Marriage of Unconvenience
My parents called pretty frequently to check up on us and see how we were doing. They’d cleaned up the barn, returned the rented tables, and Dad had coiled all the twinkle lights back up and stored them in the attic. I had no idea what else they were going to use them for, but I had the sneaking suspicion that Christmas was going to be especially lit this year. I couldn’t even think that far forward. All I could think about was getting to the money, and I’d deal with everything else that came after that. I would breathe free when my bills were paid, my car was fixed, and Cara’s check to pay for school had cleared. Life was going to be a cakewalk after that. Soon. We would be there so soon.
“KISS FOR LUCK,” CARA said as we stared at the envelope that had all the documents required to disburse the inheritance money. I kissed it, and then she kissed it and we headed into the post office to mail it.
“We definitely need to celebrate this one,” Cara said. “I’ll treat you to lunch.”
I couldn’t stop shaking with the stress of mailing that damn thing. Those papers were going to haunt me in my sleep. Not to mention the fact that I had my interview in a little while at the Museum of Fine Arts and I was nervous about that as well. I’d been through plenty of interviews, but this one I really wanted to nail because I thought this job wouldn’t totally suck ass.
“I’m too nervous to eat,” I said, shaking my head. “But I’ll come with you if you want to get something.”
“No, that’s okay. Would you be up for getting a green juice or something?” I could handle liquids, so I agreed and we headed for the nearest fresh juice bar. We didn’t have to walk too far, which was nice.
“Do you want me to come with you to your interview? I know I won’t come in with you or anything because that would be weird, but I could at least drop you off and then wait for you. Maybe even browse a little.”
I shook my head.
“That would be weird. Like, here I am with someone else because I’m not enough of a big girl to do this on my own.” Cara sipped her mango and strawberry smoothie.
“I could pretend I don’t even know you and just happened to walk into the museum at the same time. And then we can meet back up in the lobby. No one will know.” The idea of knowing that Cara was waiting for me to get out of my interview did have its appeal.
“Okay, fine. But you really have to pretend that you don’t know me.”
“I’ve got this.”
IN BETWEEN WAITING to hear about how the interview went, and refreshing my bank account details, I was a ball of stress for the next two days.
“We’ve got money!” I screamed as my bank account suddenly had more money in it than I knew what to do with. Cara ran into the living room, her toothbrush still in her mouth and toothpaste dripping down her chin.
“Seriously?” she said, spitting toothpaste everywhere. I couldn’t give less of a fuck.
“Yes! It’s finally here!” I jumped up from the couch and Cara threw her toothbrush on the floor and we screamed and jumped up and down and hugged each other and got coated in minty toothpaste.
She started crying and then I started crying as we just swayed and held each other.
“It’s all happening, Care. It’s all for you,” I whispered. “I’d do anything for you.”
I looked down into her sparkling eyes and it was like looking at her during our wedding all over again. She had that same gleam of happiness shining out of her so bright, she was luminous.
“I’d do anything for you, Loren,” she said in a voice that was barely a whisper. One minute I was staring at her, and the next, I was kissing her minty mouth. The contact only lasted about half a second, because I pulled away so fast I almost fell over, but it was still a kiss.
“Sorry,” I said, wiping my mouth with my hand. “I don’t...” I let the sentence trail off and drop. I didn’t know how to finish it.
“It’s okay,” she said in that faraway voice.
“We should probably, um, clean up?” I made it sound like a question. My brain wasn’t exactly firing properly right now. It was doing its best, but everything was shaken up and scrambled.