Marriage For One

He gave me a quick unimpressed look and turned his back to me. “That’s because it is a ridiculous word.”

When he wasn’t looking at me anymore, I took a deep breath and glanced up to the heavens, though I couldn’t actually see them. “Your suit is gonna get dirty,” I said for the last time. When those hard eyes met mine, I lifted my hands up. “Fine. Don’t say I didn’t warn you. Oh, wait!” Before he could give me a sarcastic answer, I rushed out of the alcove, all the while yelling over my shoulder, “Give me a second and I’ll wipe it down first.”

He didn’t say anything so I assumed he was waiting for me to come back. As soon as I had a wet dish towel, I hurried back only to see he already had the bookcase up and standing.

“It’s not a big thing, but I want you to meet some of the partners in my firm,” he started as I stepped aside with the towel in my hand and he started to push the bookcase toward its new home. “There is a dinner tomorrow with two of the partners and a potential client, nothing formal, just a simple meal. They know we got married and asked me to bring you with me. I know you’re working day and night to open this place so if you can’t spare the time, you don’t have to join us for this one. I’ll explain it to them.”

I put the towel down on one of the tables and pulled the two chairs and another table that were in his way to the side. “No, I’ll come.”

He stopped pushing and tilted his head to look at me from the other side of the bookcase. “Are you sure? Like I said, you don’t have to.”

“We made a business deal, right? And you keep helping me when you come here. I have to do something in return,” I answered as I gripped the other end of the bookcase and started helping him turn it around so we could push it the rest of the way with the back facing toward the wall. A dinner wasn’t such a bad thing as long as we didn’t freeze up and he didn’t go all cold on me in front of other people—which wasn’t my problem.

“Right,” he said in a clipped tone, and we both started pushing.

The only problem about going out to dinner with Jack and his partners was that I could only imagine what kind of restaurant partners at a high-profile law firm would go to, and unfortunately, I didn’t have anything nice enough to wear to a place like that. Every cent I had earned up till that day, I’d put aside for the dream coffee shop I would open in New York. Now that dream was actually coming true, and when you were working as hard as humanly possible to do that, other things usually suffered, like my fashion choices.

“So, I’ll come. Okay, stop. Just give me a sec and I’ll move the tables so we can push through.”

While I moved the table on the right, he took care of the one on the left. Then we pushed the chairs aside, opening up enough space for the big bookcase to go through.

“You want it to touch the wall? The dinner is at seven.”

“Yes, flush against the wall. I’ll be ready before that. Sally will drop by for a few hours tomorrow to help so it shouldn’t be a very long day like today was.”

With a small grunt from me, we started pushing again until it was in place. After putting the tables and chairs back where they’d originally been, we stopped.

I stepped all the way back to the archway so I could make sure it was centered on the wall. Jack followed and silently stood beside me.

“Thank you. That looks perfect right there.” I glanced at him and caught his small nod.

“Sally?” he asked, his eyes still assessing the bookcase.

“My employee, the second and last one. I hired her while you were in London. She’s been here a few times to talk about what we’re going to do here, and she officially starts on opening day.”

“Who is the first?”

“Oh, that would be Owen. We briefly worked together at a café before, that’s where I know him from. His pastries are amazing. He’ll be here part-time, come in around four-thirty in the morning and start on the baking before I join him. Sally will help me in the front.”

“What else needs to get done today?” he asked.

Even though the bookcase was perfectly placed, the two tables in front of it just didn’t look right where they were, I retraced my steps to move them so they’d be on the sides of the bookcase instead of in front of it.