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“I got stuck in Detroit. My phone died, and I thought you were excited to see me, not that you planned to bring a plus one. And a wife at that.”
Payton and I hit it off the moment we met. She reminded me of her father: charismatic and kind with natural humor. It certainly didn’t hurt that, besides her stepmom, she was the closest person to my age in Brad’s orbit.
“She said you started dating a year ago. Is that true?”
I slid open the balcony door, cringing at the question. That question had been the exact reason I hadn’t called Payton. As cowardly as it was, I hoped she wouldn’t even show up, giving me more time to grapple with how I wanted to answer it.
“Not exactly,” I said, hoping the answer would be enough.
“Hm.”
Not even close.
I sucked in a breath and weighed my options. I could lie to her and affirm that Nora and I had been dating for a year, months before Payton and I had kissed. Or I could tell her the truth and hope she wouldn’t tell her father about my fake marriage. I glanced back, past the closed door and into the hotel room.
“Nora and I haven’t been dating for a year.” I stumbled over how to explain the situation I’d created with Nora. The woman I’d been in love with for decades. The only woman I couldn’t get within earshot of without her brother threatening to kill me. “We married for other reasons.”
“Other reasons? Not love?”
Love on my part, but certainly not hers.
“We’ve known each other for a very long time.” I parsed through why we married, taking myself out of the equation. “She was in a bind. The simplest solution was for us to get married.”
“Geez, Andrew, she’s pregnant?”
I sputtered. “God, no. It’s a marriage between friends. That’s all.”
Not that the thought of Nora pregnant didn’t hit a visceral part of me, but I certainly didn’t want anyone thinking we’d had a shotgun marriage.
“So, there’s nothing between you two?”
“Nothing.” I gritted the words, wishing they weren’t true.
“You’re just friends?”
“As I said, we have a lot of history.” I shrugged, hoping the nonchalance seeped through my voice. “You’re not going to tell your dad, are you?”
Payton laughed through the line, her voice breezy and carefree. “No. Of course not. Whatever weird friend marriage you’ve gotten yourself into isn’t my concern. In fact, I can definitely see the benefits of your arrangement.”
I wished I had her confidence. So far, I’d spent most of my nights rock hard and barely sleeping. Not exactly a great combination when my focus should have been on meetings.
“Well, congratulations, then. Will I see you for dinner tomorrow? Maybe a drink afterward?”
My shoulders relaxed as Payton’s tone relaxed back into normalcy. “I’ll see you for dinner. No promise about drinks. Nora isn’t exactly a night owl.”
“Well, I’m sure she wouldn’t mind if you stayed out late without her.”
“We’ll see,” I answered noncommittally. “Talk to you tomorrow.”
I hung up, unsure if I’d navigated that conversation well. Ideally, I wouldn’t have to tell anyone about our arrangement, but Payton had crossed from a business associate into something akin to a friend a while ago.
Of course, our kiss last winter had blurred that previously clear line of friendship. I blamed the kiss on too many drinks and pure boredom. It felt more like an experiment—a failed one, of course. I didn’t want to damage my relationship with her father and, as much as I liked Payton, those feelings were strictly platonic. She’d accepted my reasoning with a shrug, and we never discussed it again.
I opened the sliding glass door and, hearing nothing from the bedroom, decided I could slide back into bed with Nora without her being the wiser.
“Hey, you snuck out,” Nora greeted me, brown eyes foggy with sleep and her black hair covering her face. She ran a hand through it, pushing it back onto the pillow.
“Sorry about that. I thought you were at the spa all day,” I said, stepping toward the side of the bed.
