Marriage of Unconvenience

“Right,” she said, looking down at the splatters of white all over the floor and all over both of us.

“I’ll... get something.” I couldn’t even form a full sentence without a huge pause to figure out what words were supposed to come next. I needed to do something, so I found some paper towels and cleaner and went back into the living room. Cara was picking up her toothbrush from the floor slowly. I went to work on the floor and she went back to the bathroom and I heard the sink turn on.

What the fuck was I doing? I had kissed her. What the hell? I was going to blame it on money euphoria. She’d kissed me during the wedding, so it wasn’t like I was the only one doing any kissing. The toothpaste burned my lips and I wiped it off as best I could.

Cara was in the bathroom for a long time, and when she came out, I didn’t know what to say, so I didn’t say anything and she asked me if we could put in the order for the new furniture, so I said yes and that was that.

Money made you do all kinds of strange things. Like kiss your fake wife. I hoped it didn’t change me too much. I wasn’t going to let it. And I wasn’t going to let myself kiss Cara again. Definitely not.

Fortunately, I got an email that distracted me (a little bit) from the spontaneous kiss.

“I got the job!” I screamed, and Cara dashed out of her bedroom in a new outfit.

“The one at the MFA?” she asked. I nodded and she hugged me again, but she let me go quickly, and stepped away, folding her hands behind her back.

“This calls for... something. Something special.” We’d been celebrating so much lately that I didn’t know if I could handle much more.

“Can we just order sushi and watch that new episode of the baking show in our pajamas?” I asked. That sounded perfectly celebratory to me.

Cara laughed and I hoped we’d put the kiss thing behind us and never mention it again.

“Yeah, we can do that. Solid plan.”

This was going to be the best fucking sushi of my whole life.

Seventeen

My parents were ecstatic that I had the money finally, and encouraged me to use it and be practical, but also to buy myself something nice.

“I’m getting Cara this purse she’s wanted for ages.” I was literally on my laptop ordering it while I was talking to them.

“But get something for yourself, Loren. Something frivolous and fun,” my mom said. “You deserve to have fun after working so hard for so long.” I promised her that I would find something like that to spend a little of the money on. They also recommended that I find someone who could help me invest a little of the money, for tax purposes, and also for the future. I guess I was going to find out what the fuck an IRA was at last.

I asked Cara to give me a ballpark of how much money she would need, and she gave it to me exactly, right down to the cents. I glanced at the number and then added a bunch to it before I transferred the amount to her bank account.

She got the notification of a deposit on her phone and her mouth dropped open.

“Loren. What did you do?”

“I gave you more money. For books and incidentals and shit. You’re going to need fancy clothes for your fancy school. And like, scrubs and so forth. I don’t know anything about grad school, obviously. I just know you need a lot of money for a lot of stuff.”

Cara shook her head.

“I’m transferring the extra right back,” she said, but I was quick and snatched the phone out of her hand.

“I don’t think so.” I held the phone out of reach.

“Lo, you can’t let me have that much money. I’ll never pay you back.” I shrugged, still holding the phone out of reach.

“So? I didn’t want you to pay me back in the first place. That was your idea. I’m happy to give you most of it. I probably should have given you more.” She shook her head and sighed. I hoped that was a sigh of defeat. She could transfer the money back, but I would just put it in her account again. I wasn’t going to let this go.

“I’m stubborn as fuck, Care. You know you can’t win.” I smirked and she held her hand out for the phone.

“I really shouldn’t let you do this,” she said.

“But you’re going to because I’m so cute and persuasive.” She rolled her eyes to the ceiling.