“I’ve heard all of that many times before, and they were empty words. I’m not holding you to anything, Gage, and you owe me nothing once this arrangement is over.”
“I’ll just have to show you that they’re not empty words, then. Challenge accepted,” I say with a shrug.
“Suit yourself,” she chirps. “It’s getting late, I better get going. We can talk more in the next couple of weeks about everything, yeah?”
“Yeah, for sure,” I affirm.
A thought occurs to me.
“Hey, would you want to come to dinnerat my dad’s this weekend with me? You could see my sister-in-law again since I’m not sure you got to chat with her much at the bar when everyone was there celebrating your court win. My niece and nephew would love to meet you before we get married. It’ll be super casual, just grilling in the backyard.”
“She and I exchanged hellos at the bar, but that was really it. They won’t mind me coming?”
“Not at all, my sister-in-law will be ecstatic to have another adult woman to talk to there. Gina is completely over these dinners being sausage fests. Those are her words exactly.”
She bites her lip nervously, but then nods.
“It would be good to meet them, so they don’t think you’re marrying some completely random woman. It’ll give us practice for acting like a couple in love,” she reasons.
“Exactly,” I say, pointing at her. We both need to stay on mission and not get distracted. She gifts me with a smile and goes to give the birds some head scratches.
“Bye pretty birds,” she coos.
“Beautiful Celeste,” Hermes answers, making her laugh.
“Such a smart boy.” Then she turns to me. “We’ll talk soon? You can text me the details about this weekend.”
“Absolutely. Here, I’ll walk you out.”
My hand goes to the small of her back on instinct as I lead her down the hallway to the front door. We walk out into the balmy night, my driveway suffused with pale moonlight that’s accented by the occasional flash of a firefly. She turns to me when we reach her car, and tips up onto her toes to briefly press a chaste kiss to my cheek. It still feels like a brand.
“Thanks again for a great dinner. See you soon, futurehusband,” she says wryly as she opens her car door and gets inside.
“Bye, future wife,” I manage to say with a wink, in spite of me reeling at the feel of her lips on my skin.
A few days later, I’m driving with Celeste over to my dad’s house. My body hums out of control with a combination of nerves about bringing her to dinner, and the electricity of having her near me. Part of me wonders if I’m being an absolute idiot, play acting that she and I are in love and getting married when I’m this attracted to her. A simple kiss on my cheek had me tossing and turning the entire night after she left my house. I’ve been distracted by it ever since.
That’s not even going into how distracted I am by the fact that we almost kissed in my kitchen. She smelled so good, and was laughing her head off at my tickling, and I became a fucking ball of want. I’m glad she gently put the brakes on, because we almost crossed one of the carefully laid boundaries we’ve put down. We need to keep those boundaries in place if we’re going to make this farce we’re about to put on work.
Picking her up from Tania and Carlo’s earlier was a convenient way for us both to talk to them about what we’re planning and why. In a surprise to no one, Carlo reacted more optimistically, if not a little cautious about it. Tania was shook that her sister is getting married for something other than love.
“Cece, this is not the way to go about getting healthcare. Gage, you know I love you, and to be blunt I would love to see you two actually get to know each other and eventually date for real. That is incredibly different from jumping intoa legally binding marriage and putting on a ruse for Gage’s family. I’ve read enough romances to know that feelings will get involved and someone will get hurt.”
“We’ve talked through all of this. It’ll be fine, no one will get hurt or catch feelings. We’re friends who are going to help each other out,” Celeste had told her with a stubborn set to her chin. The last thing I wanted was to contradict Celeste, or get between a sister quarrel, so I just put a supportive hand on her back. Tania clocked it, and her eyes flashed.
“Keep telling yourself that, and eventually you might believe it, sis,” she murmured under her breath. “I know I’m not going to change your mind, you mule, so please for the love of everything be careful? I’ll be there with bells on to be your witness, obviously.”
“I will be, too,” Carlo chimes in. Tish and Gomez, who have been circling us looking for attention, both meow as if they want to come to our wedding, too. It would be pretty damn cute, but not going to happen.
Celeste turning on some music from her phone plugged into the speakers brings me back into the car with her. Her high ponytail swings as she leans forward to also turn up the air conditioning more. The sun streams into the car windows, fluffy clouds dotting a bright blue sky. In the close quarters, I can smell her floral soap mingled with the coconut scented sunscreen she put on her fair skin.
We’re both casually dressed for a simple cookout, her berry colored sleeveless shirt tucked into brown linen shorts. Strappy brown flat sandals reveal her ice blue colored toenails that match her fingernails. I’m in a short sleeved blue and white plaid button down with my favorite grey cargo shorts and black slides. We’ve been fairly quiet in the ten minutes we’ve been in the car so far, and now we’restopped at a red light. A low female voice sings about a minnow asking a trout for help, and when I raise my eyebrows to Celeste, she shrugs.
“It’s a great song by A Fine Frenzy, I love her voice.”
“I like it, I’m just trying to figure out the deeper meaning,” I tell her. She tilts her head in thought.
“To me, it’s a hopeful song about being able to connect with others who are different from you to ask for help. That we’re all also essentially the same deep down. It’s a great message.”
