I snort. “At the wedding.”
“Ya, well, nothing looked fake about it.” Not able to hold it in due to the course of action I have to take now, I had to tell her everything tonight.
“Are you serious? Did you see the kiss he gave me?”
“I bet that’s not the only kiss he gave you.” With a shit eating grin, she points her glass at my face. “Aha! Your cheeks say it all. You guys totally fucked.”
“Fine. We…fucked.” Though it didn’t just feel like fucking to me.
“Are you sure about this then?” She gestures to the papers on the table. “Maybe you should give this a shot?”
“Wren, it’s a fake marriage. He was just helping me out. We’re friends—” Even as I say the word, I taste the bittersweetness of it.
“Friends make the best lovers.”
I feel that in the depths of my soul, but based on the morning after and the burden of regret on Wendell’s face, I know what I have to do. He deserves real love. Not this fake sham of a marriage.
The buzzer goes on the game. “Thank God they still won despite Wendell’s penalties. I’d hate to be you delivering this news to a guy who lost two guys.” Wren makes her way into the kitchen to drop off her glass and pulls her phone out to order herself a ride home. “I should take off.” But something in her face changes drastically. My magic moon beam friend is scowling.
“What’s wrong?”
“I don’t even have words.” Staring at her phone, she turns it so I can see. “I think I’m getting evicted.”
“What?”
“Ya. My roommates are kicking me out.”
“Oh shit. You can stay with us.”
Deadpanned, she says, “You’ve got enough going on. They’re giving me forty-eight hours. If I don’t figure it out by then, I’ll call you.”
At the moment, the door swings open and Wendell trudges in. He takes one look at us, one look at the TV, and then drops his bag in the front hall.
“Gonna shower.” His eyes meet mine, and I feel a tug to go to him, but I don’t.
Instead, I see Wren out the door and wait quietly for Wendell back in the living room. My knees are shaking incessantly by the time he comes out. His hair is wet and his chest must still be a bit damp because his T-shirt outlines his chest muscles perfectly.
“I know you said to wait until you got back, but I really don’t want to be any more of a burden than I am.” I nudge the papers on the coffee table toward him. “I’ve taken care of everything. Don’t worry. You just have to sign them.”
Weary eyes meet mine, and I keep rambling. “I tried for an annulment, but in Alberta apparently, since we…um…consummate the marriage, a divorce is simpler.”
“Is this what you want?”
His question stuns me. So caught off guard, I fumble in my reply. “You’re willing to do so much for me, Wendell. Too much. I’m not your problem anymore.”
“You’re never a problem, Peyton.”
My heart squeezes in my chest, like someone’s trying to shake some sense into me. But I can’t tell him how I really feel. That I love him for real. He’s already sacrificed so much for me, and if he felt any way about me, he would have let me know.
A long pause drones on as we sit there, both taking turns to stare at the papers and then back at each other.
“Is this what you want?” he asks again, this time his eyes pin me in place.
“You just asked me that.”
“But you didn’t really answer, did you?”
“What?”
