Page 23 of The Work Wife

“Can you see my reflection in a mirror?”

“You’re not taking this seriously,” she accused.

Seriously? She’d made up an acronym for a fake disease. “That’s because it isn’t possible.” He rolled his eyes. “And you do realize that you confirmed my hotness by default when you mentioned the HMB.”

“I don’t want to talk about this anymore.”

That made two of them, but it was an important aspect of marriage. Or so he’d heard. “It’s going to come up.” This caused a snicker, but he chose to ignore it so they could get through this.

“No one really knows what goes on but us. And it’s not like someone will be standing outside our door demanding proof.”

She didn’t want to sleep with him either. That was good. “We can make vague comments about not getting enough sex, like other married people, and no one will know the difference.”

He cleared his throat, and stalled for a moment. “Except, I will want to have sex at some point. You will want to have sex too.”

Her brows went up. “You think we should—”

“Not us.” Her look of disgust was still insulting, but it probably matched his own. “We wouldn’t want to have sex with each other. I’m saying, I’m going to want to have sex with someone. A stranger.”

“Oh. Right. Well, we could still see other people. We’d just need to be discreet.”

“And if we decide we want to be more with those other people?” If ever he found the love thing.

“If one of us finds The One, we’ll get a quickie divorce.”

“I think a quickie divorce is a mythological thing. I’ve never known anyone who has ever had one.”

“What if we tell everyone we have an open marriage?” she suggested.

“I think an open marriage is even more mythical than a quickie divorce.”

“We’ll deal with it if it happens. It hasn’t happened for either of us yet, and you’re already thirty.”

“Am I a spinster?” he joked.

“Up until now we’ve just been going along assuming that at some point we would find someone to spend the rest of our lives with. But what if we don’t? At least if we were married we could grow old together. We’d have someone to share our lives with. We might not be in love, or physically attracted to each other, but there’s a bond between us.”

She had a point. A point that struck him in a soft spot. It was the reason he still hoped he might stumble into the love thing. He didn’t like being alone. Which was problematic for someone who didn’t particularly like people. Still, was this reason enough to marry his best friend? “I think we need to look deeper. I feel like we’re missing some big issues. Getting married is a huge deal. You gave me one night to determine whether or not marrying you would destroy our lives or not.”

“Fine. Let’s take the weekend to think it over. Seriously. We have a few more weeks to sign up for the trip. I don’t want you to feel rushed into anything.”

He didn’t think more time was going to help, he was simply stalling. He’d spent the previous night tossing and turning, trying to figure out why he was even considering such a thing. He should have laughed it off the day before, but here he was, having a rational discussion about quickie divorces and open marriages.

The truth was, a few years ago he’d never had any intention of getting married. Ever. Not because he was a guy afraid of commitment, but because he was a guy who had seen firsthand what happened when commitment didn’t work. Or worse, when one party thought it was working, while the other person was screwing their assistant at the office.

He had a valid reason to want to avoid marriage at all costs. But yet he was seriously considering this with Jamie. Because the fear of spending his life alone outweighed the fear of betrayal. Maybe that was what made Jamie’s offer seem appealing. He knew she wouldn’t betray him. She was the worst liar on the planet, and usually confessed two seconds after her attempt.

He trusted her.

Maybe he was still considering it because it didn’t seem real, or maybe because he had nothing to lose. Neither of which were great reasons to go for it.

They talked about other things for the rest of the day and focused on the job they’d just started. Neither of them mentioned getting married, but that didn’t mean they weren’t thinking about it.

People had started with less in a marriage than what he and Jamie already had, and it worked for them. Who knew where they might end up?

He spent the weekend coming up with reasons why this wouldn’t work. From how they would be expected to take vacation at the same time to what would happen if she did want to change partners on the job. Not to Duane, of course, but there were many other talented engineers.

Each time he texted her one of his concerns, she texted back a rational resolution.