Page 35 of Gin and Bear It

Danika: Since when do you have a boyfriend??

Danika: Much less a husband???????

Danika: WTF JADA

I roll my eyes. I don’t blame her for being confused. But I didn’t think she’d blast me right away.

Danika: Cute timing, Jada. Super cute. Seems like some BS.

I sigh and send back a response.

Me: It’s for real. We’re legally married.

Danika: Sure. Sure. Whatever. See you Saturday, I guess. I got that invite from your “husband’s” mom. How did she even get my details?

She absolutely does not believe me. And how did Delia get her information? She works in mysterious ways.

I need to go workout with Jeremiah to shake off some of this stress. When I was diagnosed with ADHD six years ago, my psychiatrist mentioned how important exercise was for managing my symptoms and supporting my mental health.

I’m still annoyed that she was right. And she’ll definitely be right today because I feel like throwing up. I need endorphins.

I stumble out of my bedroom to see Ash on my pull-out couch, frowning and tossing in his sleep with his blankets around his hips. My eyes scan across his bare chest and arms, examining his tattoos, then his frown.

I need to leave.

I get dressed and head to Jeremiah’s.

He decked out the garage in his house with fitness gear, so his home gym is better than the one in Jepsen because it’s free. And yes, he was able to buy expensive gear and still have a juicy savings account and investment account and whatever it is that we’re supposed to have by our age. He leveraged a few years of being ground to the bone as an engineer at an energy start-up, then sold some of the stock that came with his benefits package, so being on a teacher’s salary isn’t much of a strain.

We’re twins but sometimes I wonder if we’re even related. It takes me extra effort to stay on top of my life in general, but even if I were neurotypical, I doubt I’d have his level of “having my shit together.”

He sees my face and immediately ushers me to start. Neither of us speak this early until I start groaning in annoyance during a set of squats.

“Do it. One more set.” Jeremiah points at his squat rack. “You’re going to be sitting all day.”

“Come on,” I say, looking up at the ceiling. I don’t want the reminder that my to-do list at the hotel is a million miles long, as glad as I am to have it basically in my name. “I don’t want to.”

“Do it for him.” He points at his orange-and-white cat Garth, who’s watching us from the inside of the glass door to the rest of the house. “Look at him. He wants you to succeed.”

Garth stares off into space. Jeremiah adopted him on the same day I adopted Pip, and he couldn’t be more different. He likes to watch every human like he’s putting together field notes, very rarely actually touching any of us except Jeremiah. Sometimes he blesses us with a light twitch of his tail as he passes by.

“Fine.” I sigh and get under the bar.

I do one more set of squats, my ass and thighs screaming at me, and re-rack the barbell. I let myself flop onto the ground a few feet away like a rag doll. I don’t want to get up. I don’t want to face the day. I need my magic post-workout mental health juice to kick in. Where is it?

“What’s the deal?” Jeremiah asks, loading up the bar even more. “The wedding is over. All the paperwork for transferring ownership of the hotel to you is in process.”

“Yeah, but Danika texted me and she doesn’t believe it’s real after I posted the pics on Instagram.” I throw an arm over my eyes.

“Well, what’s she going to do about it?” Jeremiah asks.

“I dunno. Contest the will, maybe?” I’m well aware that I’m whining, but Jeremiah’s house is a safe space. If I can’t be a little gremlin with my family, who else can I be a gremlin with? “Hire a hit man?”

“I don’t think she’d hire a hit man. But maybe she’d contest the will.” He shrugs and I groan again. “But you mentioned that, didn’t you?”

“I know. I did. And Ash and I discussed it.” Very briefly. Too briefly, now that it actually might happen. Were we way too hasty? I mean, we kind of had to be.

“She can’t solidly prove you and Ash are faking it,” he points out.