away and deny made it all too real.

“Sorry,” I mumbled around a mouthful of ice cream.

“Bullshit. Are you home?”

“Yes.”

“Have you talked to Ian?” she asked.

“Kind of,” I said, trying to fight down the anger that was bubbling to the surface.

“Did he get fired? Jake said he didn’t, but that doesn’t make sense. Are you sure you’re actually expelled?”

Since I hadn’t told her I was, I knew the information had come from Ian to Jake. Everyone was going to know.

“No, he didn’t get fired. He was told to take the day off,” I said, sarcasm dripping from every word.

I heard a small scream followed by a string of curse words that would have made a trucker blush.

“We are going to scheme and plot and come up with a way to make that bitch pay,” she said in a menacing voice.