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Chapter 6
Mark choked on his pasta and started coughing, setting his plastic Styrofoam container aside so he didn’t spill the rest of it. It was good stuff, but for a couple of scary moments, he thought it might be the death of him. Literally.
And then, he got his airway cleared out enough that he could breathe, and he remembered what had started him choking to begin with.
“You and me?” he managed to say, and then he started coughing again, less because there was something in his throat, and more because those words just...felt so right and so wrong at the same time, he could hardly stand it.
Pam was the perfect woman. Sweet and kind, easygoing and generous, and always willing to lend a hand. She cared about her kids and her job and was honest to a fault. Anytime something broke in her apartment, she told him immediately and paid to have it fixed. He never had to play landlord to her. She took care of everything herself; even the time the toilet had backed up, she called a plumber, and then she helped the plumber while he fixed everything. And paid the bill.
That’s part of the reason he never raised her rent. And eventually he told her that the house was paid for and she didn’t have to pay him anymore. She just took care of her electric and they split the taxes when they came, and it had been easy.
Pam had been the easiest woman ever.
But he’d never really looked at her as a...wife.
“Do you think we’d be able to stay friends if we got married?”
“It wouldn’t really be a real marriage. It would just be a marriage so that I can get my inheritance, and you wouldn’t have to put up with Stacy. Of course, you don’t have a dog anymore, so there’s that.”
“Don’t forget she killed my plants.”
“Oh. Yeah. I forgot about that. Anyway, marrying me would get you out of having to spend the summer with her.”
“You know, it shouldn’t be as tempting as what it is, but it really is.”
“What do you mean it shouldn’t be tempting?” she asked, sounding affronted. He thought she was just teasing, but he supposed despite the fact that Pam was pretty much the perfect woman, she still had feminine vanity.
“It’s not because you’re not appealing in any way, it’s just because...we’re good friends. I really like you. You don’t feel like a wife at all.”
“Oh. Yeah, I guess you’re not really supposed to like your wife.”
They snorted together. That seemed to be the way it was so many times. People put up with their significant other, but they didn’t really care for them.
He knew a lot of couples like that, although it seemed like the couples in Strawberry Sands actually did love each other. Maybe it was contagious. Although if it was, he’d hate to ruin the streak.
“We really wouldn’t fit in around town,” he said.
“Because all the couples around town seem like they really love each other?”
