Marriage For One

I drained the rest of my coffee.

“Okay. Showoffs…basically PDA—this is what I meant. I don’t like being all extra. Also, I don’t see you as a PDA person,” she mumbled. “Space-giving couple—I guess we’re like that? Why are they married couple…we can’t be this. That is not me. Even if this is fake, I don’t want to be like that. If we’re playing a part, let’s do it right.”

“That would be my parents.”

Her head lifted again. “Really?”

I nodded.

“Yikes. Okay, what else…what else…honeymoon couple. Dammit, we just fought, so that doesn’t work for us. Next, whining couple—nope. Always together couple…I mean…” She looked at me under her lashes, but neither one of us made a comment. “The rest is crap.” She put her phone down. “Anything specific you want to be?”

“Let’s stick with doing whatever needs to be done at the moment.”

“That’s leaving it very open to interpretation.”

I ran my hand over my face. “How about just being ourselves and acting natural?”

“You’re loads of fun. Being ourselves individually isn’t the problem. How to be ourselves as a couple—that’s the hard thing.”

“What? Do you want to practice playing pretend?” She looked at me weirdly but didn’t respond. I changed tactics, because playing pretend wouldn’t be a good idea at all. Not with how things were going. This was fake and temporary. Period. “Am I allowed to ask about your relationship with your ex-fiancé? What kind of a couple were you? Why did you break up?”

She looked taken back but at least responded. “Where did that come from?”

“I’m curious.”

“You’re never curious.”

“Today, it seems I am.”

Looking all kinds of uncomfortable, she sighed. “We weren’t a specific type of couple, I guess. We did our own thing. Sometimes he was into PDA even when I wasn’t and it would bug me off, but other than that it was an easy relationship. Looking back at it now maybe it was too easy. And we just… God, I hate this. I was shocked when he ended things. Came out of nowhere, he dumped me in a text. I couldn’t believe I was so wrong about him. Couldn’t believe he didn’t want to marry me anymore. Called him for days, trying to get in touch. Never heard back. Went to his apartment and his neighbor said he’d moved out. Just like that, he just disappeared.” She lifted a shoulder and then let it drop down.

“I lost it there for a few days. Then sadness gave way to anger. I gave myself permission to cry and curse him for a week, but anyone who breaks up with me via text is not worth crying for. I stopped crying on day four. I don’t have the luxury of pining after someone who doesn’t want me. He had this way of making me feel less than without me realizing he was doing it. It was weird. I definitely thought he was the one for me, up until he broke up with me, but when he wasn’t around anymore, the rose-colored glasses came off pretty quickly. He was really good at getting me to say yes to everything even when I didn’t want to. Everyone loved him, especially Gary.”

“I thought you didn’t see Gary much.”

“I didn’t, but Joshua really wanted to meet him so I kinda had to… He knew exactly what to say to get you to like him, and as for being my fiancé…he did ask me to marry him, but he didn’t give me a ring or anything like that, so now that I’m thinking about it, maybe he never meant to go through with it anyway? Who knows.”

“What about now? Do you feel something for him now?”

She frowned. “Of course not. Sometimes all you need is a little time away to look at things with a new perspective. Joshua and I seemed like a great idea on paper, but in reality I don’t think we would’ve worked in the long run. There wasn’t much of a spark to keep it going, I think. I’m not sad it’s over. Anyway…Jack, why did you say you came here again?”

I let the Joshua topic go.

This was fake. This was temporary.

“I wanted to see if you needed anything. And to see if you were okay.”

“That’s…really sweet of you, Jack.”

Before I could say something, the door behind me opened, cold air rushing inside as the bell rang, a soft welcoming chime for the new customers.

I looked over my shoulder to see four women still admiring the flowers as Rose got to her feet. The smile I was getting too familiar with was already plastered on her lips and it was not just for me anymore.

“I’ll be right back.” Her mind was obviously focused on the newcomers as they slowly walked forward, their curious eyes taking everything in.

She turned toward the group of customers.

“Welcome,” Rose said when the chatty women were finally near her. My eyes dropped to her lips as her smile widened when the women smiled back and said hello.