Page 98 of Bound To Be Mine

After dinner, we slid into the back of the Uber I ordered.

“Your mom is wonderful,” Mandy said.

“She is.”

“Want to grab a drink?” she asked.

I looked down at her. “You sure you want to drink after Vegas?”

She laughed. “One drink. I think we can handle one drink without ending up married again.”

“We’re already married. What’s the worst that could happen?”

“Famous last words,” she said, but she was smiling.

We found a quiet bar a few blocks from my building. Nothing fancy, just a neighborhood place with dim lighting and a bartender who looked like he’d seen everything. We slid into a booth in the back.

“Two whiskeys,” I told the server when she came by. “Neat.”

“Living dangerously,” Mandy teased.

“It’s one drink. Besides, we’ve been so gun-shy about alcohol since Vegas. Our fake marriage has made us boring already.”

“Speak for yourself. I’m still fun.”

“You fell asleep at nine-thirty last night.”

“It was a long week!” She kicked me under the table. “You fell asleep with me.”

“Fair point.”

The drinks arrived. We clinked glasses and sipped in silence for a moment. The whiskey burned going down.

“So, uh, I guess I’ll just ask, what are we doing?”

I’d been asking myself the same question for days now. “I don’t know.”

“That’s not very lawyer-like of you. Where’s the contract? The terms and conditions?”

“Fuck the contract.” The words came out kind of harsh. “I don’t want to think about this like it’s a business deal.”

She looked up at me. “Then how do you want to think about it?”

“Like we’re two people who like each other. Who enjoy spending time together.”

“Who accidentally got married in Vegas and then kept sleeping together?” she supplied.

“Yeah. That.”

She took another sip of her drink. “You know, most people date first. Get to know each other. Then maybe move in together. Eventually get engaged and married.”

“We did it backwards.”

“We really did.” She sighed and shook her head. “But here’s the thing, Briggs. I do like you. A lot. More than I probably should, given the circumstances. And I like what we have.”

“Me too.”

“But that’s a good reason to date someone, not to stay married to them.”