Fake Marriage Box Set

I pocketed the tickets and helped her up an escalator. Posters of exhibits surrounded us as we went up a floor, and she picked a few that she wanted to look at. I knew it was impossible to see them all within three hours, so I had her pick a few particular ones.

“We haven’t even talked about marriage yet,” I answered her question from earlier when she reminded me of it. I realized my mistake and corrected it. “I mean, we’ve talked about it in the sense that we know we both want to get married. And soon. But I think the kid talk might come a little later.” I would never tell her I wasn’t interested in children at all, it would have crushed her.

“Well I can just imagine how beautiful my grandchildren would be,” she said. “Hopefully they’d take after her.”

I tuned out the rest of the conversation while still giving her the answers that she wanted. She truly believed Maddie was the one for me. I supposed she was an incredible actress after all.

Chapter Sixteen

Maddie

I couldn’t believe how quickly he had kicked me out of his house. He had the right, I supposed, to be so angry. But a part of me hoped our night together might have softened him up. The irony wasn’t entirely lost on me.

I stopped by a fast food restaurant on the way home and ate a quick, greasy breakfast. I hadn’t gone grocery shopping in almost a week, and with Nancie’s absence, it was hard to cook for myself. We had a good routine set up; she shopped for groceries, and I cooked the food. Now, without her, I had no idea what I was doing.

Gavin’s money had arrived in my account at the perfect time, at least. I had asked Ron to move into his house in case Nancie ended up moving; there was no way I would have been able to afford the rent on my own. But now I wouldn’t have to worry about a thing.

I still messaged Martin every now and then asking if he had any more photoshoots. The last one had been a quick shoot, with barely 50 pictures taken. The money wasn’t bad for the length and work involved, and I wouldn’t have minded more like that. I was even given 100 umbrellas afterward, and they all sat in my closet waiting to be gifted to friends and family for Christmas.

The fast food breakfast rumbled in my stomach as I arrived home. The apartment was empty now that Nancie was in California. I hadn’t realized just how little I owned.

She left the TV, thankfully, and the couch for me. I didn’t need a dining table, which made the kitchen look just a tiny bit bigger.

I sat on the couch in my empty apartment with a blank screen on the TV and the windows shut. It couldn’t have been past 11 in the morning, and yet my world was dark and sad. Nancie had been my only friend, I realized, and without her, I didn’t have anyone to talk to.

I rummaged through my purse to call Nancie and found a folded-up wad of paper at the bottom. I took it out and pressed it flat against the couch.

Gavin’s name was sprawled on the top with marker, and the rest was the typed-out story that had given me nightmares as a little girl. I smiled; had he left this?

I read a little of it.

It was perfect and sad all at the same time, and I wondered if his father had been sick when he wrote it. A little boy lost in a haunted hospital, looking in every room but finding only nightmares instead of hope. Gavin had always had a way with words, and they flowed easily to create the story in my head. I thought I remembered most of it, but I realized I had forgotten about the owl that tries to help the child but only dies in the end.

So maybe Gavin had also been a troubled teenager.

I read the story twice over before setting it down on the kitchen counter. I sent him a quick message to thank him, and didn’t expect a reply. Instead of waiting on, I dialed Nancie’s number and returned to the couch.

“Please don’t tell me you’re sitting by yourself in an empty apartment,” Nancie said.

I laughed and laid my head into the cushions of the couch.

“I won’t tell you that,” I said. “But then I can’t tell you anything else.”

“Ugh, Maddie, you need to fix yourself and get out there! Live a little, and do some promoting while you’re at it,” she urged.

“How many new followers have you had?” I asked and realized I hadn’t even checked on my accounts. I needed to post that picture.

“Literally 10,000 a day since I’ve arrived here,” she gushed. “It’s amazing, Mad. You need to come here. It’ll change your life, I promise.”

“I know it will,” I said. “It’s that great though?”

“Well, I used to come here all the time when we both were in high school, so it’s not that different for me,” she said. I remembered her stories of spending summers in beach houses, with Jacuzzis full of other hot teenage boys and enough hormones to go around for all. “But it’s always hot. And I mean always hot. You could walk outside at nine in the morning in shorts and a tank top. And the beach is almost never more than 30 minutes away. Well, 45 with traffic. An hour with really bad traffic and the public transportation is pretty bad, to be honest. I’m going to have to buy a car soon. But the food! Maddie, the food is amazing. Everyone here cares about their health, and everything is fresh and delicious. You would love it.”

“I already do love it,” I said. “How’s your apartment?”

“Smaller than ours, if you can believe it,” she said. “And double the rent. Which means when you get out here, we’ll have to split the cost of a studio or a tiny one bedroom. Which I don’t mind; there’s always so much to do that you hardly spend any time inside anyways.”

A chorus of laughter and giggled erupted on the phone, and I realized that I could hear the cries of seagulls and the roar of the ocean in the background.