“You look like you were just crying tears of joy.”
“That magazine cover will stay with me until the day I die. It’ll be everywhere. I can’t go outside looking like this!”
“Here, babydoll,” a woman says to me. “Take a seat, and I’ll fix you up.”
I look over to see an aged woman who could be a former beauty queen. She looks good, the lines on her face giving her character.
Without another option, I take a seat and mutter, “Thank you.”
I have to hand it to the woman; in five minutes, she has all evidence of my misery erased from my face, in ten, she has me looking fresh with natural tones and my hair elegantly set.
“Perfect,” she says.
Roderick’s security guard approaches me. “Hiya, the name’s Eggo. It’s going to be an intense walk out to the vehicle. Whatever you do, don’t touch anyone. Don’t take their hands. If they try to give you a flower, or anything else, don’t accept it. This isn’t a vetted crowd, and we have no idea what their intentions might be.”
“Intentions?”
“It’ll be fine,” Roderick says with a smile, “and in a week or so, you’ll be used to it.”
I try to process what he just said, and then it dawns on me: my life is never going to go back to normal.
People will always associate me with being Roderick’s first wife, even if we only stay married a month. Who knows how this will affect my job, my friends, my future relationships.
What was I thinking?
Roderick offers up his elbow to me, but when he sees me shaking, he puts a hand on the small of my back, leans in, and whispers, “You’re absolutely stunning. There’s nothing to be worried about.”
“No, you don’t get it. Being married to you is going to change everything. I don’t know if I can take it.”
He looks at me sympathetically. “It doesn’t have to be bad.”
Part of me wants to run away. To hide, so no one can see me, and file for divorce. Or annul whatever it is we’ve just done.
I go to grab a tissue from my purse and pull out my phone, which is vibrating with a text from Derek.
Derek:I don’t know what came over me today. I’m sorry for hurting you. I’ve always felt something for Stacey, and when I realized that by marrying you, I’d never get to explore it, I think I went a little insane. I regret what I did. I regret Stacey. We aren’t filling out a marriage license. Please call me when you get this.
I blink, nearly dropping my phone from shock.
“May I see?” Roderick says, and I hand the phone to him.
“What a piece of work,” Roderick mutters.
“I loved him so much…”
Roderick hands me back my phone. “If you want, I can get you to him now.”
I snicker. “You know, if he had confessed to me that on a whim he had slept with her the night before, I would have forgiven him. It wouldn’t have been easy, but I would have wanted to. Now, I have no desire to forgive. If anything, I no longer care. It’s like a light switch has been turned off inside me, but instead of it turning off the light, it turned off my feelings for him.”
“So, what is it you want?” Roderick asks.
“I want to try this whole marry for money thing for a month and see how I like it.”
“Do you?”
“Yep. This is one bet you may have already won.”
Chapter 4
